The Asimov Chronicles: Fifty Years of Isaac Asimov

by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, Ron Lindahn (Illustrator)

Fifty short stories.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Collections

678 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Karl]

This hardcover is copy 460 of 500 signed and numbered by author Isaac Asimov and both illustrators Ron Lindahn and Val Kakey Lindahn on the limitation page.

Fifty years after his first professional sale, Isaac Asimov is still writing, prolifically, and turning out high-quality work. In commemoration, Greenberg has brought together one story from each of those 50 years, beginning with that very first sale, "Marooned off Vesta," an impressively well-told tale for an 18-year-old novice, concerning a rocketship crew in danger of languishing in space for lack of fuel, and how they solve their problem. Also here are "Nightfall," voted one of the best SF stories of all time by members of the SF Writers of America, published less than three years after the first story, and demonstrating Asimov's tremendous growth in that time. It concerns a civilization on a planet in a multiple star system that experiences darkness only once every several millennia, to disastrous effect. "The Red Queen's Race" is a provocative time-travel story that resolves the contradictions inherent to the form; and "The Ugly Little Boy" is an almost unbearably touching tale of a Neanderthal child brought into the modern world.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of fifty short pieces, one from each year as indicated by the title. By far the vast majority were science fiction stories, though there was one fantasy and several straight mysteries in there, as well as the odd non-fiction piece. Most of the stories were likeable enough, though there's some that didn't quite stack up to the rest, and a small handful - for example "Nightfall", "The Ugly Little Boy", and the robot stories involving Susan Calvin - that were excellent. I read and reviewed each of the six short books that were collected into this single volume separately, so this is really just a note for my own records. The collection rating is an average of the six individual ratings - volumes two and five both earned four stars from me, and the remainder earned three.

[Norman Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Death Sentence" (Astounding Science-Fiction, November 1943) - 13-page short story. 3 stars.

This is a story that I don't think has been reprinted very often, which is surprising since it is clearly an antecedent to some of the themes in Asimov's Foundation series. The story itself, though, is fairly mediocre, not surprising since it was written early in Asimov's career. An amateur archeologist claims to have discovered a planet inhabited by robots from ancient, forgotten times that was part of a psychological experiment. There is a nice twist at the end. This is another story nominated for the Retro Hugo Award based more on the author's reputation than the strength of the actual story.

I didn't read the rest of the anthology, although I have read many of the stories elsewhere. This is a nice retrospective of Asimov's first fifty years as a writer, with many classics included. The illustrations by Ron Lindahn and Val Lakey Lindahn are quite nice (I always greatly admired Val Lakey Lindahn's work and thought she should have won a Hugo Award, but she mostly did interior illustrations and not the flashy cover illustrations that win awards).

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at Asimov thru the years. You will not be bored during the reading.