Everest

by Isaac Asimov

"Everest" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the December 1953 issue of Universe Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1975 collection Buy Jupiter and Other Stories. Asimov wrote the story in one sitting while visiting the Chicago, Illinois editorial offices of Universe on 7 April 1953.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1953

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

[Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collected in Buy Jupiter and Other Stories, Asimov wrote this story on the spot to try impress a lady editor (who did buy the story). I'm a fan of mountain climbing, so have to state for accuracy reasons that this written before Everest was summited, although there is some controversy that the first person to do this (but not survive) may have been the late, great George Mallory, who is famous for telling the world why men like him climb mountains.


Fueled by fuzzy photographs showing man-like creatures, and after many failed attempts to summit the world's tallest peak, Asimov's protagonist, James Abram Robbons comes up with the idea to just use a plane to DROP a man (himself) on to the summit of the great mountain. I don't know about you but this sounds a lot like ...


The rest of the story takes a sharp left hand turn, as befits Asimov's twist ending. I rather liked this and would have given it a higher rating except it has been since supplanted by real life facts. As Asimov notes in the commentary:-
EVEREST. Naturally, I did not actually believe that there were Martians on Mount Everest or that anything would long delay the eventual conquest of the mountain. I just thought that people would have the decency to refrain from climbing it until the story was published.

But no! On May 29, 1953, less than two months after Ihad written and sold EVEREST, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stood upon Everest's highest point and saw neither Martians nor Abominable Snowmen.

[Peter McGinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Asimov points out himself in the edition of this short story that I read, it transpired that just a matter of weeks or maybe even days after this short story appeared in a magazine in 1953, a story which related a fantasy tale that stated that Mt. Everest would never be climber and why, yes, just a short time later, Everest was in fact summited by Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay . Oops.

But never mind. This was not one of those serious sci-fi tales that makes an earnest attempt to peer into the possible future. This story was clearly written for entertainment and succeeds on that level. It may well not rise up to normal Asimov storytelling standards, but it is readable and a glance at his early style of writing.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Everest”

“.. What on Earth are these creatures?”
“.. “They’re nothing at all on Earth. They’re Martians.”
This story would have been fun to write and read.. when it penned prior to Edmund Hillary
3/5

[Kareen · Rating 5 out of 5]

muy buena historia sobre etraterretres que viven en la cima del Everest que se adecuaron y acostumbron a vivir allí.

[Forked Radish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abominable.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Raised to 2.5 stars.

[Aliee Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really great! Some minor grammatical errors but over all a very good first book self-published ♡ I would love to read more about Glendale and Roland's future!