Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 20: 1958

Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories #20

by Isaac Asimov (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg, Poul Anderson

Contents:

9 · Introduction · Martin H. Greenberg · in
13 · The Last of the Deliverers · Poul Anderson · ss F&SF Feb ’58
29 · The Feeling of Power · Isaac Asimov · ss If Feb ’58
41 · Poor Little Warrior! · Brian W. Aldiss · ss F&SF Apr ’58
49 · The Iron Chancellor · Robert Silverberg · nv Galaxy May ’58
77 · The Prize of Peril · Robert Sheckley · ss F&SF May ’58
99 · Or All the Seas with Oysters · Avram Davidson · ss Galaxy May ’58
111 · Two Dooms · C. M. Kornbluth · na Venture Jul ’58
167 · The Big Front Yard · Clifford D. Simak · na Astounding Oct ’58
229 · The Burning of the Brain · Cordwainer Smith · ss If Oct ’58
243 · The Yellow Pill · Rog Phillips · ss Astounding Oct ’58
259 · Unhuman Sacrifice · Katherine MacLean · nv Astounding Nov ’58
297 · The Immortals [Dr. Russell Pearce] · James E. Gunn · nv Star Science Fiction Stories #4, ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine, 1958

Genres: Science Fiction

351 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

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

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series varies widely in quality, but 1958 was a vintage year for sci-fi, so even the worst of editors couldn't entirely screw this up. We still have some selections that haven't aged well, and a final novella that's awful, but overall, this was one of the better entries in the series that I've read so far.

Selections:

* "Introduction" by Martin H. Greenberg. Greenberg breaks the pattern of his intros a bit here. He still lists the year's big milestones (and millstones) in pop culture, politics, sci-fi and sport, with Tim Tam's Kentucky Derby win getting a brief mention. The Mel Brooks in joke has really run its course.
* "The Last of the Deliverers" by Poul Anderson. The best sci-fi is set in the future, but makes pointed commentaries on the present. Although at the time, this meant 1958, but it's still pertinent today.
* "The Feeling of Power" by Isaac Asimov. It's odd to read calculators being called "pocket computers", since the invention of mobile phones and PDAs. Even when calculators were the latest and greatest (our old Texas Instruments pocket calculator lasted over 30 years), people worried that math skills would stop being taught. Sadly, that hasn't happened, (I'm math phobic), but it certainly could, with deadly consequences.
* "Poor Little Warrior!" By Brian W. Aldiss. Asimov's intro is especially amusing here, since he lists what he doesn't like in a story (present tense, second person narration), and yet likes this story anyway. It's one of Aldiss' best, a wry commentary on sport hunting.
* "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg. A rich white guy buys a household robot to help his whole family lose weight. His old robot was made in 2043. Although we're not there yet, I highly doubt a "Jemima" is going to roll into any kitchens by then, let alone Bismark in 2061.
* "The Prize of Peril" by Robert Sheckley. This reads like an early version of The Running Man, with a bit of The Hunger Games thrown in. WARNING: A squirrel is shot.
* "Or All the Seas With Oysters" by Avram Davidson. This highly imaginative, award-winning story was one of the best Davidson ever wrote. In it, he ponders why you never have any safety pins when you need them, but you always have too many coat hangers.
* "Two Dooms" by C. M. Kornbluth. This was an unusual alternative history novella, since the story was not set in the alternate world, and the "travel" to the alternate future was done through eating magic mushrooms. A really predictable WWII story filled with stereotypes, inexplicable violence and a scientist throwing the scientific method out the window. Asimov's intro is more interesting than the novella.
* "The Big Front Yard" by Clifford D. Simak. This is the showpiece of this anthology. An old man and his old dog find they have strange new lodgers ... and a spaceship buried in the yard. Gently powerful, wonderful dialog and memorable characters, particularly Towser the dog.
* "The Burning of the Brain" by Cordwainer Smith/Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger. This was part of the Instrumentality of Mankind series. If you haven't read the previous stories, then you're shit out of luck. This refers to a few other stories, such as "Scanners Live In Vain" and "The Game of Rat and Dragon." It's not worth the effort, because, at its core, it's just a bad love story.
* "The Yellow Pill" by Rog Phillips. This might be where the red pill thing in The Matrix came from.
* "Unhuman Sacrifice" by Katherine MacLean. A spaceship with a fanatical preacher as sole passenger makes an emergency stop on a new planet with humanoids -- so the preacher gotta preach. Who he winds up harming is a surprise. This was a good look at clashes of cultures -- and species.
* "The Immortals" by James E. Gunn. We end with a really crappy novella, which is also how Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4 ended. This is set in a future Kansas, where an immortal governor rules over a strict class system. Our Protagonist is 18 year old Dr. Harry Elliott, hoping one day to win immortality. He works in a walled compound called the Medical Center. He hates people. Then, it gets even more ridiculous. This was poorly written, with very little description, and prose delivered like machine gun fire. Almost all of the characters talk alike. There was no rhyme or reason as to what was going on.

[Carlo]

During San Antonio vacation

[Matteo Pellegrini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dodici migliori racconti di fantascienza del 1958. Nel 1958 gli Stati Uniti mandarono in orbita Explorer, il primo satellite artificiale e la NASA lanciò nello spazio profondo i primi coraggiosi astronauti. Sul fronte della fantascienza fu un anno particolarmente prolifico per la fantasia di scrittori come Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Brian W. Aldiss, Robert Silverberg, Robert Sheckley, Avram Davidson, C. M. Kornbluth, Clifford D. Simak, Cordwainer Smith, Rog Phillips, Katherine MacLean, James E. Gunn, i cui frutti migliori sono raccolti in questa antologia.

[Nicholas Barone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, not great, collection of stories. All of the stories in this collection were originally published in 1958. My favorites in this collection are "The Big Front Yard" by Clifford Simak and "The Immortals" by James Gunn.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

[FIRST READING: * * * * ]

Sheckley's "The Prize of Peril" nicely satiric--and (unfortunately) prescient. Also liked Rog Phillips' "The Yellow Pill." And Towser (from "Big Front Yard") was a pretty cool pooch. :)