Creations - the Quest for Origins in Story and Science

by Isaac Asimov

Cosmology is the ultimate detective story. How did the universe, the solar system, our planet, life, humanity, and civilization come to be, and what will happen to them? And what does it all mean to us, the living, thinking creatures who are part of it and who only recently have become aware that such questions can be answered.

Creations is an intriguing anthology of science fiction and science fact dealing with the four big questions: the origin of the universe, the origin of the solar system, the origin of the earth and the life upon it, and the origin of mankind. Three well-known writers and editors of science fiction—Isaac Asimov, George Zebrowski, and Martin Greenberg—have assembled here a variety of answers to these questions, from the theological and scientific to the purely fanciful. But whether it’s the ancient philosophers of Genesis explaining the Creation, or Steven Weinberg describing particle interactions in the first one-hundredth second after the Big Bang, or Arthur C. Clarke searching for human origins in 2001, the real subject of this book, in all cases, is the human imagination and its far-reaching attempt to provide explanations for all things.

And the human imagination knows no bounds. Here is a mind-boggling discussion of our relationship to the Cosmos by Carl Sagan; the eternal questioning of the “Song of Creation” from the Hindu Rig-Veda; poetry by James Gunn; Stanislaw Lem’s comic vision of the universe as a stupid mistake; stories about primitive man; and about the theory of panspermia, the idea that life on Earth may have resulted from the sedding of the planet from outer space. The collection also includes works by Brian Aldiss, A. E. Van Vogt, Eric Frank Russell, H. G. Wells, Jack Williamson, Isaac Asimov, George Zebrowski, and others.

Creations is a first-rate anthology of science, story, and myth that tackles some of the oldest questions man has ever asked.

Genres: Science Fiction, Religion

351 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

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

[Dane Cobain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit of a weird one because it brings together fiction and non-fiction in pursuit of a concept, which is the origins of our species. Some of it is your typical hardcore science fiction, and some of it is basically scientific research that went right over my head.

Because of that, it ended up being a hybrid book, one that I read partly as a bedtime book and partly as my main read, substituting it in and out whenever I got to particularly heavy going parts that I wasn’t interested in.

Unfortunately, even the science fiction bits were kind of boring, and so it mostly called for a bit of a trudge towards the finish line. In terms of how much it held my interest, it was probably on a par with Asimov’s collection of essays called The Roving Mind, but then at least that covered a more interesting set of topics.

Still, I mean, this is an interesting enough little read despite that, and you don’t need to be consumed with interest over the matter of creation to take something away from this. I will say, though, that you probably do need to have more than a passing interest to enjoy the science side, although the science fiction was pretty approachable, or as approachable as “hard” science fiction can ever be.

I don’t have much more to say about this one, which is a bit of a problem because I still have 100 words or so to go until I reach my goal of having one word per page in the book. I think that in itself is a good indicator of what’s wrong here, because I normally have no problems reaching the end. It’s just that there really isn’t that much to talk about.

At best, it’s a mediocre collection of classic sci-fi, but nothing to write home about and certainly not as good as some of Asimov’s other anthologies. And that’s if you overlook the boring science bits.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the GR blurb misstates the content of this. There are essays, yes, but there is also a lot of fiction, in the form of short stories. And in fact, it was the latter than I enjoyed more.

As in any anthology, some pieces were better than others. Among those I liked best were "Non-Isotropic," "Kindergarten," "The Seesaw," "'Seeds of the Dusk," "First Person Singular," "Transfusion," "The Doctor," and Asimov's own "The Ugly Little Boy."

I particularly liked Asimov's introductions to each story, placing them in context and sharing his insights about them.

[The Scribbling Man · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice theme for an anthology of science fiction stories, excerpts of religious texts, and science articles. Mixed bag of a read, and mostly one I picked up as a collector of all things Simak, but decent enough and well tied together.

[Carl625 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit weird at times, but had some INCREDIBLE stories, my favorite is about fighting the incoming darkness enveloping the universe with planet spaceships

[Forked Radish]

"The living Galaxy" by Laurence Manning (1934):

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of the most enduring questions of humanity are those directed at understanding where we come from. How did the universe (or our world, or even humanity itself) come into being? These are questions that have been addressed by virtually every religion through the ages, and they also provide the motivation for a great deal of our scientific research. And, as shown in this collection, it can inspire literature.

This collection, which includes scripture passages and essays, as well as short stories, explores various attempts to answer the questions about our origins. Divided into four sets, they begin with the biggest questions, about the nature and origins of the entire universe, before moving to the smaller subsets directed to Earth and the Solar System, the beginnings of life, and finally the source of humanity. Each story, passage, or essay includes a brief introductory note by Asimov, which frames the work in the context of the larger collection and the questions addressed.

Published in 1983, some of the science referenced in this collection is clearly dated, in that it cannot reflect further advances in our understanding. However, for the casual reader, these advances are not likely to convey much additional meaning, nor are they likely to change the impact of the stories in the collection. Overall, this collection is both entertaining, as well as thought provoking. It challenges the reader to consider new possibilities, and think about creation in novel ways.