Thinking Machines

by Isaac Asimov (Editor), Charles G. Waugh (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor)

This book contains five short stories. They all have the theme of what if machines were alive. The Introduction to this book is written by Isaac Asimov. The five stories include Phototaph by Keith Laumer, A Bad Day for Sales by Fritz Leiber, The Answer by Frederic Brown, Road Stop by David Mason and The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

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

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introduction Isaac Asimov 2 pages
Prototaph Keith Laumer 4 pages
A Bad Day for Sales Fritz Leiber 8 pages
The Answer Frederic Brown 2 pages
Road Stop David Mason 5 pages
The Nine Billion Names of God Arthur C. Clarke 8 pages

This short collection of short stories accompanied by colorful illustrations seems designed for middle school or late grade school students. The stories are about early thinking machines, how they could be used, and how they might affect us. The advent of the computer now gone on more than thirty years makes these fifty year old and older stories seriously obsolete. Still, they're stories told by top writers, so how wrong can you go?

[Rmoore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of books, from Peachtree publishing (?) was the first series of books that, as a child in 5th grade, i picked up to read in the school library. Each short story of science fiction was a gem of classic scifi storytelling that was completely brand new to me! I devoured them... poured through them again and again. These books and their stories i can say without a doubt inspired a lifetime of reading for me and saved me from the dullness around in rural NC.

Thank you Isaac and editors Waugh and Greenburg for putting your time and effort into collecting these. Thank You.