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Fantastic Creatures: An Anthology of Fantasy and Science Fiction
A collection of fantasy and science fiction for younger readers, including: The Smallest Dragonboy, by Ann McCaffrey / The Botticelli Horror, by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. / Kid Cardula, by Jack Ritchie / The Man from P.I.G., by Harry Harrison / Flight Over XP-637, by Craig Sayre / The Bees from Borneo, by Will H. Gray / The Anglers of Arz, by Roger Dee / The Game of Rat and Dragon, by Cordwainer Smith.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
50 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,339 books27.9k followersWorks 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 22, 2026
This is a very short anthology, with an emphasis on fast-moving action. It's much shorter than the official page length, since the print is fairly large, the margins wide, accented with plenty of white space. Although Isaac Asimov is listed as one of the three editors of this book, it's doubtful he did much editing. There are nice little introductions before each story, but they occasionally give out spoilers.
Stories range from 1931 (Roger Dee) to 1980 (Craig Sayre), but the majority were written in the 1950s. This means plenty of assumptions that what saw the nation through WWII would stretch out into the far future. With the exception of the first story, there are no strong female characters.
Despite that, this was a fun read in the way old Godzilla movies are fun. You can currently find this at the Internet Archive.
Selections:
* "Introduction" by Isaac Asimov. Although most anthology introductions are best skipped, the Good Doctor's introductions are an exception. They're lively and thoughful, and often full of hope.
* "The Smallest Dragonboy" by Anne McCaffery. First published in 1974, this is found in several other anthologies. It's part of the Pern series. There's a Hatching about to occur at Bendyn Wyer, and the youngest candidate gets beat up by one of the oldest. Predictable stuff, but skip if you've never read a Pern novel before.
* "The Botticelli Horror" by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Extremely entertaining monster novella. If you can get past the notion of life on Venus (which, at the time this was written, was thought to be a possibility) then you have a popcorn-muncher to enjoy.
* "Kid Cardula" by Jack Ritchie. A vampire who runs out of money decides to become a boxer. Nice parody that's occasionally funny.
* "The Man From P.I.G." by Harry Harrison. Although a parody of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., this has some serious information about pigs, including the now critically endangered breed, the American Mule-foot. He also predicted the Canadian Superpig ... sorta. Very satisfying monster story.
* "Flight Over XP-637" by Craig Sayre. Aliens become ducks in order to understand ducks. Only problem -- it's duck hunting season. It's a sad story, but sad for a point.
* "The Bees From Borneo" by Will H. Gray. Written during the early years of the Depression, it's set in that time. The federal government drives a beekeeper-scientist insane for his development of a bee hybrid. The bees proceed to nearly wipe out all life in America. Our Editors chose to include this bizarre story because of the prominence of killer bee stories in the news in 1981.
* "The Anglers of Arz" by Roger Dee. Human space explorers are horrified to see a daily dual suicide from human-looking critters to dragon-looking critters. They are bound by regulations not to interfere. Riiiiight.
* "The Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith. One of the best sci-fi stories ever written, where humans and cats cooperate to win a war against aliens. Only problem with this story is that it's in a hundred other anthologies.
Stories range from 1931 (Roger Dee) to 1980 (Craig Sayre), but the majority were written in the 1950s. This means plenty of assumptions that what saw the nation through WWII would stretch out into the far future. With the exception of the first story, there are no strong female characters.
Despite that, this was a fun read in the way old Godzilla movies are fun. You can currently find this at the Internet Archive.
Selections:
* "Introduction" by Isaac Asimov. Although most anthology introductions are best skipped, the Good Doctor's introductions are an exception. They're lively and thoughful, and often full of hope.
* "The Smallest Dragonboy" by Anne McCaffery. First published in 1974, this is found in several other anthologies. It's part of the Pern series. There's a Hatching about to occur at Bendyn Wyer, and the youngest candidate gets beat up by one of the oldest. Predictable stuff, but skip if you've never read a Pern novel before.
* "The Botticelli Horror" by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Extremely entertaining monster novella. If you can get past the notion of life on Venus (which, at the time this was written, was thought to be a possibility) then you have a popcorn-muncher to enjoy.
* "Kid Cardula" by Jack Ritchie. A vampire who runs out of money decides to become a boxer. Nice parody that's occasionally funny.
* "The Man From P.I.G." by Harry Harrison. Although a parody of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., this has some serious information about pigs, including the now critically endangered breed, the American Mule-foot. He also predicted the Canadian Superpig ... sorta. Very satisfying monster story.
* "Flight Over XP-637" by Craig Sayre. Aliens become ducks in order to understand ducks. Only problem -- it's duck hunting season. It's a sad story, but sad for a point.
* "The Bees From Borneo" by Will H. Gray. Written during the early years of the Depression, it's set in that time. The federal government drives a beekeeper-scientist insane for his development of a bee hybrid. The bees proceed to nearly wipe out all life in America. Our Editors chose to include this bizarre story because of the prominence of killer bee stories in the news in 1981.
* "The Anglers of Arz" by Roger Dee. Human space explorers are horrified to see a daily dual suicide from human-looking critters to dragon-looking critters. They are bound by regulations not to interfere. Riiiiight.
* "The Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith. One of the best sci-fi stories ever written, where humans and cats cooperate to win a war against aliens. Only problem with this story is that it's in a hundred other anthologies.
October 2, 2018
Published as an anthology in 1981, the stories in this book were first published in a range from 1931 to 1976. In spite of that, they were all timeless, with no technological obsolescence. I thoroughly enjoyed them all.
July 18, 2010
A collection of mostly science-fiction. I think only the first story could be classified as fantasy, but this is Isaac Asimov we're talking about, of course his anthology would be sci-fi. :)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews