Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 22: 1960

Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories #22

by Isaac Asimov (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg

9 · Introduction · Martin H. Greenberg · in
15 · Mariana · Fritz Leiber · ss Fantastic Feb ’60
23 · The Day the Icicle Works Closed · Frederik Pohl · nv Galaxy Feb ’60
70 · The Fellow Who Married the Maxill Girl · Ward Moore · nv F&SF Feb ’60
108 · Mine Own Ways · Richard M. McKenna · ss F&SF Feb ’60
132 · Make Mine Homogenized · Rick Raphael · nv Astounding Apr ’60
196 · The Lady Who Sailed the Soul · Cordwainer Smith · nv Galaxy Apr ’60
231 · I Remember Babylon · Arthur C. Clarke · ss Playboy May ’60
247 · Chief · Henry Slesar · vi Playboy Jun ’60; After, gp
250 · Mind Partner · Christopher Anvil · nv Galaxy Aug ’60
297 · The Handler · Damon Knight · ss Rogue Aug ’60
304 · The Voices of Time · J. G. Ballard · nv New Worlds Oct ’60

Genres: Science Fiction

352 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

[Girish Palshikar · Rating 3 out of 5]

M. H. Greenberg, I, Asimov (ed.s), Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories, volume 22 (1960), Daw Books Inc., 1991. This a selection of (American) science fiction stories published in 1960. Each story has short and interesting introduction or commentaries by both the editors. The Introduction beautifully summarizes the happenings (mostly in America) in the year 1960. The stories contain interesting SF ideas: replacing a mind in a body by another, stopped or slowed down evolution, using communication satellites for cultural conquests etc. Unfortunately, I found that writing of many stories is not well-polished, and they drift rather helplessly. Three of the better stories are: Frederick Pohl's "The Day the Icicle Works Closed", J.G. Ballard's "The Voices of Time" and Christopher Anvil's "Mind Partner". But overall a somewhat disappointing collection.

Freitz Leider, "Mariana": a chilling story of the house, parent and even the world of a small girl on a lonely planet, which all of which turn out to be entirely virtual.

Frederick Pohl, "The Day the Icicle Works Closed": A far-off planet's economy is centered on an antibiotic-making factory and tourism. A native's "mind" can be "taken out" of his/her body, and a tourist can "rent" and inhabit such a body for sports, adventures etc. The stored mind is used to control machines. A criminal gang shuts down the factory, forcing people to rent out their bodies. An unemployed lawyer discovers this conspiracy and stops it. Well-written but rather confusing.

Ward Moore, "The Fellow Who Married The Maxill Girl": rather like the ET movie (which came much later, of course). An ET and a human woman make a child; come on, really?

Richard McKenna, "Mine Own Ways": Human explorers on a planet with human-like natives. Dangerously interpreted the barbaric rituals of the natives as pushing forward the evolution. Humans are caught and have to undergo the rituals.

Rick Raphael, "Make Mine ... Homogenized": A mildly funny story about mutations in a cow and a hen that yield explosive fluid (instead of milk) and a golden egg that acts as a detonator to the explosive fluid.

Cordwainer Smith, "The Lady Who Sailed The Soul": Humans have started settling planets using interstellar travel that takes decades for the pilot but only a month for passengers who travel in a frozen state. A pilot comes to Earth from a planet, and has aged by 40 years in that travel. Meets a girl 40 years his junior on earth and they fall in love. He goes back to his planet, frozen, on a starship. The girl pilots the starship just to be his age on arrival. The story plainly contradicts relativistic time dilation, without much explanation.

Arthur C. Clarke, "I remember Babylon": A fear-mongering story about a Soviet innovation - launching satellites to broadcast TV contents to every home in America, and thereby aiming for a cultural conquest. Clarke lived long enough to see the story come true, only the Americans actually did this to the entire world.

Henry Slesar, "Chief": A short-short story that mixes cannibals and nuclear apocalypse.

Christopher Anvil, "Mind Partner": Story of an alien as a drug peddler on Earth!

Damon Knight, "The Handler": A famous man and the handler behind his back (literally!)

J.G. Ballard, "The Voices of Time": Explores an interesting idea that the evolution has slowed down and nature is attempting to force its way forward. Greenberg says in his introduction that the story is about effect of time on the second law of thermodynamics", but I could not see much of a connection. The writing is rather curious, if a bit obstruse.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

The style of Christopher Anvil's "Mind Partner" very intriguing indeed (Phil Dick must've loved that one!).

[Giorgia Saolini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Avevo riposto parecchie aspettative in questa raccolta di racconti, convinto di trovarmi di fronte a un compendio di autentica hard sci-fi, fatta di idee scientifiche solide, mondi coerenti e ipotesi visionarie ma plausibili. In parte le mie aspettative sono state soddisfatte, ma nel complesso il libro non è riuscito a convincermi del tutto.

I racconti sono indubbiamente ben costruiti, spesso con spunti ingegnosi e atmosfere che richiamano la fantascienza classica, quella che ha gettato le basi per tutto ciò che è venuto dopo. Tuttavia, sotto il profilo più “duro” della fantascienza — quello legato al rigore scientifico e alla speculazione tecnologica — ho trovato poco di davvero stimolante. Le idee ci sono, ma raramente vengono sviluppate fino in fondo, lasciando la sensazione che ogni racconto si fermi un passo prima di spiccare il volo.

Va detto che la presenza di autori di peso come Asimov si sente: la loro firma è riconoscibile nello stile, nella lucidità delle costruzioni narrative e nel modo in cui riescono a rendere umana anche la più fredda delle speculazioni. Eppure, paradossalmente, quella genialità sembra sempre un po’ trattenuta, come se l’antologia non volesse o non potesse spingersi oltre certi limiti.

Lo consiglierei? Sì, ma con riserva. È una lettura che può affascinare chi è profondamente appassionato di fantascienza e vuole risalire alle origini del genere, scoprendo come certe idee siano nate e si siano evolute nel tempo. Per chi cerca invece emozioni forti, innovazione o vera hard science fiction, forse questa raccolta rischia di lasciare un po’ di amaro in bocca.

[Ketan Shah]

A worthy addition to the "Isaac Asimov Presents :" series.This volume covers the year 1960. Fritz leiber 's Mariana and Christoper Anvil's Mind partner enter Philip K Dick territory,with their themes of artificial memory and subjective realities.Ward moore has a sweet story of first contact in "The man who married the maxill girl",and it reads like a Clifford Simak story. Cordwainer Smith's contribution seems a bit weak compared to his other short stories,and Rick Raphael's "Make Mine homegenized" seems like an overly long iteration of a simple gag.Richard mckena has a good piece of anthropological Sci fi in "Mine Own Ways".Veteran's Frederik Pohl and Damon Knight both contribute decent stories,but again ,not among their best. A worthwhile collection to pick up.

[Matteo Pellegrini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Con questo volume i "Classici Urania" cominciano la pubblicazione sistematica della serie presentata da Isaac Asimov Le Grandi storie della fantascienza, che così grande successo ha riscosso in Italia e in America. I primi volumi, si sa, sono stati pubblicati dall'Armenia Editore e alcuni sono stati ripresi in tascabile dalla Bompiani. Ma i "Classici Urania" si sono assicurati l'esclusiva su tutti quelli ancora inediti, in modo da offrire ai loro lettori una scelta completa e avvincente - anno per anno - dei racconti più emozionanti e significativi della science fiction moderna. Un'opera insomma, da conservare in biblioteca.

[Nicholas Barone · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume collects stories from 1960. From top to bottom the collection is not quite as strong as others in this series, but a couple of the stories stood out. Both "Mind Partner", by Christopher Anvil, and "The Voices of Time", by J. G. Ballard were excellent.