Tag Archives: isaac asimov

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Book Review: 50 Short Science Fiction Tales edited by Isaac Asimov and Groff Conklin

Typically when I review an anthology, I will enumerate my favorite stories and briefly provide a blurb about each one. In the case of 50 Short Science Fiction Tales—edited by the legendary Isaac Asimov and renowned anthologist Groff Conklin—that would be a daunting and tedious task.

50 Short Science Fiction TalesSuffice it to say that like any collection, certain stories are better than others and this one is no exception. However, the majority of the entries are some combination of witty, engaging, chilling, thought provoking, or amusing. Of course, how could it be otherwise with such luminaries as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, C.M. Kornbluth, Robert Sheckley, Theodore Sturgeon, and A.E. Van Vogt, just to name a few.

Most of the stories here are no more than 3,000 words. The book opens with a short poem by Poul Anderson and closes with six haiku written by his wife, Karen. I highly recommend this anthology both to aficionados of the golden age of SF or as an introduction to many of the top talents of the time.

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Book Review: Nightfall and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov

Twenty stories comprise this collection of what Asimov himself considered his finest work up to 1969.  These tales had been originally published in such periodicals as Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, Playboy, Star Science Fiction Stories, Scientific American, and more.

My favorites include:

An advanced civilization panics when five of their suns have set and the sixth is about to be eclipsed, casting their part of the world into “Nightfall” for the first time in generations. Arguably one of Asimov’s best stories of all time.

To the chagrin of her police officer husband Drake, biologist Rose Smollett volunteers to play “Hostess” to an alien scientist from Hawkins’ Planet. It isn’t long before Drake discovers that the alien has ulterior motives, one that could ignite an interstellar war.

When a physicist named Ralson threatens to commit suicide, he is placed under psychiatric care by the Atomic Energy Commission with the caveat that any therapy must be quick. Ralson has the uncanny ability to rapidly solve almost any scientific problem and the A.E.C. thinks that he can create a force field to repel atomic energy. Of course, they want it done yesterday in “Breeds There a Man…?”

A merchant ship from Earth is captured by an alien enemy known as the Kloro. While the humans aboard are antagonistic toward one another, one man named Mullen rises above by volunteering for a dangerous mission. If he is successful, the other passengers will be able to retake the ship. Mullen must suit up and walk the exterior hull of the craft in magnetic boots, but to get there, he’ll have to be ejected from the corpse chute, otherwise known as the “C-Chute.”

Jeff Stock and Dick Altmayer have been friends for decades, during which Jeff has risen through the military ranks and Dick, a conscientious objector, has been arrested multiple times for draft dodging, terrorism, and treason. Yet, in the end, it’s possible that both men are heroes “In A Good Cause—”.

After discussing what might have happened if they’d each made different choices in life, a married couple named Norman and Livvy encounter a eccentric old man on a train who presents them with a mirror that allows then to ask “What If—” and see the results play out. Will Norman and Livvy’s love survive this test?

A con-man named Gellhorn visits a mechanic named Jake who restores old automatic cars and allows them to roam free on his farm. Gellhorn tries to make an offer that Jake cannot refuse—take parts from Jake’s restores and use them to refurbish old vehicles to sell at new car prices. After Jake turns him away, Gellhorn returns with muscle, but they are no match for “Sally“, Matthew, and the rest of the cars with minds of their own…

“It’s Such a Beautiful Day” when young Richard decides to walk to school after the teleportation “Door” in his home malfunctions. The problem is that in this perfect utopia, no one ever walks outside when you can simply use the Door system to teleport anywhere in the world. When Richard begins to form a habit of strolling outdoors at every opportunity, a psychiatrist is called in, but in the end, who ends up being the true counselor?

An elderly sociologist travels to the human asteroid colony of Elsevere to study their caste society. Upon arrival, he suspects something is wrong and is proven correct upon learning that the head of sanitation, who lives well and is highly compensated, is nevertheless treated like a second class citizen. No one else on Elsevere will even speak to Ragusnik or his family. As a result, Ragusnik has stopped work and in the end, it’s up to Lamorak to be the “Strikebreaker.”

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Book Review: Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov

After a scientist named Benes is successfully transported into the country from enemy territory, an assassination attempt leaves him with a dangerous and inoperable clot at the base of his brain.

Fantastic Voyage CoverThe situation falls under the jurisdiction of the CMDF (Combined Miniature Defense Force) run by General Alan Carter and Colonel Donald Reid. Once Benes is stabilized far underground in CMDF headquarters, a team is formed that will be miniaturized and injected into Benes’s bloodstream to destroy the clot from inside his body using a laser.

The team consists of civilian CMO Michaels, neurosurgeon Peter Duvall and his assistant Cora Peterson, special agent Charles Grant—who smuggled Benes into the country—and Captain William Owens, designer and pilot of the experimental submarine Proteus, which will carry the crew through Benes’s circulatory system. They are given one hour to complete the mission and exit Benes’s body before the miniaturization effect begins to reverse.

As if this were not dangerous enough, there is suspicion that one among the crew might be an agent for the Other Side, sent to kill Benes. Every setback and mishap causes yet another member of the team to come under scrutiny as precious time ticks away…

Contrary to popular belief, the classic film Fantastic Voyage was not based on the novel by Isaac Asimov. It’s the other way around. Otto Klement and Jay Lewis Bixby wrote the original story, which was adapted for the screen by Harry Kleiner and David Duncan. Asimov was hired on to write the novelization of the movie and he did a decent job with the material. While character development is non-existent (with the most interesting being Grant, Duvall, Michaels, and Peterson) the pacing is perfect and the challenges that plague our heroes at almost every turn maintain solid tension through to the end.

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Book Review: Great Science Fiction Stories edited by Cordelia Titcomb Smith

Great SF StoriesWith few exceptions, most of my 2017 reading consisted of classic SF and speculative fiction primarily from Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke with a dash of Rod Serling, Alfred Hitchcock, A.E. Van Vogt, and H.G. Wells.

It stands to reason that if you read enough vintage genre anthologies, some will overlap and offer one or two stories in common. Such was the case with Great Science Fiction Stories compiled by Cordelia Titcomb Smith.

In  this case, I had previously read “The Stolen Bacillus” by H.G. Wells (about an anarchist who pilfers a vial of cholera bacillus from a bacteriologist, initiating a frantic taxi chase through London) and “History Lesson” by Arthur C. Clarke (after an ice age has wiped out humanity, Venusians land on Earth and discover artifacts of our civilization, including a strip of film that they believe accurately depicts human culture).

It was a pleasure to finally read Isaac Asimov’s legendary short story, “Nightfall,” wherein a civilization that lives in constant daylight provided by three suns nervously anticipates an eclipse that will shroud their planet in complete darkness for the first time in 500 years… and possibly throw society into madness.

When the Martian crown jewels are stolen from a robotic space craft sent from Earth to Phobos, Inspector Gregg questions everyone involved. Before the case explodes into an interstellar scandal, Gregg travels to Mars to request the help of Martian’s famous private detective, Syaloch, in Poul Anderson’s “The Martian
Crown Jewels.”

In “The Sands of Time,” P. Schuyler Miller channels H.G. Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. When a young man named Donovan presents a paleontologist with photographic and physical evidence of his
encounter with dinosaurs, the scientist rebuffs him—until Donovan asks for his help in launching his one-man time machine back to rescue an alien woman he encountered in a prehistoric age.

Money is no barrier when a wealthy businessman decides to be the first man in space. He hires engineers to construct a vessel, but they still require a propulsion system. The businessman takes out ads in
newspapers offering millions to anyone who can design and create a means of propelling the vessel beyond Earth’s atmosphere. After being presented with proposals from the ludicrous to the insane, the
businessman meets an unassuming young man who might just have the answer… but he wants more than money. We find out what that is in Nelson Bond’s “Vital Factor.”

In a future where city streets are massive conveyor belts that transport people and vehicles at varying speeds, the mechanics decide to strike under the leadership of Deputy Chief Engineer Van Kleeck. To emphasize their power and ensure their demands are met, they stop the machinery beneath one of the streets—with fatal consequences. It’s up to Chief Engineer Larry Gaines to negotiate with Van Kleeck, because as Robert Heinlein tell us, “The Roads Must Roll.”

A teacher rethinks her decision to quit the profession, but the only available position is in a one-room schoolhouse in a remote rural town called Bendo where the reclusive inhabitants have no sense of humor and no interest in music or art. It is not long before the teacher uncovers the astounding otherworldly secrets of Bendo and the dark history that forced them into seclusion in this beautifully crafted tale called “Pottage” by Zenna Henderson.

Jules Verne provides a brief glimpse into man’s first attempt to reach the moon as three men volunteer to venture “Into Space” inside a giant aluminum capsule shot from a 900-foot gun. Although they survive the shock of launch and enjoy a view of Earth from beyond the atmosphere, it’s unclear whether they survived
the journey—or how they plan to return.

A new star appears in the vicinity of Neptune, disrupting the planet’s orbit. As this new star’s light intensifies in the sky each day—blotting out the moon and rivaling the sun—it isn’t long before astronomers
realize that it’s on a direct course for Earth in “The Star” by H.G. Wells.

A 13-year-old student named Timothy is sent to school psychologist Dr. Welles. At first, it’s clear that Timothy is nervous,  uncommunicative, and possibly holding something back. As trust grows between the young man and his counselor, it becomes apparent that the boy is a prodigy… and he may not be alone in Wilmar H. Shiras’s “In Hiding.”

Overall, this was an entertaining anthology with tales from writers I had not heard of previously (Zenna Henderson, Wilmar Shiras, P. Schuyler Miller, and Nelson Bond). My favorites included “Nightfall,” “Pottage,” “The Martian Crown Jewels,” and “The Roads Must Roll.”

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Book Review: Science Fiction Omnibus edited by Groff Conklin

This collection of 11 reprinted tales edited by Groff Conklin features some of the most skilled storytellers in vintage SF including Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, H.P. Lovecraft, Lester Del Rey, Ray Bradbury, Frederic Brown, and more. There were at least three entries that I recalled reading in other collections as recently as a few months ago, but they were absolutely worth a second pass.Science Fiction Omnibus

In A.J. Deutsch’s “A Subway Named Mobius,” an entire passenger train is lost for months in a closed rail system. When transportation officials and a local mathematician with a theory attempt to locate the train, they discover that they can hear it—in multiple locations—but cannot see it since it has passed into another dimension. Will the train ever reemerge and if so, how can this be prevented from happening again?

In one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most popular stories, a meteorite crashes into a field of crops where it begins to poison both soil and water, driving the farmer and his family insane. It’s soon discovered that the vile, luminous substance that infected the area might be intelligent. How will the locals rid themselves of “The Colour Out of Space”?

When alien psychologists learn that Earth has finally achieved interstellar travel, the decision is made to invite them into the Federation of Planets, an honor which no race has ever turned down… until now.  Discover why in Isaac Asimov’s “Homo Sol.”

Anthony Boucher brings us hapless ventriloquist Paul Peters who encounters a benevolent extraterrestrial creature at a local zoo. The alien, relieved to finally find someone with whom he can communicate, enlists Paul’s help in finding his long lost love. At first, the pair is undecided on a strategy until Paul comes up with a new routine known as “The Star Dummy.”

A spaceship explodes ejecting its helpless crew into space. Fortunately, they’d had just enough time to don their spacesuits—but not their personal propulsion systems. As a result, each man is hurled on an uncontrollable trajectory with just enough time to settle their differences and make peace with their collective fate in Ray Bradbury’s “Kaleidoscope.”

When an Earth naval vessel lands on the alien world Shaksembender, the crew of three is greeted by a party of wary copper-skinned humanoids who had been expecting their arrival based on the prophesy of Fraser, the first human space explorer to visit their planet 300 years ago. Using a hidden mind-reading device against the alien emissary, the pilot of the Earth ship discovers that Fraser warned the aliens to be circumspect if the next human explorers utter two specific words… but will we ever learn those words in Eric Frank Russell’s “Test Piece”?

The incompetence of bureaucracy at a Galactic level is showcased in Murray Leinster’s “Plague.”  When all the women of the planet Pharona are consumed and killed by a bizarre luminescent organism, the planet is placed in quarantine and Space Navy reservist Ben Sholto is dispatched in his private vessel to ensure no one escapes. When a ship, piloted by Ben’s lost love Sally, emerges from Pharona, he takes her aboard in an attempt to cure her, making them both fugitives.

In John D. MacDonald’s “Spectator Sport,” a scientist travels into the future only to find society under control of a government that does not take kindly to independent thinking and prefers its citizens to be docile zombies.

In Arthur C. Clarke’s much reprinted “History Lesson,” five thousand years after an ice age has claimed all human life on Earth, Venusians arrive and uncover relics left in a vault—one of which is a roll of 35mm film that they believe depicts typical human behavior… or not.

A concerned citizen confronts physicist John Graham about the doomsday weapon Graham is developing and leaves him with a frightening metaphor that strikes close to the heart in Fredric Brown’s “The Weapon.”

Long after mankind has gone extinct, a race of heuristic automatons have taken over the Earth. A group of robotic biologists undertake experiments to reboot the human race in order to learn more about the concept of “Instinct,” which is also the name of this classic tale by Lester Del Rey.

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Book Review: The Wizards of Odd edited by Peter Haining

How can you go wrong with a collection of 25 stories that includes heavyweights such as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Douglas Adams, Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Pratchett, C.S. Lewis, Fritz Leiber, Phil K. Dick, Brian W. Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, and more?

To be honest, I only enjoyed about half of them. My favorites include:

“The Twonky” by Henry Kuttner – When Kerry Westerfield’s brand new cabinet radio begins walking around the house dictating Kerry’s  every move, he calls in psychiatrist pal Mike Fitzgerald, but this radio is constructed like no other… and it defends itself against anyone who might pose a threat—with fatal results.

“A Great Deal of Power” by Eric Frank Russell – When military scientists create an android assassin to kill top officials and scientists in the enemy’s ranks, they program its mind with a pure hatred of power… but what will the android do when the enemy is eliminated and those giving the orders become the powerful?

“Doodad” by Ray Bradbury – Running from the mob, Gyp Crowell finds himself in a shop called Thingamabobs, Doodads, Whatchamacallits, Hinkies, Formodaldafrays, Hootenannies, Gadgets, and Doohingies. While there, Gyp finds a device that might help him out of his predicament… in ways he didn’t expect.

“Not By Its Cover” by Philip K. Dick – When a special, translated edition of an ancient Latin book is published with animal hide cover, it is quickly discovered that certain passages in the book have been translated differently that in the paperback version, which leads to an astonishing conclusion about the animal hide covers…

“A Good Knight’s Work” by Robert Bloch – Sir Pallagyn of the Black Keep is hurled forward in time by the legendary Merlin to find the Cappadocian Tabouret in a “house of the past.” First, however, he decides to help a new found friend defeat the local mob boss…

“The Rules of Names” by Ursula K. Le Guin – Mr. Underhill lives a reclusive life in the village, practicing his wizardry with often questionable results… until a pirate named Blackbeard arrives with certain suspicions and accusations against Underhill. In response, the old bumbling sorcerer shows his true colors…

“Mythological Beast” by Stephen Donaldson – Norman is a librarian in an age of ignorance when so many among the population can barely read. Norman has a problem when he notices a horn growing in the middle of his forehead. Shortly after, his entire body begins to change into the shape of a creature than cannot be allowed to exist in a controlled society…

“The Adventure of the Snowing Globe” by F. Antsey – A man stops into a toy shoppe to purchase a present and is drawn to a snow globe containing a miniature castle. After shaking the globe, the man is transported to the real castle, meets a real princess being held prisoner by her cruel, oppressive uncle, and finds himself face to face with a real dragon…

“Zaphod Plays It Safe” by Douglas Adams – Zaphod Beeblebrox is hired by the Safety and Reassurance Administration to retrieve items of secretive nature from a crashed ship in the depths of an alien ocean. Despite Zaphod’s increasing misgivings, the authorities assure him that “it’s all perfectly safe”…

“The Odd Old Bird” by Avram Davidson – When the frivolous Prince Vlox indicates to two royal scientists that his property has been frequently visited by a rare bird, the Emperor’s wizard Eszterhazy requests that the prince capture the bird and have it sent to him. However, there is some confusion on the part of the temporary help when the bird is delivered around the same time as the cook was expecting a chicken…

“The Gnurrs Come from the Voodwork Out” by Reginald Bretnor – Quack inventor Papa Schimmelhorn arrives at the local Secret Weapons Bureau determined to demonstrate how his new invention, which resembles a bassoon, will win the war… in the most unimaginable way!

“Captain Wyxtpthll’s Flying Saucer” by Arthur C. Clarke – A pair of hapless aliens land in England on a mission to find and retrieve an intelligent human specimen only to end up incarcerated by the local police as mental patients… until the town drunk helps them escape!

“There’s A Wolf in My Time Machine” by Larry Niven – A time traveller finds himself in a parallel dimension where mankind evolved from wolves instead of apes.

“2BRO2B” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. – In order for newborns to be permitted to live in a dystopian future under strict population control, someone must volunteer to die. What happens when a married couple is expecting triplets, but could locate only one volunteer?

The Wizards of Odd