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Asimov's Mysteries
''Asimov's Mysteries'', published in 1968, is a collection of 14 short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, almost all of them science fiction mysteries (although, as Asimov admits in the introduction, some are only borderline). The stories were all originally published in magazines between 1954 and 1967, except for "Marooned off Vesta", Asimov's first published story, which first appeared in 1939. Four stories in the collection feature the character of Wendell Urth, who is a leading extra-terrologist (an expert on alien worlds and life originating on them). Urth is eccentric in that he has a phobia of all mechanical forms of transport (an exaggeration of Asimov's own aversion to flying). Physically Urth resembles Norbert Wiener. Urth appears in the stories when he is consulted by an agent of the Terrestrial Bureau of Investigation, H. Seton Davenport, in cases which have him baffled – a parallel with the way in which Inspector Lestrade consults Sherlock Holmes. In a fifth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Asimov
yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (1922–1928)American (1928–1992) , occupation = Writer, professor of biochemistry , years_active = 1939–1992 , genre = Science fiction (hard SF, social SF), mystery, popular science , subject = Popular science, science textbooks, essays, history, literary criticism , education = Columbia University ( BA, MA, PhD) , movement = Golden Age of Science Fiction , module = , signature = Isaac Asimov signature.svg Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pâté De Foie Gras (short Story)
''Pâté de Foie Gras'' is a 1956 science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, originally published by ''Astounding Science Fiction''. Like Asimov's " The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline", "Pâté de Foie Gras" is a scientific spoof article, updating one of Aesop's Fables, The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs. Plot A Department of Agriculture employee tells of the discovery on a farm in Texas of a goose that lays golden eggs, and how US government and academic researchers try to solve the mystery of the goose. While its eggs are valuable as pure gold, learning how the bird produces the metal is more important. After the scientists realize that the goose is unharmed despite the enzyme-catalyzed nuclear process that converts oxygen-18 to gold-197 producing gamma rays, they discover that it is immune to all radioactivity, converting any unstable isotope to a stable isotope. The goose is "the perfect defense against the atomic age", one researc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1968 Short Story Collections
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * January 10 – John Gorton is sworn in as 19th Prime Minister of Australia, taking over from John McEwen after being elected leader of the Liberal Party the previous day, following the disappearance of Harold Holt. Gorton becomes the only Senator to become Prime Minister, though he immediately transfers to the House of Representatives through the 1968 Higgins by-election in Holt's vacant seat. * January 15 – The 1968 Belice earthquake in Sicily kills 380 and injures around 1,000. * January 21 ** Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins, ending on April 8. ** 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash: A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs. * January ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algis Budrys
Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome (in collaboration with Jerome Bixby), John A. Sentry, William Scarff, and Paul Janvier. He is known for the influential 1960 novel ''Rogue Moon''. Biography Budrys was born in Königsberg (today's Kaliningrad) in the then East Prussia, Germany. His father Jonas Budrys was the consul general of Lithuania; as a child he saw Adolf Hitler in a parade in the city. In 1936, when Budrys was five years old, Jonas was appointed as the consul general in New York, instead of Paris as he had hoped. After the Soviet Union's occupation of Lithuania, the Budrys family ran a chicken farm in New Jersey while Jonas remained part of the exile Lithuanian Diplomatic Service, since the United States continued to recognize the pre-World War II Lithuanian diplomats. During most of his adult life, Budry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Billiard Ball
"The Billiard Ball" is a science fiction short story by American author Isaac Asimov, written in September 1966 and first published in the March 1967 issue of '' If''. It appeared in Asimov's 1968 collection ''Asimov's Mysteries'', in his 1973 collection ''The Best of Isaac Asimov'', in his 1986 collection ''Robot Dreams'' and in '' The Complete Stories, Vol. 2''. Plot summary An example of what Asimov called his "late style," the story is a journalist's recollection of the events surrounding the discovery of an anti-gravity device in the mid-21st century. Heavy with physics theory, the story describes the relationship between the creator of the device, the billionaire inventor Edward Bloom, and his former classmate James Priss, a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist who had developed most of the theory that made the device possible. The men are expert billiards players and bitter rivals. Challenged to execute a shot on a table which is equipped with the device, Priss sends a b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Key (short Story)
The Key is a science fiction mystery novelette by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is one of the stories featuring the reclusive scientist Wendell Urth. It first appeared in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' in October 1966, and was reprinted in the anthologies ''Asimov's Mysteries'' (1968) and '' The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov'' (1986). Plot summary In this short story, somewhere on the Moon is hidden an extraterrestrial artifact. Two explorers, Jennings and Strauss, discovered it, but Jennings is dead and Strauss is insane. The artifact seems to be able to amplify and transmit thoughts, even to the extent of allowing one person to damage the mind of another. The only clues are a piece of paper with cryptic symbols, numbers, and letters written on it, and the babblings of the remaining member of the expedition, Strauss. Strauss is a member of the Ultras, a eugenicist society dedicated to eliminating "non-essential" people, reducing the human population to a few mil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Light (short Story)
''Star Light'' is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the October 1962 issue of ''Scientific American'' and reprinted in Asimov's 1968 collection ''Asimov's Mysteries''. Plot summary Arthur Trent is a starship pilot and the young accomplice of Brennmeyer, an elderly and brilliant researcher. Brennmeyer has been planning a crime for thirty years. They have stolen a quantity of a valuable substance called krillium that is needed to build robots, and can be sold for millions on any civilized world. Due to the size of the galaxy and the lack of any central government, no cooperation between police of different planets is possible except for the closest ones. So, as long as they are far enough from the point of origin, no search shall be possible; nor shall there be any reason for the locals to believe that the krillium was illegally obtained. Brennmeyer has compiled extensive data on stars and inhabited planets for many thousands of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obituary (short Story)
"Obituary" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the August 1959 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' and reprinted in Asimov's 1968 collection ''Asimov's Mysteries''. The story originated when Asimov read the obituary of his friend Cyril Kornbluth in ''The New York Times'', and found himself feeling envy at the size and prominence of Kornbluth's obituary and frustration at the knowledge that he would never know whether his own obituary would be equally prominent. Nine months after Kornbluth's death, Asimov decided to exorcise his feelings by writing this story. Discussing "Obituary" in his autobiography, Asimov notes that it is the only story he wrote with a female narrator. Plot summary The story is narrated by the unnamed wife of an independently wealthy theoretical physicist named Lancelot Stebbins. Stebbins is a bitter man who feels frustration at his lack of fame in his chosen field, and after twen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anniversary (short Story)
"Anniversary" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1959 issue of ''Amazing Stories'' and subsequently appeared in the collections ''Asimov's Mysteries'' (1968) and ''The Best of Isaac Asimov'' (1973). The story was written for the twentieth anniversary of Asimov's first published story, "Marooned off Vesta", in the March 1939 issue of ''Amazing''. The magazine reprinted the earlier story with the new one, and he feared that someone would write a letter stating that the earlier's writing was better, but no one did. The story is also part of a loosely connected series of stories by Asimov about the supercomputer Multivac. Plot summary Warren Moore and Mark Brandon are two of the three survivors of the wreck of the ''Silver Queen'' in the asteroid belt. Every year, they meet on the anniversary of the disaster to celebrate their survival. On the 20th anniversary, Brandon has a surprise: he appears at Moore's house wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nine Tomorrows
''Nine Tomorrows'' is a collection of nine short stories and two pieces of comic verse by American writer Isaac Asimov. The pieces were all originally published in magazines between 1956 and 1958, with the exception of the closing poem, "Rejection Slips", which was original to the collection. The book was first published in the United States in 1959 and in the UK in 1963. It includes two of Asimov's favorite stories, "The Last Question" and "The Ugly Little Boy". ''Nine Tomorrows'' has been reprinted several times. The most recent publication appears to be a 1987 Del Rey reissue; . Contents *" I Just Make Them Up, See!", poem *"Profession", novella *"The Feeling of Power" *"The Dying Night", novelette, part of the '' Wendell Urth'' series *"I'm in Marsport Without Hilda" *"The Gentle Vultures" *"All the Troubles of the World", part of the ''Multivac'' series *"Spell My Name with an S" *"The Last Question", loosely part of the ''Multivac'' series *"The Ugly Little Boy", novelette ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Bowdler
Thomas Bowdler, Royal College of Physicians, LRCP, Royal Society, FRS (; 11 July 1754 – 24 February 1825) was an English physician known for publishing ''The Family Shakespeare'', an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's plays edited by his sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler. They sought a version they saw as more appropriate than the original for 19th-century women and children. Bowdler also published works reflecting an interested knowledge of continental Europe. His last work was an expurgation of Edward Gibbon's ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published posthumously in 1826 under the supervision of his nephew and biographer, Thomas Bowdler the Younger. The term bowdlerise or bowdlerize links the name with expurgation or omission of elements deemed unsuited to children, in literature and films and on television. Biography Thomas Bowdler was born in Box, Wiltshire, Box, near Bath, Somerset, the youngest son of the six children of Thomas Bowdler (c. 1719–1785), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I'm In Marsport Without Hilda
"I'm in Marsport Without Hilda" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the November 1957 issue of ''Venture Science Fiction Magazine'', and was reprinted in the collection ''Nine Tomorrows'' in 1959, in a bowdlerized version. The complete original version appeared in ''Asimov's Mysteries'' (1968). It is a mystery story in a science fiction setting. Plot summary A Galactic Service agent, Max, is in Marsport without his wife, Hilda, for the first time in a long time. He plans to visit a beautiful and accommodating woman of his acquaintance named Flora, but his plans are disrupted when he receives an unexpected assignment. His supervisor informs him that a new source of altered Spaceoline has appeared. While regular Spaceoline is a common anti-nausea Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. While not painful, it can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
