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Nightfall And Other Stories
''Nightfall and Other Stories'' (1969) is a collection of 20 previously published science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov. Asimov added a brief introduction to each story, explaining some aspect of the story's history and/or how it came to be written. Background In the introduction for the title story, "Nightfall," Asimov explained that although pleased by the praise it had received, he disliked "being told, over and over again" that a story he had written at the age of 21 was his best. Asimov hoped that the collection would prove that "sheer practice admade me more proficient, technically, with each year". He chose successful stories not included before in any anthologies edited by Asimov himself. Contents * " Nightfall" (first published in September 1941 issue of '' Astounding Science Fiction''), novelette * " Green Patches" (first published in November 1950 issue of ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' as "Misbegotten Missionary") * " Hostess" (first published in May 1951 i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nightfall And Other Stories Book Cover
Nightfall or night fall may refer to: Time of day * Sunset or sundown, the daily disappearance of the Sun below the western half of the horizon * Twilight, the period during which the Sun is at most 18° below the horizon and when the sky is illuminated by indirect sunlight scattered in the upper atmosphere * Nautical dusk, the last stage of twilight in the evening before night Film * ''Nightfall'' (1956 film), an American film noir by Jacques Tourneur * ''Nightfall'' (1988 film), a film starring David Birney * ''Nightfall'' (1999 film), a film starring Jeff Rector * ''Nightfall'' (1999 German film), a film by Fred Kelemen * ''Nightfall'' (2000 film), a film starring Ashish Vidyarthi * ''Nightfall'' (2012 film), a Hong Kong crime thriller by Chow Hin-yeung Gaming * ''Nightfall'' (video game), the first real-time 3D adventure game, released in 1998 * Nightfall Games, a UK role-playing game publishing company * ''Guild Wars Nightfall'', a 2006 computer game in the ''G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nobody Here But—
"Nobody Here But—" is a science fiction short story by American writer 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 (192 .... It was first published in the 1953 issue of '' Star Science Fiction Stories''. Plot summary Mathematician Cliff Anderson and Electrical Engineer Bill Billings work at an Institute of Technology. The time is assumed to be the present, as the two men have just built a 'small' calculating machine that measures three feet high by six feet long and two feet deep — a machine which would have seemed normal by the standards of the early 1950s. Bill longs to marry his girlfriend Mary Ann, but he is too shy to get up the courage to ask her. The two friends have been working on further developing the machine, which they call 'Junior', increasing its ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eyes Do More Than See
"Eyes Do More Than See" is a science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ... short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. Background In 1964, ''Playboy'' magazine approached several science fiction writers to create short-short stories based on a photograph of a clay head without ears. The selected stories — Arthur C. Clarke's "Playback", Frederik Pohl's "Lovemaking", and Thomas Disch, Thomas M. Disch's "Cephalatron" (later "Fun with Your New Head") — were published in the December 1966 issue.''Playboy'', December 1966 , The FictionMags Index ''Playboy'' had rejected Asimov's story, so he submi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ''Scientific American'' is owned by Springer Nature, which in turn is a subsidiary of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. History ''Scientific American'' was founded by inventor and publisher Rufus Porter (painter), Rufus Porter in 1845 as a four-page weekly newspaper. The first issue of the large format newspaper was released August 28, 1845. Throughout its early years, much emphasis was placed on reports of what was going on at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Patent Office. It also reported on a broad range of inventions including perpetual motion machines, an 1860 device for buoying vessels by Abraham Lincoln, and the universal joint which now can be found ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Son, The Physicist
"My Son, the Physicist" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was commissioned by Hoffman Electronics Corporation and appeared in February 1962 in ''Scientific American''. It later appeared in Asimov's collection '' Nightfall and Other Stories'' (1969). Plot summary Gerard Cremona, a communications engineer with an American space agency, is trying to maintain communication that has been established with an expedition that has apparently reached Pluto after four years in space. The difficulty lies in the significant delays for the radio signal to travel back and forth, making timely and meaningful interaction impossible. His proud mother, who happens to visit his office whilst he is wrestling with the problem, ultimately advises him to keep talking and get the expedition crew to keep talking as well. That way, although it normally takes twelve hours for radio waves to cover the distance, it is possible to have effectively continuous conversation. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Machine That Won The War (short Story)
"The Machine That Won the War" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the October 1961 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', and was reprinted in the collections '' Nightfall and Other Stories'' (1969) and ''Robot Dreams'' (1986). It was also printed in a contemporary edition of Reader's Digest, illustrated. It is one of a loosely connected series of such stories concerning a fictional supercomputer called Multivac. Plot summary (spoilers) Three influential leaders of the human race meet in the aftermath of a successful war against the Denebians. Discussing how the vast and powerful Multivac Multivac is the name of a fictional supercomputer appearing in over a dozen science fiction stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. Asimov's depiction of Multivac, a mainframe computer accessible by terminal, originally by specialists using mac ... computer was a decisive factor in the war, each of the men admits ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances in other magazines, including some published by Gernsback, but ''Amazing'' helped define and launch a new genre of pulp fiction. As of 2018, ''Amazing'' has been published, with some interruptions, for 92 years, going through a half-dozen owners and many editors as it struggled to be profitable. Gernsback was forced into bankruptcy and lost control of the magazine in 1929. In 1938 it was purchased by Ziff-Davis, who hired Raymond A. Palmer as editor. Palmer made the magazine successful though it was not regarded as a quality magazine within the science fiction community. In the late 1940s ''Amazing'' presented as fact stories about the Shaver Mystery, a lurid mythos that explained accidents and disaster as the work of robots named deros, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
What Is This Thing Called Love? (short Story)
"What Is This Thing Called Love?" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story was requested by Cele Goldsmith Lalli, editor of ''Amazing Stories'', as a satire of an article in ''Playboy'' called "Girls of the Slime God" which had suggested that pulp science fiction stories were concerned with aliens and sex. The story appeared in the March 1961 issue of ''Amazing'' as "Playboy and the Slime God", but Asimov later retitled it "What Is This Thing Called Love?" Writing According to Asimov, in "1938-39 ... for some half a dozen issues or so, a magazine I won't name" published "spicy" stories about "the hot passion of alien monsters for Earthwomen. Clothes were always getting ripped off and breasts were described in a variety of elliptical phrases" for its "few readers" before "the magazine died a deserved death". The magazine in question was ''Marvel Science Stories'' (later ''Marvel Tales'') which was published from 1938–41. In 1960 an article by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unto The Fourth Generation
"Unto the Fourth Generation" is a fantasy short story by Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the April 1959 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' (''F&SF'') and has been reprinted in the collections ''Nightfall and Other Stories'' (1969) and '' The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov'' (1986). It is Asimov's most explicitly Jewish story. Plot summary The story concerns Samuel Marten, an anxious 23-year-old junior executive on his way to meet with a potential customer. When Marten sees a passing truck that says ''Lewkowitz and Sons, Wholesale Clothiers'', he unconsciously turns the name into Levkovich, then finds himself wondering why. Every time he sees some version of the name, he becomes more distracted. Marten's business meeting goes badly, and afterwards he wanders the streets of New York City, following a trail of Lefkowitzes, Lefkowiczes and Levkowitzes. He arrives in Central Park, where an old man in outdated clothing is sitting on a park bench. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Up-to-Date Sorcerer
"The Up-to-Date Sorcerer" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the July 1958 issue of ''Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' and reprinted in the 1969 collection ''Nightfall and Other Stories''. Requested and encouraged by editor Anthony Boucher, the story is a deliberate attempt by the author to write something humorous that incorporates his love of the complex yet logical plots found in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. It consists largely of a series of puns on the opera ''The Sorcerer''. Quotes from Gilbert and Sullivan operas occur frequently in Asimov's stories; also in some of his verses explaining how he thinks up new plots for his stories. The words "up-to-date" in the title refer to the titles of Victorian burlesque, musical burlesques of the 1880s and early 1890s like ''Faust up to date''. In 1894, also, George Augustus Sala wrote a book called ''London Up to Date''.Sala, George Augustus. ''London Up to Date' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insert Knob A In Hole B
"Insert Knob A in Hole B" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. The story was first published in the December 1957 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' and reprinted in the 1969 collection ''Nightfall and Other Stories''. The story is unusually short, totalling just 350 words, and arose from a televised panel discussion that Asimov took part in on 21 August 1957. During the panel discussion, Asimov was challenged to write a story on the spot. He accepted, and this story is the result. Asimov later admitted to some preparation prior to the interview, as he suspected that other panel members might make such a request. Plot summary Two men on a remote space station receive all of their equipment from Earth unassembled, and must assemble it with only vague and confusing instructions ("composed by an idiot", one says); as a result, it often fails to work properly or at all. They eagerly await the arrival of a sophisticated positronic robot that will rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Original Science Fiction Stories
''Future Science Fiction'' and ''Science Fiction Stories'' were two American science fiction magazines that were published under various names between 1939 and 1943 and again from 1950 to 1960. Both publications were edited by Charles Hornig for the first few issues; Robert W. Lowndes took over in late 1941 and remained editor until the end. The initial launch of the magazines came as part of a boom in science fiction pulp magazine publishing at the end of the 1930s. In 1941 the two magazines were combined into one, titled ''Future Fiction combined with Science Fiction'', but in 1943 wartime paper shortages ended the magazine's run, as Louis Silberkleit, the publisher, decided to focus his resources on his mystery and western magazine titles. In 1950, with the market improving again, Silberkleit relaunched ''Future Fiction'', still in the pulp format. In the mid-1950s he also relaunched ''Science Fiction'', this time under the title ''Science Fiction Stories''. Silberkleit k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
