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The Complete Stories (Asimov)
''The Complete Stories'' is a discontinued series intended to form a definitive collection of Isaac Asimov's short stories and novels. Originally published in 1990 (Volume 1) and 1992 (Volume 2) by Doubleday, it was discontinued after the second book of the planned series. Altogether 88 of Asimov's 383 published short stories are collected in these two volumes. Volume 1 The first volume consists of the stories previously collected in '' Earth Is Room Enough'', ''Nine Tomorrows'', and '' Nightfall and Other Stories'' (but not the commentary from ''Nightfall and Other Stories''). In 2001, Broadway Books published a new edition of the first volume (hardback: , paperback: ). Volume One contains the following short stories: # The Dead Past # The Foundation of S. F. Success # Franchise # Gimmicks Three # Kid Stuff # The Watery Place # Living Space # The Message # Satisfaction Guaranteed # Hell-Fire # The Last Trump # The Fun They Had # Jokester # The Immortal Bard # Somed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hell-Fire
"Hell-Fire" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, originally published in the May 1956 issue of ''Fantastic Universe'' and reprinted in the 1957 collection ''Earth Is Room Enough''. It is one of a number of stories, such as "Darwinian Pool Room" and "Silly Asses", in which Asimov worries about the nuclear arms race of the 1950s. Plot summary "Hell-Fire" is an extremely short story, and deals with a journalist, Alvin Horner, who speaks with Joseph Vincenzo, a scientist at Los Alamos, at the first exhibition of a film with super-slow-motion footage of a nuclear explosion, with the footage "divided into billionth-second snaps." Vincenzo is sure that nuclear bombs are hell-fire, and tells the journalist they shall ultimately destroy mankind. After the scientist's observations, the film starts. For a brief moment, before initiating the full reaction into the infamous nuclear toadstool, the atomic blast resembles a specific shape: the face of the Devil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All The Troubles Of The World
"All the Troubles of the World" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the April 1958 issue of ''Super-Science Fiction'', and was reprinted in the 1959 collection ''Nine Tomorrows''. It is one of a loosely connected series of stories by Asimov concerning the fictional supercomputer Multivac. The story was adapted into a short movie in 1978. Multivac Multivac, the world's largest supercomputer, is given the responsibility of analyzing the entire sum of data on the planet Earth. It is used to determine solutions to economic, social and political problems, as well as more specific crises as they arise. It receives a precise set of data on every citizen of the world, extrapolating the future actions of humanity based upon the personality, history, and desires of every human being, leading to an almost complete cessation of poverty, war and political crisis. Recently, however, it has been given the new responsibility of pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gentle Vultures
"The Gentle Vultures" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the December 1957 issue of ''Super-Science Fiction'', and was reprinted in the 1959 collection ''Nine Tomorrows''. The story is one of a number that Asimov wrote expressing his abhorrence of the cold war nuclear arms race, but its lightly ironic flavor has earned it more positive critical responses than those drawn by the bitter moralism of " Silly Asses" and "Darwinian Pool Room". Plot summary The Hurrians, a small, tailed, vegetarian primate species have found on their space travels that large, non-tailed omnivorous intelligent ape species always end up destroying themselves in a nuclear war. The Hurrians adopted the policy of helping to rebuild the remains of these planetary societies after their nuclear wars, while genetically modifying the inhabitants into more peaceful races. They are not acting completely selflessly, either: as is discovered in the subse ... [...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] |
The Dying Night
"The Dying Night" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the July 1956 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', and was reprinted in the collections ''Nine Tomorrows'' (1959), ''Asimov's Mysteries'' (1968), and ''The Best of Isaac Asimov'' (1973). "The Dying Night" is Asimov's third Wendell Urth story. Plot summary Three astronomers, who have been working on the Moon, Mercury and the asteroid Ceres, meet for the first time in ten years at a convention on Earth. They also meet a former colleague of theirs, Romero Villiers, who had to stay on Earth because of illness. Villiers claims to have invented a mass-transference/teleportation device, but dies under suspicious circumstances before he can demonstrate the device to his friends. Another scientist who has seen the device demonstrated suspects that Villiers has been murdered by one of his classmates, and he questions them. In the course of his investigation, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Feeling Of Power
"The Feeling of Power" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the February 1958 issue of '' If: Worlds of Science Fiction'', and was reprinted in the 1959 collection ''Nine Tomorrows'', the 1969 retrospective ''Opus 100'', the 1970 anthology '' The Stars Around Us'', and the 1986 collection ''Robot Dreams''. In the introduction to ''Robot Visions'', Asimov lists this story as one of the notable robot stories. The story is representative of the genre of sci-fi that started in the 1950s as a reaction to computers, around the theme of caution against human mental atrophy in the computer era. Arthur C. Clarke's 1960 story "Into the Comet" is in a similar vein. Plot summary In the distant future, humans live in a computer-aided society and have forgotten the fundamentals of mathematics, including even the rudimentary skill of counting. The Terrestrial Federation is at war with Deneb, and the war is conducted by long-range weap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Profession (short Story)
"Profession" is a science fiction novella by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the July 1957 issue of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' and was the lead story in the 1959 collection ''Nine Tomorrows''. Plot summary The author presents a centralized Earth society of the sixty-sixth century, in which children are educated by almost instantaneous direct computer/brain interface, a process known as ''taping''. This system is similar to the BrainCap, a concept later explored by Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac .... Besides educating its own people this way, Earth also supplies educated professionals to other planets, the Outworlds. People in this future society are taught to read at the age of eight and then Educated at the age of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dreaming Is A Private Thing
"Dreaming Is a Private Thing" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, first published in the December 1955 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' and reprinted in the 1957 collection ''Earth Is Room Enough''. Asimov's original title for the story was "A Hundred Million Dreams at Once", but ''F&SF'' editor Anthony Boucher changed it: Asimov liked the new title and decided to keep it. Plot summary Jesse Weill is founder and owner of Dreams Inc, a company that produces dreams for the individual's private use, just as films used to be viewed, although they've been superseded by 'dreamies'. Dreamies can be viewed in private at home by anyone with the equipment and cash to buy or rent them (like present day videos or DVDs). They are produced by specially trained individuals, often social loners or eccentrics as a result of their intensive training over many years. Weill is shown a new development—under-the-counter pornographic Pornog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Author's Ordeal
"The Author's Ordeal" are lyrics to a song by American author Isaac Asimov. They were first published in ''Science Fiction Quarterly'', May 1957, pp. 34–36. They are included in three collections of Asimov's short stories: ''Earth Is Room Enough'', ''The Far Ends of Time and Earth'' (omnibus edition) and ''The Complete Stories, Volume 1''.In ''Earth Is Room Enough'', Panther Books Ltd. reprint 1973 edition, the title of the story is "The Author's Ordeal" in the Contents list but "An Author's Ordeal" on the destination page. The lyrics pastiche the Gilbert and Sullivan patter song known as "the (Lord Chancellor's) Nightmare Song" from ''Iolanthe''. The song depicts the agonies he goes through in thinking up a new science fiction story. It notes that the process of devising a space opera is incompatible with living in the real world with all its "dull facts of life that hound you". See also *"The Foundation of S.F. Success "The Foundation of S.F. Success" is a 1954 pastiche b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Someday (short Story)
"Someday" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the August 1956 issue of ''Infinity Science Fiction'' and reprinted in the collections ''Earth Is Room Enough'' (1957), ''The Complete Robot'' (1982), ''Robot Visions'' (1990), and '' The Complete Stories, Volume 1'' (1990). Plot summary The story is set in a future where computers play a central role in organizing society. Humans are employed as computer operators, but they leave most of the thinking to machines. Indeed, whilst binary programming is taught at school, reading and writing have become obsolete. The story concerns a pair of boys who dismantle and upgrade an old ''Bard'', a child's computer whose sole function is to generate random fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Immortal Bard
"The Immortal Bard" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the May 1954 issue of '' Universe Science Fiction'', and has since been republished in several collections and anthologies, including ''Earth Is Room Enough'' (1957) and '' The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov'' (1986). (In ''Earth Is Room Enough'' (Panther Books Ltd. reprint 1973 edition) the title of the story is "An Immortal Bard" in the Contents list but "The Immortal Bard" on the destination page. There is a similar, but reversed variation in title with The Author's Ordeal.) Like many of his stories, it is told as a conversation, in this case between two professors at a college faculty's annual Christmas party. It is likely that Asimov wrote this short story after seeing how literary academia viewed his own writing. His autobiography, ''In Memory Yet Green'', describes how science fiction gradually became more "respectable", while at the same time, professo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
