"The Deep" 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 ...

novelette 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 written in July 1952 and first published in the December 1952 issue of ''

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...

''. The story subsequently appeared in the Asimov collections ''

The Martian Way and Other Stories ''The Martian Way and Other Stories'' is a 1955 collection of four science fiction stories (3 Novella, novelettes and one novella by American writer Isaac Asimov, previously published in 1952 and 1954. Although single-author story collections ge ...

'' (1955) and ''

The Best of Isaac Asimov ''The Best of Isaac Asimov'' is a collection of twelve science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, published by Sphere in 1973. It begins with a short introduction (six pages in the Doubleday hardcover edition) giving vario ...

'' (1973). In ''

In Memory Yet Green Isaac Asimov (–1992) wrote three volumes of autobiography. ''In Memory Yet Green'' (1979) and ''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980) were a two-volume work, covering his life up to 1978. The third volume, ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994), published after h ...

'', Asimov wrote that his motive in writing the story was to deliberately test whether one could do ''anything'' in science fiction, so he invented a society in which mother love was considered obscene.

Plot summary

The Race is a technologically advanced alien society with

telepathic Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

abilities that lives underground on a planet with rapidly depleting energy resources. The aliens decide to teleport themselves to a new planet, which happens to be

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. A sentry sent by The Race to establish a teleport on Earth suffers shock when exposed to unfamiliar aspects of human life, including

maternal bond A maternal bond is the relationship between a mother and her child. While typically associated with pregnancy and childbirth, a maternal bond may also develop in cases where the child is unrelated, such as an adoption. Both physical and emoti ...

ing,

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the ...

changes, and the inability to communicate telepathically.

Story notes

In ''The Best of Isaac Asimov'' Asimov described "The Deep" as the "sleeper" of the collection, generating very little response despite his liking it. The basic idea of the story is rather similar to ''

The Gods Themselves ''The Gods Themselves'' is a 1972 science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov, and his first original work in the science fiction genre in fifteen years (not counting his 1966 novelization of '' Fantastic Voyage''). It won the Nebula Award for ...

''. In both works, a race of highly inhuman aliens is on the brink of extinction due to their sun dying, and decides to use Earth as a source of energy.

References

External links

* *
The Deep
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deep, The D 1952 short stories Dying Earth (genre) Works originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction