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Great Science Fiction Stories by the World's Greatest Scientists
Collects tales written by scientists, including Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, mathematician Eric Temple Bell, cybernetics founder Norbert Wiener, astronomer Robert S. Richardson, and nuclear physicist Gregory Benford
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
4 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,341 books27.9k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 31, 2017
The idea was good: science fiction written by noted scientists, compiled by Asimov.
But when the foreword says that no great scientist can write great science fiction, and the ones that did had to resign their scientific careers (as Asimov himself did), the whole thing does not look so good. I wonder if this is one of those books that Asimov gave his name to for profit but had no real involvement with (something i learnt just recently while reading Miquel Barceló´s Ciencia ficción: Guía de lectura.)
The collection is quite uneven. Some stories are truly masterpieces such as Kurd Laßwitz´s Die Universalbibliothek which I suspect, heavily influenced Jorge Luis Borges. Others seem so predictable and childlish that are not really worth reading, and some even seem unfinished or incomplete. Most are just "ok". A very frustrating experience.
One of the stories, Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death by James Tiptree Jr. was a complete surprise. It is a multiawarded short story I had wanted to read for long, but the story is so lame and boring and uninspiring that I can´t really understand why people love it.
One by one:
White Creatures **
The Singing Diamond ***
Publish and Perish ***
Skystalk ****
The Universal Library *****
Long Shot *****
Blackmail ***
Jeannette´s Hands **
The Warm Space ***
The Wind from The Sun ***
Industrial Accident **
Choice ***1/2
The Winnowing ****
Snow Maiden ****
Fourth Planet ***
Learning Theory ****
Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death **
Transfusion ****
In the Beginning ***
Modulation in all Things ***
The Bones of Charlemagne **
But when the foreword says that no great scientist can write great science fiction, and the ones that did had to resign their scientific careers (as Asimov himself did), the whole thing does not look so good. I wonder if this is one of those books that Asimov gave his name to for profit but had no real involvement with (something i learnt just recently while reading Miquel Barceló´s Ciencia ficción: Guía de lectura.)
The collection is quite uneven. Some stories are truly masterpieces such as Kurd Laßwitz´s Die Universalbibliothek which I suspect, heavily influenced Jorge Luis Borges. Others seem so predictable and childlish that are not really worth reading, and some even seem unfinished or incomplete. Most are just "ok". A very frustrating experience.
One of the stories, Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death by James Tiptree Jr. was a complete surprise. It is a multiawarded short story I had wanted to read for long, but the story is so lame and boring and uninspiring that I can´t really understand why people love it.
One by one:
White Creatures **
The Singing Diamond ***
Publish and Perish ***
Skystalk ****
The Universal Library *****
Long Shot *****
Blackmail ***
Jeannette´s Hands **
The Warm Space ***
The Wind from The Sun ***
Industrial Accident **
Choice ***1/2
The Winnowing ****
Snow Maiden ****
Fourth Planet ***
Learning Theory ****
Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death **
Transfusion ****
In the Beginning ***
Modulation in all Things ***
The Bones of Charlemagne **
December 26, 2016
Asimov wrote the introduction to this selection. In it he pointed out that it is hard for a scientist who is respected in his field to also be a great writer. Both require a large amount of time and effort to be excellent, and doing this in two different fields in pretty hard. He points out he is one who comes close to this ideal. Well, he was right. I did not particularly enjoy this book. Asimov's short story was good. The first story in the collection, White Creatures by Benford was also excellent, although I am a bit unclear as to where the scifi part was. It is a terrifying description of how the world might look to an elderly person who is in what we would call a convalescent home or perhaps a hospital. The main character can't figure out where he is or what those strangely dressed people are and assumes aliens have come to earth and are experimenting on us. That really is the closest it got in that story to scifi. There are a few stories contributed by people I would normally not consider scientists such as Mario Pei and anthropologists. I finished this because I was determined to do so but I didn't really enjoy it that much. There were other stories that were good as well. However, I found most of them, including Asimov's very depressing. Scientists do not seem to think well of homo sapiens is all I can conclude. Well, maybe they are correct and that is why I didn't enjoy it all that much!
February 20, 2022
Our wonderful local librarian hooked me up with the book when it was being discarded... always good to have friends in the high places.
While there are a few of the usual suspects, such as Arthur Clarke and Asimov himself, who were writers first, then others who were scientists first, and wrote just a bit of fiction.
In general, it's a great collection. It definitely lives up to it's billing as science based fiction, and spans alot of different topics.
Asimov's entry, The Winnowing, is fantastic, as is a great alternate look at evolution from Chad Oliver titled 'Transfusion'. I suspect David Weber read this.. it could very easily fit as the prelude to the 'Safehold' universe. "Learning Theory' is a stand out on an old theme as well... very few stinkers here... very glad to have been able to read it.
While there are a few of the usual suspects, such as Arthur Clarke and Asimov himself, who were writers first, then others who were scientists first, and wrote just a bit of fiction.
In general, it's a great collection. It definitely lives up to it's billing as science based fiction, and spans alot of different topics.
Asimov's entry, The Winnowing, is fantastic, as is a great alternate look at evolution from Chad Oliver titled 'Transfusion'. I suspect David Weber read this.. it could very easily fit as the prelude to the 'Safehold' universe. "Learning Theory' is a stand out on an old theme as well... very few stinkers here... very glad to have been able to read it.
x-tbr-owned
April 1, 2020openlibrary
November 3, 2021
The Winnowing by Asimov is worth the purchase!
July 15, 2023
There were some really great stories and some very dated stories.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews