The Gate of the Flying Knives by Poul AndersonUnicorn Tapestry by Suzy McKee CharnasSleep Well of Nights by Avram DavidsonBlack Heart and White Heart by Sir H. Rider HaggardRed Nails by Robert E. HowardStorm in a Bottle by John JakesIll Met in Lankhmar by Fritz LeiberThe Lands Beyond the World by Michael MoorcockA Man and His God by Janet MorrisSpider Silk by Andre NortonWhere is the Bird of Fire? by Thomas Burnett SwannGuyal of Sfere by Jack VanceTower of Ice by Roger Zelazny
Works 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.
Short novels/stories by various authors when combined together are like compilation albums, some of the songs are amazing, some OK and some are added as fillers to make up the space. The stories in this volume come in a number of shapes and sizes. One at least was written around 1900, with associated views. Several are the typical 1980's barbarian and heroine stories, one places a vampire in urban USA (before the now common writing of gothic stories set in the modern day world) and several are short stories associated with much larger series of books, such as Elric, Prince of Melbone.
Overall I enjoyed the collection, some like all compilations are better than others, and some were very difficult to finish, but other just flew through as complete page turners, with characters and story lines full of depth and colour.
Not quite as good as the sci-fi version. While the stories are all fairly solid, few of them really grab in the same way that the best sci-fi does. Maybe that's a problem of the genre - fantasy tends, almost by definition, towards a more conservative tone, and has less experimenting with theme or style. The highpoints were "Ill Met in Lankhmaar" - which I've read multiple times since I was a teenager anyways - and the last two stories, "Guyal of Sfere" and "Tower of Ice", by Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny respectively. Andre Norton's "Spider Silk" also holds its head up high. The rest are all fine stories, for the most part, but nothing particularly interesting.