Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Treasury

by Isaac Asimov (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor)

This giant volume combines two collections of the best science fiction stories from the fifties, sixties, and seventies, edited and with an introduction by the incomparable Isaac Asimov. These thrilling and sometimes frightening visions of the future

• "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov
• "Who's There?" by Arthur C. Clarke
• "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections, Fantasy

800 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Stephanie "Jedigal" · Rating 3 out of 5]

Below are short notes on the individual stories: a rating, title, author, brief description or reminder to myself. I think I started reading this collection in Nov 2007. I started recording my thoughts here in Feb 08. Reading a story or two between novels when it's convenient to have a shorter length material to read.

This hardback consists of two previously published collections of many authors' works, selected and with notations by Asimov: The Future in Question, and Space Mail.

My overall impression is a nice collection. An average of my below ratings is 3.3* overall, 3.1* for Future and 3.4* for Mail. I seem to prefer mediocre sci-fi stories to mediocre stories of other genres. I also note that while there were plenty of stories that I didn't personally find notable, of 37 total entries there were 19 I rated as 4* and 2 I rated as 5*. I look fwd to re-reading the 4s and 5s sometime. A wide number of writers are represented, so this also serves as a great introduction to many "old-school" authors. I definitely recommend to SF fans!

THE FUTURE IN QUESTION
*** What's It Like Out There? by Edmond Hamilton (coming of age, public vs. private thoughts/expectations)
*** Who Can Replace a Man? by Brian Aldiss (non-horror view of machine intelligence)
**** What Have I Done? by Mark Clifton (morality and humanity questions)
**** Who's There? by Arthur C. Clarke (fun)
**** Can You Feel Anything When I Do This? by Robert Sheckley (recommend to myself to check out other work by this author)
*** Why? by Robert Silverberg (one resolution for some existential questions: why explore? what's the point?)
** What's Become of Screwloose? by Ron Goulart (humorous, but it didn't really work for me, maybe not the author's fault, as I'm not known for my sense of humor)
**** Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree, Jr. nome de pen of Alice Sheldon (LOVED it! Was really caught up in the original, obvious danger (was anxious, was annoyed at interruptions in my reading at that point) and then intrigued by the gender and other questions raised.)
? (didn't note at time and can't remember how well I liked it) Where Have You Been, Billy Boy, Billy Boy? by Kate Wilhelm (teen angst of the future, same as the present)
*** If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister? by Theodore Sturgeon (Questioning sexual norms; Reminds me of Heinlein, but not as effective.)
* Will You Wait? by William Bester (humorous, I get it, but it just didn't work for me)
*** Who Goes There? by Joseph W. Campbell (good creepy changeling tale)
**** An Eye for a What? by Damon Knight (interplanetary miscommunication)
**** I Plinglot, Who You? by Frederik Pohl (alien plot to have earthlings destroy each other is foiled)
*** Will You Walk a Little Faster? by William Tenn (aliens (who have a "prime directive" type law in place) want us to accept a weapon from them that will help us destroy each other faster, and without destroying the real estate (planet Earth) in the process (like nuclear weapons do); good, short and sweet, but I wasn't keen on the ending.)
* Who's In Charge Here? by James Blish (I just didn't get this one. Super short. I think it's about some aliens posing as beggars that are going around incognito collecting information about us (since we all ignore beggars). But I don't get the ending part, and I have no idea the answer to the title question. I must be clueless.)
**** The Last Question; by Isaac Asimov (A great example that science can exist peacefully with religion. And I love it. It's very hopeful.)

SPACE MAIL
**** I Never Ast No Favors; by C.M. Kornbluth (entertaining, humorous, light story of petty criminal who spends probation on a farm where he finds the unexpected)
**** Letter to Ellen; by Chan Davis (should scientists try to create humans from "scratch"? kind and thoughtful story)
**** Space Opera; by Ray Russell (Just a nice short adventure tale with a funny side.)
**** The Invasion of the Terrible Titans; by William Sambrot (Short, fun, clever. And "tight" - no longer than necessary.)
*** That Only A Mother; by Judith Merril (I was creeped out by this, and not in a pleasant way. 2* based on it was too icky for me, but 4* based on effective writing, so I end up with 3*.)
** Itch on the Bull Run; by Sharon Webb (Just didn't do much for me, but its me probably. Humorous story.)
***** Letter to a Phoenix; by Fredric Brown (Uplifting although cynical story of the uniqueness of humanity.)
**** Computers Don't Argue; by Gordon R. Dickson (Horrifying - a short story scenario along the lines of M. Crichton: "the worst possible outcomes of new technology". Disturbing and stressful. In other words, effective!)
**** Letters from Laura; by Mildred Clingerman (Very funny story of time travel as a marketable commodity.)
** Damn Shame; by Dean R. Lambe (We fall prey to our own disrespect for the environment. Maybe I would have liked it better back when it was written. Today it is a tired theme.)
**** The Trap; by Howard Fast (Long, almost novella, about raising the first supermen... I enjoyed, but the ending, which felt authentic, is also bleak.)
**** Flowers for Algernon; by Daniel Keyes (Sad story from the POV of a retarded man used in an "intelligence increasing" experiment.)
**** The Second Kind of Loneliness; by George R.R. Martin (When a socially insecure man goes to a solitary space post for 4 years, does he become more or less lonely? does he increase or decrease his desire for human contact?)
** The Lonely; by Judith Merril (Story about genders, told through alien reference material about humans. B/c from alien point of view, it was a little too obfuscated for me to "get it" on the first read, and I didn't get enough from it to be motivated for a second read. But I feel this is more about me (or the mood I was in) than the story itself.)
* Secret Unattainable; by A.E.vanVogt (About an advanced Hitler-backed sci research project. This one didn't do much for me.)
*** After the Great Space War; by Barry N. Malzberg (Who's opinion counts most - the low-rank man-on-the-scene, or the high-rank man entrusted with keeping his troops in line? One answer....)
**** The Prisoner; by Christopher Anvil (The moral: never disregard an alien corpse.)
*** Request for Proposal; by Anthony R. Lewis (A bureaucratic nightmare... Too bad its just an exaggeration of what bur. often produce.)
**** He Walked Around the Horses; by H. Beam Piper (A cool alternate history.)
*** The Power; by Murray Leinster (The mystery power wielded by a demon could just be a science beyond our present grasp.)

[Kyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely collection of two sci-fi anthologies edited by the legendary Isaac Asimov and including stories by Arthur C. Clarke, James Tiptree, Jr., George R. R. Martin, Judith Merril, and Asimov. There is a good diversity amongst the stories in terms of their length and the specific sci-fi elements they address. A very good introduction to sci-fi writing for those new to it and a real treat for those who are already familiar with and enjoy the genre.

[John Wargo]

Interesting that Isaac Asimov would create a book of stories that have, as a common thread, a question in the story name. It's an old collection of stories (from 1980) so it's stories from authors who wrote in the 60's and 70's - interesting so far, but rather lightweight.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far it's been pretty hit and miss. Some are very good stories and a couple I'm left scratching my head wondering why they made the grade. We'll see what the rest of the book holds.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great collection for Science Fiction aficionados, with a group of short stories, letters and memo stories and even some novellas. Well worth the read.

[Jedidiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Within this book I found my favorite thought-provoking scifi short story: "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov. Fantastic story!

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gloriously big, fat collection of what I anticipate will be wonderful sci fi. So Asimov, in his intro to the first book has a footnote to "The Nature of the Title," in which he explains that he uses "the masculine form only for simplicity, and [intends] it inclusively." I'm fully prepared to make allowances. For one thing, the original publication date was 1980, and the note tells me that at least he was trying. For another, this was compiled by Asimov (and others). I even overlook his, frankly, rather insane effort to explain society in his Foundation series. Asimov is a master. I was crushed when he died.

So, this huge collection of short stories remained on my "currently" shelf for ages. Inevitably, some of the stories were more compelling than others. All in all, I wish I liked short stories more, because I found some great work here by terrific authors. Much of what they do (or did; these are old) is short stories and, for me, collections of short stories tend to sit around the place forever.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

A real hit-or-miss anthology, which is disappointing considering some of the names that were included in the book. Only read most of the first volume before giving it up.

"What's it Like Out There?": (3 stars)
"Who Can Replace a Man?": (2 stars)
"What Have I Done?": (2 stars)
"Who's There?": (5 stars) -- Easily the best story of the anthology.
"Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?": (2 stars)
"Why?": (4 stars)
"Houston, Houston Do You Read?": (1 star) -- Nigh unreadable. Reminded me very much of China Mieville's Kraken
"Where Have You Been, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?": (2 stars)
"If All Men were Brothers...": (1 star)
"Will You Wait?": (5 stars) -- Second best story of the anthology.
"Who Goes There?": (4 stars) -- The inspiration for the film The Thing. Still terrifying.
"An Eye for a What?" (3 stars)

[John Harder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Asimov has cobbled together a collection of short stories from the ‘50’s, ’60’s, ‘70’s. Some of these stores are a bit dated, but it is worth getting through a few clunkers to reach the gems, such as “Will You Walk a Little Faster,” “I Never Ast No Favors,” and “Flowers for Algernon.” Howard Fast (of the Immigrant series from 30 years ago) also make fine contribution with “The Trap” – a curious story about the possibilities of what would happen if intelligent children are left to their own devices.

I read all the stores in full, but in retrospect you may just want to read the first few pages; if it catches your attention, read the remainder.

[Aaron]

a great collections of short stories edited and introduced by Asimov... lots of gems in here. will report back once finished...

[Bridget]

HARDCOVER

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely, big, fat SF collection that was one of my 'bargains'. Much better than I thought it would be, it is an amalgamating of two collections by Asimov/Greenberg.

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reprint of 2 previous compilations. In several parts. Volume 1 is The future in question. Volume 2 is titles Space Mail and includes letters, diaries and memos. Re-read of many titles.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is comprised of many, truly awesome short science fiction stories, most of them are great, few of them are less than great.

[Dami (Damiellar)]

I think I read this in Year 7 or so. Introduced me to some fine fiction.