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Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories #12
Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 12: 1950
Stories deal with social planning, evolution, immortality, computers, sea farming, invaders, time travel, a tragic stowaway, androids, experiments, and war
319 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 4, 1984
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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 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 14, 2025
Contiene las siguientes Short Stories
"Not with a Bang" by Damon Knight
"Spectator Sport" by John D. MacDonald
"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury
"Dear Devil" by Eric Frank Russell
"Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith
"Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson
"The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth
"Enchanted Village" by A. E. van Vogt
"Oddy and Id" by Alfred Bester
"The Sack" by William Morrison
"The Silly Season" by C. M. Kornbluth
"Misbegotten Missionary" by Isaac Asimov
"To Serve Man" by Damon Knight
"Coming Attraction" by Fritz Leiber
"A Subway Named Mobius" by A. J. Deutsch
"Process" by A. E. van Vogt
"The Mindworm" by C. M. Kornbluth
"The New Reality" by Charles L. Harness
Cada historia incluye un pequeño comentario de Asimov y de Martin Greenberg, sus compiladores. Es una de las mejores antologías de Ciencia Ficción que leí hasta ahora.
Mis historias favoritas son: There Will Come Soft Rains, Oddy and Id, The Silly Season, A Subway Named Mobius y The New Reality.
Para los lectores argentinos y quienes hayan tenido el gusto de ver la pelicula argentina Moebius, este libro no les puede faltar ya que cuenta con el cuento en el que está basada la peli (A Subway Named Mobius).
"Not with a Bang" by Damon Knight
"Spectator Sport" by John D. MacDonald
"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury
"Dear Devil" by Eric Frank Russell
"Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith
"Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson
"The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth
"Enchanted Village" by A. E. van Vogt
"Oddy and Id" by Alfred Bester
"The Sack" by William Morrison
"The Silly Season" by C. M. Kornbluth
"Misbegotten Missionary" by Isaac Asimov
"To Serve Man" by Damon Knight
"Coming Attraction" by Fritz Leiber
"A Subway Named Mobius" by A. J. Deutsch
"Process" by A. E. van Vogt
"The Mindworm" by C. M. Kornbluth
"The New Reality" by Charles L. Harness
Cada historia incluye un pequeño comentario de Asimov y de Martin Greenberg, sus compiladores. Es una de las mejores antologías de Ciencia Ficción que leí hasta ahora.
Mis historias favoritas son: There Will Come Soft Rains, Oddy and Id, The Silly Season, A Subway Named Mobius y The New Reality.
Para los lectores argentinos y quienes hayan tenido el gusto de ver la pelicula argentina Moebius, este libro no les puede faltar ya que cuenta con el cuento en el que está basada la peli (A Subway Named Mobius).
April 8, 2020
The best of this series so far!
March 22, 2015
A compilation of science fiction stories originally published in 1950, from the perspective of 30 years later; perhaps there's some selection bias, but the book shows that by 1950 science fiction writing was growing much more sophisticated. The themes will all be familiar to science fiction readers. There are stories which play with the nature of reality; stories of great advances wrecked by human greed and small-mindedness; post-apocalyptic stories. The stories of human contact with alien races approach the subject from every angle, from conquering aliens ('The Silly Season', C.M. Kornbluth), to benevolent aliens who conceal a sinister purpose ('To Serve Man', Damon Knight; the source of a famous Twilight Zone episode), to greedy humans manipulating naive aliens ('Process', A.E. van Vogt); and my favorite story in the book ('Dear Devil', Eric Frank Russell), in which a tentacled, blue-skinned alien spends his life helping humanity rebuild itself from near-extinction.
Some of the stories can seem awfully dated; A.E. van Vogt's 'Enchanted Village', for instance- a classic example of how writers who tried to imagine what the surface of Mars was like, in those days, went completely off track. More subtly, some of the stories reflect a very 1950s conception of relations between the sexes; while that's only to be expected, some readers today will likely be turned off. But, as a snapshot of its times, it's a very good anthology, packed with the work of first-rate imaginations.
Some of the stories can seem awfully dated; A.E. van Vogt's 'Enchanted Village', for instance- a classic example of how writers who tried to imagine what the surface of Mars was like, in those days, went completely off track. More subtly, some of the stories reflect a very 1950s conception of relations between the sexes; while that's only to be expected, some readers today will likely be turned off. But, as a snapshot of its times, it's a very good anthology, packed with the work of first-rate imaginations.
January 22, 2014
Il dodicesimo volume de "Le grandi storie della fantascienza" è semplicemente spettacolare. Asimov può attingere, per l'anno 1950, a una messe di racconti indimenticabili. È il caso di "Servire l'uomo" di Damon Knight, un autentico classico; o di "Nato di uomo e di donna", di Richard Matheson, brillante riscrittura di un racconto di H.P. Lovecraft, "L'estraneo". Proprio Matheson inaugura un filone della sciente fiction molto diverso da quello fino a quel momento prevalente, l'avventuroso, e dall'altro, che iniziava ad affermarsi, detto "sociologico". Inizia cioè a scavare entro paure inconsce senza appigliarsi a pretesti scientifici, mettendo in scena un mondo dominato da logiche fragili e dalle pareti capaci di incrinarsi al minimo incidente. Una quotidianità precaria che non ha bisogno di volgersi al futuro per risultare inquietante. Naturalmente non è l'unica tendenza. Ci si può invece abbandonare alle invenzioni pirotecniche di A.E. Van Vogt, di Cordwainer Smith, di C.M. Kornbluth, di Charles L. Harness, qui tutti al loro meglio.
March 24, 2015
This is the twelfth volume of Asimov and Greenberg's choices of the best short sf year-by-year; this is the volume for 1950. The commonly accepted golden age of sf had ended by 1950, and Campbell's Astounding was no longer as dominant as it once was; the contents of this anthology come from a wide range of sources, and a more diverse group of authors is represented. It includes three stories by C.M. Kornbluth, a good Eric Frank Russell, Cordwainer Smith's first story (maybe the most famous first story in the history of the field), good ones by Van Vogt, Matheson, Leiber, etc. My favorite is the Ray Bradbury, "There Will Come Soft Rains," though the most famous story here is no doubt Damon Knight's "To Serve Man," upon which the famous Twilight Zone episode was based.
September 19, 2022
Non con un bang (Not With a Bang), di Damon Knight *****
L'ultimo uomo sulla Terra cerca di convincere l'ultima donna a sposarlo.
Lo sport dello spettatore (Spectator Sport), di John D. MacDonald *****
Un viaggiatore nel tempo scopre a sue spese qual è la sola ambizione nel futuro.
Verranno le dolci piogge (There Will Come Soft Rains), di Ray Bradbury ***
Una casa "smart" continua i suoi compiti anche quando rimane sola.
Caro diavolo (Dear Devil), di Eric Frank Russell *****
Toccante racconto di un azzurro poeta marziano tentacoluto alla ricerca dell'arte su una Terra devastata.
I controllori vivono invano (Scanners Live in Vain), di Cordwainer Smith ****
Umani diventati semi-robotici vogliono conservare lo status quo.
Nato di uomo e di donna (Born of Man and Woman), di Richard Matheson ***
Uno strano bambino vive rinchiuso dai genitori nel seminterrato.
La piccola borsa nera (The Little Black Bag), di Cyril M. Kornbluth ****
Un ex medico ubriacone trova una piccola borsa nera dal futuro che darà una svolta alla sua vita.
Il villaggio incantato (Enchanted Village), di A. E. Van Vogt *****
Un esploratore su Marte troverà un villaggio e il segreto dell'adattamento.
Oddy e Id (Oddy and Id), di Alfred Bester ***
L'Universo cospira affinché tutti i desideri più reconditi di Oddy si realizzino.
Il Sacco (The Sack), di William Morrison *****
Un vecchio sacco saggio con tutte le risposte trova un amico.
Stagione morta (The Silly Season), di Cyril M. Kornbluth ***
Giornalista alle prese con notizie estive poco rilevanti non saprà se attribuire il giusto peso.
Missionario incompreso (Misbegotten Missionary), di Isaac Asimov ****
Un frammento di vita non capisce perché sulla Terra siano tutti così individualisti.
Servire l'uomo (To Serve Man), di Damon Knight ****
Una razza aliena aiuta l'umanità. Allo scopo di servirlo.
Prossimamente (Coming Attraction), di Fritz Leiber ***
Un inglese si trova in una New York post-nucleare con donne mascherate, perché così è la moda.
Una metropolitana chiamata Moebius (A Subway Named Moebius), di A. J. Deutsch ***
Una metropolitana molto articolata sfocia nello spazio-tempo.
Procedura (Process), di A. E. Van Vogt ****
Una foresta cosciente è sfruttata a sua insaputa.
Tarlo mentale (Mindworm), di Cyril M. Kornbluth ***
Un vampiro si nutre di emozioni.
La nuova realtà (The New Reality), di Charles L. Harness ***
Se la realtà ci apparisse così solo perché condivisa da miliardi di persone?
L'ultimo uomo sulla Terra cerca di convincere l'ultima donna a sposarlo.
Lo sport dello spettatore (Spectator Sport), di John D. MacDonald *****
Un viaggiatore nel tempo scopre a sue spese qual è la sola ambizione nel futuro.
Verranno le dolci piogge (There Will Come Soft Rains), di Ray Bradbury ***
Una casa "smart" continua i suoi compiti anche quando rimane sola.
Caro diavolo (Dear Devil), di Eric Frank Russell *****
Toccante racconto di un azzurro poeta marziano tentacoluto alla ricerca dell'arte su una Terra devastata.
I controllori vivono invano (Scanners Live in Vain), di Cordwainer Smith ****
Umani diventati semi-robotici vogliono conservare lo status quo.
Nato di uomo e di donna (Born of Man and Woman), di Richard Matheson ***
Uno strano bambino vive rinchiuso dai genitori nel seminterrato.
La piccola borsa nera (The Little Black Bag), di Cyril M. Kornbluth ****
Un ex medico ubriacone trova una piccola borsa nera dal futuro che darà una svolta alla sua vita.
Il villaggio incantato (Enchanted Village), di A. E. Van Vogt *****
Un esploratore su Marte troverà un villaggio e il segreto dell'adattamento.
Oddy e Id (Oddy and Id), di Alfred Bester ***
L'Universo cospira affinché tutti i desideri più reconditi di Oddy si realizzino.
Il Sacco (The Sack), di William Morrison *****
Un vecchio sacco saggio con tutte le risposte trova un amico.
Stagione morta (The Silly Season), di Cyril M. Kornbluth ***
Giornalista alle prese con notizie estive poco rilevanti non saprà se attribuire il giusto peso.
Missionario incompreso (Misbegotten Missionary), di Isaac Asimov ****
Un frammento di vita non capisce perché sulla Terra siano tutti così individualisti.
Servire l'uomo (To Serve Man), di Damon Knight ****
Una razza aliena aiuta l'umanità. Allo scopo di servirlo.
Prossimamente (Coming Attraction), di Fritz Leiber ***
Un inglese si trova in una New York post-nucleare con donne mascherate, perché così è la moda.
Una metropolitana chiamata Moebius (A Subway Named Moebius), di A. J. Deutsch ***
Una metropolitana molto articolata sfocia nello spazio-tempo.
Procedura (Process), di A. E. Van Vogt ****
Una foresta cosciente è sfruttata a sua insaputa.
Tarlo mentale (Mindworm), di Cyril M. Kornbluth ***
Un vampiro si nutre di emozioni.
La nuova realtà (The New Reality), di Charles L. Harness ***
Se la realtà ci apparisse così solo perché condivisa da miliardi di persone?
April 20, 2021
Solid collection of stories, many acknowledged classics. Been a few years since I read earlier volumes in this series, but the selections are clearly trending away from the hard SF pioneered by Campbell at Astounding. Some stories fit that mold, but there is a stronger thread of social commentary and skepticism of technology. This is exemplified by several stories set after an atomic incident, and three acerbic stories by C.M. Kornbluth.
September 7, 2021
Una raccolta di livello altissimo. Il 1950 è stato sicuramente un anno prolifico per la fantascienza in tutte le sue declinazioni. Il mio racconto preferitp in assoluto è "Caro Diavolo" di Eric Frank Russell. Sul podio metterei anche Ray Bradbury con "Verranno le Dolci Piogge" (già contenuto in "Cronache Marziane") e Damon Knight con "Servire l'Uomo", uno dei rari casi in cui il protagonista della storia è un interprete.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews