Isaac Asimov Presents the Best Science Fiction Firsts

by Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg

This unusual anthology offers twelve science fiction stories, each unique in that it introduced a new concept--from anti-matter (John D. Clark's "Minus Planet") and clones (Fritz Lieber's "Yesterday House") to collapsed stars (Larry Niven's "Neutron Star") and home computers (Murray Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe"). Other contributors include Edgar Allan Poe, Lester del Rey, H.G. Wells, Don Wilcox, Fitz-James O'Brien, Richard Matheson, and Isaac Asimov. A wonderful addition to the library of every fan of science fiction, short stories, or superb writing.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction

249 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

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

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of short stories from the past, illustrating the first appearance of a sci fi or tech concept such as tanks, invisibility, clones, antimatter, and so on. Some of the stories are not as strong as others, but some are real standouts like The Voyage that Lasted 600 Years by Don Wilcox.

[Tyler Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a really intriguing idea of going back and finding science fiction first. I enjoyed Asimov's preamble to each tale. My top 3.
1. The voyage that lasted 600 years (Generational starships)
2. The test (overpopulation)
3. Neutron star (collapsed stars)

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a review of the hardback edition. You can currently find it at the Internet Archive. This book had three editors. Odds are Waugh and Greenberg did far more work than Asimov. It is unknown who wrote the short introductions to each story, which includes mentions of other notable stories and novels on the topic.

Selections:

* "Introduction: To Be the First" by Isaac Asimov. The good doctor's intros are always good reading. Here, he explains the reasons for the selections, why some obvious subjects were avoided, and note that the comic strip Alley Oop was the first to speculate millions of people watching a moon landing on TV.
* "Minus Planet" by John D. Clark, Ph.D. (1937). The first mention of antimatter. Clark only had two stories published, since his real job was a chemist. This was a quaint novella set in 2157, and yet the world was almost exactly like 1937, including a President famous for his fireside chats. Most interesting bit -- alarm clocks work by giving a sleeper an electric shock.
* "Yesterday House" by Fritz Lieber. (1952). The first mention of clones. Unfortunately, the main surprise of the novella is already given away. A blend of sci-fi and horror, set firmly in 1952.
* "Neutron Star" by Larry Niven. (1966). The first mention of a collapsed star. This difficult to follow story is set in Niven's Known Space series. If you aren't familiar with this series, you're shit out of luck.
* "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmain" by Edgar Allan Poe. (1839). The first mention of a cosmic disaster. Arguably the worst thing Poe ever wrote.
* "The Faithful" by Lester del Rey. (1938). The first mention of Earth being inherited by other mammals. Someone should do an anthology on this topic. Here, dogs inherit the Earth. If only.
* "The Voyage that Lasted 600 Years" by Don Wilcox. (1940). The first mention of starship journeys being so long, whole generations of the crew passes.
* "A Logic Named Joe" by Murray Leinster. (1946). The first mention of home computers. This also predicts the Internet. But Leinster mentions Hialeah racetrack functioning in the far future -- and the track closed in 2001. Oh well -- can't predict them all.
* "What Was It?" By Fitz-James O'Brien. (1859). The first mention of invisibility. Strange doings in a New York boarding house. Stranger still is the introduction by Our Editors, which lists many stories about invisibility -- and yet doesn't mention the classic 1897 novel The Invisible Man.
* "The Diamond Lens" by Fitz-James O'Brien. The first mention of a microscopic world. This novella is a much grimmer version of Horton Hears a Who.
* "The Test" by Richard Matheson. (1954). The first mention of overpopulation. Very good short story about how America deals with overpopulation ... but it's set in 2003. Unfortunately, these laws never came to pass, and the world goes over eight billion.
* "Reason" by Isaac Asimov. (1941) The first mention of solar power ... from satellites. From one the good doctor's very loosely related stories about robots. A bored guy on a mile-long satellite builds himself a robot, and regrets it. The robot finds religion.
* "The Land Ironclads" by H. G. Wells. (1903). The first mention of tanks. Darkly comic story, told in the point of view of a stupid war correspondent. Not one of Wells' more memorable stories.

[Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books that sound like a good idea, but turn out to be kind of tiresome. With the exceptions of Larry Niven's "Neutron Star" and Richard Matheson's "The Test", the central themes of all these science fiction firsts have had better treatments in later stories, while the pre-1900 stories just make you kind of weary.