The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov

by Isaac Asimov

Featuring Asimov's personal choices, this collection offers a variety of science fiction stories that cover the period from 1949 to the present, each accompanied by a brief introduction

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Classics, American, Science Fiction Fantasy

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

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

[Amelia]

I loved this insight into the mind of Isaac Asimov with introductions for every short story in the collection of his personal favorite science fiction stories. I think The Last Question and the How It Happened were my favorites out of the bunch.

[Erin DeLaney]

I'm glad I returned to Asimov's short stories, which I think are his best work. I had read "Nightfall" elsewhere, which unfortunately is not included in this collection but in my option is one of his best. The standout in this anthology for me was "The Last Question" which deals with the beginning/end of the universe. Not all of the stories were as serious and even "Obituary" and "Spell My Name With an S" were clever and thought-provoking. A lot of stories in this collection revolve around Multivac (a massive sometimes omniscient and sometimes prescient computer), of which the implications in the modern day are even more relevant. Also the way he deals with time travel both in "The Ugly Little Boy" and "The Dead Past" is very well-done. I recommend his short stories to anyone looking to reexamine the way they think about some of the things in our society.

[Bill]

This is a delightful book of short stories that he selected himself as his favorites and he introduces each one with a short explaination about why he included it on the book. I was taken with his creativity and the broad range of his stories. Many of the them made me chuckle and even more made me think. That is what I like best about science fiction, the ability of the author to so completely control the setting that they can get their message across as they want to. It is also clean. I reccomend this whether or not you are fan of the genre or not. In fact this is an great book for someone who is interested in sampling the waters of science fiction.

[Paul Brandt]

Featuring Asimov's personal choices, this collection offers a variety of science fiction stories that cover the period from 1949 to the present, each accompanied by a brief introduction. The Best of Isaac Asimov (Sphere, 1973) is a collection of twelve science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov. It begins with a short introduction (six pages in the Doubleday hardcover edition) giving various details on the stories, such as how they came to be written, or what significance merits their inclusion in a "best of" collection, as well as some of Dr. Asimov's thoughts on a best of collection itself. The stories included are two of his early works, two of his late works (post-1960), and eight from the 1950s, which he refers to as his "golden decade" in the introduction. Except for the last story in the book, Mirror Image, none of the stories are related to his Robot and Foundation series, and only a few (The Last Question, The Dead Past, and Anniversary) mention the Multivac computer.

Introduction "Marooned off Vesta" (1939) "Nightfall" (1941) "C-Chute" (1951) "The Martian Way" (1952) "The Deep" (1952) "The Fun They Had" (1951) "The Last Question" (1956) "The Dead Past" (1956) "The Dying Night" (1956) "Anniversary" (1959) "The Billiard Ball" (1967) "Mirror Image" (1972)

[H. Carter]

Every author has favorites of his or her own work, but we rarely get to see or know which works those are. In this collection of short stories, the master reveals his personal favorites, and some of them are unexpected. This book is an eye-opening introduction to an author who many consider as the undisputed father of the science-fiction genre. I, for one, found the stories delightful. If you have not read Asimov yet, and have any interest in writing, I encourage you to give his works a try. His character descriptions alone are well worth the read.

[Danny]

The best three in this are The Ugly Little Boy, Unto the Fourth Generation (it was 10:30 pm and it made me want to cry), and It's Such a Beautiful Day. Read The Immortal Bard and I Just Make them Up, See! for some funny times. For great mysteries, check out I'm in Marsport Without Hilda and Obituary. Read Flies for the weirdest time you've ever had.

[Brandon B]

This was definitely such a refresher from Asimovs foundation and robot books and was a cool look at the kinds of short stories he wrote during his career. They varied wildly in stories that ranged from ones I found okay to ones I absolutely loved. For anyone who wants to read some short stories of his without resorting to robots and Foundation, this is the place to go.

[Brian]

He was the best amongst the very few best from the people who have his calibre of talent. Science Fiction of truelly important stuff to our civilization to learn from, so that we can avoid any unforseen technological problems and mistakes in our very long civilization journey.

[Kunjila Mascillamani]

Read this book for the great and witty short introductions to each story by the author. They talk about why he included the story in the collection.

Like his long fiction better. But there are some interesting stories in here.

[Anthony Faber]

A collection of Asimov's SF stories. Meh.

[Ken K]

Everyone should read "The Feeling of Power." The other stories are very good as well. Asimov is an amazing writer.

[B.V.]

Undoubtably one of the very best that I have read. So long to escape in Asimov's writing again!

[Stanley Dunagin]

I was going to rate this book a 3 star. After reading “the Ugly Little Boy” I was blown away and had to raise it to 4 stars just because of that one story.

[Bruce]

I remember enjoying a number of Asimov stories when I was a boy, but hadn't actually read any of his work--long form or short--as an adult. This had been rattling around my bookshelves for years, picked up at some thrift shop or stoop sale, and I figured it was time to give it a whirl.

First, I have to say that I really enjoy his writing. What I didn't love so much was his twee sense of humor and love of hacky jokes, which featured both the intros he wrote for each piece as well as some of the pieces themselves.

Lots of very dated ideas here for what the future might look like (he might have been a genius, but he wasn't very much of a futurist), but also some very good story craft and fun ideas, my two favorites probably being "The Ugly Little Boy" and "How It Happened."

I still want to read "Nightfall," but I think in the future I'll steer away from any more of Isaac's short stories, or at least the ones he personally chose as his own favorites rather than fan favorites!

[Mmiller400m]

Great collection of 28 of Asimov's favorite sci fi short stories and short short 'feghoots' or mini stories that build up to, and end, with a play on words. Besides the last question it included two of my other favorite short stories 'The Franchise' and 'The Ugly Little Boy'. I loved reading the little prologues by Asimov before each piece that added quite a bit to what went into the piece and why he chose it or what he thought about it. I'm looking forward to gathering up the rest of these short story collections.

[Linnea Slade]

I really like his style of writing, even if he is incredibly full of himself. His stories are really intellectually challenging and he seems to show God in many interesting forms including aliens, machines, and pure energy. Each of his ideas of God have a different purpose for interfering with humans either before or after death. If you are offended by reading religious views that are not your own, I would probably steer clear, but I really did enjoy this book.

[Stavros Efraimidis]

... glad I reread this special collection of short stories ... Asimov makes it clear from the beginning that he has a special private reason for including each story in this "Best of" collection, but some of them are (or should be) all time classic sci-fi ... among them some of my personal favourites like "The Dead Past", "Franchise", "It's Such a Beautiful Day", "The Last Question", "The Feeling Of Power" to name but a few ...

[Fernenanda]

My most favourite story in the anthology is The Foundation of Science Fiction Success, hands down!
(My second-most favourite is It's Such a Beautiful Day and then Found! Though none of them beats Nightfall IMHO.)

[John Devlin]

Nightfall is a seminal work as well as the computer that starts the universe.

[Janani]

Brilliant.

[Richp]

This is Asimov's favorite short work that wasn't very popular. Not bad, but definitely not his best, and accompanied by his inflated ego, as is usual.

[Sam]

A pleasure to read him again.

[Keith B]

All of HIS favourite short stories with introductions. Best representation of his style and skill.