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The Early Asimov
''The Early Asimov or, Eleven Years of Trying'' is a 1972 collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov. Each story is accompanied by commentary by the author, who gives details about his life and his literary achievements in the period in which he wrote the story, effectively amounting to a sort of autobiography for the years 1938 to 1949. (The book was followed by ''Before the Golden Age'' in 1974 and ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'' in 1975, which also included autobiographical material.) The book is dedicated to John W. Campbell, the editor who bought many of the stories collected in this book. Contents * " The Callistan Menace" (published 1940) * " Ring Around the Sun" (1940) * " The Magnificent Possession" (1940) * " Trends" (1939) * "The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use" (1939) * " Black Friar of the Flame" (1942), novelette * " Half-Breed" (1940), novelette, ''Half-Breed'' series #1 * " The Secret Sense" (1941) * " Homo Sol" (1940), ''Homo Sol'' series #1 * "Half-Breeds on Venus" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Asimov
yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (1922–1928)American (1928–1992) , occupation = Writer, professor of biochemistry , years_active = 1939–1992 , genre = Science fiction ( hard SF, social SF), mystery, popular science , subject = Popular science, science textbooks, essays, history, literary criticism , education = Columbia University ( BA, MA, PhD) , movement = Golden Age of Science Fiction , module = , signature = Isaac Asimov signature.svg Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heredity (short Story)
"Heredity" is a science fiction short story by the American writer Isaac Asimov. Asimov wrote the story, his twenty-third, in August 1940 under the title "Twins". It was rejected by John W. Campbell, editor of '' Astounding Science Fiction'', on 29 August, and accepted by Frederik Pohl on 4 September. It appeared in the April 1941 issue of ''Astonishing Stories'' under the title "Heredity" and was reprinted in the 1972 collection ''The Early Asimov''. ''Heredity'' was the second Asimov story to receive a cover illustration. Plot summary A pair of identical twins, Allen and George Carter, have been separated at birth as part of a twin study to settle the nature versus nurture question. Allen is raised on a highly developed Earth, while George has been raised in the provincial frontier society of Ganymede. On their twenty-fifth birthday, they are introduced to each other and given the task of running the family farm on Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thiotimoline
Thiotimoline is a fictitious chemical compound conceived by American biochemist and science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It was first described in a spoof scientific paper titled "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" in 1948. The major peculiarity of the chemical is its "endochronicity": it starts dissolving before it makes contact with water. Asimov went on to write three additional short stories, each describing different properties or uses of thiotimoline. Chemical properties In Asimov's writings the endochronicity of thiotimoline is explained by the fact that in the thiotimoline molecule, there is at least one carbon atom such that, while two of the carbon's four chemical bonds lie in normal space and time, one of the bonds projects into the future and another into the past. Thiotimoline is derived from the bark of the (fictitious) shrub ''Rosacea karlsbadensis rufo'', and the thiotimoline molecule includes at least fourteen hydroxy groups, two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
No Connection
"No Connection" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the June 1948 issue of '' Astounding Science Fiction'' and reprinted in the 1972 collection ''The Early Asimov''. Background Written in May 1947, "No Connection" was Asimov's first non-Foundation, non- robot series story in more than two years. John W. Campbell of '' Astounding Science Fiction'' purchased it that month. Plot summary In the Earth of the far distant future, humans have died out and have been replaced, at least in the Americas, by a race descended from bears. Known to themselves as ''Gurrow sapiens'', they live peaceably in communal groupings, trading with each other and sharing communal property, monetary units and duties. Their science has advanced almost to that of pre-atomic age humans. Little is known of other lands on the planet. Raph, a Gurrow archaeologist, learns of the arrival on the continent's eastern seaboard of an unknown race, apparently des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blind Alley
"Blind Alley" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1945 issue of ''Astounding Science Fiction'', and later included in the collection ''The Early Asimov'' (1972). Although the story postulates a race of intelligent non-humans, it is set in the ''Foundation'' universe, during the era of Trantor's Galactic Empire. Publication history "Blind Alley" was the only story from mid-1943 to mid-1945 that was not part of Asimov's ''Foundation'' or ''Robot'' series. Written in September and October 1944, it was accepted by John W. Campbell in October and published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' in March 1945. It was anthologised by Groff Conklin in '' The Best of Science Fiction'', the first of Asimov's stories to have been reprinted. The $42.50 from the anthology caused him to realize that it was possible to earn more money from a story than the initial publication. Conklin included the story in a number of anthologies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death Sentence (short Story)
"Death Sentence" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of '' Astounding Science Fiction'' and reprinted in the 1972 collection ''The Early Asimov''. Plot summary Theo Realo, an eccentric researcher, approaches a psychologist at Arcturus university. His story is that he's spent many years on an obscure out-of-the-way planet and has found evidence that it once formed part of a now-lost Galactic Federation, based on psychology far more advanced than that now known. Based on his reports, a research group visits the planet to explore it. They discover documents that date back many thousands of years and make a small start in examining them. But Realo insists that the ancient psychologists of the Galactic Federation also set up a world of positronic robots for the purpose of letting them develop their own society and carry out their own research. Realo insists that he has been on this very planet, that the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Author! Author! (short Story)
"Author! Author!" is a fantasy short story by American writer and scientist Isaac Asimov. Background By January 1943 Isaac Asimov was working at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and had not written any fiction for almost a year. Still hoping to be published in ''Unknown'' after five rejections, he began writing "Author! Author!" and in April finished it and sold it to editor John W. Campbell for $150. The magazine closed because of a wartime paper shortage before the story was published, but it was included 21 years later in an anthology of stories from the magazine, '' The Unknown Five'', and the 1972 collection ''The Early Asimov ''The Early Asimov or, Eleven Years of Trying'' is a 1972 collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov. Each story is accompanied by commentary by the author, who gives details about his life and his literary achievements in the period in which he w ...''. Plot Graham Dorn, a successful mystery writer, finds to his dismay that his most famous literary creat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time Pussy
"Time Pussy" is an early science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. Background "Time Pussy" was the third of three stories Asimov wrote for John W. Campbell for a new category of science fiction tall tales in '' Astounding Science Fiction'' called "Probability Zero". Campbell rejected the first two stories, " Big Game" and " First Law", but reluctantly accepted "Time Pussy". Campbell wanted to run the story under a pseudonym, since he wanted to encourage new writers to write "Probability Zero" stories. Asimov chose the name George E. Dale. The story appeared in the April 1942 issue of ''Astounding'' and was reprinted under Asimov's name in the 1972 collection ''The Early Asimov''. Plot summary The unnamed narrator of "Time Pussy" relates a story he heard as a boy from Old Mac, who had been an asteroid prospector back during the "Rush of '37". Old Mac tells the narrator about some cat-like animals he knew on Pallas that existed in four dimensions: in additio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legal Rites
"Legal Rites" is a fantasy short story by American writers Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl, originally published in the September 1950 issue of ''Weird Tales'', and included in the 1972 collection ''The Early Asimov''. Background Written in June 1940 by Isaac Asimov, the story is fantasy rather than science fiction and based on an idea from Asimov's friend Frederik Pohl. After John W. Campbell of ''Unknown'' rejected "Legal Rights" in July, Asimov gave it to Pohl, who rewrote it (using the name James MacCreigh) and renamed it "Legal Rites", which Asimov agreed was a much better title. He sold it seven years later to ''Weird Tales'' which published it in September 1950, after Asimov had forgotten about it. It is one of several Asimov stories that center about a courtroom drama, such as "Galley Slave". Plot summary Russell Harley travels to an isolated part of the American South-West to take possession of his inheritance, a ramshackle house known as Harley Hall, willed to him by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Not Final!
"Not Final!" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, originally published in the October 1941 issue of '' Astounding Science Fiction'', and included in the 1972 collection ''The Early Asimov''. Its sequel, " Victory Unintentional", is a robot story. These are two of the few stories by Asimov to postulate non-human intelligences in the Solar system. Plot summary Earth colonists on Ganymede, the largest satellite of Jupiter, have discovered the existence of intelligent life on the planet's surface. They manage to establish communication with the Jovians by means of a "radio-click" code, and exchange scientific information. When the Jovians realise that the humans are not like them, they break off communication with a threat to destroy what they see as inferior beings. Scientists on Ganymede realize that no possible Jovian ship could leave the surface without utilizing force-field technology, and experimentally determine that said technology cannot be made ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Super-Neutron
"Super-Neutron" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, originally published in the September 1941 issue of '' Astonishing Stories'', and included in the 1972 collection '' The Early Asimov''. Asimov originally intended the story to be the first in a series, but was unable to come up with any further story ideas. Plot summary In the year 2144, a group of four friends who call themselves the Honorable Society of Ananias meet for lunch once a month, during which one of the members tells a story. The story must be a complex and fantastic lie, but one which sounds like the truth. The other three members are free to heckle and attack the supposed veracity of the tale. At the seventeenth meeting, Gilbert Hayes, a guest, requests that he be allowed to tell a story. His tale is that, fifteen years before, as an astronomer, he discovered that a planet with no gravitational field had entered the Solar System from the region of the south celestial pole and remained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hazing
"The Hazing" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the October 1942 issue of ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'' and reprinted in the 1972 collection ''The Early Asimov''. Discussing the story in ''The Early Asimov'', the author noted that it is set in the same fictional universe as his earlier stories " Homo Sol" and " The Imaginary", but featured different characters. "The Hazing" was the thirtieth story written by Asimov, and the twenty-eighth to be published. Due to the peculiar workings of the science fiction magazine publishing industry, the story appeared a month before "The Imaginary". When putting together ''The Early Asimov'', Asimov confessed he was unable to remember writing "The Hazing, or any details of the story, even after reading it. Plot summary In the ''Homo Sol'' stories, the Galactic Federation has developed psychology into a hard science, with quantitative equations and solutions for behavior. Consequently, master psychologi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
