''Big Game'' is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

(1,000 words) by the American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

writer

Isaac Asimov 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 ...

. He wrote it in November 1941 when he was 21, failed to sell it to any magazine, and eventually lost the manuscript. In 1972 when Asimov compiled a collection of his earliest stories, '' The Early Asimov'', he listed "Big Game" as the last of eleven stories which he had failed to publish anywhere and which he thought were lost forever. However a fan of his, Matthew B. Tepper, discovered the missing manuscript in a collection of Asimov's old papers which were archived in the library of

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...

and sent it to him. Asimov included it in an anthology he was editing at the time, ''

Before the Golden Age ''Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s'' is an anthology of 25 science fiction stories from 1930s pulp magazines, edited by American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It also includes " Big Game", a short story written ...

'' (1974), although he pointed out that he had re-used the plot of the rejected story to write " Day of the Hunters" in 1950.

Plot summary

The entire story consists of a conversation in a bar. A drunk man tries to convince his audience that ten years ago he built a

time machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

and travelled back to before the extinction of the

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s, where he met an intelligent race of humanoid dinosaurs who communicated with him

telepathically Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

. These dinosaurs enthusiastically hunted other dinosaur species as game. The drunk believes that when they wiped out all other species, they turned on each other, and that is the true cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. He concludes by observing that humans are likely to end up the same way.

Significance in Asimov's personal life

Asimov read the manuscript aloud at a meeting of the Brooklyn Authors Club, and one of the attendees was so impressed by the story that he invited Asimov on a double date. Since Asimov had no girlfriend, a blind date was arranged, and this was how Asimov met his first wife.Asimov, I. (1980) ''In Memory Yet Green'', Avon Books, pp. 329–330, 363–364

References

External links

* Short stories by Isaac Asimov 1941 short stories 1974 short stories {{1970s-sf-story-stub

Plot summary

Significance in Asimov's personal life

See also

References

Further reading

External links