When I wrote about Isaac Asimov’s story “The Ugly Little Boy”, I mentioned that Asimov had never even acknowledged the existence of the short film that was made of it and that I therefore suspected that he didn’t hold a very high opinion of it. Well, I’ve been going through my collection of Isaac Asimov's Science … Continue reading All the Troubles of the World
Fiction
Dead Letter
Fredric Brown (1906 – 1972) was an American writer of mystery, fantasy, and science fiction stories. He was especially known for his short short stories with humorous or ironic endings. For example, “Dead Letter”, which appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine July 1955 page 65 as “The Letter”. Blurb: Another detective-crime story complete on one … Continue reading Dead Letter
Unto the Fourth Generation
It was difficult choosing a story by Asimov where he incorporated religion because he really didn’t do it very much, but I wanted to do a trilogy of the Big Three and contrast the way they approached religion in their stories. So even though “The Last Question” can only tangentially be considered to deal with … Continue reading Unto the Fourth Generation
The Last Question
And so we come to the third of the Big Three, but of course, Isaac Asimov is always number one in my book. In the 1950s when Isaac Asimov began writing a series of stories about a computer that he called Multivac, a sort of super-computer descended from Univac, he wrote what could very well … Continue reading The Last Question
The Star
A writer doesn’t always know what it is he’s got until it gets published. Arthur C. Clarke, one of the aforementioned Big Three of science fiction, originally wrote his short story “The Star” for a contest that a British newspaper The Observer was running, but it didn’t win any prizes. After that, the story languished and … Continue reading The Star
Non Sibi, Sed Dei
Somewhere along the line in the 1950s the science fiction community informally designated Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke as the “Big Three” writers of the genre. Anything they wrote, particularly anything of novel length, from then on became an event, simply because it was written by one of the Big Three. … Continue reading Non Sibi, Sed Dei
The Right Kind of House
Henry Slesar wrote many mystery and science fiction short stories that are famous for their ironic or twist endings. He also wrote prolifically for television, including becoming head writer for several soap operas like The Edge of Night that specialized in mysteries. Sadly, most of his work is long out of print. Many of his short … Continue reading The Right Kind of House
The Ugly Little Boy
I must have read Isaac Asimov’s short story “The Ugly Little Boy” back when I was in high school, and I wasn’t terribly impressed with it. Most likely I read it as the last story in his collection Nine Tomorrows, and I may have just been rushing to get to the end and not really paying … Continue reading The Ugly Little Boy
The Power
Speaking of Frank M. Robinson, as I was yesterday, his novel The Power was one of the books that Wayne Busbea’s mom gave me in her big box of science fiction treasures when I was thirteen. I really wish I remembered what her name was. I no longer have that book. I think I donated it … Continue reading The Power
Two Weeks in August
Frank M. Robinson had an interesting career. Here’s part of his Wikipedia page: Born in Chicago, Illinois. Robinson was the son of a check forger. He started out in his teens working as a copy boy for International News Service and then became an office boy for Ziff Davis. He was drafted into the Navy … Continue reading Two Weeks in August