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
Science Fiction
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 Secret to Anti-Gravity!
In his science column for Galaxy Willy Ley used to answer readers’ questions. In September 1952 a reader from Brighton, England, wanted to know a little bit more about gravity, and Ley obliged him. In a forthcoming issue, will you please discuss the force of gravity a little? Many science fiction stories seem to take … Continue reading The Secret to Anti-Gravity!
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
The Caves of Steel
So the word is coming down that there might be a movie version of Isaac Asimov’s novel The Caves of Steel. I would probably have been excited to hear that, say, oh, maybe 40 years ago, when there was a chance, a slim one, but still a chance, that there might be a reasonably faithful adaptation … Continue reading The Caves of Steel
The 64 Square Madhouse
I don’t know when I learned how to play chess, but it must have been somewhere around third or fourth grade. I definitely recall playing chess with Wayne Busbea, one of the neighborhood kids when we lived on West Main Street in Richland. He usually won. But then he was a couple years older than … Continue reading The 64 Square Madhouse
Winthrop Was Stubborn
Philip Klass, who wrote under the pseudonym William Tenn, was never one of the leading lights in science fiction world, but he penned a few dozen shorter tales in the 50s and 60s plus one novel. He was a keen observer of the zeitgeist and tended to extrapolate current trends into his satirical fiction. Sometimes … Continue reading Winthrop Was Stubborn