Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 16 (1954)" (anthology): Annotated table of contents & review
This is #16 of a series of 25 anthologies by these editors. This book collects stories first published during the year 1954.
I haven't read many stories yet; will update as I move through the book. Where I'm aware of online copies of stories, I provide download links. My rating is in brackets. Where I've a separate post on a the story, link on story title goes there. Link on a noun yields more of related stories.
Table of contents (17 stories, best first, unread last).
- [novelette] Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations" (A); download text/MP3; Astounding, August 1954: An innocent girl is to be executed due to apathy of administration (according to author, due to nature's laws, but that's not how it comes across in the story). Intensely emotional.
- [ss] Arthur C Clarke's "The Deep Range" (A); Argosy (UK), April 1954: I haven't read this short story version, only its 1957 novelization. Among the better Clarke novels in my book. Novel is about taking agriculture to the seas - mostly raising whales as meat animals, but there are also other minor threads.
- [novelette] William Tenn's "Down Among the Dead Men" (A); Galaxy, June 1954: A team leader builds a team out of hostile recruits.
- [ff] Fredric Brown's "Answer"; download; Fredric Brown (Ed)'s "Angels and Spaceships" (anthology); humor: It's not safe to invent god!
- [ss] Mildred Clingerman's "Letters from Laura" (A); F&SF, October 1954; humor: A woman buys a time-travel tour to ancient Crete.
- [novelette] Alfred Bester's "Fondly Fahrenheit" (B); F&SF, August 1954: A man has the ability to unconsciously transplant his own violent nature to his robots, making robots violence prone.
TBD: I appear to have originally rated it C. At this time distance, I seem to think a bit better of it. Will touch old posts later. - [ss] Chad Oliver's "Transformer" (B); download; F&SF, November 1954: Anguish of a toy at manhandling she receives at the hands of her human kid owner!
- [ss] Richard Matheson's "The Test"; F&SF, November 1954: Not read.
- [ss] Damon Knight's "Anachron"; If, January 1954: Not read.
- [ss] Gordon R Dickson's "Black Charlie"; Galaxy, April 1954: Not read.
- [novelette] Randall Garrett's "The Hunting Lodge"; Astounding, July 1954: Not read.
- [ss] Donald A Wollheim's "The Lysenko Maze"; F&SF, July 1954: Not read.
- [novelette] Edgar Pangborn's "The Music Master of Babylon"; Galaxy, November 1954: Not read.
- [novelette] Algis Budrys' "The End of Summer"; Astounding, November 1954: Not read.
- [ss] Philip K Dick's "The Father-Thing"; F&SF, December 1954: Not read.
- [ss] Anthony Boucher's "Balaam": Not read.
- [ss] H L Gold's "Man of Parts": Not read.
Fact sheet.
First published: August 1987 (DAW).Relevant entries have been added to the list of stories from John Campbell's Astounding.
Some of the bibliographical information here comes from ISFDB.
Legend: ss = short story; ff = flash fiction.
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