Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales Author:Isaac Asimov (Editor), Groff Conklin (Editor) FIFTY EXCITING EXPERIENCES! — You visit a world where Robots strain to remember the existence of the Men who created them; hear the tantalizingly brief report of a man who returns from a trip to the future; see the snake-armed Thing that emerges from the minds of the people who conjure it. — You meet a souvenir hunter in the Thir... more »tieth Century and a schoolgirl who ties to cope with the teaching methods of the Twenty-second Century. You share the terror of an astronaut in a "haunted" space suit and the dilemma of a wife whose husband knows a common chemical formula for destroying the earth. In short, you feel the impact, the originality, and the uncanny atmosphere created by these science fiction experts not once--but fifty times.
Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales have been selected for their concise writing, and for punch lines that leave the reader "surprised, shocked, and delighted at the final sentence." According to the editors, another important aspect of this literary form is "evocation of a background differing from our own." Consequently, though some of the stories are just a page long, the reading experience is always excitingly unique.
Ballade of an artificial satellite by Paul Anderson --
Fun they had by Isaac Astimov --
Men are differenct by Alan Bloch --
Ambassadors by Anthoy Boucher --
Weapon by Fredric Brown --
Random sample by T.P. Caravan --
Oscar by Cleve Cartmill --
Mist by Peter Cartur --
Teething ring by James Causey --
Haunted space suit by Arthur C. Clarke --
Stair Trick by Mildred Clingerman --
Unwelcome tenant by Roger Dee --
Mathematicians by Arthur Feldman --
Third level by Jack Finney --
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! by Stuart Friedman --
Figure by Edward Grendon --
Rag thing by David Grinnell --
Good provider by Marion Gross --
Columbus was a dope by Robert A. Heinlein --
Texas Week by Albert Hernhuter --
Hilda by H.B. Hickey --
Choice by W. Hilton-Young --
Not with a bang by Damon Knight --
Altar at midnight by C.M. Kornbluth --
Bad day for sales by Fritz Leiber --
Who's cribbing? Jack Lewis --
Spectator sport by John D. MacDonald --
Cricket ball by Avro Manhattan --
Double-take by Winston K. Marks --
Prolog by John P. McKnight --
Available data on the worp reaction by Lion Miller --