Favourite Short Story? (Isaac Asimov)

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My vote goes for between the positronic man and the ugly little boy. What about you?
 
Nightfall. I love his robot stories. I really do especially The BiCentennial Man, but there is something about Nightfall that just grabs me everytime I read it.

It's difficult for us to imagine life with no night or day because we have both, but Asimov makes the reader feel what it would be like to live on a world that has no night at all. Then when the unimaginable occurs and everything lines up so that there will be a period of darkness on this world, the population goes insane seeing it as the end of the world. It tears me apart everytime I read it.

Cheers,
 
Oh yeah i forgot about nightfall, that was also a brilliant book.

I always wondered if an intelligent species would really not understand the idea of dark and be that scared of it. It is not as if they do not know what dark is, the must have been underground/in a cave. But i suppose for it all to suddenly go dark... maybe...

Was a great short story but i think i preferred others.
 
Think of it this way ... how long was it before man didn't believe that there was something up there eating the sun during an eclipse?

Probably a poor example. I can see it happening though. Those that might understand what is actually happening wouldn't be able to convince the masses that it was just spacial alignment and not the end of the world. Superstition reigns supreme ... we all have them even if we don't admit it. ;)

Cheers,
 
I see what you mean but by the time we had invented telescopes (the race is quite advanced) i think we worked out what eclipses really where. They must have had partial eclipses at some point, must have seen that sometimes there is only 1 sun in the sky. Really think they wouldn't extraoplate the two together? I think they would and they would know about it a long time before it was going to happen. Wouldn't they have plotted the course of the suns and moon anyway and actually know well well before hand that it was going to happen.

I also loved the story but i think the scenario is slightly unlikely. Reduce the technial level of the civilisation to say our equivalent of 1,000 AD and perhaps it would work.
 
I've got to reread the story again, but if memory serves weren't there several people (the scientists) who knew what was going to happen but were unable to convince the general public that it wasn't going to be the end of the world?

Cheers,
 
I think they found out about it way to late, like a couple of hours before hand.
 
i read a book called 'through a glass, clearly' a collection of stories by asimov. i think my fav would be 'breeds there a man?' could be because i've entertained thoughts like Ralson, and i'm glad someone else is thinking like that too.

i love the way asimov writes his worlds. The aliens he makes up and all that.
 
Regarding Nightfall

like that story's author, I belive that 'Nightfall' is vastly overrated. Sure it is great, but not at all the best of Asimov.

As far as the rest of his short fiction goes, I find myself agreeing with Asimov yet again. 'The last Question' stands out among all of the rest. It is probebly the most original and thought-provoking tale in all of SF.
 
I remember reading an Asimov story years ago, can't remember which book it is from, where the kids go off to something like a 'learning day' where they get attached with a computer which then downloads information into their brain, I think this particular kid was going to get 'reading' installed (for want of a better expression.

Anyway he rejected it and was almost an outcast and then this old man seeks him out telling him he always looked for the ones who 'didn't take' as they had the talent to think outside of the norm.

Anyone know what I am talking about, or did I just dream this !
 
The story that you are refering to is called 'Profession' ,and it is definatly one of Asimov's best. It apears in either 'earth is room enough' or 'nine tomorrows'
 
Ugly Little Boy was quite a tear-jerker but my vote goes towards "Profession". the ending is quite classic as he realizes...well I can't say, that would ruin the story.

I read The Last Question as well, and it was very profound. All of Isaac Asimov's "Multivac" stories show incredible insight because he wrote them back in the 50s and 60s, before the the Internet was born. His vision may have turned out to have gone in the wrong direction (so far) but essentially Multivac has become the Internet in almost every aspect that Asimov described.

My favorite Multivac story would have to be the one where the last line goes something like: "heads or tails gentlemen, heads or tails?"
 
Re: Regarding Nightfall

Prophet4Profit said:
like that story's author, I belive that 'Nightfall' is vastly overrated. Sure it is great, but not at all the best of Asimov.

As far as the rest of his short fiction goes, I find myself agreeing with Asimov yet again. 'The last Question' stands out among all of the rest. It is probebly the most original and thought-provoking tale in all of SF.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you. At first I didn't want to read the story, mainly because the title didn't sound all that impressive to me, but my brother convinced me, and wow was I wrong. This story misleads you completely, up to a point where you feel as though you're wasting your time with the same question over and over again, but then the last two paragraphs come into play, and... well, if you haven't read it, I won't spoil the surprise. :D What an ending!!! Controversial?, I just love it!
 
As much of Asimov as I've read over the years, it's rather hard to pick a single favorite among the short stories, because they cover such a range, from the hard hard sf to the almost lyrical and poignant. Certainly one of my favorites would have to be "Eyes Do More than See"... very brief, but the sense of loss in that one never fails to hit me. I'd also have to recommend "The Ugly Little Boy", "The Bicentennial Man", "The Dead Past", "The Red Queens' Race" (even though it's an early story, before he was into full swing, it's a very nifty paradox tale)... There are just so many to choose from.... And that's not even touching on his humorous tales, or his mysteries, or ....
 
Eyes Do More Than See, I loved that one, it's really touching.
Lenny, because of the interaction between Lenny and Calvin.
Actually, I love all his stories, especially the Powell and Donovan and Calvin ones, but those two are my favourites right now. By tomorrow I'll probably be posting some others I haven't remembered yet.
 
Like some others here, I don't see why Nightfall is rated the best. It's certainly very good, but . . . I like "The Ugly Little Boy" , "The Last Question" , and "Reason".

No one's mentioned "Blind Alley" yet, which I've always liked.
 
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