Isaac Asimov Presents : The Great SF Stories 2 (1940)

The journey through SF history continues, with more clumsy first steps; this volume is a bit of a letdown from the 1939 volume that began the series.

Two of the stories were (eventually) award nominated, picking up Retro Hugo nominations in 2016, and they are by far the best work in the book. Theodore Sturgeon's "It" sits at the intersection of SF and horror, and it's an effectively scary tale of a strange creature wandering through a forest and the family who live nearby; and Harry Bates's "Farewell to the Master" is the story that inspired The Day the Earth Stood Still, though the movie changed the plot quite dramatically.

There are a few more worthwhile stories to be found.Asimov's "Strange Playfellow" is presented here in its original show more version; Asimov would polish the story a bit and change the title to "Robbie" when it was included in his I, Robot. Willard Hawkins's "The Dwindling Sphere" is notable as an early story on the problem of limited natural resources; Robert Arthur's "Postpaid to Paradise" is a tale of an idyllic tropical isle that can only be reached by fantastic means, a thematic forerunner to some of Jack Finney's work. Ross Rocklynne's "Quietus" is an early entry in a long line of stories in which first contact goes awry because of faulty assumptions made by one side, with an unusually melancholy ending as one character can't stop wondering what he might have done differently.

Rocklynne is one of three authors represented by two stories here, along with Sturgeon and L. Sprague De Camp. There's also some reasonably good work from legends Fritz Leiber and Jack Williamson, another impenetrable slog from A. E. van Vogt, and stories from the less well-remembered Oscar J. Friend and P. Schuyler Miller.

Three stories by Robert A. Heinlein were meant to be included, but rights issues got in the way. Asimov and Greenberg made the unusual choice to give each of those stories a page of the book, contributing their usual introductions -- Greenberg focuses on the career of each author, and Asimov reminisces about his personal relationships -- despite the fact that the stories aren't here. The inclusion of those stories -- "Requiem," "Coventry," and "Blowups Happen," all of which were Retro Hugo nominees -- would have raised the overall quality of the book significantly, and it would have felt more on a par with the 1939 volume. show less

Racconti preferiti

— La sfera che rimpiccioliva (The Dwindling Sphere) *****
di Willard Hawkins

— Nella tenebra (Into the Darkness) ****
di Ross Rocklynne

— Quietus (Quietus) ***
di Ross Rocklynne

— Uno strano compagno di giochi (Strange Playfellow) ***
conosciuto anche come: Robbie
di Isaac Asimov

— Addio al padrone (Farewell to the Master) ****
di Harry Bates

F/SF

I migliori racconti fantastici apparsi nelle riviste di settore nel 1940. Tutti i racconti sono accompagnati dalla recensione dell'epoca e da una breve recensione di Isaac Asimov. La cosa appare più evidente è la differenza di linguaggio e di termini nella distanza di 70 anni. Come è giusto che sia, alcuni sono più belli di altri. Peccato che per scelta editoriale e per problemi di licenze manchino i tre raccondi di Heinlein, pur essendoci i titoli e le recensioni. Da leggere perchè ci si accorge una volta di più che non c'è niente di nuovo sotto il sole.