Collection of short stories, most very dated, but youth was interesting. ( )

4/6/22

Four short stories, a mixture of hard and soft sci-fi (that is, some more 'hard sciencey' and more 'soft sciencey'). I enjoyed it; it's typically event-based, but Asimov does a good job of painting characters in a few broad strokes and titbits. They've aged somewhat, partly by including elements like smoking and certain technologies that seem laughable now. Hard-copy-only photos that are kept in a safe, for example. Other elements seem obvious or 'done' these days, especially social ideas and things about alien society, but I suspect a lot of that is because since 1964 they've been written about again. When they came out, they were probably fresh and novel. One story, "Youth", has a twist ending I saw coming miles away, but then I've read a lot of Asimov before. "Sucker Bait" is interesting, depicting a time when specialists focus exclusively on their own field, with no time or interest for learning other disciplines - something you can imagine already with the sheer volume of knowledge there is. You know the kid everyone igores is going to solve the problem, but it's still interesting.

One complaint: the edition I have (Panther) has massively over-explanatory blurb, which manages to give away too much about every story in only four lines each. I hope the editor responsible moved into academic abstracting. ( )

Isaac Asimov is one of my favorite science fiction authors. Some of his novels and story collections I've ranked five stars as simply amazing. Not in style or characterizations--but in ideas. Asimov's style I'd call decent--workmanlike. It's well-crafted but you don't linger over the prose as this thing of beauty. Asimov can (rarely) pull at the heartstrings (try reading the short story "The Ugly Little Boy") and at times he can create, if not complex, then memorable characters. (Such as "the Mule" in his Foundation series.) Arthur C. Clarke said that science fiction done well at the least can give the pleasure of a "good puzzle" and entertain. Asimov is always science fiction done well, but I wouldn't rank any of the stories here as among the most memorable by him I've read, such as "The Dead Past" or "Nightfall" that just stun me and make me see the world in a whole new way.

But all of these certainly have that twist in the tale, that pleasure of a good puzzle. The title novella, "The Martian Way" does have that little "hmmm" moment where you see the universe a little differently. Not enough I'd count it a standout among Asimov's fiction, but it's there. I actually preferred all the stories that followed. "Youth" I thought a hoot. Asimov does have a sense of humor, and this one is funny and has a classic twist only the written word could bring off. It's my second favorite of the collection. "The Deep" has both cool world-building (literally) and one of those truly original alien perspectives. The story that closes the collection, "Sucker Bait" is the longest and definitely my favorite of the book. Together with "Youth" it just pulls the collection up to four stars. For one, it is that rare Asimov story with a character--Mark Annuncio--who is unusual and memorable. Not autistic, not an idiot savant exactly and not simply adolescent genius. He really is different among Asimov's characters and the story itself an interesting scientific mystery. ( )

Four stories from the early 1950s, two each featuring humans exploring space and aliens exploring (presumably) Earth. Quirky, especially those starring the aliens, and quite enjoyable. ( )