Nine Tomorrows: Tales of the Near Future (Doubleday Science Fiction)

Many of the skills that were needed for survival even 100 years ago are now largely lost to the mass knowledge pool. The people of that time would have found it difficult to believe that what was so critical to their lives would be rendered irrelevant in the future. The first two stories in this collection take that as their premise, in "Profession" the very act of reading is lost and in "The Feeling of Power", the ability to perform basic arithmetic has vanished with the advent of accurate, handheld computers. The first seems unlikely but the second is very real, as a math teacher, I have witnessed students going into a panic mode if their calculator is not working. The fact that the numbers are simple so the operations are easy makes no difference. In "The Dying Night" an eccentric if not mad scientist professes to have perfected a process of mass transfer and he openly brags to his former classmates that have returned to Earth from various planets and moons in the Solar System. When the mad scientist is found dead under questionable circumstances, all of the classmates come under suspicion. Sleuth Wendell Urth is consulted and using his supreme powers of deduction, the culprit is unmasked. The Urth stories are especially entertaining to readers that understand that the Urth character is Asimov poking fun at himself. "I'm in Marsport Without Hilda" is a space age rendition of story of the husband out of town without his wife and looking for some action. He finds it when he makes contact with Flora and then is called into emergency service to solve what could be a monumental drug-smuggling syndicate. Solving the crime turns out to be easy, the woman problems are a more complicated situation. "The Gentle Vultures" is an unusual twist on the benevolent alien observers of humanity theme. An advanced space traveling species has set up bases to observe Earth and are willing to help, the problem is that their help will only come after there is a major nuclear war on Earth. In their experience with other species, once nuclear weapons are developed, they will be used in a massive war and then the "Vultures" land and offer their assistance. Although it may appear to be the case, they are not malicious, truly believing that they are doing the right thing to advance a species. A very powerful and an ultimately all-powerful computer are the primary story points in "All the Troubles of the World" and "The Last Question." In the first, computing technology has advanced to the point that the Multivac computer is the only real authority on Earth and it is able to predict the potential actions of people. By taking pre-emptive action, nearly all crime has been eliminated so law enforcement is little more than watching the output of Multivac and responding accordingly. However, being the repository of all the individual problems of humans has created a personality disorder in Multivac and it becomes the source of a potentially catastrophic crime. In "The

All of the stories are good. But one in particular is more than excellent. It's called: The Last Question. It blew my mind away when I first read it. I'm sure it'll do the same to you who ever you are. The Ugly Little Boy is a good one as well. Please read the book and enjoy!

Any one of the nine short stories in this volume would make their author's career. By assembling them in one volume it becomes immediately apparent that Isaac Asimov was the undisputed master of modern science-fiction. Asimov's style is perfectly suited to the genre--his writing style is plain and deceptively simple. Yet for all the simplicity of the writing the ideas remain profound. Asimov not only understood science and technology, he had a virtually prophetic vision of how science and technology would change the world. Our internet and cell phones would be no surprise to Asimov--he'd consider how far we have yet to go. PROFESSION: A fascinating study of a future society where one's profession is dictated by a computer according to a person's talents and aptitudes. Ideas that no longer look entirely futuristic. THE FEELING OF POWER: The guy can do math in his head! A wry take on the effects of computing power on personal computational ability. THE DYING NIGHT: A first-rate mystery story told in the milieu of science fiction. I'M IN MARSPORT WITHOUT HILDA: Like "The Dying Night" a story that demonstrates Asimov's ability to effortlessly cross genre boundaries. THE GENTLE VULTURES: Watch out for the humans. Take any work by any modern science fiction author--Asimov has already been there and has often done the story better. ALL THE TROUBLES IN THE WORLD: Artificial Intelligence issues that are still being debated today. SPELL MY NAME WITH AN S: About the societal impact of near infinite computing power and governmental intrusion into scientific research. THE LAST QUESTION: Wow. A mindblower. This one is easily among the best science-fiction short stories ever written. Asimov's take on intelligence and the future of the universe. THE UGLY LITTLE BOY: Time travel and human experimentation are combined in this gem that teaches us that our essential humanity is more important than any scientific achievement.

Isaac Asimov, science fiction grandmaster and one of the absolute best writers in the field ever to wield a pen, wrote so much - and so much of high quality, at that - that it is difficult for a newcomer to his works to even know where to begin. This daunted me so much that, for a while, I dared not venture into Asimov's canon at all - doubtless, many others have done so as well. Now that I have finally started reading him, I regret that I didn't do it long ago. I urge - urge - you not to make the same mistake. Though Asimov wrote literally hundreds of short stories, this short and concise collection features some of his very best. Included in this collection are absolute masterpieces such as The Last Question (one of the Top 3 science fiction short stories of all-time, in my not-so-humble opinion); Profession (an excellent and very underrated story); The Dying Night (an excellent SF mystery that has been, alas, outdated by subsequent science, but is still enjoyable to the full); The Ugly Little Boy (a rare emotional moment for Asimov, and a great story at that - he called this his third favorite that he ever wrote); and Spell My Name With An "S" (a unique and clever story sprung from the lifelong trouble Asimov had with people adding an extra "S" to his surname.) This collection also includes several lighter pieces, which serve to fill space and lighten the mood. Very, very, very highly recommended to any fan of science fiction writing, an absolute classic and masterpiece of the genre.

Sci-fi grandmaster Isaac Asimov is at the top of his game in this collection of nine short stories. The first is "Profession", which speculates on the nature of education in a future where the Earth is the technological center of a civilization of hundreds of populated planets. The story revolves around young George Platen, and the very special profession for which he has been selected. Asimov goes beyond describing the technology for imparting information and makes points about the everyman's preference for physical over social science, the nature of the creative mind, and how society findsways to placate the uncreative, including an event at the future Olympics. More menacing is the "Feeling of Power" in which an unassuming computer programmer discovers the lost art of arithmetic in a future society where only computers know how to do mathematics. Asimov shows how this discovery moves up the bureaucratic chain until it reaches the ears of those who knowhow to make use of it, but also makes a statement about scientific responsibility. "The Gentle Vultures" shows a non-competitive race that goes from planet to planet helping the survivors of nuclear catastrophe - until they encounter their first Cold War. And two of the very best tales deal with the burgeoning concept of artificial intelligence. "All theTroubles of the World" shows a society that relies too heavily on its guiding computer, while "The Last Question" is a totally unique story dealing with a theosophical question and featuring a conclusion that is perhaps the greatest in all science fiction.Although most of the stories were written in the 1950's, there's very little that's been dated by subsequent scientific discoveries, largely because this collection isn't about hard science so much as the relationships between far-reaching technologies and human society. The protagonists aren'tswashbuckling hero types, and they usually aren't even dedicated scientists single-mindedly pursuing knowledge; they're more likely to be "little guys", ordinary working people with jobs to do, who when faced with something they should be helpless to combat, still summon up the courage to act during that one brief moment when they can make a crucial difference. Probably the most dated feature of this collection is its attitude toward women, who are frequently absent entirely, or serve only in the most stereotypical of roles. Only the touchingly sentimental "The Ugly Little Boy" treats a woman as anything like a real human being. Even so, the power of Asimov's ideasand the scope of his vision of the future have delighted readers for over half a century. If you haven't read these stories in other collections, you'll certainly want to catch them here.