Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories: 16 (1954) - A Review
I’ve owned several volumes in this anthology series for years and, embarrassingly enough, never read them. A few weeks ago, I decided to remedy the situation and randomly pulled #16 from my bookcase and began reading. Why on Earth did I wait this long? The stories are amazing.
The volume opens with a story by Richard Matheson (who, by the way, wrote some of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone TV series) called, “The Test.” Though the storyline was somewhat predictable, the emotion of the characters nonetheless drew me in – and the ending was a real gut punch.
William Tenn’s contribution was “Down Among the Dead Men.” The story was imaginative and haunting – in more than one way. I am confident John Scalzi read the story before he wrote “Old Man’s War.” The plots are not the same, but…
Almost all of the stories were excellent. There were a few I’d read before, like “The Cold Equations” (tom Godwin) and “The Deep Range” (Arthur C. Clarke), but many I had not and should have. The best example was from Chad Oliver, an under-appreciated writer whose collective works are among the most creative of the Golden Age. I have thought about his fantasy-ish “Transformer” every day since I finished the book.
There are great stories by Philip K. Dick, Damon Knight, Gordon R. Dickson, Algis Budrys, and more.
