I just finished re-reading “Satisfaction Guaranteed”, a short story by Isaac Asimov. I had read it years ago when I was still living at home with my folks. Gee, I’d forgotten how enjoyable this story is.
Asimov always said “The Last Question” was his favorite. I’d also recommend “The Bicentennial Man” (ignore the movie; I have), “Nightfall” (a classic), “The Feeling of Power” (if only for the first introduction of a term that has become commonplace), and the ironic, “The Machine that Won the War.”
I’ve read all those stories. I agree with most of the reviews on that site, but it’s best to read them all and decide for yourself. In particular, though, I happen to like “Evitable Conflict,” not for the events, but for the larger questions rasied for the future.
Anothetr vote for The Last Question (his favorite story), The Bicentennial Man (one of his three favorite stories. I cried when I read this for the first time) and The Ugly Little Boy (the last one of the three favorite stories).
The Good Doctor had good taste when reviewing his own work.
Robbie, The Last Answer, The Feeling of Power andLitlle Lost Robot are all great. But then again, Asimov never wrote a story I thought bad.
The Ugly Little Boy is my favourite. DON’T read the later novelisation. I think it was done by the same guy who did Nightfall (Robert Silverberg?) and it truly does sucketh.
“C-Chute” - this would make an excellent movie, I think. I believe it was already made into a radio play.
“Green Patches” - creepy, effective.
I also really liked “Hostess”.
These are all in the ‘Nightfall and Other Stories’ collection, which I think has a good variety of his fiction in it. I just looked up a list of the stories in it, and they are all pretty good.
Asimov wrote a whole bunch of quirky, amusing short stories, including most of the ones referenced above. Recently, a single volume was published containing all of Clarke’s short stories. I’d like to see the same with the Good Doctor, but it would have to be in three or four volumes.
If I recall correctly, Nightfall was his first published story, and by many accounts, his very best.
If you have an interest in the Good Doctor, try to find a copy of The Early Asimov. Don’t buy it, but get a copy from the library–since many of the stories are less than literary masterpieces–but it’s worth the effort for the intro, in which Dr. Asimov describes his early days as a writer and his relationships with Campbell & Pohl, among other.
His first published story was Marooned Off Vesta–in the March 1939 issue of Amazing Stories. Nightfall appeared in Astounding Science Fiction September 1941.
One word I-robot.
Um, wait its two words.
No, one word and a preposition
That can’t be right I, we, they,
I got it one word and a pronoun…
smack:
One title I -Robot
