Search Results for: Isaac Asimov

Collecting Isaac Asimov: Mark R. Kelly on the Best of Asimov

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It’s hard for me to be objective about Isaac Asimov. By modern standards, much of his fiction is not very readable. But the man introduced me to science fiction virtually single-handedly. More than that, he also instilled in me an enduring love of the pulps (via the amazing Before the Golden Age), taught me the fascinating history of the genre, and showed me convincingly that science fiction was, at its core, a community of writers — of fascinating people, who deserved to be…

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Read Isaac Asimov’s Predictions for 2014… from 1964

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Several sites around the Internet are making a big deal of Isaac Asimov’s predictions for 2014, originally written as an Op Ed piece for The New York Times fifty years ago. Inspired by his visit to the New York World’s Fair of 1964, Asimov’s original piece wasn’t a science fiction story, but simply his predictions for what the World’s Fair of 2014 would be like. Alexis Kleinman’s article at The Huffington Post is titled “Isaac Asimov’s Predictions For 2014 From…

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Quatro-Decadal Review: Asimov’s Science Fiction, November 1989, edited by Gardner Dozois

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An unappealing cover by Wayne Barlowe, more on that in a second After the somewhat uninspiring November 1989 Analog, I turned next to Asimov’s, and found it to be pretty good. Editorial — “Half Done” by Isaac Asimov Starting with the quote ‘Half done is hardly begun,’ Isaac Asimov (That’s Dr. Asimov, if you’re nasty) jumps into looking at how we conceptualize and compare time. Starting with the fact the Earth is 15 billion years old, half of that is…

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Sci-Fi Meets Police Procedural – Asimov’s Baley & Olivaw

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You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun) So… it’s a sneak preview, as A (Black) Gat in the Hand returns for the fifth straight summer. How about that? We’ll get going full bore after I get back from Howard Days, but here’s…

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May/June 2017 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

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Asimov’s Science Fiction is celebrating its 40th Anniversary Year in 2017, and in her editorial this issue Sheila Williams reflects on the many milestones and anniversaries she’s had during her 35 years with the magazine. Alas, the magazines’ fifteenth anniversary was not a happy occasion. Isaac died on April 6, 1992, leaving all of us heartbroken. He’d told me several times before he died that one major reason he’d founded the magazine was to give new writers a welcoming place…

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4,976 Pages of Asimov’s Science Fiction (and a Cat)

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When Cats Read Science Fiction Okay, my cat doesn’t really read science fiction. But she does wander over to see what’s going on when I’m photographing eBay purchases. She even knocked over part of my collection as I was prepping a piece on Robert E. Howard a while back (yeah, that’s her white paw on the far right). Cats. They don’t care. But if Jazz did read science fiction, I’d tell her the early 90s was probably my favorite era of Asimov’s Science Fiction…

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March/April 2017 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

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The March/April 2017 Asimov’s Science Fiction is the magazine’s 40th Anniversary issue. I can still remember buying the second issue off the racks in Ottawa back in 1977. I vividly remember Isaac’s editorial, which cheerfully encouraged young readers to write science fiction, and how much it inspired me to try my hand at it myself. I borrowed my parent’s typewriter, banged out a story, and mailed it in a few weeks later, dreams of being an SF writer in my head. I’m sure Asimov’s then editor,…

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August 2016 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

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Tangent Online continues to provide very timely and thoughtful reviews of the latest SF magazines while they’re still on the stands. Here’s a fine example: Michelle Ristuccia’s insightful commentary on James Alan Gardner’s cover story in the August Asimov’s, “The Mutants Men Don’t See.” Ellie Lee fears that her son will accidentally kill himself in an attempt to activate a mutant gene that he might not even have in “The Mutants Men Don’t See” by James Alan Gardner. Gardner’s engaging…

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February 2016 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

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In her editorial in the latest issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction, Sheila Williams explains why SF often gets a bad rap for predicting the future. As I write this, I am awash in the flood of published reminisces about Back to the Future Part II’s journey into the future…. Most of these ruminations seem to be rather disappointed with the real 2015… They claim that these special effects from a late eighties flight of fantasy were somehow promised to all of us, but the…

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August 2015 Asimov’s Science Fiction Now on Sale

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I buy Asimov’s for the fiction, but I always read Sheila Williams’ editorial first. This issue, she write some wise words on what appreciation means to authors — even authors who’ve made it to the pinnacle of their field. Isaac Asimov… told me that he hadn’t felt himself a complete success until his peers, the Science Fiction Writers of America, named him a Grand Master… On our way to the Readers’ Award celebration that year, I mentioned Isaac’s wistful comments…

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