50 Short Science Fiction Tales. edited by Isaac Asimov & Groff Conklin. 1963
50 Short Science Fiction Tales is rated 58%.
AVERAGE STORY: 3.24
4 great / 19 good / 12 average / 15 poor / 0 DNF
Read your own copy. Buy from Amazon and support this blog.
50 Short Science Fiction Tales is an anthology of very very short stories published - with very few exceptions - between 1950 and 1954. Many of these stories are little more than jokes with a sci-fi theme. As the tales are frequently one or two pages, there wasn’t a single story that I had to DNF. Unfortunately, this is also the weakest collection of stories that I’ve read as part of this blog. Many of the stories that are listed as “good” barely qualified for that status
Despite the anthology’s dismal performance, four includes stories made my “Great List.”
"The Fun They Had” by Isaac Asimov. You’ve probably read this story before, anthologized in thousands of classroom reading collections for students. This story of students who find a ‘real book’ is, for many young people, probably their entry into literary science fiction.
“The Weapon" by Fredric Brown. An intense and impactful story of a scientist who has invented the ultimate weapon and he late-night visitor who intends to teach him a lesson. A great science fictional statement with an economy of words.
“The Good Provider” by Marion Gross. A gentle and kind story of a time travel inventor and his practical wife. Absolutely charming.
“The Altar at Midnight” by C.M. Kornbluth. One of the longer stories in the book, but still quite short. A wonderful character study of a young man on leave from his space work. Dripping with the humanity found in the seedier sides of life and heavily reminiscent of Depression-Era stories.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the exceptional introduction by Isaac Asimov. It is one of the best I’ve ever read about the specific nature of Science Fiction and why characterization will often not be the writers priority.
Here is a sample.
The author of such a book [not SF], relieved of the necessity to do more than nail two sticks together to supply the background, has ample time to devote to the minutiae of characterization. How fortunate he is!
…
The disadvantage is that the background, however cleverly introduced, takes up time. I should judge about half the space in a good science fiction story must be devoted to detailing the background. This leaves only half the space for such things as characterization, and in a novel of the usual length it is no wonder that the science fiction author sometimes misses a bit in these areas.
50 Short Science Fiction Tales is rated 58%.
4 great / 19 good / 12 average / 15 poor / 0 DNF
How do I arrive at a rating?
The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov. 1951
Great. Two children discover a ‘real book.’ From the time they were printed on paper!
Men Are Different by Alan Bloch. 1953
Good. A robot’s misunderstanding of men leads to some horrible problems.
The Ambassadors by Anthony Boucher. 1952
Average. A strange first contact story with werewolves.
The Weapon by Fredric Brown. 1951
Great. A scientist who created the ultimate weapon receives a late night visitor with a horrible lesson to teach him.
Random Sample by T. P. Caravan. 1953
Good. Alien first contact is unfortunately with horrible nasty children.
Oscar by Cleve Cartmill. 1941
Poor. Monster story with traveling con artist.
The Mist by Peter Cartur. 1952
Poor. Fantasy gimmick about stepping through mist.
Teething Ring by James Causey. 1953
Average. Traveling salesman from ‘somewhere else’ presents a family with technology they should never have seen.
The Haunted Space Suit by Arthur C. Clarke. 1958
Good. What if you aren’t alone inside this spacesuit?
Stair Trick by Mildred Clingerman. 1952
Good. Bartender with a secret ‘trick’ meets a woman who takes it to the next level.
Unwelcome Tenant by Roger Dee. 1950
Good. Interstellar travel reveals a horrible secret about the human condition.
The Mathematicians by Arthur Feldman. 1953
Poor. A dumb joke of a story of aliens conquering the earth.
The Third Level by Jack Finney. 1952
Good. Another of Finney’s quietly beautiful time travel stories.
Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful! by Stuart Friedman. 1952
Average. Finding love when people are just numbers.
The Figure by Edward Grendon. 1947
Average. Exploration of insect like and the future.
The Rag Thing by David Grinnell. 1951
Good. Creepy tale of dangerous new life arising in a flop house.
The Good Provider by Marion Gross. 1952
Great. A man thinks his invention is worthless, but his wife finds an ingenious way to use it.
Columbus Was a Dope by Robert A. Heinlein. 1949
Good. The spirit of discovery in interrogated at a bar. With a touch of irony.
Texas Week by Albert Hernhuter. 1954
Poor. A man seems to have been changed by Texas Week on the TV
Hilda by H. B. Hickey. 1952
Average. A playboy gets his comeuppance when his robot falls in love with him.
The Choice by W. Hilton-Young. 1952
Good. Very very short story of a man returned from the future.
Not With a Bang by Damon Knight. 1950
Poor. Nasty story of the last man trying to convince the last woman to sleep with him.
The Altar at Midnight by C.M. Kornbluth. 1952
Great. A young man, damaged from his time in space, connects with an older man to drink their way through seedy bars.
A Bad Day for Sales by Fritz Leiber. 1953
Good.. Robot salesman finds himself in the city on a particularly bad day.
Who’s Cribbing? by Jack Lewis. 1953
Poor. Author suspects that a time travel has been stealing his writing.
Spectator Sport by John D. MacDonald. 1950
Poor. The first man to travel to the future finds himself around people that don’t care.
The Cricket Ball by Avro Manhattan. 1955
Poor. A dense ball causes issues the spiral up the chain of command.
Double-Take by Winston K. Marks. 1953
Average. A Hollywood producer is in conflict with another more talent person.
Prolog by John P. McKnight. 1951
Average. Neanderthals and the dawn of language.
The Available Data on the Work Reaction by Lion Miller. 1953
Good. A mentally challenged man builds a cool machine at his chicken coop.
Narapoia by Alan Nelson. 1951
Poor. Man comes in for psychological care and says he feels like his always following someone.
Tiger by the Tail by Alan E. Nourse. 1951
Average. Woman arrested for putting retail products into her limitless purse.
Counter Charm by Peter Phillips. 1951
Poor. Fantasy with a weird SF twist at the end.
The Fly by Arthur Porges. 1952
Average. The more a man studies a fly caught in a spider’s web, the stranger this situation becomes.
The Business, As Usual by Mack Reynolds. 1952
Poor. Man travels to the future and must barter with the person he meets
Two Weeks in August by Frank M. Robinson. 1951
Average. Co-worker play a prank on a man by pretending they’ve taken a vacation to Mars
See? by Edward G. Robles Jr. 1954
Good. Four hobos - well drawn - have contact with a strange object.
Appointment at Noon by Eric Frank Russell. 1954
Poor. A man is waiting in the lobby for a busy executive.
We Don’t Want Any Trouble by James H. Schmitz. 1953
Good. Scary story of frog like aliens and their first interactions to humanity.
Built Down Logicially by Howard Schoenfeld. 1951
Poor. Stupid logic puzzle without substance.
An Egg a Month from All Over by Idris Seabright. 1952
Good. Weird story of an alien egg wrongly shipped to a weird man.
The Perfect Woman by Robert Sheckley. 1954.
Average. A robot wife malfunctions.
The Hunters by Walt Sheldon. 1952
Poor. People are hunted by invaders from another world
The Martian and the Magician by Evelyn E. Smith. 1952
Average. All science was actually due to magic.
Barney by Will Stanton. 1951
Good. A man spends time with with his science project rat.
Talent by Theodore Sturgeon. 1953
Poor. Rural boy has strange powers.
Project Hush by William Tenn. 1954
Good. The army tries to discover who has pull a base on the moon.
The Great Judge by A. E. Van Vogt. 1948
Good. A condemned man tries an ingenious method to turn the tables on the Great Judge.
Emergency Landing by Ralph Williams. 1940
Good. Fun tale of military bureaucracy and a crashed spacecraft.
Obviously Suicide by Fowler Wright. 1951
Good. 30 Men know a simple formula that will destroy the world. Whatever can be done about it?
Did this review help you? Buy something from Amazon to support this blog.
