Showing results by author "Isaac Asimov" in All Categories

The Greatest Mysteries of All Time, Volume 5 is an exciting addition to this series, featuring the finest short-story mystery fiction by the most acclaimed writers, past and present. This unique collection of master writers, including such notables as Isaac Asimov, Ogden Nash, and Mickey Spillane, edited by multi-award-winning mystery connoisseur Otto Penzler, is a delightful mixture of mystery and suspense.

Could a robot ever show true creativity? Is it wise to trust self-driving cars? Will robotic body parts transform human beings into machines? Will organic technology allow robots to become human? Featuring Dr. Susan Calvin, Donovan and Powell, and the detective Elijah Baley, hero of the Robot novels, this is the ultimate collection of short stories from a genius of the genre.

How could robots be used in a time of war? Could a robot be raised like a child? Could we allow them to have children of their own? Is there any human profession that could never be performed by a robotic replacement? In The Rest of the Robots, robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin and engineers Powell and Donovan return to investigate many more puzzling anomalies and catastrophic malfunctions.

Seit zwölftausend Jahren herrscht das Galaktische Imperium, doch jetzt beginnt sein Untergang. Hari Seldon, Schöpfer der revolutionären Wissenschaft der Psychohistorik, kann die Zukunft vorherberechnen. Um einem 30.000 Jahre andauernden dunklen Zeitalter der Barbarei zu entgehen, versammelt Seldon die herausragendsten Köpfe des Imperiums und bringt sie auf einen trostlosen Planeten am Rande der Galaxie. Diese "Foundation" soll das Wissen der Menschheit bewahren und als Hoffnungsträger für zukünftige Generationen dienen.

Tandis que les crises qui secouent l'Empire redoublent de violence et annoncent son effondrement définitif, la Fondation créée par le psychohistorien Hari Seldon pour sauvegarder la civilisation devient de plus en plus puissante, suscitant naturellement convoitise et visées annexionnistes. En tout premier lieu, celles de Bel Riose, jeune général qui voit dans les secrets détenus par la Fondation le moyen de monter sur le trône. C'est alors qu'apparaît un mystérieux et invincible conquérant, surnommé le Mulet, que le plan de Seldon n'avait pas prévu.

On the planet of Solaria, Spacers live in almost complete isolation, tended by robot servants and disgusted by the thought of human contact. And yet, one of their number has been beaten to death. Incapable of solving the crime, the authorities of the Outer Worlds seek help from Earth – from renowned detective Elijah Baley. Partnered once again with the robot Daneel Olivaw, Baley travels to this strange new world and uncovers a plot that could change the relationship between humans and robots for ever.

La Fundación yace en ruinas, arrasada por la inteligencia mutante del Mulo. Sin embargo, se rumorea que Hari Seldon, el científico que lo inició todo, ha establecido una Segunda Fundación al otro lado de la galaxia, cuya ubicación exacta es un secreto guardado desde hace tiempo. Obligada a revelar su existencia, la Segunda Fundación deberá enfrentarse a la voluntad destructora del Mulo, con el añadido de que los supervivientes de la Primera Fundación también quieren acabar con ella…

Andrew Harlan’s job is to range through past and present centuries monitoring and even altering Time’s myriad cause-and-effect relationships. As a Technician with the Allwhen Council, he initiates Reality Changes that may affect the lives of as many as fifty billion people – and a million or more of them may be so drastically affected as to be considered new individuals. Above all, therefore, a Technician must be dispassionate. An emotional make-up is a distinct handicap. Then Harlan meets Noÿs and falls victim to a phenomenon older than Time itself – love.

Caught up in an experiment gone wrong, Joseph Schwartz is transported forward in time from post-war Chicago to the heyday of the first Galactic Empire. Earth, he soon learns, is a backwater, despised by the other two hundred million planets of the Empire because its people dare to claim it as the original home of man. And Earth is poor, with great areas of radioactivity ruining much of its soil – so poor that everyone is sentenced to death at the age of sixty. And Joseph Schwartz is sixty-two.

First published fifteen years ago, shortly after his death, inside this collection are some of the finest short stories of science fiction writing from one of the genre’s greatest writers, Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov was the Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America, the founder of robot ethics, and one of the world's most prolific authors of fiction and non-fiction. The Good Doctor's short fiction has been enjoyed by millions for more than half a century. Now the definitive Asimov collection is underway with Volume One of The Complete Stories.

Slim is a boy whose astronomer father is visiting the country estate of an important industrialist. The industrialist's son, Red, has found two strange animals, and he enlists Slim in a plan to turn the animals into a circus act. The astronomer, meanwhile, tells the industrialist that he has been in contact with space aliens who want to open up their world to interstellar trade. Their world needs help, the astronomer says; ever since the atomic wars that destroyed their old civilization, their world has been regressing.

Isaac Asimov, known primarily for his science fiction stories, was also a scientist. In cooperation with the Senior Scholastic magazine, he composed this wonderful and fascinating work of historical nonfiction. Twenty-six far-reaching discoveries and the twenty-nine scientists who made them—from Archimedes, who boasted he could move the world, to Goddard, who sent the first liquid-fuel rocket toward space.

For anyone who has ever looked up at the stars and wondered what it all means, Isaac Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space is indispensable. Isaac Asimov's gift for popular and entertaining exposition has never been better deployed, with his succinct answers to the most intriguing questions about planets, stars, and galaxies. What are quasars? How was the Earth formed? Puzzled by pulsars? Perplexed by the Big Bang? Bewildered by black holes? Asimov has answers everyone can understand and enjoy.

On Aurora, the first and greatest of the Spacer planets, Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw investigate yet another seemingly impossible crime – this time, a roboticide. Someone has destroyed the positronic mind of R. Jander Panell, a humanoid twin to Daneel. His creator, the master roboticist Han Fastolfe, denies all involvement. So does Gladia Delmarre, the robot’s owner. And lover.

What would a child of the future envision a classroom of the 20th century to look like? This is a question that is explored in a rare piece of science fiction from master writer Isaac Asimov. Listen in to two children of the 22nd century as they explore their first-ever book. Everything they know comes on a screen and they're not sure what to do with a book. While written decades ago it's uncanny to hear the similarities to our present.

When the technology for twisting to other probability patterns was developed, a grateful Earth solved its overcrowding by sending people to live on Earths where plants and animals never got started. Each family could have its own planet, because there was an infinite number of such alt-Earths available, and the computers never assigned the same one twice. Trouble was - someone else had the same idea!

Where do jokes come from? Using a mighty computer called "Multivavac", Noel Meyerhof, a Grand Master, asks two questions of Multivac after feeding it all the jokes he knows to find where they came from. Would you believe extraterresterials?

Watch out - the Earth just fell into a dark sun's orbit! Or maybe you'd rather visit a theme park called Hell? These are just two of the strange and unnerving tales you'll find in this collection of great science fiction and fantasy stories.

Isaac Asimov wrote "The Magnificent Possession" early in his career. This is one of the few humorous stories that Asimov created.

Las informaciones y comentarios de este ameno e instructivo ensayo conducen al lector por los vericuetos de la creación mitológica griega como si se tratase de una novela de aventuras, comentando la poderosa influencia que los mitos han ejercido en la génesis y evolución del pensamiento humano, con particular énfasis en la formación de las principales lenguas que se hablan en el mundo.