50 Short Science Fiction Tales

edited by Isaac Asimov and Geoff Conklin

In the early days of science fiction in the 1940's and 50's, science fiction was made popular through short stories in magazines.  These introduced and led the way for the classic science fiction authors.  The SF author had to be able to create a believable world in a short format.  This book, printed in 1963, has 50 extremely short stories.  The average length is about 1000 words.

These stories represent all types of writing.  Some twist and turn from the beginning.  Some seem like straightforward stories with a surprise ending.  Some are straightforward stories.  Some are very good, some are mediocre.  Yet all take just a short time to read and all can be enjoyed.  Fifty authors are represented here.  These include authors still known to this day, like Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein.  Others are by authors I have not heard of before.  Some of the stories date themselves, others do not.  Even so, they hold up under the test of time.

This book may not be able to be found any more.  The copy I have is literally falling apart and probably should be thrown away.  Yet there are some wonderful stories here that I would prefer not to lose.  I wasn't born yet to be able to appreciate these types of stories when they were new.  Now I can.

Future on Ice edited by Orson Scott Card