Although I'm still devoting Wednesdays to discussing short stories I've read, this week I'm going in a different direction. I own the entire collection, covering the years 1939-63, of the anthology series Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories. I am now going through each book, starting with #1, covering the science fiction stories that editors Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg deemed the best in short science fiction literature for 1939. Starting it off were three stories...
I, ROBOT...by Eando Binder
The name "I, Robot" has come to be identified either with a questionable movie starring Will Smith or a collection of stories written by Isaac Asimov. The original is a 1939 short story by Eando Binder, the pen name of a two-brothers writing team. It is told from the perspective of the robot, created by a kindly tinkerer/scientist, and delves into emerging self-awareness as well as how sadly human nature will turn anyone appearing "different" and out of the ordinary as being evil monsters. A very endearing but unsettling tale...
THE STRANGE FLIGHT OF RICHARD CLAYTON...by Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch, a name you're probably unfamiliar with, later wrote Psycho, the horror thriller that Alfred Hitchcock turned into a blockbuster movie. In '39 he produced this little story about a man, the title character, who singlehandedly designed and built over a span of years a rocket ship to take him to Mars and back. But as his spaceship takes off, he unexpectedly loses control and contact...fortunately, as he sees it, the controls have already been set to automatic. But in the meantime Richard Clayton is completely cut off from others, even unable to mark the passage of time. The ending reminded me of Carl Sagan's movie Contact...
TROUBLE WITH WATER...by H.L. Gold
This to me was more of a fantasy story than science fiction, especially since one of the characters is a water gnome who swims with his ears! Greenberg, the protagonist, has offended this little man and now must pay the consequences: henceforth water will steer away from him...he no longer can drink it or bathe with it. The comedic implications play out in this funny yarn, but since the human body is about 6o% water with the percentage dramatically rising to 92% with blood, wouldn't Greenberg have imploded in a horrible instant? Well, as I said, Trouble with Water was more fantasy than science fiction...
The best science fiction short stories from 1939 continue next week...
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