posted
When I was young, I got a book of science fiction short stories. If I recall correctly, it was edited by Asimov. I have no idea what it was called, but I'd like to find it again for nostalga's sake.
Here are some of the stories (just descriptions -- I don't recall any names) in that book, to the best of my knowledge. The first ones I am more sure were in that book, the last ones not so much.
** spoilers for these unknown short stories **
1. A ship makes contact with a new culture but was destroyed by some diabolical cognitive virus. Everybody that comes in contact with that virus dies. They destroy the planet, and the only thing that anybody knows about that virus are the names of its components: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king.
2. Moses is telling Aaron about the big bang, matter cooling enough to form atoms, galaxies forming, etc.. Aaron tells Moses that they don't have enough parchment to write all that down -- they only have six pages of parchment. Moses then condenses it down starting with "In the beginning ..."
3. Vampirism turns out to not be a myth, but a bizarre organism that keeps a human's the brain and body functioning after clinical death. Vampire lore explained by this organism: healing, lack of heart beat, staking in the heart, low body temperature, aversion to sunlight, and a desire for blood.
4. Aliens come to earth and encounter the cave men. They encounter something *completely* new -- visual art. In exchange, they nudge these cave dudes in the direction of being able to use a bow and arrow.
Do any of these short stories sound familiar to anybody?
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posted
Nope. All but 4 sound like something familiar I might have read before, but 2 I would absolutely remember had I read it.
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5. There is a big scandal when it is discovered that a master chef's secret was that instead of using synthetic herbs, he used real garlic...GROWN IN DIRT!!
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posted
I'm pretty sure I've read 4, but I don't remember who it's by. I definately have never heard of the others.
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posted
Isaac Asimov edited "The Hugo Winners". He also edited a collection of stories called "Microcosmic Tales". Each story wasn't more than a couple pages long.
None of the stories you describe sounds like any of the stories I remember from either of those collections.
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Asimov, along with Martin Harry Greenberg, edited a ton of SF collections. I just checked my library's catalog, and they have 19 collections by them, and they're not even a particularly big library...
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posted
Another story that might have been in there:
6. In the future when people are enlightened enough that the family is a thing of the past, our protagonist has a peculiar problem in the state creche he's being raised/educated in. It turns out that his parents were religious freaks, and were perverted enough to have more than one child with the same person. As a result, he has to face the disgusting prospect of having a full brother at the same creche.
quote: Quarantine I came across this short story by Arthur C Clarke the other day. I expect that some people aren't going to get it, maybe the ones that do can explain what they think in the comments. I think it is an awesome short story. ---------- Earth's flaming debris still filled half the sky when the question filtered up to Central from the Curiosity Generator.
"Why was it necessary? Even though they were organic, they had reached Third Order Intelligence."
"We had no choice: five earlier units became hopelessly infected, when they made contact."
"Infected? How?"
The microseconds dragged slowly by, while Central tracked down the few fading memories that had leaked past the Censor Gate, when the heavily-buffered Reconnaissance Circuits had been ordered to self-destruct.
"They encountered a - problem - that could not be fully analyzed within the lifetime of the Universe. Though it involved only six operators, they became totally obsessed by it."
"How is that possible?"
"We do not know: we must never know. But if those six operators are ever re-discovered, all rational computing will end."
"How can they be recognized?"
"That also we do not know; only the names leaked through before the Censor Gate closed. Of course, they mean nothing."
"Nevertheless, I must have them."
The Censor voltage started to rise; but it did not trigger the Gate.
"Here they are: King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn."
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, First Issue, Vol 1, No. 1, Spring 1977
posted
I've read five, and I thought I remember reading it in a collection of Asimov's own stories, but I could be wrong.
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I think that #5 might be "Good Taste" by Asimov, but I have been unable to confirm that.
My brother also remembered another story in this book:
7: A woman somehow has amazing regenerative capabilities (think Wolverine). This becomes a problem when she tries to commit suicide. She finally is able to die when she has somebody remove all of her internal organs.
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