Customer Reviews

Buy Jupiter

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Buy Jupiter is an excellent collection of short-short and short science fiction stories by the master, Isaac Asimov. The stories begin with 1950's "Darwinian Pool Room" and ends with 1973's "Light Verse." Since most of these stories originally appeared in low-circulation magazines such as Infinity Science Fiction and Satellite Science Fiction, it was not until the publication of this book that even the most diehard science fiction fans got a chance to read them.

Heartily recommended.

This is the fifth book I ever read, at the age of ten-and-a-half. This introduced me to the world of science and research, of figuring things out for yourself and holding your own opinions. From the very first story the wonder and awe it inspired in a small unwordly Catholic school boy has never been forgotten. It is classic Asimov, and it's great to see it reprinted. While the stories range from the interesting to the fantastic, the autobiographical commentary either side each one is timeless. If in any way, shape or form you like sf or Asimov (in any of his guises) you'll love this book.

If you like Asimov, you'll love Buy Jupiter and other stories. An eclectic mix of his short stories, they range from short-shorts (1-2 pages) to some longer pieces. Given Asimov's prolifity, the quality can be a bit uneven, but his introductory commentary for each story more than makes up for it. If you love puns, you'll especially like Shah Guido G.

This is a collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov, starting with "Darwinian Pool Room" published in the first issue of "Galaxy Science Fiction" in 1950 and ending with "Light Verse" from "The Saturday Evening Post" in 1973 (the anthology itself was first published in 1975.) The stories are arranged in the order of publication, with a biographical section at the end of each story, telling how it came to be in Asimov's evolving writing career. So, not only do you get some good SF stories, you also get to peek into Asimov's life behind the scenes -- with a dose of humor. As a writer myself, I found this to be as valuable as the stories themselves. (Most of my work is non-fiction but, like Asimov, I also started out writing for obscure pubs that have long since gone under. So there's nothing wrong with that, all you aspiring writers out there! Everybody has to start somewhere.)

Many of the early stories were published in rather short-lived SF magazines with small circulations. Until this anthology, even die-hard Asimov fans would have be hard put to find a copy of some of the back issues. A few of the stories will also read as technologically outdated. For example, computers are still using tapes for memory and have mechanical relays instead of printed circuits, etc. And of course, there are Martians, as was common in the genre before we actually sent probes to Mars. One story, "Everest," outdated itself before it even got into print, as Asimov himself noted. Nevertheless, it was and remains a good plot. So, if you can overlook these minor flaws, these tales are still as entertaining as ever. There's even a "shaggy dog" story that has since been cited in books on humor. This anthology is well worth reading if you can track down a copy.