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The Return of the Black Widowers Paperback – November 10, 2005
- Print length335 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDa Capo Press
- Publication dateNovember 10, 2005
- Dimensions5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100786716517
- ISBN-13978-0786716517
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About the Author
Charles Ardai is a Shamus-nominated mystery writer, editor of numerous anthologies, and creator of the internet service Juno. He lives in New York City.
Product details
- Publisher : Da Capo Press; First Edition (November 10, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 335 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0786716517
- ISBN-13 : 978-0786716517
- Item Weight : 11.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,493,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,743 in Mystery Anthologies (Books)
- #14,673 in Short Stories Anthologies
- #70,932 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Isaac Asimov (/ˈaɪzᵻk ˈæzᵻmɒv/; born Isaak Yudovich Ozimov; circa January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was prolific and wrote or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. His books have been published in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification.
Asimov wrote hard science fiction and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, he was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series; his other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series. The Galactic Empire novels are explicitly set in earlier history of the same fictional universe as the Foundation series. Later, beginning with Foundation's Edge, he linked this distant future to the Robot and Spacer stories, creating a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson. He wrote hundreds of short stories, including the social science fiction "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short science fiction story of all time. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.
Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction. Most of his popular science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Examples include Guide to Science, the three-volume set Understanding Physics, and Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery, as well as works on astronomy, mathematics, history, William Shakespeare's writing, and chemistry.
Asimov was a long-time member and vice president of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs". He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, a crater on the planet Mars, a Brooklyn elementary school, and a literary award are named in his honor.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Phillip Leonian from New York World-Telegram & Sun [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
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There are 11 stories repeated from previous collections, six stories gathered for the first time, one Black Widower story by someone else, and an hommage to the Black Widowers also by someone else. There's an essay by Asimov and Harlan Ellison's forward.
Ellison's forward is the first thing wrong with the book. Asimov was famous for refusing to have anyone else write introductions to his books. In his story collections he also appended miniature essays to each story, often about how he came to think of a particular plot; obviously these essays are missing here. Further, the two stories by other writers just didn't belong in an Asimov collection, they're intruding. Finally, a few of the last stories were written when Asimov was dying and they are simply no good. I read and enjoyed them for sentimental reasons only; they would disappoint readers new to Asimov or the Black Widowers.
So if you are already a fan of the Good Doctor's fiction, indulge yourself and enjoy. Otherwise, do yourself a favour and pick up another of his 400+ books.
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
The Return of the Black Widowers (2003) contains:
The Acquisitive Chuckle
Early Sunday Morning
The Obvious Factor
The Iron Gem
To the Barest
Sixty Million Trillion Combinations
The Wrong House
The Redhead
Triple Devil
The Men Who Read Issaac Asimov
And some previously uncollected stories,including:
Northwestward
Yes, But Why
Lost In a Space Warp
Police at the Door
The Haunted Cabin
The Guest's Guest
The Woman in the Bar
The Last Story, by Charles Ardai
And an Afterword on the Birth of the Black Widowers
The Foreword by is by Asimov's Friend Harlan Ellison
If you've enjoyed The Black Widowers before or if you just enjoy a good mystery short story, I highly recommend this book.
Please be advised, it might be hard to put down.
Gunner April,2007
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「新作」はいずれもアシモフ晩年の作品とあってか、ミステリとしての切れ味は正直今ひとつという感じがする。もともと本格推理というより「なぞなぞ」に近いシリーズのうえ、前半に過去の「ベスト短編」が並んでいることもあって(選ばれたのが「ベスト」といえるかという議論はさておき)、対比でよけいに弱さが目立つかもしれない。
しかしシリーズの愛読者としては、原題通り「黒後家蜘蛛の会が帰ってきた」というだけで、すべてを許したくなる。クセのある6人のメンバーと給仕ヘンリーが再びミラノ・レストランに集い、ゲストを交えて雑学と謎解きを競い合う、それだけで嬉しくなってしまう。そもそも「黒後家蜘蛛」の魅力はその雰囲気を味わうところにあると思うので、どうしても点が甘くなる。
最後のオマージュ短編 "The Last Story" も、なかなかの出来だと思った。もちろん「黒後家蜘蛛」ものの最後の作品という意味のほか、作品中に出てくる「最後の作品」を示している。また、「失くなったものは一体どこにあるのか?」という、(この本の最初に再録されている)シリーズ第1作のテーマとトリックを別の視点から取り上げたものでもある。さらに、アシモフが過去のシリーズ作品で、自分自身についてたびたび登場人物に語らせていたことを逆手に取った形にもなっている。読み終わると、あらためて「アシモフはもういない。彼の『黒後家蜘蛛』はもうこれ以上読めないのだ」という感を強くする。
残念なのは、過去の単行本で各ストーリーのあとに必ずアシモフがつけていた短い「あとがき」が、この本にはないことである。作者自身が亡くなっているので「ないものねだり」なのだが、創作の楽屋裏に触れたあの短文も「黒後家蜘蛛」を読む楽しみだったことにいまさらながらに気づく。
この本が出版されてすでに10年ほど経つが、「ベスト作品選」の部分を除くと薄くなってしまうことはまったく問題ではないので、ぜひ邦訳第6巻として出版してほしいものだ。ウェブで調べると、これら「新作」は別々に翻訳され雑誌等に掲載されたようなので、翻訳権上の問題があるのだろうか。
ま、ベスト作品は編集の好みでいいかなとも思いますが、
アシモフ以外の方々の書いたオマージュ作品や贋作も含めて、ぜひ6巻に収めてほしいです。
「会心の笑い」のヘンリーが、the Last Storyでみせた優しさが印象的でした。
両方とも死者が絡むことは共通だとして、悼み方がまるで違いました。
the Return・・・ のタイトルにふさわしい、完結のための秀逸な物語だと思います。
Yes, but why? のヘンリーの姿は衝撃的でした。彼も、理より情をとることがあるんだなあと思い、
「かえりみすれば(だったかな)」で、作家の卵の学生さんに味方したエピソードを思い出しました。
以前、NHKラジオでドラマ番組化されたものを聞き、読み始めました。
中には文化や言語など我が国での常識では解明不可能な謎もありますが、おおむね登場人物のキャラクターの設定がそれを補ってあまりある小劇を構成しています。
ヘンリーという給仕探偵は、ミステリーの世界でも特筆すべき独創であると思います。



