Pick Up Machines That Think Developed By Isaac Asimov Displayed As Leaflet

coletânea!

O subtítulo "obrasprimas da ficção científica" já é autoexplicativo, Editada por Isaac Asimov, Patricia S, Warrick e Martin H, Greenberg. Note que a edição original é de, com histórias anteriores, algumas bem anteriores, Portanto, podem ter perdido sua atualidade, seu peso como visão do futuro, mas certamente não sua qualidade! A coletânea, mais de trinta anos depois, fica também com um sabor de uma antologia de uma época na ficção científica.
Introduction: Robots, Computers, and Fearessay by Isaac Asimov
Moxon's Mastershort story by Ambrose Bierce
The Lost Machinenovelette by John Wyndham
Rexshort story by Harl Vincent
Robbieshort story by Isaac Asimov variant of Strange Playfellow
Farewell to the Masternovelette by Harry Bates

track down for the following, as rec'd by Lester del Rey:
Robot's Returnshort story by Robert Moore Williams variant of Robots Return

Though Dreamers Dienovelette by Lester del Rey
prequel to RR above, already read, good not great

Fulfillmentnovelette by A.
E. van Vogt
Runaround Mike Donovannovelette by Isaac Asimov
The Evitable Conflict Susan Calvinnovelette by Isaac Asimov
A Logic Named Joeshort story by Murray Leinster
Sam Hall Sam Hall Universenovelette by Poul Anderson
I Made Youshort story by Walter M.
Miller, Jr. as by Walter M. Miller
Triggermanshort story by J, F. Bone
War with the Robotsshort story by Harry Harrison
Evidence Susan Calvinnovelette by Isaac Asimov
: Election Dayshort story by Michael Shaara
If There Were No Benny Cemolinovelette by Philip K.
Dick
The Monkey Wrenchshort story by Gordon R, Dickson
Dial F for Frankensteinshort story by Arthur C, Clarke variant of Dial "F" for Frankenstein
The Macauley Circuitshort story by Robert Silverberg
Judasshort story by John Brunner
Answershort story by Fredric Brown
The Electric Antshort story by Philip K.
Dick
The Bicentennial Man novelette by Isaac Asimov already read elsewhere, wonderful
Long Shotshort story by Vernor Vinge
Alien Stonesnovelette by Gene Wolfe
Starcrossedshort story by George Zebrowski
Bibliographies of Additional Reading essay by uncredited

I'm sure that I've already read lots of these and will recognize them later, but I've not a good head for short story titles.

A fantastic collection showcasing early examples of scifi that have gone on to shape the way such stories are written today, .

I am the very proud owner of a used copy of

this anthology, which based on my experience is now quite difficult to find.
It was first published in, so it's inevitably a bit dated now, but it possesses a fascinating historical value, and pretty much all the stories I've read so far contain one or two intriguingly thoughtprovoking points.
This anthology includes five stories by Asimov, which makes him by far the most represented author, I had already read all of these multiple times and I think this selection is fairly representative of Asimov's robot short fiction he was one of the editors of this volume, together with Martin Greenberg and Patricia Warrick.


My first special mention goes to John Wyndham's"The Lost Machine," whose existence I completely ignored it's so easy to simply think 'catastrophe novel' when Wyndham's name comes up but which I thought was remarkable, seeing how early it was written and how thoughtfully the robot's point of view is conveyed.


Even more stunning is Robert Moore Williams' "Robot's Return", First of all, I was surprised to discover that, without a doubt, this must have been a strong, strong influence on the John Scalzi's story that inspired the episode of Netflix's Love, Death amp Robots called "Three Robots": three robots travel through space and arrive on Earth, now uninhabited, where they wander around trying to imagine what the race that lived there might have been like.
They even express a certain disgust for the inefficiency of organic life forms, which in the Netflix adaptation is one of the main sources of the story's humour.
Differently from "Three Robots," however I'm assuming that the Netflix episode is faithful to Scalzi's story, which sadly I haven't read yet Williams' robots are not tourists but explorers, on a quest to find out about their ancestors: "In the beginning, how could lifeless, dead metal build itself into the first machine" Williams is at times more sentimental than necessary, but he manages to give a certain characterization to the three robots not an easy feat in so short a piece, and unusual if we consider that at the time the literary standards of the genre didn't exactly require even the barest hint of characterization, and even to put in place a not spectacular but functional and, again, surprising symbolism with the motif of dreaming, cast in an evolutionary light.
Warmly recommended on my part,

Moving forward, both "A Logic Named Joe" by Murray Leinsterand "Sam Hall" by Poul Andersonare eerily prescient and compulsively readable, The particular humour of the former almost absurdist if you ask me is a nice foil to the utterly tragic nature of the situation, Both stories are absolutely recommendedgo check them out now,

": Election Day"by Michael Shaara, for me, is the first truly unsatisfactory entry of the collection, The inane and narratively unjustified patriotism that colours the ending comes out of nowhere, resulting in a story with zero rationale and zero cohesion, Better, but rising only to the level of unremarkability, is Gordon R Dickson'sstory "The Monkey Wrench, " This one's got a The Twilight Zoneish vibe, which I personally adore it's one of my favourite tv series, but, the Liar Paradox Really Humanity has known it for thousands of years and it simply makes no sense for a supercomputer to not be equipped to deal with this kind of logical conundrum, so the story is as anticlimactic as it comes.


The last few entries again, I'm not counting Asimov's "The Bicentennial Man" are all very nice but not astounding, George Zebrowski's "Starcrossed" is for sure the worst of this final batch, And I don't normally get too riled up about this kind of thing when it occurs in reasonably dated texts, but there is a sexist undertone to both Zebrowski's story and Gene Wolfe's "Alien Stones" where every male crewmember is called by name, whereas the one female officer is always "the girl" that rattled me.


All in all, a fantastic collection, with its strengths and weaknesses like every other anthology, but on average this is definitely better than most, And if you're interested, I also found out recently that you can borrow sitelinka digital copy of this from Internet Archive, in its later reedition with the title War with the Robots, which is identical to the first edition except that it doesn't include Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" I'm not sure why.
.