“Rescue Party” is a 1946 science fiction novelette by Arthur C. Clarke. It is about an alien exploration ship sent to rescue the last of humankind before the sun goes supernova.
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The Encyclopedists is part 2 of the first Foundation novel. It is here that we get our first glimpse of life on Terminus, the planet on the edge of the galaxy chosen to be the home of the Foundation.
continue reading "The Foundation Project: The Encyclopedists"

The Psychohistorians is the first part (or story) in the first Foundation novel. It begins by introducing us to Gaal Dornick who, with his newly minted doctorate degree in mathematics, is making his first inter-planetary trip to Trantor, the seat of the Galactic Empire.
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Twenty one years ago, at the tender age of seventeen, I read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series for the very first time. No one had recommended the books to me, and I knew absolutely nothing about the series – I just happened to pick the first one off the shelf of the book store I was visiting.
continue reading "The Foundation Project: An Introduction"

One of the cool benefits about being in the science fiction blog-o-sphere is meeting people who really, REALLY love the things they read. This is no more apparent than in the very interesting email I received a few weeks ago from a woman who said that she had reprinted (with permission) a fine press edition of Fredric Brown’s short story “Etaoin Shrdlu.”
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“Desertion” is a 1944 science fiction short story by Clifford D. Simak. It is about the director of a Jovian survey dome who keeps losing men to Jupiter’s open atmosphere.

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“The Only Thing We Learn” is a 1949 science fiction short story by Cyril Kornbluth. It is about a group of rebel ships that attack their home planet and provide proof of a recurring historical theory.

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“Mimsy Were the Borogoves” is a 1943 science fiction novelette by Lewis Padgett. It is about two young children who find a box of toys sent back from millions of years in the future, and the strange effect the toys have on their mental development.

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“Nightfall” is a 1941 science fiction novella by Isaac Asimov. It is about a newspaperman who witnesses the last hours of sunlight from an observatory on the planet Lagash.

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—And He Built a Crooked House

by Robert A. Heinlein

• Word count: 7589
• Page count: 20

—And He Built a Crooked House is a science fiction short story from one of the big names among classic science fiction authors: Robert Heinlein. First published in 1941, this story explores the idea of using mathematics and the fourth dimension to build a new type of house.
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Marionettes, Inc.

by Ray Bradbury

• Page count: 9

Marionettes, Inc. is a famous short story by the legendary science fiction author Ray Bradbury.

Marionettes, Inc. is a story about two men who feel they are trapped in their marriages, and the desperate and misguided attempts they make to get out of them by replacing themselves with identical robots (hence the “marionettes”). However, not everything turns out as they had hoped!
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