Isaac Asimov

They are about to reach the sixties and, with them, it becomes apparent withdrawal of the kind that Asimov gave him fame. In 1959 he published five stories, which become in just two a year in 1960, 1961 and 1962. It reached its lowest level in 1963, during which not publish any science fiction story.

Appears to recover slightly next year with the publication of "Author! Author! "But in reality it is an old story that had sold to the late forties and which is now published more than ten years later.

One way or another, Asimov is the breaded going over the decade to publish, at least one science fiction story every year (except in 1963, as stated above) so that his name still present in the genus . That, coupled with the various anthologies of science fiction short narrative that goes along by compiling those years and the novelization of the movie amazing trip (which appears in book form in 1966, after serialization in The Saturday Evening Post) make remains, partly through sheer inertia, an important figure in the genre and a name to consider in the memory of fans.

But by the early sixties, Asimov is now clear that science fiction is just an anecdote in his literary production. It is the scientific publication which has become their main activity, a process that starts with the textbook he wrote in the early fifties in collaboration with two professors from Boston University. Or perhaps we could consider that its disclosure was the first text that parody on scientific articles that Campbell was published under the title "The properties of thiotimoline resublimada endochronic. Certainly this was not true disclosure, but it was the first time I saw something that Asimov at least looked like a science article might interest the public.

In any event, there are science books that become their main source of income (although the royalties from his various books of science fiction, whether novels or collections of stories-continue to enter and remain a not insignificant amount) and will occupy most of his time as a writer.

That will be a constant for the rest of your life ... or almost. Because the eighties when they arrive things will change in ways large and Asimov will last ten years of his life by returning to the genre that made him famous. With mixed fortune, that is true.

* * *

An honor and a little bit because, undoubtedly, there are certain services that never get to leave at all, Asimov continued to write, occasionally, some science fiction story.

In 1959 he published five, as stated above.

Start with "A statue to Papa," a humorous tale character who plays with some unexpected consequences of time travel. Not a bad entertainment and its tone is suitably ironic, though not a particularly memorable story.

"Anniversary" is a continuation of "Isolated from Vesta," his first published story. Their interest is almost more historical than literary: see how Asimov uses the same characters and tells a story similar intentions (a kind of puzzle that there be resolved based on talent) than in his first story is to check how much you've learned in all this time, both in purely technical matters, his language is now more refined, leading from one stream to another in a softer, without abrupt transitions, as in definition of characters, whose attitudes are more credible, less cartoonish than "Isolated from Vesta. Apart from that, there is a story that leaves much impression on the reader's mind, for better or for worse.

"Fourth Generation" is a strange story for several reasons. Not only is a tale of explicitly religious overtones (something rare in fiction asimoviana) but is also perhaps the first time where the author uses his Jewish roots in a clear and straightforward in its narrative. The result is an evocative story and sometimes disconcerting, however, works and convincing. Demonstrates once again the little fear that Asimov had to work without a net, to face challenges the narrative that he was not sure how I would go out and deal with them without worrying about what might happen. Perhaps I am not saying that necessarily be so, the fact that he never saw them as challenges or problems, but just as he wanted to tell stories that were interesting because he has a lot to do with he managed to get out safely where they got the hook.

In "Obituary" tells a story rather cruel that, once again, revolves around the fortunes of a dysfunctional family: an abusive husband and occasionally dominant, doomed to be a mediocre researcher whose success will always be trampled by others, and a woman brilliant but weak man who lets himself be dominated again and again. The story revolves around more or less of the time travel and has a final full of very black humor and very acidic. It is narrated in first person by the female character (a character extremely believable and well built with two pincieladas) and all those detalels turn this story into a remarkable piece of storytelling that asimoviana. The plot works seamlessly (by then, the domain of Asimov's narrative structures is almost complete), is perfectly locked and the final, cruel and black as we have said, falls short of what is narrated. Leaves a rather bitter taste of mouth, really.

"Rain, rain, go away" is, however, little more than a banal game which, fortunately, is not long enough to annoy us. Sometimes faced Asimov ideas that did not quite know how to play (beyond making them a brief vignette oriented toward a final joke) and this is a clear case of that.

* * *

We have said that in 1960, Asimov had published only two stories, but really one of them, "The Pact" is a round-robbins (formula peculiar to an author starts the story, several different continuing the van and another the tops) written in collaboration with Poul Anderson, Robert Sheckley, Murray Leinster, and Robert Bloch. It has never been included in any of the anthologies of short stories by Asimov, so I can not say anything about him, beyond the obvious curiosity you may have by checking the results of this strange artifact.

The other story is "Thiotimoline and the space age," a new installment of his series on the surprising substance that dissolves just before you add water, in this case written in the form of a speech at the Twelfth Annual Symposium "American Society Cronoquímica. Less fun, perhaps, than previous releases, however fulfills its purpose of parody of the bombastic language of some dark and scientific communications.

* * *

Both stories of 1961 are "The machine that won the war" and "What is this thing called love?".

The first is a minor work (very minor, actually) that just has an interest.

The second, however (originally titled "Playboy and slimy god") is a wild parody of the cliches of pulp unbridled libidinous intentions on the bug-eyed aliens (the famous BEMS) to human females. In a style nineteenth century, almost Victorian, Asimov writes a sexual satire in which he plays again and again with the mistakes and constantly ridicules certain behaviors humans by the method simple and effective, the show us through the eyes of the aliens. One of the funniest stories Asimov, without doubt, full of pretty bad baba (pardon the pun easy) but also, curiously, fraught with a certain nostalgia for a time when science fiction was less sophisticated and more innocent.

* * *

None of the accounts published in 1962 all too memorable. Neither "My son, the physicist" and "Starlight" are a big deal. The first joke is a short, fairly predictable and the second a mystery story that reads but forgotten almost immediately. They have little interest in having appeared in two issues of Scientific American, in some pages of advertising financed by an electronics company, but beyond that, do not add much.

And, after spending a year without posting anything on science fiction in 1964 appears "Author! Author! "In an anthology devoted to collecting the best of Unknown, twin magazine dedicated to the fantasy of Campbell's Astounding (which, incidentally, by that time is now called Analog). Asimov tried many times to write for it (alone and in collaboration with Frederick Pohl) but the only time I get it almost went with this story.

We say "almost", though the story was accepted and paid. However, before the issue of the magazine that would contain it went on sale, it was canceled by the publisher. Unknown had always been more expensive than a magazine with a circulation Astounding and significantly less, to the extent that at some point, ceased publication of financial compensation. Thus, when Asimov was just on the threshold of achieving his goal, he disappeared from the market.

It would be more than ten years later when, in his words, get sneak "obliquely" in the pages of Unknown, through the anthology we have mentioned.

"Author! Author! "Is therefore a first-story somehow. Written in the mid-forties, however not at odds with what Asimov has been publishing in recent times. Certainly humorous content (like almost all his fancy, as if he could take quite seriously the genre) and a tone that at times recalls the sitcoms of the forties, tells the story of a detective novelist pursued by the character that has brought fame: a relentless detective seductively refined tastes and who is about to turn his creative life a living hell. The story flows with ease and grace (thanks, again, the tone used, a first person somewhat antiquated vocabulary that refers again to PG Wodehouse) and his conclusion is perfectly consistent with the storyline that is gone threading . Had it been published at the time, would undoubtedly have been the first of Asimov's story where he would have been fully successful in their attempts at humor. His first story wodehouseiano clearly, so to speak.

Appeared in the mid-sixties is simply a narrative more.

* * *

The 1965 vintage is composed of three stories.

The first, "The man who created the twenty-first century is not only perfectly forgettable (a prospective, not too interesting, disguised as a story), but Asimov himself never considered him worthy of being included in any of his anthologies.

"Founding Father" runs a background very similar idea, interestingly, "Adam without Eve" by Alfred Bester. Unfortunately, Bester's story is an emotionally charged narrative and a wisdom far above the Asimov story. Well worn and well-executed has not passed, however, if one more story among many that were published in his time.

But "Eyes Do more to do" is much more satisfying. A short story in which a highly evolved humanity (they have become beings of pure energy) but misses his old flesh and all that it made them feel. A love story in a way, of loss and longing for lost emotions, with intense moments and a really quite heartbreaking end. Although it is a story that often goes almost unnoticed in the narrative asimoviana, I have to admit that he has always been among my favorites.

One might ask why and the answers may lead us to a place that has more to do with myself than with the merits of the story. Despite that (and I will not go into detail in it, after all, these comments are about Asimov, not me), I can not keep finding it one of his best stories, in which the power of ideas and images is perfectly balanced with the emotional burden of what we are told.

REFERENCES:

• "A Statue for Father" (A Statue for Father). In Satellite Science Fiction, February 1959. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos II (B, 1992).
• "Anniversary" (Anniversary). Amazing Science Fiction, March 1959. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos II (B, 1992).
• "Fourth Generation" (Unto the Forth Generation). In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1959. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos (B, 1992).
• "Obituary" (Obituary). In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, exhausts 1959. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos II (B, 1992).
• "Rain, rain, go away" (Rain, Rain, Go Away). In Fantastic Universe, September 1959. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos II (B, 1992).
• "The covenant" (The Covenant). In Fantastic Story Magazine, July 1960. Not been included in any anthology.
• "Thiotimoline and space-age" (Tiotimiline and Space Age). In Analog Science Fact & Fiction, October 1960. Latest Spanish edition: Chronicles (Plaza & Janes, 1992).
• "What is this thing called love?" (What is this Thing Called Love?). In Amazing Stories, March 1961. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos (B, 1992).
• "The machine that won the war" (The Machine that Won the War). In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1961. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos (B, 1992).
• "My son, the physicist" (My son, the Pthysicist). In Scientific American, Februrary 1962. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos (B, 1992).
• "Lus stellar" (Star Ligth). In Scientific American, October 1962. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos II (B, 1992).
• "Author! Author "(Author! Author!). In The Unknow Five, 1964. Latest Spanish edition: Chronicles (Plaza & Janes, 1992).
• "Eyes Do more to do" (Eyes Do More Than See). In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1965. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos (B, 1992).
• "The man who created the XXI century" (The Man Who Made the 21st Century). In Boy's Life, September 1965. It has not been included in any collection.
• "Founding Father" (Founding Father). In Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1965. Latest edition Spanish: Cuentos Completos II (B, 1992).