Isaac Asimov's Masters of Science Fiction (1978)
Isaac Asimov's Masters of Science Fiction is a 1978 american science fiction book written by George H. Scithers and Isaac Asimov.
An anthology drawn from the pages of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, gathering short work from writers who shaped the genre. Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, John Varley, Nancy Kress and Asimov himself all appear across two dozen pieces, alongside Martin Gardner's puzzle-minded fiction and a few poems for seasoning. Asimov opens with an editor's essay on what makes a master. The selection favors the magazine's house style: a clean idea, a clear voice, a turn at the end, and no wasted words. It works as a core sample of late-century American science fiction, short enough to read on a lunch break.
Quick answers
What is Isaac Asimov's Masters of Science Fiction about?
An anthology drawn from the pages of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, gathering short work from writers who shaped the genre. Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, John Varley, Nancy Kress and Asimov himself all appear across two dozen pieces, alongside Martin Gardner's puzzle-minded fiction and a few poems for seasoning. Asimov opens with an editor's essay on what makes a master. The selection favors the magazine's house style: a clean idea, a clear voice, a turn at the end, and no wasted words. It works as a core sample of late-century American science fiction, short enough to read on a lunch break.
When was Isaac Asimov's Masters of Science Fiction published?
Isaac Asimov's Masters of Science Fiction was published in 1978.
Who made Isaac Asimov's Masters of Science Fiction?
Isaac Asimov's Masters of Science Fiction was written by George H. Scithers, Isaac Asimov and John Varley.
Similar books
Explore Isaac Asimov's Masters of Science Fiction guides
A few thoughts on Isaac Asimov's Masters of Science Fiction
Readers who like this magazine-era shape of science fiction should watch The Twilight Zone, which runs on the same engine of one idea taken to its logical end. For Clarke specifically, 2001: A Space Odyssey remains the definitive screen version of his cool, awe-struck futurism, while the game Outer Wilds carries the same delight in a small universe that rewards curiosity.
More short fiction pulled from the same magazine's golden run
This anthology gathers its two dozen stories straight from the pages of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and these picks come from the same well: companion collections and best-of volumes drawn from that magazine's run, carrying the same clean, idea-first house style into story after story.
Twist-ending short fiction built like a magic trick
Asimov's editor's note praises stories with a clean idea, a clear voice, and a turn at the end, the exact recipe these picks share: tight, twisty short-form storytelling where the whole point lands in the last few lines, whether it's a half-hour teleplay, a two-page story, or a puzzle box of a game.
The genre's other titans, standing right beside Asimov on the page
Arthur C. Clarke and Larry Niven both appear inside this anthology alongside Asimov himself, so these picks widen the circle: Clarke's own hard-SF landmark, a Niven classic, a linked Martian story cycle from Bradbury, an Ellison collection, and Asimov's early stories in their own right, all writers this book treats as peers, not footnotes.
Decades of best-of anthologies charting science fiction's high points
This collection is one entry in a whole tradition of best-of-the-genre anthologies, so these picks stay inside that tradition too: award-winning story roundups and hall-of-fame volumes that each try to define a stretch of the field's history in one book, the same job this Asimov's anthology is doing for its own era.