has3000's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I always enjoy Asimov, and his short stories are his best.
These are four stories that have nothing to do with each other, except that they all involve humankind and crazy ideas about space.
They’re different levels of distance into the future (one having been passed by a few decades already, and one being a couple thousand years out), and deal with different problems and planets.
My favorite was “Youth”, which lost points only because there was a similar twist in a Goosebumps book I read as a child (which came out many years after this book).
These are four stories that have nothing to do with each other, except that they all involve humankind and crazy ideas about space.
They’re different levels of distance into the future (one having been passed by a few decades already, and one being a couple thousand years out), and deal with different problems and planets.
My favorite was “Youth”, which lost points only because there was a similar twist in a Goosebumps book I read as a child (which came out many years after this book).
weaselweader's review against another edition
5.0
Still thinking like an earthling?
Since time immemorial, Mars has always figured largely in Earth's mythology. And ever since the prolific imaginations of the likes of HG Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs first put pen to paper beginning the development of modern sci-fi as a genre, Mars, Martians, travel to Mars and life on a hostile Mars have continued to be favourite topics. With The Martian Way and Other Stories, Isaac Asimov proudly continues this hallowed tradition with a series of four stories written in the good doctor's unmistakable and well-loved style.
Despite its brevity, The Martian Way explores a myriad of topics including colonization of an extra-terrestrial planet, acclimation of human beings to space and space travel, the politics and economics of life on another planet and its relationship to "mother earth" and even the development of earth-side prejudices to a people that are now considered foreigners.
Youth tells the story of Slim and Red, two young boys, who have found two very strange animals. As any pair of young fellows might do, they hide the animals and feed and care for them to the best of their ability. They even dream about becoming wealthy by developing a circus act. The ending of the story discloses the surprise that the two animals are in fact the only survivors from a crashed alien spaceship (but ... and you'll have to trust me here on this one ... that is not a spoiler!) The REAL ending is a complete blind-side twist that only the likes of a twinkle-eyed fun-loving Asimov could imagine. I'll admit that the ending does seem somewhat artificial and forced but Asimov fans have long known that he loved his humour and always enjoyed tweaking his readers' noses. The joke is on us and even Asimov's silliness forces a reader to look into himself and investigate his self-centered notions of superiority.
Unfortunately, many sci-fi authors have fallen in to the trap of creating aliens that are simply humans (or humanoid, to use one of Star Trek's favourite aphorisms) with only a bizarre variation on their outward appearance. In The Deep, however, Asimov has departed from that mundane mind-set and created a technologically advanced species with telepathic abilities that lives underground on a planet with dwindling resources. Teleporting an advance scout to earth to explore the possibilities of establishing contact with us and sharing our space on earth, the species discovers that the cultural, linguistic, physical and sociological gap between humans and their species is so vast that it could never be crossed.
Sucker Bait, the longest of Isaac Asimov's novellas, deals, in a nutshell, with the potential rigors and difficulties of space travel, exploration and planetary colonization. An expedition to Troas, an earth-like planet located in orbit around a binary star system in the Messier 13 globular cluster, met with a mysterious disaster and failed to return or report back in any way. We are told the story of the follow-up expedition that was mounted to determine the fate of the original exploration. Although his tongue may have been at least partially inserted into his cheek, Asimov also uses Sucker Bait to cleverly discuss the potential pitfalls of ever continuing specialization in scientific research and the alarming and ever growing dearth of generalists and polymaths.
The back cover of the edition I read asks, "Still thinking like an earthling? Get out of your rut, open mind - there's a whole universe waiting." I've got to agree. If you enjoy science fiction, then you'll enjoy this classic collection of four short stories from perhaps the finest author the genre has ever seen. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Since time immemorial, Mars has always figured largely in Earth's mythology. And ever since the prolific imaginations of the likes of HG Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs first put pen to paper beginning the development of modern sci-fi as a genre, Mars, Martians, travel to Mars and life on a hostile Mars have continued to be favourite topics. With The Martian Way and Other Stories, Isaac Asimov proudly continues this hallowed tradition with a series of four stories written in the good doctor's unmistakable and well-loved style.
Despite its brevity, The Martian Way explores a myriad of topics including colonization of an extra-terrestrial planet, acclimation of human beings to space and space travel, the politics and economics of life on another planet and its relationship to "mother earth" and even the development of earth-side prejudices to a people that are now considered foreigners.
Youth tells the story of Slim and Red, two young boys, who have found two very strange animals. As any pair of young fellows might do, they hide the animals and feed and care for them to the best of their ability. They even dream about becoming wealthy by developing a circus act. The ending of the story discloses the surprise that the two animals are in fact the only survivors from a crashed alien spaceship (but ... and you'll have to trust me here on this one ... that is not a spoiler!) The REAL ending is a complete blind-side twist that only the likes of a twinkle-eyed fun-loving Asimov could imagine. I'll admit that the ending does seem somewhat artificial and forced but Asimov fans have long known that he loved his humour and always enjoyed tweaking his readers' noses. The joke is on us and even Asimov's silliness forces a reader to look into himself and investigate his self-centered notions of superiority.
Unfortunately, many sci-fi authors have fallen in to the trap of creating aliens that are simply humans (or humanoid, to use one of Star Trek's favourite aphorisms) with only a bizarre variation on their outward appearance. In The Deep, however, Asimov has departed from that mundane mind-set and created a technologically advanced species with telepathic abilities that lives underground on a planet with dwindling resources. Teleporting an advance scout to earth to explore the possibilities of establishing contact with us and sharing our space on earth, the species discovers that the cultural, linguistic, physical and sociological gap between humans and their species is so vast that it could never be crossed.
Sucker Bait, the longest of Isaac Asimov's novellas, deals, in a nutshell, with the potential rigors and difficulties of space travel, exploration and planetary colonization. An expedition to Troas, an earth-like planet located in orbit around a binary star system in the Messier 13 globular cluster, met with a mysterious disaster and failed to return or report back in any way. We are told the story of the follow-up expedition that was mounted to determine the fate of the original exploration. Although his tongue may have been at least partially inserted into his cheek, Asimov also uses Sucker Bait to cleverly discuss the potential pitfalls of ever continuing specialization in scientific research and the alarming and ever growing dearth of generalists and polymaths.
The back cover of the edition I read asks, "Still thinking like an earthling? Get out of your rut, open mind - there's a whole universe waiting." I've got to agree. If you enjoy science fiction, then you'll enjoy this classic collection of four short stories from perhaps the finest author the genre has ever seen. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
sunscour's review against another edition
3.0
Collection of short stories, most very dated, but youth was interesting.
renee_pompeii's review against another edition
5.0
Smart, funny, suspenseful and entertaining ~ Asimov is the master!
tome15's review against another edition
4.0
Asimov, Isaac. The Martian Way. 1955. Signet, 1957.
This 1957 paperback with the iconic cover of astronauts spacewalking above the rings of Saturn is the first paperback science fiction book I remember purchasing off the rack in a local drugstore. Asimov has said he is proud of having introduced the idea of spacewalking into science fiction—and maybe even inspiring NASA. The title story, first published in 1952, is the one that stuck with me. An overpopulated earth is short of fresh water and it is politically unacceptable to sell water to a struggling Martian colony. Our desperate heroes head to Saturn to bring a chunk of the water-laden rings back to Mars. It is always intriguing to read hard science fiction from decades ago because you get real clarity on what was predicted, what missed, and what surpassed. Spacewalking was on target. So was the idea that finding propellant for trips across the solar system would a challenge. The picture of we get of Mars is surprisingly accurate, though of course Asimov could not know about how much water we would find locked in Martian soil or buried deep underground. Finally, he was probably right that fresh water will be a major issue in the future, given current trends in population growth and climate change. Surprisingly for the creator of the positronic brain, he missed the importance of the transistor which had been invented a few years before and would not generate a Nobel prize until 1956. Without miniaturized electronics, radio communication is difficult and mining robotics are impractical. The story is a classic and still exciting to read. It by itself makes this collection of stories worthwhile.
This 1957 paperback with the iconic cover of astronauts spacewalking above the rings of Saturn is the first paperback science fiction book I remember purchasing off the rack in a local drugstore. Asimov has said he is proud of having introduced the idea of spacewalking into science fiction—and maybe even inspiring NASA. The title story, first published in 1952, is the one that stuck with me. An overpopulated earth is short of fresh water and it is politically unacceptable to sell water to a struggling Martian colony. Our desperate heroes head to Saturn to bring a chunk of the water-laden rings back to Mars. It is always intriguing to read hard science fiction from decades ago because you get real clarity on what was predicted, what missed, and what surpassed. Spacewalking was on target. So was the idea that finding propellant for trips across the solar system would a challenge. The picture of we get of Mars is surprisingly accurate, though of course Asimov could not know about how much water we would find locked in Martian soil or buried deep underground. Finally, he was probably right that fresh water will be a major issue in the future, given current trends in population growth and climate change. Surprisingly for the creator of the positronic brain, he missed the importance of the transistor which had been invented a few years before and would not generate a Nobel prize until 1956. Without miniaturized electronics, radio communication is difficult and mining robotics are impractical. The story is a classic and still exciting to read. It by itself makes this collection of stories worthwhile.
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