The early Asimov; or, Eleven years of trying

If you're a really big fan of Asimov, or you're an English student studying his works in depth, this book is probably for you. It has some of his earliest published works, from 1930's and 40's sci-fi magazines, along with discussion of the circumstances surrounding their production.

If on the other

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hand you just want some good Asimov sci-fi stories (which is what I was hoping for it has to be said) then it might be better to pass this book by. Asimov started writing young and managed to get some rather ropey stories published in his early days. He admits as much in the commentary in the book, with some having been rejected and revised several times. You can see why: stilted dialogue, hasty conclusions and poorly thought out plots abound. There are still some gems that show his promise of stories to come, but there's a lot of poor writing you have to work through, and frankly I wasn't terribly interested in how and why he wrote them.

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This is a book for the unrestricted fan. Whilst the stories are unquestionably better than I could produce, they are not up to the standard of Asimov's later work. These stories were the very earliest he wrote and are short tales for magazine publication: for me, they do not work as a book.