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Nightfall came out in 1990; The Ugly Little Boy was published in 1992, and The Positronic Man (an expansion of "The Bicentennial Man"), in 1993, all as by Asimov and Silverberg. |
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During the writing period of the late 1960s and 1970s, Asimov was beginning to lead a gregarious and successful existence. No longer was he the eager and respectful apprentice science-fiction writer sitting at John Campbell's feet or even the published author still eager to please editors and readers. He was a successful novelist and author of science articles and non-fiction books who was beginning to be sought after by magazines and publishers. His career no longer depended upon the reception of any one story, and the spirit of playfulness that had sometimes manifested itself in his fiction was released more often. Many stories often were produced casually between other assignments or projects: "What If" (Fantastic, Summer 1952), "Flies" (Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1953), "Nobody Here But'' (Star Science Fiction, 1953), "It's Such a Beautiful Day" (Star Science Fiction No. 3, 1954), "Strikebreaker" ("Male Strikebreaker," The Original Science Fiction Stories, January 1957), "I'm in Marsport Without Hilda" (Venture Science Fiction, November 1957), "The Up-to-Date Sorcerer" (Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1958), "Unto the Fourth Generation" (Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1959), "What Is This Thing Called Love?" ("Playboy and the Slime God," Amazing Stories, March 1961), "My Son, the Physicist" (Scientific American, February 1962), and "Eyes Do More Than See" (Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1965), as well as others. Asimov wrote a number of stories after 1965, such as his Azazel stories about a tiny demon, but few of them would do what his earlier stories did, which was to influence the evolution and direction of science fiction or add to Asimov's reputation. |
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There is room to speculate about why no Asimov story of substance, with the possible exception of "Dreaming Is a Private Thing," appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Possibly Campbell and later Gold challenged Asimov at a level closer to his basic interests or pushed him to greater effort. Possibly the emphasis of Fantasy and Science Fiction on more stylish and literary stories resulted in Asimov trivializing his ideas. Perhaps Fantasy and Science Fiction simply was uninterested in Campbellian science fiction, where Asimov's sources of creative energy still resided. |
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The stories listed above and the Asimov mysteries both the science-fiction and the more traditional ones that were collected in Asimov's Mysteries (1968), Tales of the Black Widowers (1974), More Tales of the Black Widowers, 1976), The Key Word and Other Mysteries (1977), and six more |
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