This edition copyright \u00a9 1990 by Nightfall, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Franchise 43
Gimmicks Three 57
Kid Stuff 62
Living Space 77
The Message 89
Satisfaction Guaranteed 91
The Feeling of Power 208
The Dying Night 217
I'm in Marsport Without Hilda 239
The Gentle Vultures 250
All the Troubles of the World 263
Spell My Name with an 5 277
Unto the Fourth Generation 575
What Is This Thing Called Love? 582
The Machine That Won the War 593
My Son, the Physicist 598
Eyes Do More than See 602
I have been writing short stories for fifty-one years and I haven't yet quit. In addition to the hundreds of short stories I have
published, there are at least a dozen in press waiting to be published, and two stories written and not yet submitted. So I have by no
means retired.
It may sound conceited of me to say so (I am frequently accused of being conceited), but my fiction generally has been popular
from the start and has continued to be well received through the years. To locate any one story, however, that you no longer have
and wish you did, or to find one you have heard about but have missed is no easy task. My stories appeared originally in any one of
many magazines, the original issues of which are all but unobtainable. They then appeared in any of a multiplicity of anthologies
and collections, copies of which are almost as unobtainable.
The former includes such favorites of mine as "Franchise," which deals with the ultimate election day; "Living Space," which gives every family a world of its own; "The Fun They Had," my most anthologized story; "Jokester," whose ending I bet you don't anticipate if you've never read the story before; and "Dreaming Is a Private Thing," concerning which Robert A. Heinlein accused me of making money out of my own neuroses.
Then there is "The Ugly Little Boy," my third-favorite story. My tales tend to be cerebral, but I count on this one to
bring about a tear or two. (To find out which is the second-favorite of my stories, you'll have to read successive volumes of
this collection.) "The Feeling of Power" is another frequently anthologized piece and is rather prophetic, considering it was
written before anyone was thinking of pocket computers. "All the Troubles of the World" is a suspense story and "The Dying
Night" is a mystery based, alas, on an astronomical "fact" now known to be quite mistaken.
readers and the Science Fiction Writers of America have voted the best science fiction story ever written (I don't think so, but
it would be impolite to argue). Other favorites of mine are " 'Breeds There a Man . . . ?' ", which is rather chilling; "Sally,"
which expresses my feelings about automobiles; "Strikebreaker," which I consider much underappreciated; and "Eyes Do
More than See," a short heartstring wrencher.
As it was, Thaddeus Araman found himself staring over his desk at a mild-mannered individual, whose faded blue eyes looked at him wistfully from either side of a low-bridged button nose; whose small, neatly dressed figure seemed stamped "milk-and-water" from thinning brown hair to the neatly brushed shoes that completed a conservative middle-class
Dr. Potterley shook his head. "They're not interested in chronoscopy. I've come to you, sir, because for two years I have been trying to obtain permission to do some time viewing\u2014chronoscopy, that is\u2014in connection with my researches on ancient Carthage. I can't obtain such permission. My research grants are all proper. There is no irregularity in any of my intellectual endeavors and yet\u2014"
the folder to which Potterley's name had been attached. They had been produced by Multivac, whose vast analogical mind
kept all the department records. When this was over, the sheets could be destroyed, then reproduced on demand in a
matter of minutes.
commercialism brought to its zenith. Pre-Roman Carthage was the nearest ancient analogue to pre-atomic America, at least insofar as its attachment to trade, commerce and business in general was concerned. They were the most daring seamen and explorers before the Vikings; much better at it than the overrated Greeks.
"To know Carthage would be very rewarding, yet the only knowledge we have of it is derived from the writings of its bitter enemies, the Greeks and Romans. Carthage itself never wrote in its own defense or, if it did, the books did not survive. As a result, the Carthaginians have been one of the favorite sets of villains of history and perhaps unjustly so. Time viewing may set the record straight."
Asimov, Isaac - The Complete Stories Volume 1
