Beautifully written and sculpted. It begins with the fundamental ideas. It then streches and pulls them, leading you through the sub-atomic universe and through hypotheses posed by the great minds and how they all relate to each other, but it never once skips ahead without making sure that you follow... A mind-boggling event.

The Black Widower acting as host for the monthly banquet at the Milano Restaurant traditionally brings a guest for grilling, which begins with the question 'How do you justify your existence?' but ends with ferreting out some mystery to be solved. The seventh Black Widower - Henry, the waiter - always solves the problem after the other six have cleared the ground a bit.

The problem usually isn't a crime - just some little puzzle that's been driving the guest crazy. The puzzles are fair; however, be warned that some are comparable to, say, some Lord Peter Wimsey stories, in that the reader must have a smattering of history, literature, and/or popular science to have enough information to work out the answer.

"Sixty Million Trillion Combinations" (a.k.a. "14 Letters") - Host: Trumbull. Guest: none. Trumbull (who stipulates that he cannot justify his existence) must solve a cryptogram involving two mathematicians working for the U.S. government. The burly Sandino enjoys scoring off Pochik, who, although a brilliant mathematician, is sensitive about not having a well-rounded education. (He had to work his way through school as a waiter). Pochik, in a fit of temper, finally retaliated by yelling that he'd show who was best, when his pet project was ready for publication.

Sandino has trumped Pochik by publishing first, claiming that he reached the same conclusions independently. Pochik maintains that Sandino somehow breached his password-protected account. Trumbull's assignment is to work out what the 14-letter password is, to show how Sandino could have cracked it among the 60 million trillion possible combinations.

"The Woman in the Bar" (originally published in EQMM as "The Man Who Pretended to Like Baseball") - Host: Rubin. Guest: Darius Just, one of Asimov's independent characters, who also appears in Murder at the ABA, who once got into trouble for an unusual reason.

"The Driver" - Host: Drake. Guest: Kurt Magnus, who recently attended a SETI conference at which one of the drivers may have been murdered for unwittingly uncovering a breach in security.

"The Good Samaritan" - Host: Gonzalo. Guest: Barbara Lindemann (Gonzalo is painting her portrait). (Since the club allows no women at their meetings, the revelation of why Gonzalo's guest is eating downstairs rather than with the club presents...difficulties.) She was so shaken at being mugged recently that she cannot remember the name and address of the young stranger who rescued her, in order to thank him.

"The Year of the Action" - Host: Avalon. Guest: Herb Graff, who is working with a pair of Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiasts to make an animated version of _The Pirates of Penzance_. The two experts, though, are embroiled in a knock-down, drag-out argument about one small detail. As Graff points out, the Widowers have lots of stuff to fight about, so they drop each argument and get on with their lives, but these two, obsessed with only one thing, are stopped cold until they can work it out. (Graff is a real person, one of Asimov's friends.)

"Can You Prove It?" (a.k.a. "What's My Name?") - Host: Halsted. Guest: John Smith, who had to prove his identity after being rolled in a foreign country. He still doesn't know why the authorities suddenly accepted his story...

"The Phoenician Bauble" - Host: Rubin. Guest: Enrico Pavolini, whose museum purchased a spectacular artifact, which they cannot now locate because of their agent's sudden death. The only clue they have is a sheet of doodling produced by the agent when he acquired the artifact.

"A Monday in April" - Host: Trumbull. Guest: Charles Soskind, a scholar of Slavic languages who is in love with Claire, a scholar of Romance languages. They decided to have a friendly competition to see which would have the advantage in learning Latin from a mutual friend. Claire narrowly beat him, which was OK - until he found out that she apparently opened and started on the sealed final exam on Monday the 13th of April, two days before the agreed-upon start.

"Neither Brute Nor Human" - Host: Drake. Guest: Jonathan Dandle, whose sister plans to leave the old family home to the Cosmic Order of Theognostics, to help with their fight against the aliens that they contend are puppet masters for most of Earth's population. Jonathan could stand seeing the house torn down, or turned over to a respectable outfit, but this sticks in his craw. His sister won't listen to Jonathan unless he can prove that he is among the enlightened rather than the possessed - so he must prove his enlightenment by working out where the aliens are from, based on some enigmatic remarks of his sister's about the nature of the aliens, and that their place of origin fits their character.

"The Redhead" - Host: Gonzalo. Guest: John Anderssen, whose wife claims that her spectacular red hair is a sign of magical powers. After an argument one evening outside a restaurant, she stormed away from him and into the building - he followed her, only to find that she had vanished. She won't tell him how she did it.

"The Wrong House" - Host: Avalon. Guest: Chris Levan, who lives in a small subdivision of (outwardly) identical houses. He came home drunk from a college reunion one night, and walked into a kitchen in which strangers were divvying up counterfeit money. They knocked him out, and he woke up on his own doorstep. As a bank manager, he's desperate to work out which house it was that he walked into that night.

"The Intrusion" - Host: Halsted. Guest: Haskell Pritchard, who doesn't have a problem - but young Russo, who bursts in on the banquet to ask for help, does. He's looking for the creep who picked up his sweet, lovely, and mentally retarded sister Susan one afternoon, but all he has is what she told him about the guy's fancy house: "It's named for me and for you."

With The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, Mr. Asimov has woven another beautifully crafted book of short stories. In this book there are 28 'best ever personal favorites' from the short stories of the master story teller. Each story features a brief introduction by Asimov. These intriguing introductions illuminate the author's reasons behind the stories. The stories themselves range from the 1950's to the 1980's and cover a wide area of topics, from humor to horror to hard science fiction.

There are 4 stories that deal with a play-on-words ending, that Asimov so loved, that will make you groan and snort. Not all of the stories are quite so whimsical. There are plenty of classic Asimovian themes covered in this book. From the times of cave men to the far future when man is no longer a creature made of matter, these stories deliver far-out settings and expert story telling.

Two of the highlights of this book, though by no means are there just two, are Franchise and The Ugly Little Boy. The former, written in 1954, deals with forecasting elections even before the polls close and the belief that polls influence voting patterns. Considering this story was written almost 50 years ago it is still quite relevant and almost prophetic. The latter story is a true tear-jerker, and one of Asimov's best stories ever. A story about a cave boy that will definitely tug at your heartstrings. The book as a whole is one of Asomov's better short story collections. Some of the stories will remain with you long after you put the book down.

Too bad it's out of print, but do an effort and try to get the book to read this account of US history where it does not only tell you how did american society envolve, it also tells you why, which is a very important matter in history. It never looses interest and it does deep political, economic and military analisis. Sure Asimov has a lot of sources. The accurate chonology and the maps within are very helpfull. However he doesn't clearly state what his sources are. Some theories are mere speculations and very unknown facts, thus one wonders where the author has gathered the data from, but American revolution is far from being uncovered.

Haunting photos with a very intimate feeling to them, and eloquent text make thought-provoking points about black culture, its social impact and the feelings these artists have always had for each other. Getting strengths from each other, they taught us all things about how to be strong. Unique and provocative book. Really enjoyed and learned from it.

This is a must have for every serious student of the Old Testament. Dr. Block has written the best work yet on the book of Ezekiel. He combines solid Biblical exegesis with practical devotional application.

Este libro es el primero en que aparecen Elijah Bailey y el Robot Daneel Olivav. Estos dos personajes son centrales en la obra de Asimov, y han influido no poco en el ámbito de la ciencia ficción.

Un crimen se ha cometido en la Tierra, y sus consecuencias políticas son incalculables. En el transfondo de la historia están la Tierra, superpoblada y alienada, y los Mundos Espaciales, orgullosos, ricos y en los cuales la ciencia médica permite a los seres humanos vivir cientos de años.

A lo largo del libro, Elijah, un detective terrestre, venciendo sus propias dudas y su temor a los Espaciales (el Robot Daneel fue manufacturado en los mundos espaciales), se enfrenta con el misterio del asesinato... Asimov, con suma maestría, nos lleva junto con Elijah por pistas que una y otra vez resultan ser falsas hasta que... bueno, para saber que es lo que pasa los invito a leer el libro.

Un libro excelente, que se deja leer más de una vez.

I got this book in a "lot" of books, in which I bid on the lot to get one title.

This book is aimed towards grammar school children, but I as an adult gleaned previously unknown information from it. It's well-written (well, what else do you expect from Asimov?) and entertaining and the reader will learn from it. This is a great reference book and all classrooms should have a copy.

Much as I enjoyed this book, I'll be donating it to the library so that someone else can glean information from it.

Never before has Chaosium done so good a job descibing their magic systems. This book expands the existing systems and helps the reader to understand how to appropriately set up their sorcerer using examples.

This book brings the elements of the periodic table into focus as a part of everyday life. It explains their uses, properties, interesting facts, and origins. Inorganic chemistry is explained plainly and in extremely understandable terms. I found the book to be especially useful for young people in middle and high school starting chemistry studies or who are having difficulties with the subject.