It's not that the stories in this collection aren't good ones. In fact most are very good indeed. But the book itself is a very misleading package. To begin with despite the title there are no stories by Isaac Asimov, he didn't edit the book (some of the stories were written after he died) and had no connection with it. Except that evidently the stories first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Which is not enough to justify putting Isaac Asimov's name on the cover.

Also the stories are not about Halloween. They are merely horror or dark fantasy stories. They aren't even necessarily scary; many of them are humorous. (A couple pretty funny, I must admit.)

Worst of all, the book itself is defective. The story "Dikduk" by Eliot Fintushel just stops in the middle, halfway down the page. The last part of the story is completely missing. At least it is in my copy.

All this is a shame because most of the stories are pretty good. (Though not new. All of them are reprints.) If it had been called "Dark Fantasy From Asimov's S.F. Magazine" or some such, and if the publisher had paid attention and not let the printer lose half of what might be the best story in the book, it would be a book worth having. As it is I can't recommend it. Why encourage dishonest packaging and sloppy production?

With a title Halloween and a JOL in a space suit you're thinking there might be some cool Halloween stories set in space? There were no space stories and no Halloween stories. Just a collection of horror stories that had nothing to do with Halloween. I feel like the title and the cover were false advertising. I don't want a horror book, I wanted Halloween!

I found the collection to be an excellent selection of spooky, funny and always extremely readable tales perfect for Halloween. No, you won't find Algernon Blackwood or the all-too obvious HP Lovecraft. However, I felt not the least bit guilty setting these venerable literary corpses aside to read some of the modern talents of the SF field. Macleod, Duncan, and Sanders were all stand-outs for me. I also enjoyed the Lovecraft homage "The Shunned Trailer." Too bad they couldn't include the hilarious art from the magazine along with the story.

You can't go wrong with the Asimov's titles. This is my favorite next to Isaac Asimov's Moons. I suppose my advice to all of the potential readers out there is this: Put the lights low. Relax. Enjoy a few hours of guiltless, spooky fun! Pumpkin pie and your Mom optional.

Why was Skal given the inspiration for a concept he just couldn't handle? Oh, the agony! The idea of a robotic body replacement syndrome in modern America is brilliant. So was Skal's idea of how to treat the topic-- a societal neurosis, like anorexia, a talk-show scandal. But the execution! Arrgghh! The therapist who helps the afflicted is not only unbelievable, his character is gratuitously disgusting. The novel works when it keeps us on the edge of being drawn into a technofetishist's fantasy... but suddenly, we're there, the robots are here, beep beep. The effect is stupid. Would have been better if Skal had just stayed in the now-world and made a mainstream novel instead of going bad SF on us. Shame on you, Skal! You should've spent an extra year on this novel, or let somebody else write it! In addition, Asimov's intorduction is insufferably vain, something like "I thought of this first in my short story _Segregationist_." Whatever, Isaac.

EL ATOMO , MATERIA , QUIMIC

This is an amusing little sports book, but the book description is misleading as Asimov had nothing to do with this book, unless he declined to get credit and it is hard to imagine the good Doctor doing that.

"Utopian" can have two meanings -- the first is an ideal or perfect place but the second is no place or no where. The nine stories in this collection fall more into the dystopian category than either of these two definitions. Only Ursula K. Le Guin's "Mountain Ways" was really intense and interesting enough to make me want to reread it. Stories by Stableford, Resnick, Purdom, Dedman, and Sterling were all just boring -- I couldn't care about any of the characters. "Nevermore" by Ian R. MacLeod had potential but it was too disjointed to make me feel much. David Marusek's "Out of Touch" also had a great beginning but a very weak and rather sudden ending. "Smart Alec" by Kage Baker was well-written but very very sad. Hey, how about some "utopias" we'd want to live in for a change?

This book is an exploration of a number of scientific related information that Asimov knows so well. It is a bit dry and not like his novels.

More of a textbook than anything else.

...but it went downhill from there. You have to *REALLY* love Asimov robots to get into the books at this point. Still, if you are an absolute robo-fan, you will still want to read this.

When I bought this book online I thought that it contains plenty of science fiction with details, but I discovered that it is full of pictures with few words in each page.... really not worth it's price!.

This book was a huge disappointment to me . I was expecting more since Asimov's name is printed on the cover . This book is for kids ,not for adults . Be careful !

I read the entirety of the Robot City series, hoping it would get interesting. I can report to you that it does not, and there are many flaws as well. For example, there are alien species in this book. If you know Asimov, this should make you cringe. Avoid this book.