TY - ABST T1 - Prelude to Foundation Y1 - 1988 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Prequel to the Foundation series. See note at 1982 Asimov. See also 1986 Asimov. Includes a description of a society presented as dystopian that is similar to a traditional religious commune.

PB - Doubleday CY - New York U5 -

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - Foundation and Earth Y1 - 1986 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Continuation of the Foundation series that continues the eutopia of the sentient planet Gaia in 1982 Asimov. See also 1988 Asimov.

PB - Doubleday & Co CY - Garden City, NY U5 -

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - Foundation's Edge Y1 - 1982 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Fourth vol. of the famous series. While the focus of the novel is on the sweep of historical change that was the focus of the trilogy, none of which were eutopian and are best characterized as early social science fiction, this volume includes a eutopia called Gaia, where the world is itself sentient. The entire planet including flora and fauna as well as the people have a group consciousness. Everything does what is needed for itself and the planet and no more. See also 1986 and 1988 Asimov.

PB - Doubleday & Co CY - Garden City, NY N1 -

Excerpts published as “Foundation’s Edge.” Omni 5.1 (October 1982): 64-68, 70, 156-58; and, under the same title, in Asimov’s Science Fiction 6.12 (59) (December 1982): 44-49, 50-52, 54-61, 63-65, 67-71, 73-74, 76-77, 79, 81-82, 84-85, 87, with comments on the Foundation series by various authors on the intervening pages.

ER - TY - ABST T1 - "Life" Y1 - 1980 A1 - Dennis R. Caro (b. 1944) ED - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) ED - Martin H[arry] Greenberg (1941-2011) ED - Joseph D[avid] Olander (b. 1939) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Brief story set in an overpopulated world.

JF - Microcosmic Tales: 100 Wondrous Science Fiction Short-Short Stories PB - Taplinger CY - New York N1 -

Rpt. (New York: DAW Books, 1992), 204-06. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - “What I Did During My Park Vacation” Y1 - 1980 A1 - Ruth Berman (b. 1942) ED - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) ED - Martin H[arry] Greenberg (1941-2011) ED - Joseph D[avid] Olander (b. 1939) KW - Female author KW - US author AB -

The brief story is about a high-tech society where most of the natural world is gone, and a park travels from roof top to roof top so that people can be temporarily exposed to it. 

JF - Microcosmic Tales: 100 Wondrous Science Fiction Short-Short Stories PB - Taplinger CY - New York N1 -

Rpt. (New York: DAW Books, 1992), 267-68. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "The People's Almanac's Exclusive Symposium on Utopia" Y1 - 1978 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) A1 - William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008) A1 - Ram Dass (1931-2019) A1 - Clifton Fadiman (1904-99) A1 - Allen Ginsburg (1926-97) A1 - James Michener (1907-97) A1 - Ashley Montagu (1905-99) A1 - Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977) ED - David Wallechinsky ED - Irving Wallace (1916-90) AB -

Isaac Asimov (1920-92), William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008), Ram Dass [also known as Baba Ram Das (original name Richard Alpert)] (1931-2019), Clifton Fadiman (1904-99), Allen Ginsberg (1926-97), James Michener (1907-97), Ashley Montagu (1905-99), and Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977) answer nine questions regarding their own utopia. Asimov, Michener, Montagu, and Untermeyer make substantial statements.

JF - The People's Almanac PB - Bantam Books CY - New York VL - no. 2 U5 -

L

ER - TY - ABST T1 - "The Life and Times of Multivac" Y1 - 1975 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Flawed utopia in which everyone lives well, but all important decisions are made by a large computer, which, for example, decides who can have children and when. Also, people are only allowed to do unimportant work and that only with permission.

JF - The New York Times Magazine ER - TY - ABST T1 - "2430 A.D.--Too Late For the Space Ark" Y1 - 1970 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Conformist dystopia in an overpopulated world. The focus of the story is one man who keeps the last zoo, holding the last few small animals on the planet. For the good of society, he is asked to get rid of them. He does and kills himself also. "And after that there was really perfection. for all over the Earth, there was . . . not one unsettling thought, not one unusual idea, to disturb the universal placidity that meant that the exquisite nothingness of uniformity had at last been achieved" (165-66).

JF - IBM Magazine N1 -

Rpt. without the subtitle in his Buy Jupiter and Other Stories (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975), 159-66.

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - “‘All the Troubles of the World’” Y1 - 1958 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Flawed dystopia about a massive computer that runs the world. The story focuses on its ability to predict crime. See also 1975 Asimov. 

JF - Super-Science Fiction VL - 2.3 N1 -

Rpt. in If This Goes On. Ed. Charles Nuetzel (Beverly Hills, CA: Book Company of America, [1965]), 88-105. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "Male Strikebreaker" Y1 - 1957 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

A society with a rigid class structure based on inherited occupations. The story focuses on a man who inherits the job of running the machinery that recycles human waste and his position as an outcast.

JF - The Original Science Fiction Stories VL - 7.4 N1 -

Rpt. as "Strikebreaker." In his Nightfall and Other Stories (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969), 268-81.

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Rpt. as "Strikebreaker." 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "Profession" Y1 - 1957 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Dystopia. Imprinting knowledge directly into the brain leads to an uncreative society.

JF - Astounding Science Fiction VL - 59.5 N1 -

Rpt. in his Nine Tomorrows; Tales of the Near Future (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959), 16-74; and in Alternative Communities: Magazine of the Alternative Communities Movement, nos. 18 - 20 (1984 - 85): 2-16; 2-13; 2-12.

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - “The Naked Sun” Y1 - 1956 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Related to 1953 Asimov, “The Caves of Steel,” and the beginning and ending of the novel is set in few years in the future of that dystopia. Most of the novel is in a dystopia on the planet Solaria, which has eliminated almost all human contact.

JF - Astounding Science Fiction VL - 58. 2 - 4 N1 -

Repub. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1957. Rpt. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Crest, 1971; and in his The Robot Novels: The Caves of Steel The Naked Sun (Garden City: Doubleday, 1957), 203-404. 

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Illus. [Henry Richard] Van Dongen (1920-2010). 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "Franchise (with apologies to W. S. Gilbert)" Y1 - 1955 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Satire. One individual chosen by computer to vote in any given election.

JF - If VL - 5.5 N1 -

Rpt. in his Earth Is Room Enough; science fiction tales of our own planet (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1957), 58-73; rpt. (New York: Bantam Books, 1959), 45-59; and in Election Day 2084: A Science Fiction Anthology on the Politics of the Future. Ed. Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1984), 11-24. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "It's Such a Beautiful Day" Y1 - 1954 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) ED - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Future where people have cut themselves off from the natural world.

JF - Star Science Fiction Stories PB - Ballantine Books CY - New York VL - No. 3 N1 -

Rpt. in his Through a Glass, Clearly (London: New English Library, 1967), 7-27; and in Eco-Fiction. Ed. John Stadler (New York: Washington Square Press/Pocket Books, 1971), 178-201.

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "The Caves of Steel" Y1 - 1953 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Overpopulation dystopia as background to a murder mystery solved by a robot and a human. The "caves of steel" are the cities of the future. A related novel in 1956 Asimov, “The Naked Sun.”

JF - Galaxy Science Fiction (New York) VL - 7.1 - 3 N1 -

Repub. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1954. Rpt. New York: New American Library, 1955. U.K. ed. London: T.V. Boardman, 1954; rpt. London: Panther, 1971. Also rpt. in his The Robot Novels: The Caves of Steel The Naked Sun. (Garden City: Doubleday, 1957), 1-202. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - "Tyrann" Y1 - 1951 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Standard authoritarian dystopia focusing on a rebellion based on a rediscovered revolutionary document, the "Constitution of the United States of America".

JF - Galaxy Science Fiction (New York) VL - 1 N1 -

Rpt. as The Stars, Like Dust. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1951 and with unauthorized cuts as The Rebellious Stars. New York: Ace Books, 1954. U.K. ed. as The Stars Like Dust. London: Panther, 1958.

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Rpt. as The Stars, Like Dust. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1951 and with unauthorized cuts as The Rebellious Stars. New York: Ace Books, 1954.

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - Pebble in the Sky Y1 - 1950 A1 - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) KW - Male author KW - US author AB -

Dystopia in which a radioactive Earth is shunned by the other inhabited planets. There is a galactic empire that connects this book with his Foundation series. Earth is considered to be a backward, inferior planet inhabited by primitives and many Earthlings oppose the empire. Conflict ensues with a balance ultimately achieved.

PB - Doubleday CY - Garden City, NY N1 -

Rpt. as Galaxy Science Fiction Novel # 14. New York: Galaxy Pub. Co., 1953; and New York: Bantam Books, 1957; and in his Triangle. The Currents of Space Pebble in the Sky The Stars, Like Dust (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, [1961]), 173-346. Originally written as "Grow Old With Me" but not published as intended. That version was published in his The Alternate Asimovs (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1986). 5-133 with a "Foreword" (1-4) and an "Afterword" (134-36).

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