Great collection of classic SF from 1942. My favorites were "Proof" by Hal Clement, "Nerves" by Lester del Ray and "Jay Score" by Eric Frank Russell. Some I had read before in other collections. While I have read Asimov's Foundation trilogy, I'm not sure I had read the original short story before. It just struck me as funny how the entire premise for the Foundation, a far future fifty year project to create the first volume of a complete encyclopedia of human knowledge, makes little sense to anyone who grew up with the internet, only 70 years after the story was written. ( )

I think Mr. Asimov could have included stories a little less "twisty" and "gimmicky," but maybe he had time constraints and permissions problems. However, Robert Heinlein's "The Misfit" and the short story "It" are worth the price of the book, but then yhou have the story in volume two that became "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in folm later. Garth! Klataau barrada nectu. Can you believe I still remember that nonsense languazge from the movie after all these years? ( )