POUL ANDERSON • ISAAC ASIMOV • BRIAN W. ALDISS • ROBERT SILVERBERG • ROBERT SHECKLEY • AVRAM DAVIDSON • C.M. KORNBLUTH • CLIFFORD D. SIMAK • CORDWAINER SMITH • ROG PHILLIPS • KATHERINE MacLEAN • JAMES E. GUNN

1958—a year when the real world saw Explorer, the first United States artificial satellite, launched into Earth orbit and the first ballistic missile units were declared fully operational. And even as NASA was being organized for the mission of taking us into deep space, some of the most influential authors in science fiction were writing novels and short stories which would take us to worlds far beyond the reach of our own infant space progam.

So get your ticket about the SF 58, and blast off to a future where technology can hold humans hostage…to the distant past where a dinosaur is not the only thing about to become extinct…or to an alternate Earth where one country’s victory is another culture’s worst nightmare.…

For general comments on this series, see Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 1, 1939.

In addition to Asimov’s own “The Feeling of Power”— one of my very favorites, by the way—and the Hugo-winning “Or All the Seas with Oysters” by Avram Davidson and Clifford D. Simak’s “The Big Front Yard,” this anthology includes Robert Silverberg’s “The Iron Chancellor” and Robert Sheckley’s “The Prize of Peril” as its more memorable offerings. Definitely worth owning.

Contents

“The Feeling of Power”