This unusual anthology offers twelve science fiction stories, each unique in that it introduced a new concept , including stories about antimatter, clones, collapsed stars, computers, starships, invisibility, and overpopulation. The central themes of all these science fiction firsts went on to have bigger, more involved treatments in later stories by many many authors. These concepts interested many authors, and their readers, and sparked future anthologies and novel series books.
Contents:
Introduction: To be the First essay by Isaac Asimov
ANTIMATTER (1937) : Minus Planet / John D. Clark
CLONE (1952) : Yesterday House / Fritz Leiber
COLLAPSED STARS (1966) : Neutron Star / Larry Niven
COSMIC DISASTER (1839) : The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion / Edgar Allan Poe
EARTH INHERITED BY OTHER MAMMALS (1938) : The Faithful / Lester del Rey
GENERATION STARSHIP (1940) : The Voyage that Lasted 600 Years / Don Wilcox
HOME COMPUTER (1946) : A Logic Named Joe / Murray Leinster
INVISIBILITY (1859) : What Was It? / Fitz-James O'Brien
MICROCOSMIC WORLD (1858) : The Diamond Lens / Fitz-James O'Brien
OVERPOPULATION (1954) : The Test / Richard Matheson
SOLAR POWER FROM SATELLITES (1941) : Reason / Isaac Asimov
TANK (1903) : The Land Ironclads / H.G. Wells
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