Four co-workers raise some very interesting questions over lunch regarding Creationism and Evolution. This short Asimmov short story may leave you wondering.

Where do jokes come from? Using a mighty computer called "Multivavac", Noel Meyerhof, a Grand Master, asks two questions of Multivac after feeding it all the jokes he knows to find where they came from. Would you believe extraterresterials?

The tale takes place on one of Jupiter's moons, Ganymede, where a home sick Olaf Johnson shares the legend of Santa Claus with the "Ossies" (local inhabitants) who are employed by the same company he works for. The Ossies' embrace the story whole-heartedly and declare a shut-down in production unless "Sante" pays them a visit. Will Olaf be able to re-create this Earth legend in outer space? Will Olaf keep his job after Commander Pelham (his boss) learns what he has done? Listen and find out!

"Youth" is a surprisingly complex short tale, with a deep core of thought-provoking reasoning. What is our motivation? Where is our growth? What do we consider valuable? These questions and more are brought to light in this story by Isaac Asimov. Youth is one of the rare Asimov stories with alien characters.

"It all began with my month's layoff between galactic service assignments. I reached Marsport for the ususla three-day stopover. Before landing, I received a spacegram from my wife, Hilda, saying she would stay and wait for me on Earth. So I called Flora and set a date. As I stepped out of the Video Booth, the first whiff of catastrophe nudged itself up to me. Rog Crinton said, 'Red Emergency Alert - come with me. Jack Hawk is dead. The galactic drug menace and his killer is on his way here.'"

More than 50 years after publishing his first story, Hugo Award-winning author Asimov remains one of the great names in science fiction. Almost single-handedly he transformed the field from the romantic and Gothic legacy of Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs into the rational, clear-minded genre that exists today. This selection of some of Asimov's most enduring and unforgettable stories is read by the author himself. These vintage tales encompass the full range of Asimov's versatility, while displaying his puckish sense of humor.

When the technology for twisting to other probability patterns was developed, a grateful Earth solved its overcrowding by sending people to live on Earths where plants and animals never got started. Each family could have its own planet, because there was an infinite number of such alt-Earths available, and the computers never assigned the same one twice. Trouble was - someone else had the same idea!

A research spaceship from Earth lands on Saybrook's Planet to investigate a report by an earlier colony ship. The colony ship's captain, Saybrook, had reported that the planet's abundant plant and animal life was all part of a single organism with a unified consciousness. That organism was able to induce pregnancy in all the colony ship's female animals, and all the offspring born had green patches of fur instead of eyes, a sign that they were part of the planetary organism.

This first volume of Favorite Science Fiction Stories features "the best of the best" from the Golden Age of science fiction. It includes 21 stories by, among others, Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robert Silverberg, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Philip K. Dick, Edmond Hamilton, Jack Williamson, Alan Edward Nourse, Fritz Leiber, Frederik Pohl, Fredric Brown, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and others.

Isaac Asimov has never laid claim to the title of “Mr. Science Fiction,” but he personifies science fiction in many ways. For one thing, he has grown up with the field, improving as he went; for another, he is actually a teacher of science by profession. But most significant, perhaps, is the scope of his vision, ranging (like that of science fiction itself) from the infinitely vast - as in many of his novels - to the poignantly small - as in this story… Narrated by John W. Michaels.

Here is a story that goes beyond space and time. Isaac Asimov takes on a journey that explores the ultimate fate of the universe, along with the question, what will become of the human race? So take a journey into the outer twilight of your mind. Turn off the light, sit back and relax, close your eyes, and enter the infinite universe of your imagination.

Only a few know the terrifying truth - an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun... They know the truth - but who will listen? They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy - but who will believe?These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to the Earth's survival.

Clarence Rimbro owns the entire planet Earth. This is no great accomplishment as, thousands of years in our future, anyone can do it. There are an infinite number of possible Earths, each existing in its own parallel universe. If the chance of life arising on any one of them is about 50 percent, then half the time a random choice of a parallel universe will lead to a dead Earth.

Isaac Asimov, known primarily for his science fiction stories, was also a scientist. In cooperation with the Senior Scholastic magazine, he composed this wonderful and fascinating work of historical nonfiction. Twenty-six far-reaching discoveries and the twenty-nine scientists who made them—from Archimedes, who boasted he could move the world, to Goddard, who sent the first liquid-fuel rocket toward space.

What would a child of the future envision a classroom of the 20th century to look like? This is a question that is explored in a rare piece of science fiction from master writer Isaac Asimov. Listen in to two children of the 22nd century as they explore their first-ever book. Everything they know comes on a screen and they're not sure what to do with a book. While written decades ago it's uncanny to hear the similarities to our present.

Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.

Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer. A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.

The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.