Asimov's Future History Volume 1

Asimov’s Future History

Volume I

All stories copyright Isaac Asimov and the Estate of Isaac Asimov, unless otherwise noted below.

All other stories copyright by the respective authors listed below.

To the Continuing End of Eternity
-by
Greg Toland
, January, 2000

A Boy’s Best Friend
-First published in
Boys’ Life
magazine Mar, 1975

Robbie
-First published in
I, Robot,
1950. A slightly different (the original) version appears in
Super Science Stories
, September, 1940 as
Strange Playfellow

Robot AL-76 Goes Astray
-First published in
Amazing Stories
, Feb, 1942

Insert Knob A in Hold B
-First published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
, December, 1957

Runaround
-First published in
Astounding Science-Fiction
, March, 1942

Reason
-First published in
Astounding Science-Fiction
, April, 1941

Catch That Rabbit
-First published in
Astounding Science Fiction
, February, 1944

Safety First
-by
Johnny Pez,
August, 2001

Liar!
-First published in
Astounding Science-Fiction
, May, 1941

Satisfaction Guaranteed
-First published in
Amazing Stories
, April, 1951

Balance
-By
Mike Resnick.
First published in
Foundation’s Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov
, September, 1989

Lenny
-First published in
Infinity Science Fiction
, January, 1958

Blot
-By
Hal Clement.
First published in
Foundation’s Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov
, September, 1989

Little Lost Robot
-First published in
Astounding Science Fiction
, March, 1947

Escape!
-First published in
Astounding Science Fiction
, August, 1945

Cal
-First published in
Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection
, March, 1995

Evidence
-First published in
Astounding Science Fiction
, September, 1946

PAPPI
-By
Sheila Finch
. First published in
Foundation’s Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov
, September, 1989

Risk
-Fist published in
Astounding Science Fiction
, May, 1955

Galley Slave
-Fist published in
Galaxy Science Fiction
, December, 1957

First Law
-First published in
Fantastic Universe
, October, 1956

Plato’s Cave
-By
Poul Anderson
. First published in
Foundation’s Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov
, September, 1989

The Martian Dilemma
-By
David Pinkston
. May, 2001

Non-Compliance
-By
Greg Toland
. July, 2001

The Evitable Conflict
-First published in
Astounding Science Fiction
, June,
1950

Robot Dreams
-First published in
Robot Dreams
, November, 1986

I, Robot
-First published by
Gnome Press
, 1950

The Eternal Woman
-By
Wendell Urth
, June, 2001

Feminine Intuition
-First published in
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
, October, 1969

The Fourth Law of Robotics
-by
Harry Harrison
. First published in
Foundation’s Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov
, September, 1989

Christmas Without Rodney
-First published in
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
, Mid-December, 1988

Kid Brother
-First published in Isaac
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
, Mid-December, 1990

This 
ePub edition v1.0 by Dead^Man March, 2011

Mobi
and LIT
editions published simultaneously.

Layout and design by DeadMan

Cover art: “
Yacht
” by
guitfiddle
of DeviantArt

Future History
inlay “
Summer days
” by
Talros
of DeviantArt

Cover design by Dead^Man

Chronology of events in Isaac Asimov’s positronic robot and Foundation stories, compiled by Johnny Pez

Table of Contents

Copyright

Introduction

1982 AD
To the Continuing End of Eternity

1995 AD
A Boy’s Best Friend

1998 AD
Robbie

2006 AD
Robot AL-76 Goes Astray

2010 AD
Insert Knob A in Hold B

2015 AD
Runaround

2015 AD
Reason

2016 AD
Catch That Rabbit

2020 AD
Safety First

2021 AD
Liar!

2023 AD
Satisfaction Guaranteed

2024 AD
Balance

2025 AD
Lenny

2026 AD
Blot

2029 AD
Little Lost Robot

2030 AD
Escape!

2031 AD
Cal

2032 AD
Evidence

2032 AD
PAPPI

2033 AD
Risk

2034 AD
Galley Slave

2035 AD
First Law

2036 AD
Plato’s Cave

2044 AD
The Martian Dilemma

2051 AD
Non-Compliance

2052 AD
The Evitable Conflict

2055 AD
Robot Dreams

2058 AD
I, Robot

2060 AD
The Eternal Woman

2063 AD
Feminine Intuition

2065 AD
The Fourth Law of Robotics

2090 AD
Christmas Without Rodney

2120 AD
Kid Brother

Sources of dates

Introduction

The Fan Edit

2011 A.D.

S
O
HERE
I sit, around 30 years after being introduced to
The Foundation
stories by one of my older brothers when I was around 11 years old. Star Wars had been out for 2 years, and I was yearning for
something
that could match the magic that that movie brought to me at that age. Yes, I started reading at a much earlier age-I loved mysteries and had read every
Nancy Drew
and
Hardy Boys
story I could get my hands on. I couldn’t quite get into reading fantasy at the time, having read maybe one chapter of
Lord of the Rings
before never going back to it–I still have yet to finish that chapter. My brother tells me something along the lines of,
“Shut up and read these (Foundation books), they are good!”
. Well, how could I doubt my big brother who drove such a cool muraled van? Since then, Asimov has been my favorite author and I have collected just about every
real
book of his I could find. His universe had all that I have enjoyed reading and writing about all these years. There are a great many other books in my library, of course, but the Asimov Collection is the heart of all of it, It consists of about 400 books, many having 3 or 4 copies from collections I have purchased over the years.

Anyway, I am one who likes to read everything in
order
. It has come time again to read the entire Future History as laid out by Dr. Asimov and the others who have contributed to the series over the years. This was a project I have had in mind for some years now, and it is something that you folks will
never
see assembled by any company (for more reasons than one). Several of the fan fiction ones I have not include as they appear to be incomplete, or just don’t fit the theme of the universe and may be better plugged into some other. I did consider adding Donald Kingsbury’s
Psychohistorical Crisis
, while although interesting, doesn’t belong here.