Asimov Book Review - The Alternate Asimovs

by Lacey Kat
(Copyright by Author - All Rights Reserved)


On my bookshelf is a collection of small books on a variety of esoteric subjects.  I am often kidded on this and asked why I keep these obscure micro-tombs, all of which I have read, within eyeshot of my computer.  The answer is simple.  It helps to relieve the dreaded “writer’s block.”

I’ll give you an example.

One book is entitled “Now all we need is a Title,” and subtitled, “Famous Book Titles and How They Got That Way.”  In it, you learn that Peter Benchley was thinking about calling his great shark epic, “What’s That Noshin’ on My Laig,” before settling on the less wordy title of “Jaws.” On the other hand, Margaret Mitchell was going to call her classic novel of the American Civil War, “Pansy,” before deciding that the romantic imagery of “Gone with the Wind ” was more suitable.

The point of this drift is that classics rarely start off that way, and the first few drafts, even of a title, often present an insight into the mind and development of the author.

Which brings us to “The Alternate Asimovs”

In this volume, Asimov presents three of his stories as they were originally written and presented to publishers, but not in the final form that we are familiar with.  Two of these short stories were fleshed out into full novels, while the third story received a significantly different ending.   Not all of these changes made the author happy, and fortunately for us, Asimov provides substantial comments and history.

This book was not originally Asimov’s idea.  Despite his well-recognized ego, the good Doctor never saw the value of his unpublished work.  Whenever his personal papers accumulated to an uncomfortable level he took them into his backyard and burned them in his barbecue pit.  Story ideas, first drafts, personal letters, and unsold narratives were reduced to smoke and ash.

Fortunately, there are some people who see the value in collections.  For this story, that savior came in the form of Dr. Howard Gotlieb of the Boston University Library.  He convinced Isaac that there was a literary and historic importance to these papers.  That there were a vast number of people, some in the need of lives, who would gain incalculable knowledge and literary prestige by pouring over these doodles, notes, and first drafts.  How could Asimov refuse such an obligation to history?

Which brings us to the subject of this review.

The first short story in the book is entitled, “Grow Old Along with Me,” and was originally written for “Startling Stories,” on September 22, 1947.  Three weeks later it was promptly rejected.  It was rejected again by “Astounding” and then rejected again by a small publishing house that specialized in science fiction novels.  Asimov was crushed by this literary fiasco and would have burned the manuscript right then except he had just moved into a new house and it did not have a barbecue pit.  Fortunately, two years later, Walter I. Bradbury liked the story and asked it to be fleshed out to some 70,000 words for publication at Doubleday.  They requested a new title and Asimov, still stinging from the earlier rejections, was more than happy to comply.  He changed the name to “Pebble in the Sky,” and it became his first published novel.

What is interesting about this shorter version is that Asimov breaks what Television calls the “fourth wall.”  He talks to the reader in a prologue, two intermissions, and an epilogue to explain where the story is going and why.  This familiar tone was not original even back then, as Ellery Queen would often stop the story to inform the reader that they now had all they needed to solve the mystery (I never could and found this part annoying), but Asimov had a comfortable style and, for him, it worked.   He would later eliminate these familiars for a more direct style and expand the role of Joseph Schwartz to a more principle character.  However, as a short story, this was not at all bad.  It still had the foundation Asimov would use in his later work and also could stand alone as an entertaining read.  I have to agree that “Pebble in the Sky” was an improvement, but only because it filled in more of the details that were only briefly mentioned in the original.

The second selection in “Alternate” is the novelette version of  “The End of Eternity.”  I must admit that I was anxious to read this version as have never been a big fan of the full novel (see review this section).  I was hoping that an abbreviated version would be less confusing and to the point.  Asimov has always loved this story and has felt that history will rank it among his best work.  A great many fans have agreed with him, but I have never been one of them.  I will admit that the full novel is a significant improvement over this early version.  Asimov filled in a great many details in both the technical, as well as social, aspects of the story.  In fact, the full novel makes this substantial work look like a treatment one would give a publisher to request a contract for a completed work.  It is interesting to see what Asimov thought was important when asked to expand the work for book publication, and what he decided to omit from the original ideas.  It shows his thinking process and that is the basic value of this book.

The final selection is the short story “Belief.”  In 1952 John Campbell asked Asimov to write a tale about a man who found he could levitate.  Campbell at this time was drifting toward the fringe areas of science and wanted Astounding to contain more stories dealing with these aspects.  Asimov wrote a story leaning more toward science than fringe and gave it an uncharacteristic downbeat ending.  Campbell liked the story but requested a more upbeat finish.  While Asimov changed the final third of the story, he was never quite satisfied with it.  For the first time, he presents the original story as written, and the final finish that Campbell requested, and we have come to know and love.  Asimov never liked the upbeat ending, but I felt that it showed his ability to develop a cleaver solution to his hero’s problem.

Unlike the other two novels, this story is presented in its entirety so that the reader can compare the visions of both the writer and publisher.  It also has extensive preface and end notes which Asimov uses to build his case for the original story.  Again, an education worth the price of the book.

The printed versions of these three stories are, for the most part, superior to the first drafts presented in this book.  However, the stories and commentary given here are what makes it valuable for anyone wanting to be a writer, for they show how to effectively change your work for the better.

Copyright 1986 by Doubleday & Company, this book can be found for a fair price on Amazon.com