First published in 1992 by editors Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg. This Genre Anthology contains thirteen Science Fiction stories that were first published in 1963, ranging in length from Short Story to Novelette. The introduction describes "the world outside reality" first, marking significant historical events, sports trivia, and literary publications. The "real world" is the science fiction and fantasy pop culture, the New Wave of Science Fiction. This was intended as the last volume in the series, and contains an announcement of Dr Asimov's death earlier in the year.
Works in this anthology:
- "Without A Thought", by Fred Saberhagen (under the original title of "Fortress Ship")
- "Not In The Literature", by Christopher Anvil
- "The Totally Rich", by John Brunner
- "No Truce With Kings", by Poul Anderson
- "New Folks Home", by Clifford Simak
- "The Faces Outside", by Bruce Mc Allister
- "Hot Planet", by Hal Clement
- "The Pain Peddlers", by Robert Silverberg
- "Turn Off The Sky", by Ray Nelson
- "They Dont Make Life Like They Used To", by Alfred Bester
- "Bernie The Faust", by William Tenn
- "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", by Roger Zelazny
- "If There Were No Benny Cemoli", by Philip K. Dick
Isaac Asimov Presents: The Great Science Fiction Stories, Volume 25 (1963) provides examples of:
- After the End:
- Alfred Bester's "They Dont Make Life Like They Used To": This seriocomic novella features the last man and woman on earth—at least, they think they might be—trying to carry on with their daily lives in a decimated midtown Manhattan.
- Philip K. Dick's "If There Were No Benny Cemoli": A group of men and women who escaped the nuclear war on Earth by fleeing into space return after years of absence and try to take over, much to the chagrin of the survivors who've built up their own lifestyle in the intervening years.
- Alternate History: Christopher Anvil's "Not In The Literature": This story is an alternative explaination for the invention/discovery of electricity in the "modern day" (1960s). The viewpoint protagonist is in command of a project where they're working on launching rockets into space, but with only mechanical and chemical technologies.
- Artificial Human: Fred Saberhagen's Berserker story, "Without A Thought": Humans have created a new "animal" species called aiyan. An aiyan is capable of following a complex set of simple direct orders, but not of thinking by themselves. Newton is Del Murry's pet/ally, and he resembles a large dog, but with ape limbs so that he can grasp things like a human.
- Biography: Each story is prefaced by a short description of why this story (from this author) was chosen to represent one of the thirteen best stories of the year. It's explained in the back of the book that Isaac Asimov died in April 1992, and implied that his advanced illness prevented his perspective is absent from this and the previous volume.
- Confusion Fu: Fred Saberhagen's "Without A Thought": In this first Berserker story, the titular ship makes unpredictable tactical decisions, and humans guess that the reason it's so unpredictable is that it bases strategy on when a radioactive isotope decays.
- Dirty Business: Poul Anderson's "No Truce With Kings": A newly trained alien finds the deaths resulting from their manipulations horrible; the old hand explains it's minimizing them in the long run, though it agrees that the immediate deaths they cause is still terrible, and that the guilt remains forever.
- Disaster Scavengers: Alfred Bester's "They Dont Make Life Like They Used To": This sarcastic novella is all about scavenging after the nuclear holocaust ("shopping" by leaving IOUs) to create a semblance of a normal life. Linda Nielsen works on fixing up an ideal home in the model-boat house overlooking the Conservatory Waters
◊ of Central Park. (The Alice in Wonderland monument◊ figures prominently too.) Jim Mayo and his friend Gil Watkins ran a bar and a TV station in New Haven just in case anyone ever came there. - Fiction 500: John Brunner's "The Totally Rich": The narrator explains about people who are so rich, they'd put anybody on the Fortune 500 in the shade. They wouldn't appear on any such list themselves; part of what it means to be totally rich is that, in a world of paparazzi and celebrity profiles, they can afford true privacy — how rich are they? They're so rich that you've never heard of them.
- Human Disguise: Poul Anderson's "No Truce With Kings": The aliens trying to manipulate human society appear as human characters, such as Philosopher Woodworth.
- Lonely Doll Girl: Alfred Bester's "They Dont Make Life Like They Used To": Linda Nielsen is one of the last humans on earth After the End, and is competent and practical, but cherishes her dolls as companions.
- Outlived Its Creator: [Invoked] At the end of the collection, Martin H. Greenberg writes a short explanation for why this volume and the previous did not contain any text from Isaac Asimov; he had died in April 1992, implying his illness made him unable to contribute, as both volumes were published that same year (January and July).
- Reality Show: Robert Silverberg's "The Pain Peddlers": This story is about a network executive working to broadcast a medical procedure live for nationwide entertainment. Their first challenge is getting the family to agree to sell the publication rights to record/broadcast the surgery without anesthesia being applied to the patient.
- Smart People Play Chess: Fred Saberhagen's Berserker story, "Without A Thought": The berserker spaceship tries to invoke this trope by offering to play a simplified game of checkers against a human opponent. It's actually testing the effectiveness of its "mind weapon", which makes coherent thoughts impossible. If you can learn/improve while playing a new game, you must be intelligent enough to predict future events.
- Stupidity-Inducing Attack: Fred Saberhagen's Berserker story, "Without A Thought": The berserker spaceship has a "mind weapon", which makes humans and computers unable to follow chains of thought. In extreme examples, the beam makes a human completely incoherent. In order to fool the ship into believing that the attack didn't work, simple-minded aiyans control the ship.Hard experience had taught men something about the berserkers' mind weapon, although its principles of operation were still unknown. It was slow in its onslaught, and its effects could not be steadily maintained for more than about two hours, after which a berserker was evidently forced to turn it off for an equal time. But while in effect, it robbed any human or electronic brain of the ability to plan or to predict—and left it unconscious of its own incapacity.
- These Hands Have Killed: Poul Anderson's "No Truce With Kings": A newly arrived alien asks an old hand whether, when they see the future their Dirty Business is needed to bring about, the guilt for causing so many deaths will be forgiven. The more experienced alien says that the metaphorical blood will never wash off.
- World War III: Poul Anderson's "No Truce With Kings": The fractured American nation is the result of a somewhat recent war, where atomic weapons are nicknamed the Hellbomb, and the aliens talk about a plurality of nuclear wars (WWII would count as the first).
