Works in Tell Me a Story: Science Fiction One:
- "The Nine Billion Names Of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
- "The Perfect Woman" by Robert Sheckley
- "They're Made Out of Meat" by Terry Bisson
- "The Golem" by Avram Davidson
- "Insert Knob A in Hole B" by Isaac Asimov
- "Cyber-Claus" by William Gibson
- "Expendable" by Philip K. Dick
- "Beside Still Waters" by Robert Sheckley
Tropes appearing in these works:
- Anthology: This audiobook anthologizes one work each from Isaac Asimov, Terry Bisson, Arthur C. Clarke, Avram Davidson, William Gibson, and two works from Robert Sheckley.
- Apocalypse How: In "The Nine Billion Names Of God", the lamas believe that when they have finished recording all of the names of God, their purpose will be done. The computer engineer figures they mean the end of the earth, but they really mean the end of everything.
- Apocalypse Wow: The last line in the story has the characters watching as the stars go out.
- Asteroid Miners: "Beside Still Waters" takes place on Martha, Mark's personal asteroid. Mark is a prospector and manages to build a self-sufficient life on Martha, and then builds Charles to be his companion.
- Audio Adaptation: Paul Williams, in addition to editing the anthology, also performs as the voice actor.
- Book Ends: When "The Golem" begins, Mrs Gumbiner is writing to a friend, and Mr Gumbiner asks what she'll write. During the story, an android appears, announces the death of its creator, threatens them, and gets deactivated by Mr Gumbiner's attack. Then they fix it up and get it to do chores for them. Mrs Gumbiner goes back to her letter, and Mr Gumbiner asks what she'll write.
- Foil: In "Beside Still Waters", Mark built a personality into his robot Charlie, a personality that was opposite his own in several ways.
- Irony:
- In "They're Made Out of Meat", the viewpoint characters discuss what they should do about a planet of meat-based intelligences (humans). They decide to ignore the "meat", and then talk about how lonely the universe would be if you couldn’t find alien life.
- In "The Golem", the old couple has just prevented a Turned Against Their Masters war, but don't seem to think it's worth writing about to their friends.
- Literary Allusion Title:
- In "The Golem", the title refers both to the old legend about Rabbi Loeb (which is summarized in the story) and the stranger that has come to their porch.
- In "Beside Still Waters", the title refers to the emptiness of space, as well as a reference to Chapter 23 of the Book of Psalms.
- Nameless Narrative: In "Expendable", the characters are all described by adjectives, rather than proper names.
- The Namesake:
- In "The Nine Billion Names Of God", the title refers to every name that could conceivably be used to refer to God.
- In "The Golem", the title refers both to the old legend about Rabbi Loeb (which is summarized in the story) and the stranger that has come to their porch.
- In "Beside Still Waters", the title refers to the emptiness of space, as well as a reference to Chapter 23 of the Book of Psalms.
- Robotic Spouse: In "The Perfect Woman", there's a contrast between the "primitive" woman and the "modern" woman. The "modern" woman refers to the fact that they're artificially created. The husband notices that his modern wife is showing symptoms of damage, and worries that the factory may not be able to restore the robot to the same woman that he loves.
- The Shangri-La: In "The Nine Billion Names Of God", the Tibetan lamasery is accessible by air, and in a subversion of typical expectations, has been embracing the way technology can be used to assist in their worship. They've even hired a couple of computer engineers to program a printer to output every name of God.
- Shout-Out:
- In "The Golem":
- The android mentions having read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
- The android mentions having read R.U.R. by Karel Čapek.
- The android mentions having read Isaac Asimov.
- The old couple summarize the Jewish legend of the Golem.
- In "Cyber-Claus", the narrator mentions The War of the Worlds, as directed by George Pal.
- In "Beside Still Waters", the story ends while Charles is reciting Chapter 23 from the Book of Psalms.
- In "The Golem":
- Title Drop: In "Beside Still Waters", the title is used when Charles recites from Chapter 23 of the Book of Psalms.
- Together in Death: In "Beside Still Waters", Mark dies from lack of oxygen, and Charles dies shortly afterward, due to insufficient maintenance.
