Title: Buy Jupiter and Other Stories

Author: Isaac Asimov

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 240

Rating: 3.75/5

My main problem with Asimov’s short stories, and something that’s more noticeable here than in any of the other books that I’ve read, is that they’re too short. Sure, in most cases they’re still long enough to investigate whatever ethical quandary he wants to talk about, but I think he has more scope to do that in novellas and in fiction.

See, there are 20 stories here over 240 pages, and each of those stories also comes with a short introductory essay, so we’re looking at pretty much ten pages per story. That’s not much at all, and certainly not when it comes to some of the big ideas that Asimov has to explore.

I read this off the back of Nightfall #2, which is the second half of a collection that he brought together of his best works. That probably also didn’t help, because there was certainly a little bit of a quality dip between the two, and I already thought that I, Robot was by far the best of Asimov’s collections.

Overall, I’m glad that I read this one as I want to read everything Asimov ever published, but I don’t think I’ll be picking this up for a re-read anytime soon. It’s probably best for people who are serious, die-hard Isaac Asimov fans.

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