A moderately easy read. Somewhat disappointed as the title doesn’t fully reflect the content.
A combination of a few ‘magic’ stories and musings on several topics including the difference between science fiction and fantasy, evolution and thinking, to name some.
A bit of a mixed bag. Seems like there were a few essays and short stories that didn’t fit anywhere and they were gathered together here. ( )

This man had an amazing mind. Such a grasp on the conflicts that we face and will be facing. I beleive that he was Hari Seldon in the flesh!!! The first part of this book is a few fantasy stories that he wrote and the second half is a series of essays that He wrote that were published in His Magazine in the late eighties. All spot on and still very relevant today. ( )

This man had an amazing mind. Such a grasp on the conflicts that we face and will be facing. I beleive that he was Hari Seldon in the flesh!!! The first part of this book is a few fantasy stories that he wrote and the second half is a series of essays that He wrote that were published in His Magazine in the late eighties. All spot on and still very relevant today. ( )

Asimov is real hit or miss for me and this was a definite miss. With a capital M. It purports to be a book of fantasy short stories, as well as essays on the topic, but the vast majority of the stories are of a writer, possibly himself, talking over drinks or dinner with a friend named George who can summon an extraterrestrial demon imp named Azazel to deal with various domestic problems in the lives of people he knows, often with horrifying results. Hate to tell ya this, Ike, but that's not fantasy. It's closer to sci fi or perhaps can just be labeled as speculative fiction. There's nothing remotely fantasy-like in these stories. In fact, virtually nothing at all even happens in these stories. They're all rather stupid. There are a couple of other stories that read like fairy tales, but that's it as far as the stories go.

The essays are short and critical and seem dated. There's one that's hugely critical of the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He crucifies it. But Star Wars is okay. Um, yeah. The final part of the book is more essays on random crap that have nothing to do with fantasy.

Asimov was prolific, no doubt, and wrote some excellent novels, true, but in my opinion, he was vastly overrated as a writer and this, to me, is just another example of how he can't write -- fantasy, in this case -- worth shit, much of the time. Sure, as he got older and matured as a writer, his writing improved. He actually learned what transitions are. He learned a little bit about plot and character development. But he never did learn how to write realistic dialogue. Perhaps he could have benefited from some creative writing workshops? Heh.

If you're into fantasy, avoid this book like the plague. If you're into Asimov, consider it, but be wary. I think it's crap and you might too. Not recommended. ( )

A posthumous collection of Asimov leftovers. The short stories are occasionally funny but very lightweight, and the essays on fantasy and science fiction bring no great insights. The science essays are more interesting, but it's not enough to make the whole book worthwhile. It would probably have been a better idea to leave the essays in a separate volume and make this a pure short story collection. ( )