The Martian Way

The Martian Way & Other Stories by Isaac Asimov is a book of four short stories. Overall the stories are good, classic sci-fi, with people colonizing other planets and exploring the galaxy. My favorite was the second story, "Youth", which i can't talk about much without ruining it. "The Martian Way" was about the attitudes of colonists and the people left behind. It actually felt really relevant to today's economic troubles and i enjoyed it.

A quote from the last story "Sucker Bait", from Cimon, an astrophysicist:

"It's my opinion that information outside a professional man's specialty is useless and a waste of psycho-potential"

I know people like who think like that. I'd rather be well rounded myself. The story also argues for knowing a bit about everything rather than being so narrowly focused.

These stories are from the 50's so my biggest complaint is a product of the time. There are hardly any women in these. "The Martian Way" has one character with a shrew for a wife and that's the only female. "Sucker Bait" has no women at all, "Youth"'s only female is the housekeeper. I wish older sci-fi was a bit more balanced. Overall though i liked the book and give it a 5.