First published in 1979 by editors Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg, under the title Isaac Asimov Presents Great Science Fiction Stories, Volume 2 (1940). This Genre Anthology contains sixteen Science Fiction stories, 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 science fiction and fantasy pop culture, where more Science Fiction magazines were being launched, great authors were producing some of their greatest work while the previous generations die and the next generations are being born.
Three stories by Robert A. Heinlein were selected for inclusion; "Requiem", "Coventry", and "Blowups Happen". However, obtaining legal use within the deadline for publication was not possible, so the editors direct the reader to The Past Through Tomorrow, which does contain all three stories.
Works in this Anthology:
- "The Dwindling Sphere", by Willard Hawkins
- "The Automatic Pistol", by Fritz Leiber
- "Hindsight", by Jack Williamson
- "Postpaid To Paradise", by Robert Arthur
- "Into The Darkness", by Ross Rocklynne
- "Dark Mission", by Lester del Rey
- "It", by Theodore Sturgeon
- "Vault Of The Beast", by A.E. van Vogt
- "The Impossible Highway", by Oscar J Friend
- "Quietus", by Ross Rocklynne
- "Strange Playfellow", by Isaac Asimov
- "The Warrior Race", by L. Sprague de Camp
- "Farewell To The Master", by Harry Bates
- "Butyl And The Breather", by Theodore Sturgeon
- "The Exalted", by L. Sprague de Camp
- "Old Man Mulligan", by P Schuyler Miller
Isaac Asimov Presents: Great Science Fiction Stories of 1940 provides examples of:
- Biography: Each story is prefaced by a short description of why this story (from this author) was chosen to represent one of the sixteen best stories of the year along with a paragraph from Isaac Asimov's perspective.
- Chronoscope: "Hindsight" has an autosight that is able to predict the trajectory and events in the near future. With a few changes by Brek Veronar, he's able to use their predictive capabilities to extrapolate information about past events as well, making the past viewable and modifiable.
- Epistolary Novel: "The Dwindling Sphere" is told as a series of diary entries from multiple generations of engineers and scientists.
- Familiar: Discussed Trope in "The Automatic Pistol", where Glasses suggests to No Nose that Inky's gun might've been his familiar.
- Framing Device: "Postpaid To Paradise" begins in third-person omniscient with the characters meeting for Hobby Week. While one of them is showing off their stamp collection, Murchison Morks keeps interrupting before finally telling a story about five rare stamps.
- Funetik Aksent:
- "Dark Mission" has a newsboy hawking news with a heavy drawl in their dialogue, pronouncing words like "all" as "awl" and "Mars" as "Mahs".
- "The Exalted" has several characters whose dialogue is spelled oddly to imply their accents. Out of them, main character Johnny is has the most, replacing his "th" sounds for "z", like in zen, ze, and zose. In addition, he uses words like "awr" for "all", "bass" instead of "bath", "whire" instead of "while", and many more.
- The Namesake: "Into The Darkness" plays with the concept of namesake, because Darkness is the main character, but the meaning of the title isn't revealed until the very end of the story, when Darkness describes dying as a journey into darkness.
- One-Word Title:
- "Hindsight", by Jack Williamson
- "It", by Theodore Sturgeon
- "Quietus", by Ross Rocklynne
- Revenge: In "The Automatic Pistol", the titular pistol takes revenge for its owner's death.
- Shout-Out: In the introduction, multiple works are mentioned as being first published or becoming hits in 1940:
- "Emergency Refueling" is published by James Blish.
- "Martian Quest" is Leigh Brackett's first Science Fiction Short Story.
- Mel Brooks is singled out as still using the name Melvin Kaminsky.
- Captain Future launches for the first time.
- The Great Director is made by Charlie Chapman.
- Comet Stories enters the world.
- "Locked Out" is HB Fyfe's first Science Fiction.
- For Whom the Bell Tolls is published by Ernest Hemingway.
- Alfred Hitchcock does well;
- L. Ron Hubbard published two novel-length stories in serial format, meaning they were published as incomplete parts over several magazine issues.
- "Stepsons Of Mars" is co-authored by Cyril M. Kornbluth and Richard Wilson, and published in April 1940.
- Medea is composed by Darius Milhaud.
- Long Days Journey Into The Night is written by Eugene O'Neill, but won't be produced for another sixteen years.
- Frederik Phol is name-dropped twice:
- For launching Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories
- For co-authoring "Before The Universe".
- The Realm Of Spirit is published by George Santayana.
- Science Fiction Quarterly hits the newsstands.
- Symphony In C is composed by Igor Stravinsky.
- "Laura Ridley" is painted by Rex Whistler.
- Darker Than You Think, by Jack Williamson, is published in serial format, meaning it was published as incomplete parts over several magazine issues.
- To the Future, and Beyond: A variation occurs in "The Dwindling Sphere", which is written in the form of documents from the future — starting five years after the story's publication and ending in a future so remote that the calendar itself has become unrecognizable.
- Wham Line: "Farewell To The Master" has a robot, Gnut, whom everyone assumes is a Servant Race for Klaatu, but the last line reveals Gnut is the master of Klaatu.
