First published in 1982 by editors Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg. This Genre Anthology contains fourteen Science Fiction stories that were first published in 1945, 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 the science fiction and fantasy pop culture, the birth of what many in the 1970s were calling the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Works in this anthology:
- "The Waveries", by Fredric Brown
- "The Pipers Son", by Lewis Padgett
- "Wanted An Enemy", by Fritz Leiber
- "Blind Alley", by Isaac Asimov
- "Correspondence Course", by Raymond F Jones
- "First Contact", by Murray Leinster
- "The Vanishing Venusians", by Leigh Brackett
- "Into Thy Hands", by Lester del Rey
- "Camouflage", by Henry Kuttner
- "The Power", by Murray Leinster
- "Giant Killer", by A. Bertram Chandler
- "What You Need", by Henry Kuttner
- "De Profundis", by Murray Leinster
- "Pi In The Sky", by Fredric Brown
Isaac Asimov Presents: The Great Science Fiction Stories, Volume 7 (1945) 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 fourteen best stories of the year along with a paragraph from Isaac Asimov's perspective.
- Dictionary Opening: Fredric Brown's "The Waveries": The (1998) definitions for "wavery", "vader", and "radio" are given at the start of this 1945 story.
- Enemy Mine: Fritz Leiber's "Wanted An Enemy": Mr Whitlow wants to convince the martians to attack Earth so that the various nations and factions would feel compelled to join in harmony against the alien invaders. It works too well, and the martians decide that humanity must be exterminated, so Whitlow visits Venus and beg them to defend Earth against the martians' violation of an ancient treaty.
- Epistolary Novel: Murray Leinster's "The Power": This story begins and ends with memorandums within Haverford University, translating a series of letters from a Carolus (from various locations) to their friend Johannus Hartmannus (who lived in Leyden).
- Fictional Document: Fredric Brown's "The Waveries": Morning Messenger is a newspaper quoted in this story. Mostly to provide pop culture context from the headlines.
- For Want Of A Nail: "What You Need": A salesman provides, for a significant fee, rather mundane items to a restricted clientele. These items turn out to be exactly what the clients need shortly thereafter (for example, a man receives a pair of scissors, which he uses to snip his tie when it gets caught in machinery; had he not had the scissors on him at the time, he would have been killed).
- Future Slang: Fredric Brown's "The Waveries": This story was published in 1945, and the word "wavery" in the title is explained to be a slang word in the 1998 dictionary quote. It refers to a type of Energy Beings from the electromagnetic frequency (that used to be called) radio.
- Hurl It into the Sun: In "Giant Killer", a Novella by A. Bertram Chandler, the setting is an enormous spaceship populated by "The People" and "The Giants". When "The People" become a serious menace to "The Giants", and voiding the air of the ship doesn't kill all of them, the last surviving "Giant" sends the ship into a star.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: "What You Need": Despite the protagonists not noticing the store before, the proprietor insists that he's been there; it's just a very low-key place.
- One-Word Title: Henry Kuttner's "Camouflage"
- Pen Name:
- In the introduction to "The Pipers Son", Martin H. Greenberg explains that Lewis Padgett was an alias used by both Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, but that they were so involved in each other's writing that even works credited only to one author still had influence from the other, so "Camouflage" and "What You Need" are credited simply to Henry Kuttner.
- Murray Leinster is an alias used by Will F. Jenkins, used for "De Profundis", "First Contact", and "The Power".
- Shout-Out: In the introduction, multiple works are mentioned as being first published or becoming hits in 1945:
- The Animal Farm, by George Orwell
- Mel Brooks is singled out as still using the name Melvin Kaminsky.
- Carousel, by Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor
- The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams
- ''That Hideous Strength'’, by C. S. Lewis
- "Im Beginning To See The Light"
- "I Remember Lemuria", by Richard S Shaver
- "Laura"
- "Let Freedom Ring", by Rog Phillips
- The Lost Weekend
- The Madwoman of Chaillot, by Jean Giraudoux
- "The Market In Tiangucio", by Deigo Riveria
- Meet the Press
- ''Portable Novels Of Science'’, edited by Donald Wollheim
- Spellbound, by Alfred Hitchcock
- ''State Fair'’
- ''The Story Of GI Joe'’
- "Till The End Of Time"
- "The Ultimate World", by Bryce Waltorn
- ''A Walk in the Sun'’
- ''The World Of Null A'’, by A.E. van Vogt
- "The World Thinker", by Jack Vance
- Michael Bishop, Dean Koontz, George Zebrowski, M John Harrison, Robert Chilson, Karl Edward Wagner, Jack Dunn, Hank Stine, Edward Bryant, Charles Platt, Gordon Eklund, Robert E Toomey, Vincent Di Fate are singled out for being born this year.
- Lewis Padgett's "The Pipers Son": A Fictional Document in this story is a manuscript called "Psychohistory", referencing the jargon that had been appearing since Isaac Asimov's "The Encyclopedists".
- Tomato Surprise: In "Giant Killer", a Novella by A. Bertram Chandler, the main characters call themselves "The People", but they can't be normal humans (among other things, one of the "hideously deformed mutants" whose names describe their mutations is called No-Tail), but knowing what and where they actually are (sentient rats on a spaceship) causes a perspective shift that turns it into almost an entirely different story.
- Venus Is Wet: Leigh Brackett's "The Vanishing Venusians": The premise requires that Venus is covered in large bodies of water with intelligent life living within them.
- Zig-Zagging Trope: During the introduction to "Correspondence Course", by Raymond F Jones, Isaac Asimov describes the "double-double-cross", where a writer tells a story where the audience begins to assume one particular Plot Twist (which might be a subversion of the basic tale), but then ends with the opposite or a completely different interpretation is actually intended. He claims it is an inevitable trick that any writer will eventually attempt in order to mislead their readers.
