Scifi Shorts by others, review!

Hey hey, yep, I decided to put reviews of other scifi stories here instead. I think the atmosphere is better here for that.

ya, I've been reading some works by Asimov over the past few days, his lengthy 'short' stories from 'The complete collection volume 2'. I haven't finished the whole book yet, think I've at least 5 stories to go, but the famous ones were all put in front. Since this is a review, I'll still comment on the stories even if I think they were not so fantastic.

The Ugly Little Boy
In the not too far future, a company known as Stasis Inc has invented a method to obtain individuals from the distant past and bring them to our present time, on the condition that they stay within an area known as Stasis, where normal time doesn't flow. This lady, Fellowes, was brought in to take care of a Neantherdal child that had been brought to the present.
It is a very sentimental story, where the child learns to speak and how Fellowes becomes more accustomed to the boy's ugliness. Then, like in any other sentimental stories, the two were about to be separated, since the boy had to be sent back to his time. By now, Fellowes had felt like his mother, so I guess you can expect what happened next.
Personally, I find such themes overused, about how a person interacts with a strange object or person with first revulsion, then affection. The idea of bringing objects to the present time isn't new to me either, I've seen it somewhere before and I kind of find that idea boring. So, sorry, this story would only get a 3/5 from me.

Nightfall
Wow, throughout this story my heart was like, wooh! racing all the way. Imagine your world was surrounded by 6 suns, well, not orbiting all of them of course, just one, but the other 5 were well in the vicinity. because of that, there was no such thing as night, as total darkness over the landscape. no one believed in night, nor the so called 'stars'. Everyone was terrified of the dark, spend too much time in it and they'll lose their minds.
then there's a cult on the planet, predicting the coming of total darkness, where all men lose their minds and the cities go up in flames. no one believes them, but scientists discovered that they were right after all. an eclipse would occur when only one sun shone in the sky, then the long night begins.
the story follows a young reporter, Theoreon, on this distant planet as he interviews the scientists who believe the coming of darkness was right, on the very night of the eclipse. He stays with them and watches the entire eclipse as it happens. As it happens, the scientists talk of many theories, about how many stars there were, and how they all believed there were to be no more than 6 stars, about how they might survive the long night. and it also tells of the crazy cultists who try to obtain salvation at the last minute. the story continues until the eclipse was complete, and 35 000 stars shone down on the dark land, making everyone lose their minds, and burning their cities for light.
the concept of this story is very different, and a worthwhile read, for it is a situation which would never be imagined on Earth, for we only have one sun, and we know what night is. It is a very interesting portration of the end of days on another planet that has never seen night. a definite 5/5.

Hostess

What is it with aliens that make humanity seem so pathetic? Probably it's because they never die involuntarily, because they never stop growing, and you could expect them to be at least a few centuries old when one visits you.
their equivalent of cancer would known as the inhibition death, where you stop growing, then you die within a year. quite the opposite of cancer actually. after interaction with earth, the numbers of such diseases increase, particularly on the planet closest to earth. a biologist on earth pays hostess to a doctor from this planet, and much to her dismay, he has aroused the interest of her policeman husband. after much pretense and flowerly words, the man kills the alien in an attempt to prevent him from bringing back the truth of the inhibition death to his world.
it is a very interesting concept we have here. the reason why we live limited lives on earth is due to a parasitic intelligence that resides along with us. this parasitic intelligence sucks on our life force, and thus we die after a while. however, other planets don't have such an intelligence, and so are effectively immortal lest they choose not to be. however, we can't get rid of our parasitic intelligence now because we will all get cancer. written by asimov in his position as a biologist, this story is given 4/5 stars for concept and scientific accuracy, and thus possibility that such an intelligence may actually exist.

well, thts all the stories i want to review. the others weren't tht significant to me. i may be reviewing more stories from the book soon. anw, soul machina part twelve will be the next post, thts a definite promise. haha, i think my writing has developed quite a bit after reading asimov's stories.