Isaac Asimov Presents the Golden Years of Science Fiction (Fourth Series) is part of a larger series edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg featuring a selection of short fiction from the golden age of science fiction. This volume contains stories originally published in 1944, 1945, and 1946. The stories included are:

The Waveries by Fredric Brown
The Piper's 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
A Logic Named Joe by Will F. Jenkins
Memorial by Theodore Sturgeon
Loophole by Arthur C. Clarke
The Nightmare by Chan Davis
Rescue Party by Arthur C. Clarke
Placet is a Crazy Place by Fredric Brown
Conqueror's Isle by Nelson S. Bond
Lorelei of the Red Mist by Ray Bradbury and Leigh Brackett
The Million Year Picnic by Ray Bradbury
The Last Objective by Paul A. Carter
Meihein in ce Klasrum by Dolton Edwards
Vintage Season by Lawrence O'Donnell
Evidence by Isaac Asimov
Technical Error by Arthur C. Clarke

As the stories were culled from a period of three years of time, they are all good. For obvious reasons, some of the stories are based upon science that is now outdated (such as Lorelei of the Red Mist and The Vanishing Venusians, both of which are set on a wet and muggy Venus). Oddly (to me), there are no stories by Heinlein represented in this collection, which I would expect in a collection from this time period.

Some of the stories reflect the fear that technology brought to World War II, such as The Waveries a fantastical escape into a simpler, less threatening period, or The Last Objective, a terrible vision of warfare in a technological age. As one might expect, several of the stories are heavily affected by the news of the use of atomic weapons: The Piper's Son, Memorial, Loophole, The Nightmare, The Million Year Picnic, and even Into Thy Hands and Technical Error.

Despite this, the stories show a wild range of ideas, from the claustrophobic Giant Killer, to an exploration of precognition in What You Need, or a prescient tale about networked personal computers in A Logic Named Joe, the oddness of Placet Is a Crazy Place, and the implications of time traveling tourists in Vintage Season. Clarke's Rescue Party is one of his best works, and Meihein in ce Klasrum is simply one of the best stories about language ever written.

The stories are all framed by a brief bit of text by Asimov and Greenberg, explaining why they chose them, their memories of the stories, and a little bit about each author. Reading the stories, one clearly sees where later writers got their ideas - most of them were building upon or reacting to the ideas formed by the men whose stories are represented in this book. For anyone who seriously loves science fiction, this is a must read. ( )