Deadspin’s Olympics Preview and Picks

The Rio Olympics officially open this evening, although the sporting events begin Saturday. You can see a full schedule of the games here. Who should you watch for? Deadspin has a list of all 306 medal events (in order of popularity) and their predictions as to who will win. The next two weeks will tell if they got all of them -or any of them- right. After winning a world-record 22 medals in two previous Olympics, 18 of them gold, 31-year-old Michael Phelps is scheduled to compete in four events. The fastest man alive, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, will defend his record in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and 4x100 relay while nursing an injured hamstring. And 19-year-old American gymnast Simone Biles could win as many as seven medals. The next two weeks will reveal all. -via the Preserfer

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I grew up in a household that had every Galaxy and Astounding from the 50s and quite a few Astounding from the 40s. I had the privilege of reading Asimov's stories in their original format. Recommendations from 1945 to today: Asimov's collection of short stories originally published as Nightfall and Other Stories, Heinlein's Have Spacesuit, Will Travel and Card's Speaker for the Dead.

Anything by those three are good, many are great. These are just my favorites.

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I have to agree with your choices 100%. I would like to add two of my old favorite short stories. The first is "For A Breath I Tarry" by Roger Zelazny. That one got a bit of press because of its influence on the film Wall-E. The other is "5,271,009" by Alfred Bester. I used to have copies I would loan to people who were curious about science fiction.

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I recently read Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. It's pretty good.

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I've always had a weakness for Asimov's story "The Last Question." I saw it produced as a planetarium show when I was small and just the memory of it still gives me chills.

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All of Shmitz's books, and the "Witch series" written by Eric Flint. McCaffrey, Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, just to name a few.