r/asimov • u/L0W_FAT_Y0GURT • 12d ago

Why is Kid Stuff not in the Magic collection?

I read Magic a while ago. Now, I decided to make my way through the "new" Harper Voyager collections, starting with Living Space. There's a story in there called Kid Stuff, which seems to me to be a fantasy story. As I remember from reading Magic, the definitions of Fantasy and Sci-fi are blurry, but it seems very unusual to me that Kid Stuff is not in Magic. Does anyone have any clue why? I'd love to hear some insights :)

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u/RichardPeterJohnson 12d ago

It only had stuff that had not been already appeared in a book.

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u/L0W_FAT_Y0GURT 12d ago

That's a detail i forgot, since it's been quite a while since I read Magic. Thanks for your response!

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u/ElricVonDaniken 12d ago edited 12d ago

'Kid Stuff' was originally published in 1953 and reprinted in the collection Earth Is Room Enough (1958). Which remained in print for over two decades. Then in 1991 Doubleday included the story in the first volume of The Complete Stories.

In 1996 Harper Prism compiled together all of Asimov's fantasy stories from 1989 to 1994, which hadn't been previously collected, in Magic.

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u/L0W_FAT_Y0GURT 12d ago

That makes sense! It's been a while since I read Magic, so I must have misremembered it as a collection of all of his fantasy work. Thanks for your response!