Martin Gardner begins Riddles with questions about splitting up polygons into prescribed shapes and he ends this book with an offer of a prize of $100 for the first person to send him a 3 x# magic square consisting of consecutive primes. Only Gardner could fit so many diverse and tantalizing problems into one book.
This material was drawn from Gardner's column in Issac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. His riddles presented here incorporate the responses of his initial readers, along with additions suggested by the editors of this series.

Science Fact and Science Fiction examines in one volume how science has propelled science-fiction and, to a lesser extent, how science fiction has influenced the sciences. Although coverage will discuss the science behind the fiction from the Classical Age to the present, focus is naturally on the 19th century to the present, when the Industrial Revolution and spectacular progress in science and technology triggered an influx of science-fiction works speculating on the future. As scientific developments alter expectations for the future, the literature absorbs, uses, and adapts such contextual visions.

Roz Kaveney, an expert in science fiction literature and film, has written an entertaining and enlightening new read on the genre. She explores the history of science fiction film and literature, the recurring themes and characters across the genre, development of special effects technology and the advent of CGI, the business and culture of movie franchises, and the legitimization of "geek culture" through the blockbuster successes of sci-fi movies. Films discussed include Dark City, Strange Days, the Star Wars series, the Terminator films, the Alien quartet, and Galaxy Quest.

Arguably the greatest science fiction writer who ever lived, Isaac Asimov also possessed one of the most brilliant and original minds of our time. His accessible style and far-reaching interests in subjects ranging from science to humor to history earned him the nickname "the Great Explainer." I. Asimov is his personal story--vivid, open, and honest--as only Asimov himself could tell it.
Here is the story of the paradoxical genius who wrote of travel to the stars yet refused to fly in airplanes; who imagined alien universes and vast galactic civilizations while staying home to write; who compulsively authored more than 470 books yet still found the time to share his ideas with some of the great minds of our century.