UGLY LITTLE BOY, THE

Rating:
Summary: What a Sci Fi literary Duo!
Review: "A remarkably moving and chilling tale of what happens when past and present collide..." A charming and nostalgic trip into the past when SciFi really had a plot...

Rating:
Summary: What a Sci Fi literary Duo!
Review: "A remarkably moving and chilling tale of what happens when past and present collide..." A charming and nostalgic trip into the past when SciFi really had a plot...

Rating:
Summary: A very breathtaking book
Review: "The Ugly Little Boy" is a book about a little boy named Timmie (Skyfire Face), who got kidnapped from his native tribe and was shipped to the future. Even though a Neanderthal, Timmie managed to master all the abilities a modern boy his age should have. With the help of his dedicated nurse/mother he even learned to read. But the media didn't care; to them he was a simple ape-boy and nothing else. It just proves that prejudice is stronger than acceptance. I recommend this boook very much to readers of all ages.

Rating:
Summary: A tearjerker any time...
Review: Asimov in his introduction to the short story, put it as a "tear-jerker" and his second favoutite story. It is my all-time favourite though - a wonderful read. The novel is good - there is some expansion on the Neanderthal times from where the boy is brought as a specimen to today's world. But what is truly relevant here is the way the maternal feelings grow in Nurse ???(whats her name) and how mutual love develops between the two. The finale is brilliant. I would recomment all to read this one. There is nothing special in the "Silververg" part as I see it. The short story of Asimov is what carries the thing through - and so, you may as well read the short story. Its his finest tale.

Rating:
Summary: A tearjerker any time...
Review: Asimov in his introduction to the short story, put it as a "tear-jerker" and his second favoutite story. It is my all-time favourite though - a wonderful read. The novel is good - there is some expansion on the Neanderthal times from where the boy is brought as a specimen to today's world. But what is truly relevant here is the way the maternal feelings grow in Nurse ???(whats her name) and how mutual love develops between the two. The finale is brilliant. I would recomment all to read this one. There is nothing special in the "Silververg" part as I see it. The short story of Asimov is what carries the thing through - and so, you may as well read the short story. Its his finest tale.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting way for 2 authors to collaborate.
Review: I enjoyed Asimov's novella Ugly Little boy & so I tried the novel. The authors ,I'm guessing, did an intersting approach to collaboration. Rather than trying to merge their different styles (something that would've been very difficult) they ,once again I'm presuming, wrote 2 stories & connected them. The Neanderthal story of where the child came from is pure silverberg, the future tale of where the boy ended up is a great deal like the original novella so it's pure Asimov. This works because asimov's original story was about the child being "a fish out of water" & silverberg does a good job of showing the "waters" he came from. Therefore the contrasting styles are almost necessary. In novel form it becomes a story of a child going from a Silverbergian world (Which in my experience means beautiful, passionate, melancholy, dangerous, & in this case primitive) to an asimovean one (Which I'm more experienced with: rational, shiny, techy, & in this case a bit cold). This approach makes the contrast between the primitive & the futuristic more real. It will please fans of prehistoric romance & futuristic fiction. Also it's just a great story about being thrust to a place where you don't fit in, but where you find people to care about anyway. Recommended & I wouldn't mind other collaborations using this technique. If ,of course, they really did use the technique I described. I'm almost certain they did, however.

Rating:
Summary: Very successful collaboration
Review: I've read all three of the Asimov/Silverberg collaborations, and in my opinion, this is the most successful. It doesn't feel like a stretched short story (as Positronic Man) or the unnecessary completion of a nearly perfect one (as in Nightfall)...it succeeds by just telling the other half of the story I'd always wondered about. This has always been one of my two favorite Asimov short stories (Bicentennial Man being the other), so I'm pleased to say that I enjoyed reading this novelized version as much as the original. A beautiful, extremely touching tale.

Rating:
Summary: I would recommend this to anyone even if you read sf or not!
Review: The Ugly Little Boy is a book that was recommended to me by a local librarian. Although I did borrow this that day, I did comment to her that sci-fi was not my favorite. Boy, was I wrong! The book gripped me from the beginning paragraph and held me right until the end. I found it to be just magnificent! If this is sci-fi, I want more! It has been at least three full years since I've read it but when I heard of your review contest I knew that I had to review this book. I would recommend this to anyone even if they swear not to like reading sci-fi. As far-fetched as the concept of the book seems to be, the authors managed to not only make it believable but maybe even possible! If I were Siscle and Ebert I'd give it 'two thumbs up!'

Rating:
Summary: This book makes you think.
Review: This is a book about a woman who becomes the 'mother' of a neanderthal boy and how she copes with the differences between him and the other children and also how the world is still full of prejudice and unjustness, even in the future. It is a really good book and I suggest you read it. If you have read this book and like it, I suggest you try the book Eva, because it is a lot like this book. (Also if you read and liked Eva you would most probably like this book

Rating:
Summary: A rather heart-rending story about a boy from another time.
Review: Two of our most famous sci-fi authors, Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg got together to produce a great "what if" story exploring how technology of a make-believe 21st-century lab could go far enough to bring right back a child from 40,000 years ago to live with a caregiver in a bubble.

Miss Fellowes, who had been hired under very strict regulations to watch the prehistoric boy, had a kind of a sharp tongue and sometimes acted like a demented soccer mom, especially when nosey scientists and the media eagerly flocked over to gawk at the kid and make a big fuss over him. But she had fallen into love with the strange-looking Neandertal child and thus would never want to part with him.

The little boy named "Timmie" had turned out to be such a charming little angel in spite of his "unsightly" prehistoric appearance. And he had also ended up facing a very uncertain fate, especially with a scientist who brought him over, yet didn't intend to keep him forever, an overzealous child advocate who screamed bloody "child abuse", and a worried nurse who feared that he wouldn't survive in a prehistoric environment after a few years of learning to read and eat with a fork.

In addition to Timmie's heartwarming adventure in the modern times, we also get glimpses of the prehistoric tribe that he had left behind, which was now facing its own dangers forty thousand years back.