I still read him. There are plenty of his books I still haven’t even seen (I’d love to read his Annotated Don Juan or Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan, but the books are hard to find even in libraries, and rarely show up on resale websites, and are expensive when they do). I just this past year finally read his two-volume autobiography, and I’ve yet to read the sorta third volume, I. Asimov all the way. I re-read his original Foundation trilogy a little while ago, and am still largely impressed by it.
Somebody is reading him. I check out the science fiction shelves in bookstores, and invariably see books by him on the shelves (along with Heinlein and Clarke). Some volume from the Foundation series is usually there, along with I Robot (largely, I think, because of the movie a few years ago).
I have to admit that I do prefer the earlier Asimov. The later, much thicker volumes of his Foundation series are woefully padded and bloated (although, occasionally, some section with shine through with the old Asimov spark). I blame the economics of publishing – if you look at not only his works, but those of other science fiction writers, you have relatively slim volumes in the early years, with highly concentrated concepts and efficient writing. Paperbaks ran to 100-200 pages, typically. Then look at the output in the eighties and nineties from the same crowd – their books are doorstops inches thick and totalling 400 pages or more. It’s particularly clear on my bookshelves if I put them in published order.
And I didn’t like his later books joining his “Robots” series with his “Foundation” series. They don’t belong together, and it looked too much like a calculated intention to drive up sales of both series.
I loved Dr. A. as a youth, read virtually all his fiction. He was a wonderful idea man, a great explainer. But damn, he couldn’t develop a convincing character or emotionally dramatic scene.
He did have strangely patternic weird names for his characters, though. There seems to be some underlying rhythm or structure to them that ties them together, but I can never figure out just what it is. Lots of onomatopoeia to 'em. Somehow they all seem to be recognizably Asimovian character names, just by the look of them.
Ammel Brodrig
Dors Venabili
Ebling Mis
Golan Trevize
Gambol Deen Namarti
Hober Mallow
Limmar Ponyets
Stor Gendibal
Tamwile Elar
Lundin Crast
Lors Avakim
Jord Fara
Cinda Monay
And, I think I have the. . . ‘honor’ of having been the very first person to ask about The Last Question on this board almost 19 years ago!. Even got a (somewhat snarky) response from none other than The Bad Astronomer!
He didn’t write very many well-developed characters; that’s for sure (quick, someone tell me the difference between Donovan and Powell!). But I defy anyone to say that Dr. Susan Calvin isn’t well-developed.
Years ago, there was a Jeopardy question, excuse me, answer, asking who is the only person to have written a book in all categories of the Dewey Decimal System. Now, I knew who Asimov was, but wasn’t really familiar with him other than knowing he wrote science fiction. Yet for some reason, I blurted out Isaac Asmiov! and was stunned to hear that I was right.
I have all the books connecting the robot stories to the Foundation stories. (Yay Science Fiction Book Club!) I drag myself through them every few years. I admit that I’m not the most critical reader.
Quite true - perhaps his greatest character of all.
I tend to like his short stories more than his novels. “The Last Question,” “Nightfall,” “The Bicentennial Man,” “Victory Unintentional” and just about all of the stories in I, Robot (especially “Evidence” and “Little Lost Robot”) are excellent.
Can someone point me to a good compilation of his short stories for Kindle, ideally including “The Last Question”? I searched for it on amazon, but it’s very hard to find something in all the cluttered links. I found compilations, but they are not listing the individual stories :smack:.
I love “The Last Question” and his novel Nemesis, about a little girl who uses her preternatural ability to read body language to uncover a dark plot against Earth.
I also like this little poem I found on the internet involving Isaac Asimov:
When Isaac’s at the nudist camp,
He promptly joins the fun,
For “When in Rome”'s his favorite quote,
As he tells everyone.
So when the order’s given,
“All clothing you must doff!”
Without a moment’s hesitation,
Isaac Asimov.
Din’t Know if it’s on Kindle, but the collection is “Nine Tomorrows”. In addition to “The Last Question”, it has two other really good short stories: “Spell My Name with an S” and “The Gentle Vultures”.
I think that Foundation has four characters who are well-developed : Salvor Hardin, Bayta Darrell and Bobo/Magnifico, and Preem Palver.
Bayta and Bobo in particular have a relationship where affection and pathos change the course of the history, which is unusual in Asimov’s stories. Plot twists in Asimov normally come from events, or conflicts, or ambiguities in the 3 laws, not from the psychological relationship between two of the characters.
Hardin to me stands out as a political pragmatist, a realist who is nonetheless idealistic. (By way of tangent, always reminded me of Sir John A. Macdonald.).
And Palver (whom I always envisaged as looking like Kruschev) is another idealist, filled with compassion but also ruthlessness, both elements of his character necessary to save the Plan and keep humanity from falling into 30,000 years of misery.
I read some of his fiction a long time back and liked it. I think I would like to re-read the Foundation Trilogy and the robot short stories. I haven’t read his non-fiction but I keep seeing it praised so I may give it a go some time.
I was trying to think of what Asimov got right in his novels. I agree he was no stylist and his characters were often thin. I think his core skill was to come up with interesting and original concepts(psychohistory, the three laws of robotics) and then write cracking good stories which kept you turning the pages.
Speaking of psychohistory I wonder if Foundation is the first major scifi novel built on a social science premise. Over the generations, scifi writers have inspired many readers to become natural scientists and engineers but Foundation may be the first which inspired readers like Paul Krugman to become social scientists.
His “Understand Physics” book was what got me interested in the subject. It was tailored to capture a schoolbook textbook but also some history so for a young impressionable child it was more fun than the traditional textbooks. Then when I went to pursue higher level physics I latched onto Nelkon/Parker which was extremely technical but what I like to think of as the Physics Bible for aspiring students.
