I love the very underrated The Gods Themselves. It’s one of the very few Asimov stories with characters that aren’t humans or robots. And it has interdimensional masturbation.
Pretty much echoing what other people have said…
If you’re looking for “the classics,” you’re probably looking for Asimov the science fiction writer, though he did also write science (fact), non-sf mysteries, history, autobiography, humor, etc.
I agree that I, Robot is as good a place to start as any; it’s a collection of related short stories and is fairly typical of Asimov’s style.
Well, “female” isn’t quite the right word to use, there, given that the species has three sexes, and the alien protagonist’s sex is “emotional”. And I also liked The Gods Themselves, but it’s probably a bad place to start with Asimov, since it’s pretty psychedelic.
Right here. This is The Last Question, which Asimov himself considered his best short story, and which is a long-time favorite of the SF community. It’s also quintessential Asimov in that his characterization is not so great, and the story is driven by his ideas. And anyway, it’s short, so it’s not much time invested.
Sorry to doublepost, but this isn’t quite true. Asimov never wrote a work of philosophy, which is the 100 category of the Dewey Decimal system.
Not that this makes his accomplishment any less impressive. His commentary on Shakespeare is extremely good.
He did write the forward to “In Pursuit of Truth: Essays on the Philosophy of Karl Popper on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday”, though, which is in the 100s.
Sure, but that’s not quite the same as actually authoring a book in the 100 section.
I guess someone will have to lobby Doubleday to collect his philosophy essays into a single book. I can think of “Thinking about Thinking”, “Lost in Non-Translation” and “The Secret of the Universe” just off the top of my head.
I don’t know about the other two, but wouldn’t “Lost in Non-Translation” be in the 200 section (Religion), not 100 (Philosophy)?
If you read from the last page backwards, it’s like you’re travelling through time!
Opus 100 is Isaac Asimov’s one hundredth book. It was published on October 1969. Asimov chose to celebrate the publication of his hundredth book by writing about his previous 99 books, including excerpts from short stories and novels, as well as nonfiction articles and books. Opus 100 also includes five complete science fiction stories and one complete science essay.
I recently got back into him and I started with The Complete Stories, seen here: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=asimov+the+complete+stories&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=7089411903681583846&sa=X&ei=EVWaTZ3dNo7ViAKYpf2cCQ&ved=0CDwQ8gIwAw#
Good book.
This cannot be said often enough. The rest of the so-called Foundation books are like the rock star who keeps having farewell tours, long after the original creative period has burnt out.
(Personally, I don’t think Asimov was a good novelist - I much prefer the short stories, which I’ve always found to be a better read. If you want to read the early novels like the Stars like Dust and Caves of Steel, sure, but they left me cold.)
Of the short stories, I would start with I, Robot and The Rest of the Robots.
For the unrelated short stories:
The Last Question
Nightfall
The Feeling of Power
Spell My Name with an “S”
I also agree with the recommendations for the Black Widowers stories, as well as his non-sf short pieces on science issues.
I second this - it really gives a sense of his scope. And it means you can cover a lot of ground in one fell swoop and then follow up on the areas you find interesting.
There are also an Opus 200 and 300 for the next two hundred books he wrote.
Huh, I don’t think I’ve heard of that one. What collections is it in?
Nine Tomorrows, Robot Dreams, The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, and Volume 1 of The Complete Stories.
You may not have encountered it because it was published under the name Izaac Azimov.
You laugh, but I got him to autograph an issue of Galaxy with “The Martian Way” on the cover and his name misspelled. He was still pissed at H.L. Gold almost 20 years after the magazine came out.
Notably, the first Foundation book essentially is a collection of short stories. Also perhaps worth noting that Second Foundation features a fully-realized female protagonist.
One of my favorite Asimov novels, not mentioned so far, is The End of Eternity. Twisty time-travel, layered psychological trauma, and a little bit of sex.