Issac Asimov (1 Viewer)

[transcendent]

I thinking of forcing myself to get back into reading and through wikipedia I think I'd be interested in some of Issac Asimov's work. What have people thought about he's work, are the idea he puts forward developed well through each of he's novels and do you think it's readily available at local libraries?

 

[Justin]

haha, this guy.

For my English Journeys portfolio, i made up total crap and said i read one of his books and made out i had analyzed the journey and i hadn't even read one word of the book. I got 8/10 for that particular piece, which isn't too bad seeing as i just made up random jibberish which was in line with the syllabus.

 

[Logain]

One of my favourite pieces is called The Last Question. It's a short story and you can read it here:

http://adin.dyndns.org/adin/TheLastQ.htm

It really gets you thinking. It's my favourite short story, and an example of Asimov's way of thinking.

 

[Aznpsycho]

Bicentennial Man was great - what with the whole 'immortal superbeing committing suicide' theme.

Read the first three foundation books, heck, at least the first one. The first is easily the best, with several generations of bureaucrats wrecking shit using a combination of wacky religion and politiking. The best thing is how socially realistic it is, with one brilliant guy taking all power for himself for the greater good, and his kids being incompetent loons who lose it all.

Also, this guy is incredibly prolific, so good luck tracking down everything he wrote. Still, there's no problem finding his stuff anywhere - simply because he wrote so damn much.

 

[ElendilPeredhil]

I can reccomend The Last Question too! Isaac Asimov's stories are excellent, although if you are a sci-fi I think you should read Arthur C Clarke's Rama series Rendevous Rama II, The Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed.
The Ugly Little Boy is another good Asimov book...

 

[Aznpsycho]

Another positive thing to note: Isaac Asimov was one of the few sane science-fiction authors out there. For instance:

Frank Herbert - batshit insane, later Dune novels were bizarre masturbatory fantasies.

Arthur C Clarke - pedophile

Robert Heinlein - a Freudian psychologist's wet dream (re: severe problems with his mother).

The fact that Asimov died from AIDS is irrelevant - it was (according to his widow) from a tainted blood transfusion.

 

[Enlightened_One]

And another point in Asimov's defence, Aznpsycho, was that he was a very smart man. He graduated from school, and then university, before his years. He had a degree in nucleic physics or something. Anyway, he definetly has qualifications to be delving into the depths of scientific speculation because he understands science.

I have found a fair bit of his work at public libraries. The Last Question is one of his best short stories, and, according to him, the one he is most proud of.