Amph Foundations of SciFi: Isaac Asimov

More than anyone else, I believe that Isaac Asimov has gotten the top spot for one of the most influencial SciFi author of all times. His work with his robot stories are great, as is Foundataion and any number of his other hundreds of works.

Any favorites in paticular?

 

I love the way he writes. You start reading his stories and you're captivated right away and want to read more. I recently bought and read all of the robot, empire, and foundation books. Really good Sci Fi.

 

My favorite of his works (from what I have read so far) is I, Robot.

 

Everything in the Robots/Foundation series is brilliant.

If I had to pick a favourite, I'd say Foundation's Edge/Foundation & Earth (alright, that's 2) for tying everything together.

 

I like Foundation a little more than I, Robot, but both are outstanding.

 

I've not had the pleasure to read his work yet. The only hard sci-fi books I've really liked is Karen Traviss' work. (Star Wars isn't really hard sci-fi)

 

i like asimov but one can argue for Clarke, Herbert as well 2001 and dune

 

I love asimov because his works are so SMART. I reallyenjoyed Nightfall and The Gods Themselves, but i like pretty much all of his work. Highly influential

 

Tracy, have you had a chance to read Gold? Great little story that plays on the events of both The Gods Themselves and Asimov himself. I'm still trying to find a copy of the short story Nightfall that then became the full novel. A lot of the reviews I had read were regarding the short story version, and it would be nice to compare them.

The only real issue I have is in the finish of TGT. The third part of the story really doesn't fully incorporate what had occurred in both the previous parts, instead mainly focussing on the human aspect.


With Asimov's Foundation novels, I've enjoyed all of them, with the exception of Forward the Foundation. It wasn't that it was a complete write-off, just that I think age finally caught up with him, and he got a bit too self-indulgent, wrapping a good story up in excess baggage.

 

My favourite Asimov books are Caves of Steel, Nemesis, The Gods Themselves and the Foundation series.

I think Caves of Steel would make an excellent movie. Kevin Spacey as R. Daneel Olivaw and Sean Bean as Detective Lije Bailey.

 

Big Asimov fan here! He's got the fast-paced pulp style and ability to really know a plot combined with really interesting ideas in the plots themselves. I love the Foundation series, but recently went back through some of his robot stories for a project and was quite impressed. Gotta love the Laws.

 

I just finished the first foundation novel, Foundation and it was good up until the final part. It got a bit boring there I felt. Anyone else feel that way?

However, I loved both I, Robot and Prelude to Foundation.

 

About 12 years ago I read the Harlen Ellison script treatment for what SHOULD have been the I, Robot movie. It would have been far better than the film we wound up with. It was a decent movie, but it was not I, Robot. The one thing that irked me was seeing the I, Robot book on the stands with Will Smith on the cover. It was not a book adapted from the film, it was Asimov's novel with Will Smith on the cover. Sad.

 

Vaders, I would love to have seen a copy of that. Hollywood slaughtered I, Robot. I'll bet Ellison did it better justice

Asimov is among my top 5 favorite sci-fi authors. I have read many of his books multiple times. I recently began a quest to read (and in many cases re-read) all of his fiction books (except fot the "Lucky Starr" series of books which I believe to be targeted toward juvenile readers) in the order they were published. If I manage to finish that before I die, there are also a few of his non-fiction science titles I wish to read as well.

I am in the middle of "The Second Foundation" right now. This is the second time I have read it, the first time was almost 20 years ago!

 

I haven't read much of Asimov, but what I have shows how brilliant an author he was, and how deeply he effected science fiction. One of the reasons I like the new Battlestar Galactica- really harkens to Asimov's view of scifi.

 

Asimov is my favorite sci-fi author without a doubt. I'm currently rereading the Robot-Empire-Foundation series (I tend to view it all as one mega series rather than three series). The Empire novels are the weakest section of that series, but still very good reads. Foundation and Earth is probably my favorite book from the series, though I like the others a lot as well.

I usually read the Second Foundation Trilogy books within that series, even though they aren't nearly as good as Asimov's own work. I'm on Foundation's Fear right now, lamenting Asimov's death having prevented him from writing stories about the same topics himself, because they could be so much better. They're not bad, necessarily, but they just don't compare.

The movie I, Robot... well, it wasn't a bad movie, as long as you pretend that it had nothing to do with the actual book. The only solid ties they had were the names Susan Calvin, Alfred Lanning, and Lawrence Robertson. Well, and US Robots. That said, they did manage to tie in a few of Asimov's ideas from the stories in I, Robot and other books. Trying to find Sonny (an NS-5) in the room of 1000 robots certainly was reminiscent of trying to find the NS-2 Nestor 10 among the sixty-someodd robots of the same model with the three laws. That said, Asimov would have hated the movie, because it was little more than the usual robots trying to take over story, which he makes very clear that he doesn't like.

 

Mhmmm. I still don't know what in the world they were thinking.

I did like the Second Foundation books... the three B's are good authors.

 

I'm not saying they aren't good authors, they just don't measure up to Asimov IMO. Plus they don't know the story as well as Asimov and you start getting contradictions and discrepencies.

 

Foundation books are wonderful masterpieces of science fiction. I enjoy how he has managed to weave almost every piece of fiction he has written into the same universe.

 

I enjoy how he has managed to weave almost every piece of fiction he has written into the same universe.

Thats one of the most amazing things about his writing. And why referring to his writing as Asimov's universe makes sense.

 

He's got some overlap in his stories, but they don't all take place in the same universe, IIRC.

 

Not all in the same universe, but the significant majority do, enough so that it might as well be.

 

*bumps this thread up*

I love Asimov. Though I haven't read his books in a year or so, he's the reason I got into Science Fiction in the first place.

Gotta love the Laws.

Oh yeah, you really do! They make so much sense considering the way people felt about robots then. It also has me wondering if there's anything like that governing the droids.

The one thing that irked me was seeing the I, Robot book on the stands with Will Smith on the cover. It was not a book adapted from the film, it was Asimov's novel with Will Smith on the cover. Sad.

That's why I didn't bother to see it. I remembered the book being a series of stories about different robots, not one big flowing story. And I knew they'd mess it up anyway and make it fit for Hollywood.

I did like the Second Foundation books... the three B's are good authors.

Yeah, I felt the same way. They really did a good job in keeping with Asimov's voice. Everything just flowed and was all....really good.

There was another book which Asimov himself wrote which I particularly enjoyed but I can't remember the name of it, and it took place before Foundation and Earth. Grrhhhh.... it was really sad too.

 

I think Asimov was what got me into reading SciFi in a big way. My favorite Asimov writing was the Foundation series and all the intricacies but it has to be 20 years since of read them. Time to give those another go. And from what I'm gathering here, there are mixed feelings about the Second Foundation books by the other authors.

 

I read most of the Foundation series years ago, and recently I got a free copy of Prelude to Foundation so I read that. I've really enjoyed all of them, though I've never read any of his other work.

If only the science of psychohistory was real