Isaac Asimov - READ!!!

This guy is a genius of an author and I cannot believe there isn't a thread about him!!!
If you have not read his books or even heard of him PLEASE give him a chance. Good ones to try are any of his short story compilations, personal faves are "Robot Dreams" and "Magic".
He writes science fiction but NOT crappy star warsy shit. he KNOWS science and his stories are realistic, well thought out, extremely intelligent, funny and intriguing. I love this guy. stephen king was my favorite author until i read Asimov.

 

I'm going to the library later this week, I'll check him out

 

i just got back from the library with another stack of books (that makes my stack 27 books high! ) i admit, i cant resist getting books and reading them until i become the book

 

The book "I, Robot" is very good. The movie took only the title.
The Foundation series
All of his fact writing

One of my favorite short stories is his "Bicentenial Man."

 

Foundation Edge is still the best reading i ever have had. Though it is not a selfindependent story, you have to read the trilogy first, it is the single most capturing book i ever have held in my hand.

 

Asimov is a cheap excuse for science fiction. All of his books are based on the same plot structure. The character development is shit. The dialogue sucks. The description is terrible.

The entire Foundation series in itself is so terribly written that it makes me want to puke... I had to struggle through it... and it was right after reading a science fiction book which was actually good... Dune.

 

I read an article from Asimov once in Fantasy and Science fiction. It was an opinion piece where he described dropping sugar cubes with his friends, no kidding. I like his writing and his ideas about robots etc... Asimov is a classic and a legend.

 

Asimov is my favorite too. I loved the foundation series and the other books i've read by him. His older books, written in times where computers were non-existant are great because of the way he depicts space-travel without them, the way things work in his books have such a less standard 'zipping around the galaxy in days' feel to it. Hyperspace jumps are carefully calculated etc etc. Its hard to explain. But i just love the atmosphere that those books create.

 

Yazzi you got that right! Assimov is an extremely intelligent writer and a much better read than Stephen King. Have you read Phillip Jose Farmer? Being from the Peoria area he's my home town boy,... great writer.

 

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right now i'm in the middle of "the gods themselves" by asimov, i've been enjoying it, its nothing like i've ever read before heh. Its kinda weird, but I like it alot.

 

I'm reading the Foundation trilogy at the moment. It's the first Asimov that I read. I'm kinda amazed that so far there are no women what so ever in the story! It's a sign of it's times I guess...

 

Asimov is a very good and very different writer. I loved The Foundation Trilogy and many others by him.

 

He is one of my favorite sf writers, and yeah his books are rather different in a way. He is one of the few science fiction writers that was really knows science and was a scientist.

 

he was very good at explaining things in real science in which he had more then one phd.

i liked his editorial perspective when he expressed it. most of his writting though, i mean it was good in detail as it went along, but often where it came from and where it went i would find unsatisfying. not unsatisfactory nor ofenceive in any way, but just not quite gratifying, and i can't really put my finger on why it affected me that way.

with clark, who was the other giant of that day, i can say with certain what i didn't like was the way he ended, or didn't end but just stopped, but with asamov it was never anything quite that simple.

his short and pun stories were great, although many were only so the first few reads.

but he WAS a great man and a great mind. just that his novels and multilogies for which he's justly famous, weren't, in my opinion, the pinacle of his greatness.

=^^=
.../\...

 

Hi everyone, first post here.

Was wondering if someone could clear some things up. I want to read the robot series, but there are so many books out there. I was thinking of picking up a collection, like The Complete Robot, but does it contain the novels, or just short stories?
Or is there actually novels, or are the smaller books also just various short stories?

Thanks.

 

I'm afraid that's very much a sign of the times. Classic SF tends to reproduce the social structure of 1950s sitcoms, where hubby goes out to work and the little lady stays at home, possibly having to deal with pesky robots.

On the other hand though, Asimov did create one of the classic SF characters in Dr Susan Calvin, robotics pioneer.

 

i was honestly a little disapointed after reading 2001 a space oddessy, i expected it to be much better than it was. the two sequels were awesome though, i really liked those two

 

+1 on this guy

 

asimov was one of greatest sci-fi writers in english!
my favorite of the same generation as asimov, was arthur c. clarke though.
of those who were the first authors to write 'real' sci-fi, i think, only jack williamson is still living.

have a good death guys. you gave us, your readers so very, very much!
thank you all for gave to us.