Asimov - the man

M

MythingLink

First Prime of ASciFi
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If you've read his biographies you know quite a bit about him. He's was, of course, intelligent tempered with a great deal of wisdom. He had a sense of humor that was out of this world. He was known as Science Fiction's dirty old man - regardless of his age. He was one of the most prolific writers to date writing not just fiction - science fiction, but mysteries, fantasies, and adventure, and non-fiction. He had a way of taking a subject and making it understood by anyone who took the time to read his books. His Asimov's Guide to ... I still reference when I have a question dealing with one of the subjects that he wrote a book about.

When I first wrote to him on a lark to ask him a question and also to tell him that he was one of my favorite authors, I never expected an answer. However I got one, hand typed by him complete with x's over the typos, and I was shocked.

He will remain always, one of my favorite authors, but also one of my favorite people. His passing was a sad day.

Cheers,
 
wow, he sounds like a really cool person(of course i could have figured that from his writing alone) his writing definitely has a humourous undertone that so many ppl cant get. i would have loved to meet him
 
That's one of the cool things about living in the SF Community. You get to hear the best stories about the best people :) (And the opposite as well)

After Heinlein, he was the first SF author I ever read. I love reading (and collecting) the Juvenile SF of the 50s and 60s...so naturally I cut my eye teeth on his Lucky Starr books :) As I got older I started reading about the Foundation and about the Robot books...(the jury's still out on my opinion of merging of the Foundation and Robot books these days--Heinlein started doing that too with his Lazarus Long series, it just seemed to make the wonderful earlier books...seem less wonderful...) If anyone wants to talk about the Lucky Starr books, though, see me in another thread ;)

Amazon.com has a wonderful fact filled article up about him right now at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/11717/103-3935948-9822204 (and have several of his books at 10% off right now)

Several Christmas's ago, I received his big book of Jokes and Humorous stories...some of those still remain among my favorite jokes to tell people!

Hopefully, with the number of fans who access this site, people will start to remember he wrote a ton of stuff, not just the Foundation and Robot series and maybe we can get some of them back into print!!

RQ
Who still loves the classics.
ABC of Science Fiction--Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke
 
Yes there are several biographies by him,tho the big ones,In memory yet still green for example,are memoirs. Still fantastic to read tho. Also there was a much later bio written by Michael White i think. I had them all,now gone! He was my favorite science fiction figure,if not my favorite author and i was gutted when i found out he'd died back in 92! I even wrote a small poem about how i felt with his passing. He had a huge effect on me. Darp it i'm gonna have to read some Asimov next and wish i still had those memoirs!
 
AE35Unit said:
Darp it i'm gonna have to read some Asimov next and wish i still had those memoirs!
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Well, if you can find a copy, I'd suggest one of the Opus books he did: Opus 100, Opus 200, etc. A nice selection from various aspects of his writing, plus a complete listing of all his books to that point (with each volume), to help you choose which things you might be interested in....
 
j. d. worthington said:
Well, if you can find a copy, I'd suggest one of the Opus books he did: Opus 100, Opus 200, etc. A nice selection from various aspects of his writing, plus a complete listing of all his books to that point (with each volume), to help you choose which things you might be interested in....
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I had all those books JD,in fact it'd be easier to say what asimov books i didn't have! Too late,and expensive,to begin collecting again tho i'd like those Opus books and the memoirs again. Such a great man,not just in his writing but in his being,if you know what i mean. I envy those who met him!
 
AE35Unit said:
You're welcome,but please call me Larry. Its easier for you to type! ;)
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thanks. actually i didn't type "AE35Unit" before. i just copied and pasted it. :)
the magic of ctrl+c and ctrl+v. :)
 
Ah yes,of course. I can't do that as I'm using my mobile phone,no cut and paste.
Back on topic,what asimov have you not read yet? And what of his works do you prefer?
 
AE35Unit said:
Back on topic,what asimov have you not read yet? And what of his works do you prefer?
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Unfortunately, I have not yet read the Foundation series (except "Prelude to Foundation"). please don't kick me. the main reason is that most of the books of that series are not available here.

But from the Robot series, I have read "Caves of Steel", "The Naked Sun", and "The Robots of Dawn". I also read "The Complete Robot" and "Robot Dreams". Those two cover almost all the robot short stories I guess.

I also read "Gold", "Magic", "Nightfall" (the novel), "I. Asimov".

and I am in the middle of "Asimov's Guide to Science"

That's about it I guess.
 
Yea i've read all those,all good,especially the robot stories,my favourite asimov. I didn't like the Foundation books tho,find them a bit boring. Read the first foundation 'trilogy' but could read no more.
 
I’ve been an Asimov fan for many years, and know there are several biographies (autobiographies ), none of them in which I’ve read.


Are there any biographical (non-biographical) books which discuss more on his thought process of writing, or perhaps commentary that touch upon scientific ideas.

Which would you recommend?


thanks


Jeff
 
jeff.s.p said:
Are there any biographical (non-biographical) books which discuss more on his thought process of writing, or perhaps commentary that touch upon scientific ideas.
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I'm at a bit of a loss on this one. Do you mean books about Asimov and his process and ideas on scientific matters? Yes, there are some looks at his work critically, which get into this aspect of things; though I've not read any of them in some time, and titles escape me at the moment.

If you mean by Asimov... well, each of his autobiographical volumes touch on these subjects to a greater or lesser extent; his anthology Before the Golden Age and its predecessor The Early Asimov act (as he noted in the former) as a sort of "literary biography", especially if read in the reverse order -- Before the Golden Age, which covers his discovery of science fiction and his time as a fan and first attempts at writing; then The Early Asimov, which contains the bulk of his earlier writing; each has sometimes lengthy passages on these aspects connected to the stories in question). And then there are his numerous books on science, whether original or collections of his science columns for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, etc. Those not only inform you about the particular subject, but also frequently his views and, not all that infrequently, about how such impacted his writing.....

And of that last category... the list is enormously long; you might want to pick up Opus 100, Opus 200, Opus 300, in which he made selections from his writings on various topics, with new commentary; these might serve as a guide to what you're looking for....
 
Thanks,

I guess my question relates to the thought process behind his stories, from an aspiring writers point of view. What triggered his ideas and how/why he arrived at the conclusions in his books.

If this is discussed at all…


But thanks again for the info

Hopefully, you’ve narrowed my search.


jeff
 
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