What Asimov book.....

[PlanetJeff]

I started I, Robot today and so far I really like it.

 

[Connavar]

Ive been on a bit of an Asimov kick lately. I am re reading things I have. A few months ago I re read the Foundation Trilogy. Im 1/2 way through a re read of the Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth (though I admit its been a good five weeks since Ive read any of either) and Im going to re read the Gods Themselves here again soon for a review I plan on writing of it. I also have a book by Asimov on the Bard that Ive been paging through lately, and another on Physics that has been calling to me from the shelf.

I wonder where your nick is from, i think i saw the name in a PKD story.

Will you review the Foundations done by other than Asimov?

I like your review site by the way, have read many the reviews. I like how you can tell what a book is about without saying everything the book is about.


Also what do you think of the last two Foundations done by Asimov? I almost feel Asimov shouldnt have written them cause they weren't a very good ending to the amazing first trilogy.

 

[Fried Egg]

Also what do you think of the last two Foundations done by Asimov? I almost feel Asimov shouldnt have written them cause they weren't a very good ending to the amazing first trilogy.

I realise your question wasn't directed at me but...

When you say the last two foundation books, do you mean "Prelude" and "Forward!"? Or "Edge" and "Earth"?

Personally, I loved "Edge" and "Earth" and thought they were every inch up to the standard set by the first three (although admittedly of quite a different style).

"Prelude" and "Forward!" were quite different again. More action oriented. Personally, I don't they're as good. Partly because they don't seem to gel with the original trilogy that well.

 

[Connavar]

I meant Edge,Earth.

I liked the characters, classic foundation characters but i didnt care for the story at all. The hole Gaia thing was alittle lame for me. I missed The Foundation feel. The first Foundation,Second Foundation people when the story was about them it was amazing. I felt it lost focus totaly in the end. Gaia ruined Foundation for me.


I havent even finished Foundation and Earth yet. Asimovs widow even said he didnt know how to finish the story well after Foundation and Earth since its a weak finale apparently cause it opens new questions. Which is exactly why he shouldnt have give in to pressure and should finished the story with Second Foundation.


Now its always remembered as a great trilogy with a somewhat weak ending thanks to the last two books. You see that everywhere, most fans rate The original trilogy high and the sequals not near as high. Check the threads in this forum for fav SF books, many write "Foundation Original Trilogy"

Havent read Prelude,Forward yet.


Action oriented in A Foundation story? thats very interesting.

Im looking forward to reading Prelude cause its about the legendary Hari Seldon.

 

[Fried Egg]

Connavar of Rigante

I liked the characters, classic foundation characters but i didnt care for the story at all. The hole Gaia thing was alittle lame for me. I missed The Foundation feel. The first Foundation,Second Foundation people when the story was about them it was amazing. I felt it lost focus totaly in the end. Gaia ruined Foundation for me.


I havent even finished Foundation and Earth yet. Asimovs widow even said he didnt know how to finish the story well after Foundation and Earth since its a weak finale apparently cause it opens new questions. Which is exactly why he shouldnt have give in to pressure and should finished the story with Second Foundation.

Now its always remembered as a great trilogy with a somewhat weak ending thanks to the last two books. You see that everywhere, most fans rate The original trilogy high and the sequals not near as high. Check the threads in this forum for fav SF books, many write "Foundation Original Trilogy"

It sounds like you have some quite firm opinions about and ending you haven't even read yet. I suppose that when I read Foundation and Earth, I had the advantage of not having read other people's opinions on it.

As for the ending being weak and leaving unanswered questions...well, I can't say to much because I don't want to spoil it for you when you eventually get around to finishing it but I can say that it goes a long way to tying together the foundation and robot series. It actually resolves some questions left open at the end of "Robots and Empire". And as I understand it, he had every intention of writing more books in the series to continue after "Foundation and Earth" so it wasn't supposed to be fully concluded.

"Second Foundation" actually left the question as to whether the Seldon plan would eventually suceed wide open. This question is actually resolved in "Foundation and Earth".

I think that "Edge" and "Earth" reflected a change in Asimov in that he had grown bored with the original notion of the Foundation and wanted to explore the idea that something else could be a more effective mechanism for securing mankind's future. One of the fascinating things about "Earth" is running debate between Golan Trevize and Blissenobiarella regarding the importance of individual freedom vs. the common good.

Action oriented in A Foundation story? thats very interesting.

Im looking forward to reading Prelude cause its about the legendary Hari Seldon.

"Forward the Foundation" carries straight on from "Prelude" and is also about Hari Seldon.

 

[Alurny]

The Naked Sun is sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. It is the first Asimov book I have managed to pick up. It is next in line..

 

[Fried Egg]

The Naked Sun is sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. It is the first Asimov book I have managed to pick up. It is next in line..

Although that book does stand on it's own, it's actually the sequel to "Caves of Steel" which might be worth reading first if you can get it.

 

[Connavar]

Connavar of Rigante

It sounds like you have some quite firm opinions about and ending you haven't even read yet. I suppose that when I read Foundation and Earth, I had the advantage of not having read other people's opinions on it.

As for the ending being weak and leaving unanswered questions...well, I can't say to much because I don't want to spoil it for you when you eventually get around to finishing it but I can say that it goes a long way to tying together the foundation and robot series. It actually resolves some questions left open at the end of "Robots and Empire". And as I understand it, he had every intention of writing more books in the series to continue after "Foundation and Earth" so it wasn't supposed to be fully concluded.

"Second Foundation" actually left the question as to whether the Seldon plan would eventually suceed wide open. This question is actually resolved in "Foundation and Earth".

I think that "Edge" and "Earth" reflected a change in Asimov in that he had grown bored with the original notion of the Foundation and wanted to explore the idea that something else could be a more effective mechanism for securing mankind's future. One of the fascinating things about "Earth" is running debate between Golan Trevize and Blissenobiarella regarding the importance of individual freedom vs. the common good.

"Forward the Foundation" carries straight on from "Prelude" and is also about Hari Seldon.

Its not the ending might leave question unanswered that bothers me. I wrote about that just cause it bothers me that it points to Asimov not being clear on what planned with the two books.

Its cause of the Gaia thing and the hole story of Edge and Foundation and Earth that i lost interest and not even bothered to finish it.

I couldnt careless how the ending is,my problem is i lost interest before that. While i devoured every page of the old Foundation series.

The change in Asimov wasnt for good IMO. Which is why i wish he never wrote the last two books.

I should finish it but i dont like that i dont really care anymore its morejust to finish the thing.

Golan Trevize and Blissenobiarella debating about the importance of individual freedom vs. the common good was interesting but not near enough to build stories on. I enjoyed the characters and their ideas but there werent much of a story specially not what you wanted to see in a foundation book.

 

[Ursa major]

I read the original Foundation trilogy about thirty years ago. (I enjoyed them, but was never convinced about the social science basis - my gut feeling was that equations cannot be used in the way they were in the books.) I've still got the books somewhere - I ought to dig them out and give them another go.

I have recently purchased, but not yet got round to reading, The Complete Robot, with 31 stories in about 200,000 words, or so the intro says....

 

[Connavar]

Doesnt really matter if you dont think the equations cannot be used that way if you enjoy the story. I didnt like everything about the science but the story was great.

Plus Asimov i think is in Foundation, the other stories i have read very strong when its about the science. Sometimes he even reads almost too much science and too little fiction, not that its a bad thing.

 

[Fried Egg]

Connavar of Rigante

Its cause of the Gaia thing and the hole story of Edge and Foundation and Earth that i lost interest and not even bothered to finish it.

Was that pun intended?

Golan Trevize and Blissenobiarella debating about the importance of individual freedom vs. the common good was interesting but not near enough to build stories on. I enjoyed the characters and their ideas but there werent much of a story specially not what you wanted to see in a foundation book.

That wasn't what the story was built on. The thrust of the story was in their quest to locate earth, to find out if it really existed, if mankind had really originated from one planet.

If you've read and enjoyed the Elijah Baley books then I definitely recommend reading through to the end of "Earth" because you should find it very interesting.

 

[j d worthington]

I wasn't that enthused with the later Foundation books when I first read them shortly after they came out; but later on when I reread them, I found myself liking the shift in Asimov's views and finding them (and the stories) quite interesting, even fascinating, though in a very different fashion from the earlier series. Which is not surprising, as he had matured considerably in the intervening forty years....

 

[HanaBi]

I've almost completed Foundation and even though I realise it wasn't meant to a complete story in its original form - just a collection of short stories written over a period of time back in the 40s I found the book to be quite routine compared to Prelude.. which I read previous to Foundation a couple of weeks ago.

I was totally engrossed in Prelude, loved the characters and the sub-plots and the general pace of the story, a clear indication of how Asimov had finely tuned his writing craft.

 

[aussie3]

If you can get onto ebay try and find an mp3 disc of "The Positronic Man".

It goes for around 5 or 6 hours and is simply brilliant - the best spoken word/radio serial/whatever type thing I've listened to.

Another good one (not Asimov) is a series called Alien Worlds. They are done by a Canadian mob (try alienwords.com I think) and date from the 70s or 80s broadcast as radio shows I think. One or two of the episodes are a bit iffy but most are very listenable and quite reasonably priced.

 

[aussie3]

I can recommend getting an mp3 version of "The Positronic Man". I got mine form ebay, it goes for about six hours and is one of the best spoken word/radio show/whatever I have listened to. It is more of a "play" than a reading, the reader is so good.

Another I can recommend (non-Asimov) is a series called "Alien Worlds" from a company in Canada, available in mp3 download and by CD. If you put "alien Worlds" into google you'll find it. Very good stuff although a couple of the stories are a bit iffy.

Another one is a series called Journey Into Space, a British effort. I got that one on ebay as well.

 

[arieltelsa]

I just started reading the first Foundation book a few days ago. I'm an Asimov newbie, unless you count the superquiz. Because I'm not new to that at all.

 

[pnerd]

The last Asimov book I read a few months ago was "Robot Dreams". It's a collection of short stories.

 

[vivek]

Namaste from India,

Am currently reading a wonderful Asimov book titled 'Gold'
It's divided into three parts

- A collection of his less known short stories
- his thoughts on science fiction
- his thoughts on writing science fiction

There's a lot oaf advice in this book to aspiring science fiction authors.

 

[pnerd]

Am currently reading a wonderful Asimov book titled 'Gold'

Yeah, that's a great book. In fact, it's one of my favourite Asimov books.

 

[AE35Unit]

Crikey can't remember the last Asimov book i read. Oh it was probably Foundation's Edge actually. Well I tried to read it but couldn't get into it.
Recently tho I got a copy of Caves of Steel from bookmooch,one of the first books of his I ever read. Just waiting to get The Naked Sun then I'll re read them. Oh what was the third one called. Robots of Dawn?