Foundation

Bick said:
Some might say (uncharitably, but possibly accurately) that the title is the best thing about The Stars, Like Dust. Now, I'm a big fan of Isaac and hold out that he didn't write anything that didn't have considerable merit, so that comment is in part because the title is so good! While I think the novel is enjoyable, it is probably one of his weaker ones though. I prefer his robot novels, The Naked Sun particularly. (Which also has a pretty good title now I think on it).
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I'd forgotten having reread The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun a while ago, when I said I'd hardly read any Asimov in 40 years. I did enjoy them, Caves more than Sun I think. What would you recommend next? I'd be biased in favor of pre-Gods Themselves fiction since then the nostalgia factor could kick in.
 
Extollager said:
I'd forgotten having reread The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun a while ago, when I said I'd hardly read any Asimov in 40 years. I did enjoy them, Caves more than Sun I think. What would you recommend next? I'd be biased in favor of pre-Gods Themselves fiction since then the nostalgia factor could kick in.
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Hmm, have you read much in the way of his short fiction? If not, I'd recommend the collection, Earth is Room Enough. For a novel - he wrote the standalone time-travel novel, The End of Eternity in 1955, so fits the bill and is a good SF book. If you do have a hankering for an Empire series book, The Currents of Space is widely considered the best one.
 
Asimov is one of those that I have read bits and pieces of and keep planning to spend a few months slogging through it all. But there are always other things I end up doing instead.
 
No need to do it all at once. The Foundation Trilogy is pretty much a unit from one perspective (and not much bigger than most novels these days) and a set of a few stories, a couple more, and a couple more from another. The robot stories are all self-contained, though with recurring characters. Each robot novel is a complete self-contained sf-mystery (except Robots and Empire (1985) is kinda weird). Each Empire novel is self-contained. End of Eternity, The Gods Themselves and Nemesis are self-contained, as are his two takes on the Fantastic Voyage stuff. Almost all his short fiction is self-contained, naturally. I'd recommend certain orders based on certain interests or attitudes but the point is you can read 1,2,3 novels without feeling like you're signing up for some single huge multi-volume story that never ends. That said, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and, if you do enjoy a volume or two, you'll probably end up reading them all but it won't be any "slog". :)
 
J-Sun said:
No need to do it all at once. The Foundation Trilogy is pretty much a unit from one perspective (and not much bigger than most novels these days) and a set of a few stories, a couple more, and a couple more from another. The robot stories are all self-contained, though with recurring characters. Each robot novel is a complete self-contained sf-mystery (except Robots and Empire (1985) is kinda weird). Each Empire novel is self-contained. End of Eternity, The Gods Themselves and Nemesis are self-contained, as are his two takes on the Fantastic Voyage stuff. Almost all his short fiction is self-contained, naturally. I'd recommend certain orders based on certain interests or attitudes but the point is you can read 1,2,3 novels without feeling like you're signing up for some single huge multi-volume story that never ends. That said, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and, if you do enjoy a volume or two, you'll probably end up reading them all but it won't be any "slog". :)
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As with many of the 'classic' authors, it is primarily short stories I have read thus far. Right now I have some McDevitt and Schroeder to read, then I will probably start Prelude to Foundation.

And yes, I did not mean slog in an insulting way to the author but rather in a time-management sort of way. I have a certain amount of non-fiction reading and writing I do everyday, so I try to schedule my fiction reading. Despite how pathetic that sounds.
 
Bick said:
Hmm, have you read much in the way of his short fiction? If not, I'd recommend the collection, Earth is Room Enough. For a novel - he wrote the standalone time-travel novel, The End of Eternity in 1955, so fits the bill and is a good SF book. If you do have a hankering for an Empire series book, The Currents of Space is widely considered the best one.
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I have Nightfall and Other Stories (more or less the title). Think I'll try End of Eternity as you suggest. Thanks.
 
I've always enjoyed The Currents of Space as well (though the science there is, as Chris reminded me several years ago) dated. The End of Eternity, though originally a completely stand-alone novel, has since been incorporated as a sort of sideline to the extensive Robot/Galactic Empire/Foundation set, as reference is made to some aspects of it as being related to the ongoing storyline there.


As for short stories... he wrote many a good one, some very science-oriented, some very emotion-oriented (which, when he chose, he could do surprisingly well). I suggested some elsewhere, but I'll repeat a few of them here: "The Ugly Little Boy", "Eyes Do More than See", "Dreaming is a Private Thing", "The Dead Past", "The Bicentennial Man". I would also suggest some of the stories in I, Robot, as well as "Robot Dreams" and some of the other robot tales, particularly those featuring Susan Calvin....
 
They're all worth reading. However, avoiding Foundation is like avoiding Plato's Republic or Wells's The Island of Dr Moreau. And as others have said, Foundation was originally published as short stories.
 
If possible , Id love to see them adapt this as tv series . Maybe someone like Ron Moore could do it.:)
 
Urf. Not compatible sensibilities. I'm not sure who could do it right but I don't ever want it adapted because I don't want it messed up in my head. Just knowing they made a movie called I, Robot is bad enough. There's a tricky happy medium to adaptations - I can't love the original too little to care or too much to value my private connection more than any possible movie.
 
I wish that were true Baylor, but in a world where Sharknado is getting sequels I have serious misgivings that the current state of television would allow for a successful AND good treatment of Foundation.

Perhaps if bbc approached it the way they approached the Rendezvous with Rama radio drama, we'd be in with a chance. But until then...
 
Vince W said:
I wish that were true Baylor, but in a world where Sharknado is getting sequels I have serious misgivings that the current state of television would allow for a successful AND good treatment of Foundation.

Perhaps if bbc approached it the way they approached the Rendezvous with Rama radio drama, we'd be in with a chance. But until then...
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Good point , Foundation might be A bit too High Brow for networks and audiences. The fact Shaknado was as successful scares the hell out of me. But if they did Foundation Id like to see a BBC/ Starz co Production with some Ron Moore and Russell Davies working together on it.
 
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Star power would really help. I'm thinking Al Pacino as Hari Seldon and Angelina Jolie as Bayta Darell.
 
I haven't read it, though I intend to. Didn't Asimov say that he would have written them differently if he had it to do again? Sorry, I don't have a link. I could be wrong.
 
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