Isaac Asimov
 

Just wanted to start a discussion about him...

I think he writes great scifi! Especially his short stories, his stories are so quick-witted that sometimes you have to read the conclusion twice to get it, and I'm a pretty smart one, I think.

you are aware that he is dead, right? and has been for a good while.

a sign of the good doctor's continued influence in scifi is how some of his series (like the foundation and robots) have continued in the hands of others after his death, and the expansion of some of the short stories into novels (with mixed success) in collaboration with other writers.

i always liked his story of his doctoral oral exam, where one of the panel asked him a "serious" question about thiotimoline, based on one of his stories.

my favorites include "in a good cause..." (which he admitted contained a philosophy he didn't really agree with) and 'what if ..." (one of the few admitted romantic stories he ever wrote).

No, honestly I wasn't. And this comes as a kind of shock. Sad that such a good writer left earth's surface.

"what if " is nice, although I think that he portrays women maybe a bit too stereotypically.

"In a good cause" is one of many short stories that deal with foreign races from outer space, and those are all very interesting, although Asimov seems to like insectoid/sulfur-based aliens most. The stranger the better.


My favorites are the ones with Azazel, the demon / spirit thing. And the Ascension ones are nice, too. Makes you think what higher evolution we might reach.

I like the series with Lije Baley. Particularly the Caves of Steel.

I, Robot is an amazing book. The way he created a world dependent on robots, gave them rules, and then wrote stories about how the rules themselves were inadequate...Truly amazing. As well as the Foundation series, Second Foundation being my favorite. He is extremely talented, and won't be easily forgotten.

one thing that did disappoint me with the good doctor was the apparent need he had near the end of his life to tie both his big series together: robots/baley and foundation. starting with "foundation's edge," he forcibly merged the series whether they fit comfortably or not (especially putting r. daneel everywhere). i bought the later books but i preferred the earlier ones.

oh, well -- a minor quibble on a great creative career.

I once read a interview in which he said that his Foundation story was actually pretty fast thought-up compared to the Elijah Bailey series, which I personally liked better. And I, Robot was so much better than the movie, which in itself had the whole 3 Rules of Robotics part missing.

no, they were there. in fact, they were referenced a number of times when talk turned to what robots could and couldn't do (like kill a human) -- and of course the entire ending was a corruption of asimov's added "zeroth" law about harm to humanity, rather than a human, which was the basis for much of his tying together books.

Does a collection of his short stories exist for purchase?

If I think about it in hindsight you are right and I do remember some of his stories picking up that zeroth law, but no matter how hard I rack my brain, I must insist that the movie did not.