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These posts mostly relate to books I am reading or series I am collecting to read in order (I tend to collect the series and then read it in one block). You can see a see a list of the books I am currently seeking, as well as a list of all the books I've bothered to catalog if you're interested.


Sat, 22 Nov 2008


Foundation and Earth




    ISBN: 0586071105
    LibraryThing
    		I really like how Asimov wraps up the extended Foundation series. Specifically, I'd previously complained while reading Pebble in the Sky that it was hard to believe that everyone simply forgets that they originated on Earth -- this book and Foundation's Edge go a long way to resolving that annoyance for me. Its also good to find out what happened to Aurora and Solaria finally -- especially given the Solaria mystery has been bothering me since Robots and Empire.

    Speaking just about this book so a moment, I do find the use of sex as a plot development method quite odd. There are three examples that bother me -- when Bliss is slipped through interstellar customs with the explanation that she's just a whore and therefore not important enough to make an issue of; the second is when Trevize basically shags his way out of an awkward situation, despite the other protagonist being quite hostile initially; and finally where he bonks someone on a rural world. I find all three of those incidents a little out of place with the rest of the book, and in fact the rest of the series. Other authors use those kinds of plot elements, but they seem out of place in Asimov's work.

    Overall, I loved this book and it was a good conclusion to the series.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 12:05 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Mon, 17 Nov 2008


Foundation's Edge




    ISBN: 0586058397
    LibraryThing
    		I'm back to reading Foundation Series books actually written by Isaac Asimov. This one is the fourth in the Foundation Series if you count them in the order they were written, but is the second last in chronological terms. Its set 500 years after the failure of the first galactic empire, and follows the first Foundation's attempt to discover if the second Foundation still exists. Well, its a bit more complicated than that, but I don't want to ruin it for you.

    As an aside, the user interface described for the ship's computer is really cool. Its a bit like augmented reality, mixed with gesture control, mixed with a direct interface into the brain. I'm not saying I want one in my house, but its cool that a book written in 1983 still has a user interface description which isn't dated, and still seems plausible.

    This book has minor inconsistencies with the story presented in the second foundation trilogy (Foundation's Fear, Foundation and Chaos and Foundation's Triumph), but I see that more as a failure in those followup authors than in this book. In fact, I've already complained about how untrue to Asimov's vision some of those books are elsewhere.

    This is a good read, and I enjoyed it greatly.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 18:40 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Mon, 22 Sep 2008


Second Foundation




    ISBN: 0345336291
    LibraryThing
    		I am starting to think that there is something missing in the Foundation trilogy. Specifically, there isn't much action. Most of it is just people talking at each other -- with pages and pages of dialog. This makes these three books much harder to read (and therefore less compelling) than those elsewhere in the extended Foundation Series.

    I did enjoy this book, I just feel that I could have done with some more action to make it less hard work.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 20:58 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Sat, 13 Sep 2008


Foundation and Empire




    ISBN: 0553293370
    LibraryThing
    		This is the second book in the original foundation trilogy, which I am reading as part of the the extended Foundation series that I am working my way slowly though. This book contains two stories -- both of them Seldon crises, although one of them unpredicted by Hari. As Hari had always said in the series -- his techniques can only predict broad social trends, and the not the work on individuals. What happens if a single person who could not be predicted appears? This story covers that scenario.

    I found this book harder to read than the previous one, but that might have been because I've had a pretty distracted week. Once I actually sat down to read without too many interruptions, I enjoyed it.

    The comments from others on LibraryThing are fair though -- the character names are odd, and the writing does feel a little awkward.

    (LibraryThing for some reason gets the ISBN mapping for this book wrong. The above link's ISBN is right, but this link goes to the right place).

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 18:22 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Wed, 10 Sep 2008


Foundation




    ISBN: 0586010807
    LibraryThing
    		Foundation is an interesting book, as its quite old and was originally written as a series of short stories (as much early science fiction was). Because I am reading the books of the extended Foundation series in the order that Asimov recommended towards the end of his life, I have read the two prequels to Foundation (Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation) before Foundation itself. This means that the time line is a little inconsistent, specifically about how the Foundation project ends up on Terminus (Was it lobbying or exile? Did Hari go or not?). That's not too bad though, and the book is very good.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 18:16 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Mon, 08 Sep 2008


Forward the Foundation




    ISBN: 0553565079
    LibraryThing
    		This is a Foundation prequel, coming after Prelude to Foundation and before Foundation. The book is almost a series of short stories or novelettes -- there are several year gaps between these stories. That was a shame in a sense, because each of these separate stories has its won startup cost -- the time it takes me to get into what is happening. For some reason I don't find that as much of a problem with collections of short stories, possibly because I'm expecting it more. This technique meant Asimov could cover a lot of ground, but I found it jarring over all.

    I guess I'd say this book was ok, but not one of Asimov's best.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 16:41 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Wed, 03 Sep 2008


Robot Visions




    ISBN: 0451450647
    LibraryThing
    		This was a pretty short read -- in fact I read it on the bus into work this morning. That's mainly because there are only three short stories in this book which aren't covered in one of Asimov's other robot short story collections. The three stories were good, but I am not sure they were worth owning the entire book for.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 13:07 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Sat, 16 Aug 2008


Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series

posted at: 22:21 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Isaac Asimov's Robot Short Stories

    I was getting quite confused about which robot short stories I had already read (many appear in more than one collection), so I built this table to help. Note that crosses indicate stories which aren't about robots, and are really stow aways.

    Robbie
    		 
    		 
    Runaround
    		 
    		 
    Reason
    		 
    		 
    Catch That Rabbit
    		 
    		     
    Liar!
    		 
    		 
    Little Lost Robot
    		 
    Escape!
    		 
    		     
    Evidence
    		 
    		 
    The Evitable Conflict
    		 
    		 
    Robot AL-76 Goes Astray  
    		     
    Victory Unintentional  
    		     
    First Law  
    		     
    Let's Get Together  
    		     
    Satisfaction Guaranteed  
    		     
    Risk  
    		     
    Lenny  
    		 
    Galley Slave  
    		 
    A Boy's Best Friend    
    		     
    Sally    
    		   
    Someday    
    		 
    Point of View    
    		     
    Think!    
    		 
    True Love    
    		   
    Stranger in Paradise    
    		     
    Light Verse    
    		   
    Segregationist    
    		 
    Mirror Image    
    		 
    The Tercentenary Incident    
    		     
    Feminine Intuition    
    		 
    ... That Thou Art Mindful of Him    
    		     
    The Bicentennial Man    
    		 
    Robot Dreams      
    		   
    Breeds There a Man      
    		   
    Hostess      
    		   
    Strikebreaker      
    		   
    The Machine That Won the War      
    		   
    Eyes Do More Than See      
    		   
    The Martian Way      
    		   
    Franchise      
    		   
    Jokester      
    		   
    The Last Question      
    		   
    Does a Bee Care?      
    		   
    The Feeling of Power      
    		   
    Spell My Name With an S      
    		   
    The Ugly Little Boy      
    		   
    The Billiard Ball      
    		   
    The Last Answer      
    		   
    Lest We Remember      
    		 
    Robot Visions        
    Too Bad!        
    Christmas Without Rodney        
    +Essays        


    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)

posted at: 22:18 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Robot Dreams




    ISBN: 0441731546
    LibraryThing
    		Robot Dreams is another of the robot short story books from Asimov. It is a bit deceptive though and frankly quite annoying because only one of the stories in the book is a robot story, and its not very long.I am of course ignoring the robot stories that already appear in I, Robot and The Complete Robot. The rest are unrelated short stories by Asimov that aren't about robots, and aren't even consistent with the universe that the Foundation books exist in. That's what makes it so annoying for Asimov to recommend that you read the book as part of the extended Foundation series. Grumble.

    Don't get me wrong, the other stories are fine, its just that they're not the robot stories that I was led to believe they would be. Wikipedia is a little more clear on the situation than I was:

    Robot Dreams (1986) is a collection of Isaac Asimov's short stories, intended largely to show a series of Asimov robot-inspired drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. All the stories except the title one, written specifically for the volume, can be found in various other Asimov collections. The companion book, which also showcases McQuarrie's drawings (and includes Asimov essays in addition to short stories), is entitled Robot Visions.


    This would explain why my reply to James Taylor's comment was so confused.

    I'll update my summary of Asimov's robot short stories accordingly.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 21:33 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Mon, 11 Aug 2008


The Complete Robot




    ISBN: 0586057242
    LibraryThing
    		This is another of Asimov's robot short story collections, and many of the stories appear in earlier works. In fact, I would recommend getting I, Robot and this book, and avoiding The Rest of the Robots if you're not interested in owning a complete collection of books, but do want to have all of the stories. I say you should get a copy of I, Robot mainly because it has linking matter between the stories that this book lacks.

    The Complete Robot is as good as Asimov's other short story books I have read, which means I thought it was fantastic.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 09:33 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Fri, 08 Aug 2008


Isaac Asimov's Nightfall Short Stories

    Asimov published two books named Nightfall 1 and Nightfall 2 which are collections of short stories. I have both of these books in a single volume named "Nightfall', which is not to be confused with the novel of the same name by Asimov and Silverberg. I was getting quite confused about which robot short stories I had already read already (many appear in more than one collection), so I built this table to help:

    Nightfall
    1969
    The Complete Robot
    1982
    Robot Dreams
    1986
    Robot Visions
    1990
    Nightfall
    		       
    Green Patches
    		       
    Hostess
    		 
    		   
    Breeds There a Man
    		 
    		   
    C-Chute
    		       
    In a Good Cause
    		       
    What If -
    		       
    Sally
    		   
    Flies
    		       
    Nobody Here But -
    		       
    It's Such a Beautiful Day
    		       
    Strikebreaker
    		 
    		   
    Insert Knob A in Hole B
    		       
    The Up-to-date Sorcerer
    		       
    Unto the Fourth Generation
    		       
    What is this Thing Called Love?
    		       
    The Machine That Won the War
    		 
    		   
    My Son, the Physicist
    		       
    Eyes Do More Than See
    		 
    		   
    Segregationist
    		 


    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)

posted at: 11:55 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Wed, 06 Aug 2008


The Rest of the Robots

posted at: 19:41 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Tue, 29 Jul 2008


Prelude To Foundation




    ISBN: 0586071113
    LibraryThing
    		Written well after the original Foundation novels, Prelude to Foundation is one of two prequels. The book ties in nicely with Robots and Empire, as well as the other robot novels.

    Its a good book too, with its 460ish pages only taking a few days to read (I think I knocked it over in about four days). The story is sufficiently engaging that I kept looking up and discovering that I had read another 100 pages. There are also a couple of twists in the book (I count three in fact), only two of which I had figured out before the characters.

    A good book. Probably better than Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire, and definitely better than Allen's Caliban trilogy (Caliban, Inferno, and Utopia.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 04:10 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Tue, 22 Jul 2008


Pebble in the Sky




    ISBN: B000K052KS
    LibraryThing
    		This is Asimov's first book, and not his best. Its set on an Earth which is radioactive (possibly because of a global nuclear war as supposed in the book, or perhaps because of events described in Robots and Empire). There is a galactic empire at this point, and overall humans have forgotten that they originated on Earth.

    (I find that a little hard to believe by the way. Whilst it is true that we have lost historical records from thousands of years ago, we do have some and archeology has constructed at least a partial history for humanity. Additionally, we now have pretty solid record keeping as a society, and it is left unexplained where all those records might have gone. Finally, there is no mention of techniques like carbon dating, which presumably could have been used to prove that Earth is indeed the original planet.)

    I did like the general gist of the book, although the conclusion was unsatisfying as well. Overall, not Asimov's best work.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 23:07 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Sun, 20 Jul 2008


The Currents of Space




    ISBN: 0553293419
    LibraryThing
    "The Currents of Space is a 1952 novel by the American science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is the second of three books labelled the Galactic Empire series. Each occurs after humans have settled many worlds in the galaxy after the second wave of colonisation that went beyond the Spacer worlds and before the era of decline that was the setting for the original Foundation series. Each of the three is only loosely connected to other works, being separated by a fairly large gulf of centuries."


    That's the description from Wikipedia. This book is completely separate from The Stars Like Dust, in that while it might use the same universe the characters are entirely different and there quite a distance between the books in the time line of the series. Really, they're separate novels entirely.

    I found it quite hard to get into this book, and I don't think it is as well written as The Stars Like Dust. The problem might have been that I found it pretty hard to care about Rik, and the Florina / Sark division was a bit shallowly constructed. Its hard to imagine a segregation system which is as completely effective as the one described. How did it ever occur? Why didn't people fight back? Did people never randomly fall in love with the "wrong" set of have affairs?

    I persevered however, and the second half of the book is much better that the first, including some twists I didn't expect. Overall an ok book, but not fantastic.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 04:44 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Sat, 12 Jul 2008


The Stars, Like Dust




    ISBN: 0449023737
    LibraryThing
    		This is a short book, and quite different from the other Asimovs I've read recently. Specifically it doesn't have any robots, and isn't a murder mystery. Its also set about 1,000 years into the future from the previous Robot Mysteries. Its a good book, with a style similar to the original Robot Mysteries (distinct from the newer ones written 40 years later). Its short and an easy read. I liked it.

    Update: I originally thought the space between the Robot Mysteries and this book was much bigger than apparently it is meant to be. According to Wikipedia's page on the empire series:

    "Some sources further this argument by asserting that The Stars, Like Dust takes place about one thousand years following the events of Robots and Empire."


    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 03:15 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Sun, 08 Jun 2008


Robots and Empire




    ISBN: 0586062009
    LibraryThing
    		I find the newer Asimovs harder to read for some reason -- I think it might be because they are more inclined to introspection that the earlier ones, but that might not be all of it. Overall I enjoyed this book, although I did find that I lost enthusiasm briefly in the middle. Overall, worth the effort though.

    You can tell that Asimov was getting old at the time that he wrote this book, as he dwells extensively on the importance of living an interesting and worthwhile life, instead of necessarily a long life. Overall he makes the argument that this is what is wrong with Spacer society -- life is so long that its inconceivable to take risks early in life that might shorten that life. Later in life its too late however, as you are by then trapped in your comfortable rut. Its an interesting concept, and one which bears further consideration.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 21:02 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Wed, 28 May 2008


Robots of Dawn




    ISBN: 0553299492
    LibraryThing
    		This book is the third in the third in the Robot mystery series, and is once again set on a Spacer world. This one was written 30 years after the first two, and Asimov's style has noticeably changed between the 1950s and 1980s.

    The book starts off slowly, with a lecturing tone which I found quite annoying. For example, devoting an entire page to a discussion of whether the deliberate death of a a robot (even a human shaped on) is murder. Often the first part of the book feels like it is going excessively slowly.

    However, its only the first third of so of the book which suffers this flaw. Its as if Asimov realized after a while that he also had a story to tell, and got on with it. The book then improves massively and has a good story.

    So, overall I liked this book, although the first part of the book wasn't as good as the rest of the Asimov I've read.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 08:55 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


Fri, 16 May 2008


Naked Sun




    ISBN: 0553293397
    LibraryThing
    		Bill Clarke was kind enough to lend me a compendium of Asimov that contained the next book in the series I'm reading at the moment. I've had to skip over some of the earlier collections of robot short stories, because they're quite hard to find. Specifically, I haven't been able to find anyone with a copy of The Complete Robot for sale, even new.

    This book is the next in the Robot series, and the second which features Detective Baley. Again Baley is solving a murder, although this time its occurred on a Spacer world instead of his own Earth. Along the way he has to confront his own fear of open spaces, as well as other's fear of proximity to other humans.

    This was again another excellent book. I enjoyed it a lot.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Isaac_Asimov(S)


posted at: 21:45 | path: /book/Isaac_Asimov | permanent link to this entry


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