stillhq.com : Mikal, a geek from Canberra living in Silicon Valley

Nightfall (short stories)

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:38:00 PST

ISBN: 0586212558
Pan (1991), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 448 pages
LibraryThing

There are four Asimov books called Nightfall. There is a two volume collection of short stories (Nightfall One and Nightfall Two), a single volume version of this collection, and a novel length version of the short story "Nightfall", which headlines the short story collections. I've previously attempted to explain the list of short stories in the various versions of the collection at http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asimov/Nightfall_Short_Stories.html. There is also a correlation with previously published Robot short stories at http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asimov/Robot_Short_Stories.html.

I just finished reading the short story collection (in this case in a single volume). I haven't read any Asimov short stories in a few months (since September last year to be exact), and I had forgotten how much I enjoy them. One of the advantages of these short story collections is that you get to cover a lot of ground, and there is a real sense of accomplishment in finishing a short story. I think also that the shorter form keeps the author honest -- there simply isn't room to waste space on long passages which don't progress the plot.

This collection is excellent, much like the others I have read from Asimov. I will note that I particularly enjoyed "The Up-to-date Sorcerer", which isn't something I would expect from a Victorian style humor piece. This book was good reading.

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Isaac Asimov's Robot Short Stories

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:38:00 PST

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 ecrosses indicate stories which aren't about robots, and are really stow aways.

	I, Robot 1950	The Rest of the Robots 1964	The Complete Robot 1982	Robot Dreams 1986	Robot Visions 1990	Nightfall 1971
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
Nightfall
Green Patches
C-Chute
In a Good Cause --
What If --
Flies
Nobody Here But --
It's Such a Beautiful Day
Insert Knob A into Hole B
The Up-to-date Sorcerer
Unto the Fourth Generation
What is this Thing Called Love?
My Son, the Physicist

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Foundation and Earth

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:05:00 PST

ISBN: 0586071105
Collins (1994), Mass Market Paperback, 512 pages
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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.

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Foundation's Edge

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:40:00 PST

ISBN: 0586058397
Hunter Publishing+inc (1994), Paperback, 432 pages
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.

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Second Foundation

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:58:00 PST

ISBN: 0345336291
Del Rey (1986), Edition: 1st Ballantine Books ed, Mass Market Paperback, 282 pages
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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.

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Foundation and Empire

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:22:00 PST

ISBN: 0553293370
Spectra (1991), Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
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).

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Foundation

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:16:00 PST

ISBN: 0586010807
Collins (1994), Paperback, 240 pages
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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.

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Forward the Foundation

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:41:00 PST

ISBN: 0553565079
Spectra (1994), Mass Market Paperback, 464 pages
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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.

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Robot Visions

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:07:00 PST

ISBN: 0451450647
Roc (1991), Paperback, 496 pages
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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.

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Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:21:00 PST

I'm getting really into reading second hand science fiction from the 1950s onwards. I read a few (but nowhere near all) of the Foundation series as a child, and I remember liking them a lot. Stolen from Wikipedia as well as other online sources, here is a list of the books in The Foundation series in Asimov's suggested reading order:

Year	Title	Notes
1950	I, Robot	Robot short stories. First collection, which were all included in The Complete Robot, though it also contains binding text (Mind and Iron), no longer in The Complete Robot.
1964	The Rest of the Robots	Robot short stories. This collection isn't recommended, as the stories appear in The Complete Robot as well.
1982	The Complete Robot	Robot short stories. Collection of Asimov stories written between 1940 and 1976.
1986	Robot Dreams	Robot short stories. Anthologized in a book with the same title.
1990	Robot Visions	Robot short stories. Anthologized in a book with the same title. This collection contains Mirror Image, which is referenced in The Robots Of Dawn and occurs after The Naked Sun.
1992	The Positronic Man	Robot novel based on Asimov's short story The Bicentennial Man, co-written by Robert Silverberg.
1954	The Caves of Steel	Robot novel.
1957	The Naked Sun	Robot novel.
1983	The Robots of Dawn	Robot novel.
1985	Robots and Empire	Robot novel.
1993	Isaac Asimov's Caliban	Caliban trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen. These three books were quite hard to get, as they're no longer for sale.
1994	Isaac Asimov's Inferno	Caliban trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen. These three books were quite hard to get, as they're no longer for sale.
1996	Isaac Asimov's Utopia	Caliban trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen. These three books were quite hard to get, as they're no longer for sale.
1951	The Stars, Like Dust	Galactic Empire series.
1952	The Currents of Space	Galactic Empire series.
1950	Pebble in the Sky	Galactic Empire series.
1988	Prelude to Foundation	Foundation novel.
1993	Forward the Foundation	Foundation novel. Finished by Asimov's wife after his death from unfinished work. Combines a series of short stories: "Forward the Foundation", became Part I, "Eto Demerzel". "Cleon the Emperor" became Part II, "Cleon I", and "The Consort" became Part III, "Dors Venabili". Also includes "Wanda Seldon" and "Epilogue".
1951	Foundation	Foundation trilogy.
1952	Foundation and Empire	Foundation trilogy.
1953	Second Foundation	Foundation trilogy.
1997	Foundation's Fear	Second Foundation trilogy by Gregory Benford. The general concensus seems to be that this book isn't very good, but the other two are worth reading. Perhaps skip this one (although the other two will make less sense unless you read a plot synopsis of this book).
1998	Foundation and Chaos	Second Foundation trilogy by Greg Bear.
1999	Foundation's Triumph	Second Foundation trilogy by David Brin.
1982	Foundation's Edge	Final chronological Foundation books.
1986	Foundation and Earth	Final chronological Foundation books.

Next step, read them.

Update: this amazon list is also useful as it has a guide to the short story books and how they overlap, as well as a bunch more robot books written by other authors.

Update: this Foundation Series timeline is useful too.

Update: this page contains a useful list mapping short stories to later Foundation books.

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Robot Dreams

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:33:00 PST

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.

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The Complete Robot

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:33:00 PST

ISBN: 0586057242
Voyager (1983), Mass Market Paperback, 680 pages
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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.

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Isaac Asimov's Nightfall Short Stories

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:55:00 PST

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

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The Rest of the Robots

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:41:00 PST

ISBN: 0586025944
Collins (1968), Mass Market Paperback, 224 pages
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This is an Asimov short story collection about robots, where the stories are entirely contained in The Complete Robot, although in a different order. These stories are similar in vein to those in I, Robot , although it is odd that not all of the hyperspace development stories are present (perhaps some weren't written yet?). This is a good book, I liked it.

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Prelude To Foundation

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:10:00 PST

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.

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Pebble in the Sky

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:07:00 PST

ISBN: B000K052KS
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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.

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The Currents of Space

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:44:00 PST

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.

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The Stars, Like Dust

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:15:00 PST

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."

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Robots and Empire

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:02:00 PST

ISBN: 0586062009
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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.

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Robots of Dawn

Wed, 28 May 2008 08:55:00 PST

ISBN: 0553299492
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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.

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