The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov The possibility that we might visit our planet’s history – and maybe influence it – is the most tantalising of all fantasies. Perhaps, instead, we might travel into the future and, as observers, discover whether our descendants are still reading books, or watching films. What new mythologies can …
Tag: Isaac Asimov
The Robots of Dawn
by Isaac Asimov A Review 'And all turned to grey - and he was drowning. He could not breathe. He struggled desperately to open his clogged throat, to call to Daneel for help -' Looking back, I notice that I reviewed Asimov's Robots and Empire in May last year, and The Naked Sun in December …
Space Detectives
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov 'And at the very moment he felt Daneel's hand clamping down upon his shoulders ..... But surely a robot would not dare use violence on a man. That thought was dominant. Daneel could not prevent him forcibly, and yet Baley felt the robot's hands forcing him down.' Written sixty …
Foundation's End
At the end of last year, I promised to finish my series of blogs on the Foundation books of Isaac Asimov, so here goes! Asimov wrote seven Foundation novels altogether, the first three appearing first as short stories in the 1940s and 50s. See https://bookheathen.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/history-of-the-future/ He followed those in the 1980s with two more - …
Building a Foundation
Foundation's Edge & Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, published in novel form in 1951-53 was first conceived as a series of short stories in the 1940s. [See https://bookheathen.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/history-of-the-future/%5D Complete in themselves and as a unit, the three novels did not need a follow-up. Asimov turned his attention to other matters. Apart …
History of the Future
The Foundation Novels by Isaac Asimov 'There were nearly twenty-five million inhabited planets in the Galaxy then, and not one but owed allegiance to the Empire ... It was the last half-century in which that could be said.' Isaac Asimov is one of my all-time favourite writers. Not only can he spin a great yarn …
Going Boldly
Asimov and the Foundations of Fantasy Seventy years have passed since Isaac Asimov penned the first of his Foundation stories. Tens of thousands of years in the future, humanity has colonised far beyond the Solar System and established a galaxy-wide empire, dependant for trade and communications on faster-than-light travel. One single planet, Terminus, is beginning …
Nine Good Reasons
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov Forget the film! Whatever its merits or demerits, the movie starring Will Smith has almost no connection at all with the short story collection having the same title. Three of Asimov's characters - Susan Calvin, the robopsychologist, Robertson, the head of US Robots, and Lanning, one of its directors, do …
