[Aptorian]

http://www.multivax....t_question.html

I think I may have posted it before. Anyway, it's good. Read it if you haven't already.

[Gothos]

That stuff might just make me read s-f again. Damn you.
Now this will be in my head for the rest of the week. And whenever I try to talk to someone about it they'll give me blank stares. Fuck you, Apt.

[Illuyankas]

It's a classic, certainly.

[Tsundoku]

I remember reading that in high school. A truly great story.

I was only thinking about it the other day and couldn't remember the name of the story nor the author. Thanks.

[McLovin]

Sixty years since it was written and it still packs a punch. That's a classic.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

I remember reading this, the first scrap of Asimov I'd ever read. And the rest was history...

[Avatar]

Read it long ago, years before I knew what entropy was i think, great story, thanks.

[zpconn]

Sombra, on 31 May 2010 - 08:59 AM, said:

I remember reading that in high school. A truly great story.

I was only thinking about it the other day and couldn't remember the name of the story nor the author. Thanks.

I consider this the best short story I've ever read.

In my opinion, it is far, far beyond anything else Asimov ever wrote. I actually dislike almost everything he wrote except this.
Asimov himself wrote that many people don't remember the title or the author but the idea sticks with them for life.

This post has been edited by zpconn: 31 July 2010 - 06:41 PM

[amphibian]

Briar King, on 01 February 2013 - 10:00 PM, said:

This is the only Asmivo thread I could find. I'm watching I Robot right now and in not a big SF reader but his Foundation bks sound kinda cool. Can anyone tell me more about it?

Egghead dude develops math theories that predict socioeconomics, politics and war. Gets hooked into money to deal with a dying galactic empire, creates a foundation of people to use that math to survive collapse and rebuild empire. Plan doesn't go quite as intended.

Nice concepts, but Asimov is kind of a shitty writer. Not a must read, but will pass the time ok.

[Aptorian]

Just when I was getting into SF many moons ago I read the classics first, The Foundation series, 2001-3001, Rama, tons of Phillip K Dick, etc.

I could certainly recommend trying out the foundation series but it comes with a disclaimer. If you've already experinced good, modern, hard sci-fi it might be a bit tough reading through the classic stuff unless you're prepared for it. The foundation series is preposterously anachronistic in many places and the prose, dialogue and story... to a degree... is similarly marked by the time that has past. This is fiction written in a bygone era when the cold war was at its highest, nuclear power was a strange new science and few of the modern tropes had yet been established.

[Salt-Man Z]

I found the Foundation series to be pretty dry and dull, but his R. Daneel Olivaw books ("Robot series") are great, the first being the hardest to get through, IMO.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 01 February 2013 - 10:30 PM

[Use Of Weapons]

I, personally, love the Foundation books. The thing to remember is that Asimov was an ideas writer, and characterisation came a (distant) second to the ideas. Much of the plot is at the service of the ideas, too. If you read SF for the ideas, you'll love Asimov. If you need believable characters talking reasonable dialogue...not so much.

[Aptorian]

Dune is, in my opinion, fantasy in space. It's also more of a commentary on economics, industry, rulership and culture than so much a story about warring planets. It's really imaginative and Herbert could write the shit out of scene. IMO anyway. Then again I read the first book like 15 years ago or something.

[Orlion]

"The Last Question" was actually the short story Asimov was most proud of. One should also read 'Nightfall", which for a while was considered the best science fiction short story of all time. Further, the original Foundation trilogy got the Hugo for best series of all time... several decades ago

Asimov rose to fame during the pulp era. That means a lot of his stuff, including his longer works, would have been serialized in magazines. Once he tried to transition to the current era of book series... meyh. There was a lot of hit and miss (I can not remember where The Gods Themselves fall in this scheme... but it is well worth the read for the first two excellent parts. The third and concluding part dropped the ball completely and seemed to only slightly remember what the book was actually about).

I would definitely read I, Robot; the Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn (skip Robot and Empire); Foundation; Foundation and Empire; Second Foundation (The other Foundation books are decent... with the exception of Foundation and Earth, which will do if you need to kill time or absolutely need to resolve Foundation's Edge cliffhanger) The Gods Themselves.

[Avatar]

Quote

One should also read 'Nightfall", which for a while was considered the best science fiction short story of all time. Further, the original Foundation trilogy got the Hugo for best series of all time... several decades ago

Is that the one about a planet that experiences darkness only every x-thousand years? That's one of his best.

[Use Of Weapons]

Avatar, on 02 February 2013 - 08:18 PM, said:

Quote

One should also read 'Nightfall", which for a while was considered the best science fiction short story of all time. Further, the original Foundation trilogy got the Hugo for best series of all time... several decades ago

Is that the one about a planet that experiences darkness only every x-thousand years? That's one of his best.

Yep, that's the one. The story that pretty much defined SF's 'sense of wonder' for a generation.

[Salt-Man Z]

I really should read the short story of Nightfall sometime; I read the novel written with Robert Silverberg (?) and found it relatively pointless.