Asimov

[drgenestarwind]

Who reads Asimov, his most famous works include the Robot novels and the Foundation series. I'm in the middle of foundation right now and it's great. I've been a fan of his writings for a long time, he has hundreds of short stories too. His style is easy to read and fun to get into, his concepts far outpaced any sci-fi writer of his day.

[Ken-Ohki]

I've read all of Foundation, haven't taken the time to read the Robot novels yet. He's a spectacular science fiction story writer but a terrible storyteller. What I mean is he gets very technical and his stories ooze scientific probability. They're fascinating but hardly what I'd call good storytelling. His books get bogged down in technical details and become difficult to read. Sometimes he also gets so caught up in trying to work out the science aspect that I often got bored.

That's not to say that he's not among the greatest science fiction writers of all time. What makes him great is he's the first to truly bring the science fiction genre to the public. He and his peers came up with the rules of science fiction that we will be using through our lifetimes at the very least. His short stories ran for decades in anthologies and I'd say he was greater as a short story writer than as a novelist.

I'm pretty sure his books and short stories will be read for centuries but people who examine literature will always point out his shortcomings.

I really like him. :)

[Amuro]

The one I remember really loving when I read it in middle school (7th grade, to be exact) was The Gods Themselves. I tried to re-read it recently though and stopped because the [pseudoscience] had lost some of its mystique.

I recall that Wikipedia states that Asimov considered it his favorite of his books.

I also read Foundation and some other stuff, but I hardly recall it and remember being somewhat bored/underwhelmed.

I was always more of a Frank Herbert (Dune) kind of guy, although that particular series was a mixed bag in the sequels and suffered from extreme ups and downs.

[drgenestarwind]

I've finished the Foundation series (the ones Asimov wrote) and am nearly done with the Robot and Empire series. You don't know how happy I was with the reappearance of R. Daneel Olivaw in F&E and Prelude.

[the 17th Angel]

I think about the Last Question on a daily basis, it really is an amazing story.

[Caine]

I read the Foundation series, and enjoye it, though i thought it went downhill after a while. I haven't read anything else of his. It is on my radar, but it's far from the top of my list.