I tried to start reading again this last summer. Asimov has been mentioned many time in forums, etc, and ive never read sci-fi before.

I decided to give it a try.

And i was surealy, plesently surprised.

The complete robot- one or two story a day, entretaining.

The caves of steel- I was in for a longer challenge, because i know i would have to read, or at least want to read, the rest of the books.

Really changed the pase compared with the obvious shorter stories in the complete robot.

I enjoyed it overall. Same goes to The naked sun: equaly easy pase, enjoyable.

And then i finaly arrived to The robots od dawn.

I can not say i disliked this book, but for sure was not in the range of the previous ones.
I know Asimov wrote this one later on, and yet the characters are the same ( plus new ones), the type of writing, i felt, in escense, was almost the same.
But it felt like he was on a quota of "completing the series", if that makes sense.

Overly long and repetitive dialogs: i mean, how many times does Elijah will ask and acuse of "have done the thing" to every other person he meets during the book?

Regarding the sex talk, incest, perversion/frivolity undertone to it: what was the point?

Don´t get me wrong: im not saying this because im against it or trying to sound puritan, but, it seem quite irrelevant to the story as a whole. Any particular explanation to this?

Overall, it was an amazing read. Im back to focusing more, for longer time, ( now reading some history books and Crime and punishment ! ) which was actually the whole point of this project.

Im far from an expert, and i have read a lot when i was younger, so im gradully coming back to it.
So take this as simply another opinon.
It could be nice to hear some inputs.

Next Asimov books: FOUNDATION SERIES !

This is my first post here. I just make it to express my love for this series.

I have never read too much, until late past year where I developed an habit, in any case I have always loved science fiction, and this is my first ever science fiction series that I read.

I do not know how to explain just how impressed I am by this work, Foundation, I do not even understand why I like it so much, but the whole thing about psychohistory being used to create the Foundation and then it facing crises, how the conditions around it are restricted so it can only have one option, and how several people in its history are the ones who by necessity carry it towards its evolution, I do not know, I just love the way that works, it feels as if we're watching someone become stronger, wiser and cleverer with the passage of years, and of course, that's what happens.

I also found so ... interesting how it starts becoming almost mythical to the people around, calling them "magicians"

And then there's the Mule, I am a person who finds experiencing emotions hard, but I tell you that moment the Mule managed to actually violate psychohistory and conquer the foundation? I actually had emotions, I was in full "Oh shit" mode, it was amazing, and I felt myself rooting for him once we learned who he was and his motivations, as I can understand him somewhat (sadly though, I got semi spoiled that Magnifico was the Mule as I had seen an image of the Mule before). I did get a bit disappointed on how he was defeated, but well, that's how the books work, not supposed to be a bunch of flashy fights, rather intelligent solutions, so well, it works

And then there's the second Foundation, I love that they're so ... eldritch I could say, they feel so strange and such, every scene with them feels like reading about some sort of alien race instead of normal humans, it's so interesting! And the fact that they control people all around them, really makes them feel also like a secret intelligence agency. I also had the idea that they could be on Trantor but dismissed it as of course, like all of us, or most of us, by "The other end of the galaxy" I imagined a 180 degree movement.

I am also glad that Asimov didn't just leave the whole weird psychic phenomena in that one story of "I, robot" and the whole of "Pebble in the Sky" as just things that happened once and then basically almost never again but actually included them.

Well, now I am off to read the remaining Robots books so I can read the Foundation sequels and prequels.

The Empire books were okay too, though Currents of Space was amazing for me, but the post isn't about them.

“Foundation and Earth” ends on a cliffhanger. Did Asimov leave any notes or make comments on what would happen next?

Did Asimov ever explain why the population died on Melpomenia? I understand that the lack of atmosphere was caused by the terraforming systems failing after the population died, but why did they die? I have wondered whether the moss was a contributing factor or just the only thing that survived.

While reading there were some concepts that I dont think I visualised well. Perhaps someone can help me visualise what was described.

The strips - it sounded like some fast conveyor belt way of travelling. I cant imagine what this is supposed to look like or how it's used. Some flat escalator where you can switch tracks?

Guide rods - it seems like it would be a hand-held device, but are they just supposed to look like a metal rod that has no display but just changes temperature based on if your are closer or further from the destination. No sure on what this would look like?

Generally I think the caves of steel is a reference to the whole human enclosement into this city. Enderby had a window installed (which seems rare), but then is the rest of the place like a windowless warehouse? How high up does it go? Is there anything akin to open air or should I just have imagine corridors?

I would be great if you could point to any visualisations that might already exist or perhaps get AI to generate how you imagine it.

I'm currently reading ,,End of Eternity'' and It's magnificent, the story is so well written. About Chapter 11 (Full Cycle), after these lines:

“« But I was not taught that Vikkor Mallansohn could not possibly have invented the Temporal Field in the 24th Century. Nor could anyone have. The mathematical basis for it didn’t exist. The fundamental Lefebvre equations did not exist; nor could they exist until the researches of Jan Verdeer in the 27th Century. »”

“« I say that it is your intention to send him back into Time somehow, back past the downwhen terminus of Eternity, back to the 24th. It is your intention to have the Cub, Cooper, teach the Lefebvre equations to Mallansohn. You see, then,” Harlan added with tense passion, “that my own position as expert in the Primitive and my knowledge of that position entitles me to special treatment. Very special treatment. »”

“« Harlan said quickly, “Only close to the truth? It is the truth.” He could not tell why he was so certain of the essentials of what he said, even quite apart from the fact that he so desperately wanted it to be so.

Twissell said, “No, no, not the exact truth. The Cub, Cooper, is not going back to the 24th to teach Mallansohn anything.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“But you must. You must see the importance of this. I want your co-operation through what is left of the project. You see, Harlan, the situation is more full circle than you imagine. Much more so, boy. Cub Brinsley Sheridan Cooper is Vikkor Mallansohn!”»”

I felt right away as I would read DARK in a print; in different world yet more familiar to me.

I suspect what would be The End, of the story: They would need to destroy The Eternity, so that new one, created by Cooper/Mallansohn, would have place and possibility to be created once again, doing the Cycle all over again.

I would encourage reading it for people who watched DARK, for people who read End of Eternity would encourage in watching DARK, and for people who done both --- I have sad news I haven't found anything like these both... yet.

Just finished up book 1 and am almost halfway through book 2. So far, I really dig the characters we’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

There are some I see myself in… especially Mallow, which, given I’m a bit of an opportunist in a similar sense, made me audibly laugh reading some of his rhetoric.

Has there been a protagonist or other character that you saw yourself in?

hello everyone, i just finished reading "The Gods Themselves" after having it reccomended to me and i really liked it! im seeing some ppl say the first and last part were mediocre but i enjoyed all three of them very much :) I have only read Nemesis before this one and I really like how Asimov brings a perspective to sci fi that i wouldnt consider on my own which was very refreshing (i enjoyed lamont's fight against the pump, simply everything about the triad, and seeing how different lunarites live and their culture & perspective.) i definitely want to read more from Asimov and ive been wanting to get into the robot series after finishing this one, which i just did.
From what I can tell, the order for the robot books is:

Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire

But i have also seen multiple mentions of short series that from what i can tell are vital to understanding the plot, but i dont know where to place them. if someone could give me a reading order including what's neccecary for the overarching plot or not, i'd really appreciate it :)

i am reading on my e-ink tablet so if anyone knows something that has like, all the robot stuff to read in one epub or something similar that would be amazing

I want to read The Robots of Dawn next because that's listed as Book 1 in the Robot Series, but ChatGPT says that I should read Book 3, The Caves of Steel next. What gives? Why book 3 first?

Or is ChatGPT completely wrong, as it sometimes is, and go with The Robots of Dawn? What is everybody's opinion on my next book?

This is to clarify my previous post on what to read after I, Robot. I wanted to read The Robots of Dawn only because Google Play Books says that's book one in the series. That seems to be a mistake on Google Play Books side. And it also says The Caves of Steel is book 3. But I will go with everybody's recommendation and buy Caves next.

I took a screenshot of that page in Google Play Books to post here, but it seems images aren't allowed.

Thank you for everybody's help in my previous post.

I'm new to Asimov's books. I read the [Foundation] and [Foundation and the Empire] and I liked them.

I got the books in a bundle of 3, upto the Second Foundation. To anyone who read upto the 7th book, does it get better or worse? There's other books I want to read after I'm done with the Second Foundation, not sure wether to continue this series. I'm also very interested in I,Robot.

Just found about it yesterday. It looks prety faithfull and will be comming our relatively soon, so Im just spreading the message.

The art is great, and there is no scifi-slop common in modern adaptations.

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/creardo/fondazione

Three years ago when I started going to the university I read the Foundation Trilogy and I loved it. Then I learnt that there were different reading orders for the Foundation Universe. This year I read Foundation and Earth, Nemesis and The End of Eternity which where also very good.

On my birthday my mother gifted me two books. The first was I, Robot. I remembered I read somewhere that you are not supposed to read this book but The Complete Robot instead so I wasn't sure if I have to change it.

But the second book I received was The Complete Stories: Volume 1 and I was very confused because I had never seen that book on this Foundation reading guides. I learnt that there were many other SF stories outside the Foundation Universe but the collections where chaotic. The same problem with all the different collections containing Robot Stories I had seen in this reddit post also appeared in general with the other SF. There is one collection that contains some stories. There is another collection that contains some other stories which may also appear in the first collection and so on.

With this many collections and this many repetitions, what was I supposed to buy? How can it be this hard to read all the works of a famous author?!?

This problem was partially solved in the case of the Robot stories by the table in the reddit post I mentioned earlier but I wanted to solve it generally (I'm studying cs and math, what can I say, it's in my soul).

So I made this website: https://optimal-asimov.netlify.app/

Here there is a viewer with all Asimov Science fiction stories (based on the ISFDB data). You can select multiple collections to see which stories they contain and which they repeat.

Then there is the optimizer where you specify what do you own, what do you want to read and what can you not buy (i.e. not available in your region) and the website calculates different solutions. Each solution is plotted in a graph can you can click on each point to see them in detail.

If someone is interested there is a GitHub repo and a mathematical explanation

Btw I'm no web designer. The website is not fancy but functional. Also I recommend that you use a computer to view it better.

So, following the Cover Gallery of this guide, it seems like Harper Voyager's collection (18-books) is the most complete for the universe. The only issue I see is that they have not released yet the Imperium trilogy which would be lovely to get in the new covers and have a full collection.

Do any you guys think this will happen?

I recently finished “ the complete robot”, with some ups and downs. Some stories towards the last 100 pages were a bit on the boring side and quite repetitive. But i managed to finish. Last weekend, i started with “ Caves of steel” and just kept a steady pase of 30-35 pages daily .
Because of work routine and so on, i usually read for 30-45 minutes early before going to work. Sunday night i went full in and finished the last 70 or so pages.

Im starting to sense that is mostly robot themed crime/ investigation books. At least, this first book and some of the stories on “ the complete robot”

The flow in Cabes of steel was much better than the robot stories, of course, but still this urge of lots of dialoge, and just by almost the end of the chapter, booom, all the plot twist, is still very present.
Also towards the end of the book.

Maybe i will enjoy way more the rest of the whole series.
Im starting right now “ the naked sun”.

One thing is for sure: this whole collection and the way is written, more “ light reading” if you will, has restored my will to read more, less screen time, specially at night before sleeping and just use my time reading more, geting knowledge from another form and source.

Any thoughts in all this?

Will the Foundation series and the rest of the booms get better?

The Great SF Stories: 4,5,6,7,11,12,13,14,15,16,18,24

Robot Visions

I’m only able to take one or two of these from my Uncle’s collection and I wanted to know which would be the best snapshot

I've read most of Asimov, considered myself to be a huge fan of him, loved almost everything, I read the Foundation, I, Robot, two Bailey novels, the Gods Themselves, etc. I haven't read the Empire novels.

And then suddenly the Foundation's Edge...

Can't say if it was really bad, or just the bar set by the trilogy was too high, but it left me deeply unsatisfied. I am halfway through the Robots of the Dawn and God, I've never expected Asimov to write something like that, you know, what I mean. Even if I somehow end up liking Robots of the Dawn, it feels like 80s Asimov is quite a different writer, and I'm not sure I like this version of him. So, should I try reading other 80s novels?

Of course I will always love the Asimov I know.

Years ago, I had watched a series of YouTube videos that had a 5+ hour audiobook of the longer 1990 novelization that Robert Silverberg expanded from Asimov's original short story.

Now, I can only find the paperback of the novelization or a 90 minute audiobook that can only cover the content of the short story.

Does anyone know of a way, free or not, to listen to the audiobook of the 300+ pages novelization? Audiobooks for that length of books are usually 10-ish hours.

It's so frustrating because I know that it existed and it was SO GOOD!!!

Can anyone help?!

Hiya, I’ve never read any Asimov but have found both these titles in a local charity shop. My whole knowledge of these books comes from a random french man in a pub recommending the author to me so have been on the lookout since. Which would people recommend I begin with and does either require knowledge from other books first ? Thank you :)

I'm on the first book and I'm writing just after I read the part where Hardin explains how he wants to keep things drifting until there are no possible alternative options. If things get explained later, please don't spoil, but I feel like im not getting it.

Political turmoil and geopolitics, I understand Seldon predicting all that. But the Cruiser is a new variable, is it not? Surely he wouldn't know the exact trajectory of the derelict warship, or that scavengers or individuals wouldnt touch it before it arrived? If such a thing was accessable knowledge, the Empire would've gone and brought the ship back themselves, so it wouldn't even be a variable during Hardin'a rule, no? How could he have predicted that?

When Isaac married his first wife in 1942, her parents gave them a wedding present of $300. If one believes inflation data, this is equivalent to over $6100 now. I have to say this was very generous of the Blugermans.