Asimov, Isaac

• Series: Foundation
  • Foundation (8 r)
  • Foundation and Empire (7 r)
  • Second Foundation (7 r)
  • Foundation's Edge (7 r)
  • Foundation and Earth (7 r)

    • Very well-written SF series about an empire built around a man who can accurately predict the future using statistical theory. The overall plot was good, and I would definitely recommend this. I haven't bothered with the recently released series preludes...didn't want to spoil a good experience. The original trilogy is an SF Classic, and the capital "C" in Classic is intentional.

• Nemesis (3 r)

  • I got this one in hardback as a Xmas present a few years ago. Boy, how I wish I had gotten a gift certificate or a bunch of paperbacks! Ah well. This one is about a group of colonists who discover in their journey that there is a star (seen from a different angle one can detect its motion since it is heading almost directly towards Earth...a neat concept) that will pass close enough to the solar system to alter Earth's orbit radically. The colonists go on to establish a colony on a very odd planet near a red dwarf and decide what to do with their newfound knowledge. I'd be more specific, but I've tried to block this story out of my memory.
• Series: The Robot Novels
  • I, Robot (8)

    • In newer versions of this paperback, Asimov recounts the interesting story of his work on these novels, explaining their sequence, when they were written, etc. This first in the robot series is actually a series of somewhat independent novellas strung together to recount the future history of the early days of robotics. Most of the stories are classic engineering tales of humans trying to outsmart "bugs" (such as unavoidable conflicts in programmed commands) that unexpectedly screw up the behavior of robots. This is classic sci-fi that does not feel dated at all. The stories are simple, clever and elegant, and they set the stage for a fun series.

  • The Caves of Steel (8)

    • The second novel of the series is a stand-alone detective mystery. In this world, Earth's cities are domed "caves of steel" that hold a society left behind by the more advanced (and envied) colonies. When a citizen from the more advanced half of society is murdered, a detective named Elijah Bailey is teamed up with a easy-to-mistake-for-a-human robot named Daneel Olivaw to solve the case. Conversations between these two sometimes feel like the kind of Kirk/Spock banter (although this was written in 1954) that made Star Trek fun. The murder mystery is fairly interesting, and the solution has some of the "why didn't I think of that?" feeling that is so necessary for a good mystery novel, and this is augmented by the interesting speculative aspects of the society.

  • The Naked Sun (8)

    • In this novel, Elijah is asked to investigate an off-world murder (despite his almost pathological fear of open spaces and unfamiliar territory that is part of the Earthbound culture) with the help of the robot Daneel Olivaw. I couldn't suppress my smile when these two were reunited with an enthusiastic "Partner Elijah!" exclamation from Daneel. The murder mystery here is complicated by the culture of this new colony, which all but forbids one-to-one personal contact (all communication is done with very-real holographic technology, facilitated by an army of robot servants). Another keeper.

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