Quote:
Originally Posted by Karellen
They were taken down from Amazon back circa 2013/2014. My understanding is that The Azimov estate said that no financial gain could be derived from the works, but had no problems with the works if they were free, which is why any donations are limited to that trivial amount of a couple of dollars.
These final Foundation books are very well written, and quite complex which required me to take notes as there were a number of characters that the story followed. So all those Caliban, Prospero, No-law robots, modified law robots, original law robots are all covered in the novels, as well as Harry Seldon, Wanda, and the usual characters from the stories.
I never ended up reading Psychohistorical Crisis as I only discovered its existence when I had almost completed reading the Universe, and I did not feel like going back and reading more...
I definitely agree, Asimov wrote a lot and a lot of it was not great. I would not recommend anyone to read the entire opus the way I did. I find it highly frustrating at times and it came to a point where I couldn't wait to be finished. But I persisted.
My main thoughts are...
1. Most of the Robot stories are childish. It is not hard to imagine 12 year old boys, well after bedtime, hiding under their sheets with torch in hand marvelling at the talk of robots and space battles. Where quick-witted protagonists win the day with simple (and quite childish) arguments of logic, where enemies mutually respect each others efforts and graciously accept defeat and punishment. Where women are simply a petty hindrance (or entertainment) that have no capacity to understand the "workings of a mans world" and become hysterical or faint at the slightest provocation. Men are arrogantly proud and burst into anger at the minutest perceived disagreement or insult. These stories are simply 1950's society placed in a "futuristic" setting.
2. There is such an imbalance and mismatch of the level of technology in all of Asimov’s stories. How is it that scientists could invent the fabled Positronic Brain, with the billions of required nano based circuitry but computers are still at the punch-card level using vacuum tubes? This is the equivalent of inventing the combustion engine but not yet discovering the wheel.
I like the concept of Foundation, but not its delivery.
I do also like Arthur C. Clarke, and adore his (and supporting authors) Rama series.
The author told me he was hoping that a publisher would pick him up and sort out the Asimov Estate issues and they would, among other things, update the covers.
I contacted the author via his website to ask his progress on the final book. He stated it takes about 5 years to write so not to expect anything until circa 2013. We have corresponded a number of times since and he is a really nice and approachable person.
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Reading the entire ops of an author would not be my choice. I like zukini, but I would not eat it for three months straight. I agree some of Asimovs ideas were rapidly outdated . I have often thought that atomic in Foundation should be replaced with some other word. I disagree with comments regarding the robot stories. Asimovs continues to influence the field. Did you read A Beautiful Day. I read it recently. It shows I think that Asimov wrote about people.
I would not advise you to read Clarke's entire opus. Much of his stuff is not that great. He was at his best as a short story writer. IMO he wrote only 3 truly great books. But what books! Rama is a great book (though JS Wolf Will be along to differ), but the sequels are almost unanimously derided as dross. I tried rereading the second book. The writing is an embarrassment. Perhaps the others are better.