Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
I think when we look at Asimov, or indeed many of the Golden Ager's characters, we need to keep in mind that much of their output was short stories. While short stories can be character studies, in SF shorts, you tend not to have much time for character development. Even many of Asimov's novels, written in the early 50s, are rather short by today's standards. I always tended to be more swept up by the power of Asimov's ideas than his characters.
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Asimov wrote memorable short stories, like "Nightfall" or "The Ugly Little Boy", but what made him considered a master was his novels. The foundation series is a classic for sheer scope, and things like _The Caves of Steel_ and _The Naked Sun_ do reasonably well on characterization.
In fact, most of the Golden Agers are primarily remembered for novels, even though they wrote short fiction. The main one I can think of offhand primarily known for short work is Frederic Brown, considered the master of the "short-short" story. I only recall one actual SF novel by Brown, though he did an assortment of mysteries in long form.
I think our perspective may be a bit skewed now simply because there has been more emphasis on characterization in recent years. Part of this is probably attributable to the increase of women writers in SF. Women tend to write more character driven fiction, and are keener observers of the things that make up character. We notice characterization more, and are more demanding in our expectations.
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Dennis