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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
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.
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I think we are going to have to agree to disagree here. That being said, I am going to make my argument
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1. The first three published
novels in the Foundation Series were in fact not novels at all, but collections of short fiction that had originally appeared in pulps (With an exception of the first story which was written specifically to start Foundation).
2. If we look at Asimov's science fiction output, and discount fix-up novels like the original Foundation Trilogy and his juvenile novels, he actually wrote most of his science fiction novels in the last decade of his life; long after his reputation as a Science Fiction Author had been assured.
3. Prior to 1982, there were more collections of Asimov's short fiction than there Asimov novels published. In addition, some of these stories, including the ones you mentioned as well as others are some of the best known stores in Science Fiction. His robot short stories, especially those collected in I Robot not only redefined how SF looked at robots but also inspired many of the pioneers of real industrial robots.
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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.
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How about Tom Godwin, H. Beam Piper, Cordwainer Smith, A. E. van Vogt, Murray Leinster, C. M. Kornbluth? And lets not forget Ray Bradbury, yes he has published some novels, but he has published far more short fiction, and at least two of his novels (The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine) are essentially collections of short fiction.
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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
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I think our perspective might also be a bit skewed because the emphasis in literature in the past 20 years has skewed so strongly towards novels and series. Even in Science Fiction, where short fiction remains relatively healthy, it seems that many people read novels to the exclusion of short fiction. As a result we forget that short fiction all but dominated the science fiction market prior to the 1950s.