"Asimov on Science Fiction" by Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)

Publisher: Avon Books
Copyright: 1981
ISBN: 0380585111

This book is a collection of 55 essays that were taken from the editorials published in "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine", and many other publications, such as Parade magazine. The range of topics is very large even though they are all concerned with some aspect of science fiction.

The majority of these essays deal with the writing of science fiction, the history of s-f, and to an extent the history of pulp fiction in general. When Science Fiction first became a literary genre (even though it was nowhere near official) virtually the only place that authors could have their stores published was in what was then known as the pulps (so named because they were printed on cheap pulp paper). VP the author is virtually nothing, one of the highest was 1 cent a word, but most much less than that. Nevertheless, this is were the majority of classic science fiction writers cut their teeth. Authors such as Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, E. E. "Doc" Smith, and many more.

While I had not been born when the pulps were in their heyday, I'm not sure what the current state of science fiction would be today if they hadn't existed, in fact it's possible that the genre might not even exist as we know it.

Any person who is interested in the history of science fiction, the history of the authors of the genre, or just reading some very good essays on the topic of science fiction would find this book very interesting I think.

"The Foundation Trilogy" by Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)

Publisher: Doubleday
Copyright: 1951

The Foundation Trilogy is considered by most readers to be one of the classic science fiction story. It one science fictions most coveted award the Hugo in 1966, and has never been out of publication since it's original release in 1951. Very few other science fiction stories hold this publication record, one of the few being "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein.

The story itself is that many thousands of years in the future, and Earth (And the origin of humans) is a legend at best, but probably closer to a fable. Humans have essentially colonized the vast majority of the Milky Way Galaxy, and are governed by an Emperor who is located towards the centre of the Galaxy. It should be noted that in 1951 when this book was written it was unknown that a black hole is in centre of the Milky Way galaxy.

The empire however is in dire straits, and essentially falling apart. Hari Seldon, a mathematician develops the science of psychohistory-the mathematical formulation of sociology-which can be used to predict with fair accuracy the future based on group dynamics. He is able to predict the future of the empire, and its eventually downfall. His calculations indicate that there will be a gap of 30,000 year before the new Empire is founded. He however predicts that through the establishment of two Foundations that this can be reduced to 1000 years, even though the downfall of the current Empire is unstoppable.

The story tells of the events over a period of approximately 500 years following the collapse of the empire and prior to the predicted establishment of the second empire.

In the early 1980s Asimov wrote four other novels set in the same universe. Two were sequels: "Foundation's Edge" (1982) & "Foundation and Earth" (1986), and two were prequels "Prelude to Foundation" (1988) and "Forward the Foundation" (1993).

Enjoy!

"Notes for a Memoir: On Isaac Asimov, Life, and Writing" by Janet Jeppson Asimov

Publisher:Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 2006.
ISBN: 9781591024057
Characteristics: 207 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates :,illustrations, portraits ;,24 cm

I grew up reading the works of Isaac Asimov, and I've come to  believe that he along with Robert A. Heinlein, and to some extent Arthur C. Clarke are somewhat responsible for my outlook on life.

This book is a glimpse into the life of Isaac Asimov and his wife Janet Jeppson Asimov. The story is told through a series of stories, and musings about their life together. It touches on their thoughts on imagination, identity, and his compulsion to write. Dr. Janet Asimov also talks about various topics such as religion, sex, politics, history, philosophy, mortality and how she has coped with the loss of her husband.

If you haven't read any of Isaac Asimov's works then you are missing out on one of the great storytellers of the modern age. Janet Asimov (a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst) give great insight into how Isaac Asimov's mind worked, and gives the reader a feeling for what it might have been like to sit down and chat with them for an evening.

Also included are a number of short stories by Janet Asimov that have previously been published in various magazines.

A very good read, that I recommend to all.

"The Ancient Engineers" by L. Sprague de Camp

Published:

New York, NY: Ballantine Books

Year:

1986

Other Physical Details:

450 p. : illus

ISBN:

0345320298

Bibliography Note:

Includes bibliography and index.

Back when I first read this book (or at least portions of it), I was an undergrad student at the University of Alberta. The class I was assigned this in was a overview of classical technology. I don't remember the actual course designation anything but it was a very good course and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

At the time I did not know L. Sprague de Camp as anything other than a science-fiction writer. I was soon to find out that he worked alongside other great authors such as Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov and numerous others who also became famous science-fiction authors.

This book is an overview of the history of engineering from pretty much the very beginning until approximately the 1960s. It was written in 1960 and this therefore limited the author in what he could talk about. In some places I felt Mr. de Camp tended to skip over or at least gloss over some of the pertinent details that led to the invention being discussed but for the most part he gives a very good review of how engineering developed, the people in involved and the historical events that were occurring at that time.

The only major criticism I have of this book (which quite likely may be a minor one for many readers) is that they were nowhere near enough illustrations and other graphical forms of information to allow the reader to understand what is being explained. However, if these were included the book would need to be expanded to multiple volumes.

The book itself is organized by time period, and this does cause some confusion when speaking about certain types of inventions, as there is significant overlap in most of these sciences. I believe it might've been easier to read if the book was to be organized based on the given type of invention and proceeded from the very beginning street to the modern times.

It would be great to see a new edition of this book be published that takes up where Mr. de Camp left off, unfortunately he died in 2000 so it will have to be by someone else.