The King of SciFi - Issac Asimov
One of the greatest authors in the field of science fiction literature was Issac Asimov (1920 - 1992). Along with Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein he was considered one of the 'big three' in the field. In recent years, both Clarke and Heinlein have gained in popularity due to big budget Hollywood movies made out of their novels; the only movie made on an Asimov story was 'I, Robot', starring Will Smith, a mangled and mutilated version.
I was first introduced to Asimov through the Foundation series of novels. Afterwards, I hunted out and read all the Asimov books I could find. Asimov was an extremely prolific writer, having penned or edited over 500 books!! He has also had a large influence on subsequent scifi writers and was responsible for coining the term 'psychohistory'.
From what I know of Asimov his fiction books fall into three categories - the Empire series, the robot series and the Foundation series. I believe all these were written to be separate novels but somehow ended up being part of the same 'fictional universe'. Indeed, one includes the Lucky Starr series, one has a complete timeline - from the development of robotics on Earth followed by the exploration of the Solar System to the colonization of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Asimov's writing, especially in his earlier novels, was crisp and clear. The stories were well plotted and rarely bloated or full of cheap sex or gimmicks. He explored a wide variety of characters in his novels, from hard-headed politicians to explorers to wastrels. However, there were some common characteristics of his heroes - they all had a Holmes like deductive ability (admittedly buried deeply sometimes) and they had to make decisions affecting the whole human race at the worst possible time without much forethought!
Probably Asimov's most famous characters are Hari Seldon and the robots. Hari Seldon was a mathematician, who invented psycho-history, a mathematical model to predict the future. Interestingly, psycho-history was only able to predict the future of large groups of people rather than of individuals. Pscho-history is depicted in the books rather like how one observes the course of a river coming down from the mountains to the plains, while standing on the last hilly outpost. One can discern the broad sweep of the river but not the minute structures on the banks.
The other main characters are the robots. I can't think of any other scifi author who gave his robotic characters such depth and vitality while maintaining their totally dispassionate and logical basis. The robots appear to be almost human; however, they are not so and the point is emphasized at crucial times. Daniel and Giscard are two of the more interesting robotic characters in the series.
I believe a TV series is being planned on the Foundation novels. I hope the producers and directors capture the essence of the novels and focus more on the earlier work in the series.
I believe a TV series is being planned on the Foundation novels. I hope the producers and directors capture the essence of the novels and focus more on the earlier work in the series.
