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Whoa! Rarely am I truly surprised and amazed by a casual comment that leads me to a Google search -- and discovery!!
I had not heard of Asimov's "The Last Question" before, and I love his writing. (I own first edition hard covers of "Foundation", "Foundation and Empire", "Second Foundation" [all Gnome Press publications, including a post card to the books previous owner, signed by the author], "Foundations Edge", "Foundation and Earth", and "Prelude to Foundation [Limited Edition, number 218 of 500, signed by the author]", (See Foundation Series)and his memoir, "I. Asimov".
Isaac Asimov was, IMO, one of, if not the greatest, writer of modern times. His range of genre was/is likely beyond compare to that of almost any other writer I know of.
Windows no longer obstructs my view.
Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes
I cut my sci-fi teeth on the Asimov stories as a kid, still love them, thanks for that!
woodsmoke
Same here, I metaphorically devoured everything my town & school libraries had of his by the time I was 13 or 14 years old, and still enjoy his stories to this day.
Nowadays my sci-fi reading is mostly from authors such as Neal Stephenson, Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod and Paul J. McAuley, but it was my love of Asimov's writing that led me to the discovery of all those writers.
Whoa! Rarely am I truly surprised and amazed by a casual comment that leads me to a Google search -- and discovery!!
I had not heard of Asimov's "The Last Question" before, and I love his writing. (I own first edition hard covers of "Foundation", "Foundation and Empire", "Second Foundation" [all Gnome Press publications, including a post card to the books previous owner, signed by the author], "Foundations Edge", "Foundation and Earth", and "Prelude to Foundation [Limited Edition, number 218 of 500, signed by the author]", (See Foundation Series)and his memoir, "I. Asimov".
Isaac Asimov was, IMO, one of, if not the greatest, writer of modern times. His range of genre was/is likely beyond compare to that of almost any other writer I know of.
I started off reading anthologies of Asimov's short stories before I got into his novels. What I personally felt made them so accessible was the little personal introduction / background to each story that he included. By doing so, he created a relationship with every reader... so much so, that when he passed I felt like I'd lost a friend.
I also like his non-fiction work almost as much as his fiction. The Relativity of Wrong, for example, is a great essay.
I. Asimov had a fey side as well, best illustrated by a spoof scientific paper he wrote in 1948 titled "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" which also underscores his knowledge of the sciences as well (he was very well educated). It has been told that this scientific paper, spoof that it was, was actually cited in other scholarly papers, the author(s) not being aware (at the time) that thiotimoline was not a real compound!
The world lost a great human being in his passing.
Windows no longer obstructs my view.
Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes
I. Asimov had a fey side as well, best illustrated by a spoof scientific paper he wrote in 1948 titled "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" which also underscores his knowledge of the sciences as well (he was very well educated). It has been told that this scientific paper, spoof that it was, was actually cited in other scholarly papers, the author(s) not being aware (at the time) that thiotimoline was not a real compound!
The world lost a great human being in his passing.
Ah yes, I'd heard about that pseudo-scientific paper - I believe Asimov mentioned it in the introduction to the story "Thiotimoline to the Stars".
Asimov was my favorite scifi author while he was alive. He never resorted to porn to sell his stories. "Hot throbbing rods" never appeared in his stories.
After he died it was Ben Bear for awhile, and then a couple other physicists who ventured into writing scifi.
Then I read Arthur C Clark till he passed.
Most recently I've read Robert Sawyer.
"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
– John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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