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I just remembered the multi-chapter "lemonade death" subplot from one of the books and cringed imagining real actors forced to perform it.
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Nov 5, 2021 15:04
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I have a book called Asimov Laughs Again, which is a collection of jokes, limericks, stories, etc. And there's a lot of good stuff, but yeah, he tells some stories about his interactions with women that you're supposed to think are funny and cute, but in TYOOL 2021 are just super cringy. Also, a lot of it comes across kind of like he's bragging about how much smarter he is than you, you puny reader.
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Nov 5, 2021 21:38
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Presto posted:I have a book called Asimov Laughs Again, which is a collection of jokes, limericks, stories, etc. And there's a lot of good stuff, but yeah, he tells some stories about his interactions with women that you're supposed to think are funny and cute, but in TYOOL 2021 are just super cringy. I also have that book, read it as a loving child nearly 30 years ago, and even then, in that time, again, as a child, found the passage where he excused not writing female characters due to being a virgin awful and reflecting badly on him. And the follow up passage where he proudly describes receiving an "awful lecher" award as a "counterpoint" to that was even worse. It didn't need to be 2021, I thought worse of Asimov from the very day I read that part. I don't think I've ever said a word about it to anyone, but damned if that part didn't stick with me.
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Nov 6, 2021 04:03
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It was published in '92, so you're right, that stuff was already eyebrow raising, collar tugging inappropriate. And in the 30 years since it's aged like fine milk.
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Nov 6, 2021 17:00
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Okay I'm working on the first foundation book as an audiobook and this Wienis guy's name has to be intentional right?
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Nov 10, 2021 19:07
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Nitrousoxide posted:Okay I'm working on the first foundation book as an audiobook and this Wienis guy's name has to be intentional right? It could be. He is a dick.
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Nov 10, 2021 19:12
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Nitrousoxide posted:Okay I'm working on the first foundation book as an audiobook and this Wienis guy's name has to be intentional right? I've always assumed so, yes.
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Nov 10, 2021 19:15
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Well, book Foundation book 2 bamboozled me. I had almost immediately figured that the clown was the Mule, but as the story went on I got to be less and certain of that since the the Mule seemed to still be able to act when he'd otherwise have been absent if that were true. By the time it was over I had pretty much completely discounted that as a possibility, so I guess his powers worked on me too.
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Nov 17, 2021 15:06
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Nitrousoxide posted:Well, book Foundation book 2 bamboozled me. I had almost immediately figured that the clown was the Mule, but as the story went on I got to be less and certain of that since the the Mule seemed to still be able to act when he'd otherwise have been absent if that were true. By the time it was over I had pretty much completely discounted that as a possibility, so I guess his powers worked on me too. Asimov is not a bad mystery writer, though its rare in the Foundation stories. you see more of it in the robot stories
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Nov 17, 2021 15:56
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The entire book and story series that started with caves of steel is a whodunit. Even some of the shorts that come from it. Also the eternals is a mystery as well. It's kind of a backwards mystery though in a really fun way. Also some parts of the foundation prequel books, are mysteries. You know now that I think about it there's a lot of mysteries in his robot books
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Nov 17, 2021 16:45
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Not to mention all those Black Widower and Union Club mystery short stories he did over the years. As well as some mystery novels like Murder at the ABA, Showbusiness is Murder, and Murder on the Menu.
jng2058 fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Nov 17, 2021 |
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Nov 17, 2021 16:51
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I'm doing a quick re-read of the Foundation series (the classic trilogy at least) just for a comparison with the TV series, and I've just gotten to the point in Second Foundation where it's just characters in a room having a lengthy back and forth that goes: "[Long chain of reasoning about the events of the story], therefore I win." "Ah, but if that's true, then [different long chain of reasoning], which means I actually win." "But what you don't realize is [new fact], therefore [another long chain of reasoning] means I win." [Another character enters] "Actually, you're both wrong, I win because [more reasoning]". [Another character enters] "Guess what, I've had you fooled all along because [new fact] which means [reasoning]." "Ah, but I've foreseen your action and [etc. etc. etc.]" Don't get me wrong, it's a great scene, and it's perhaps the perfect distillation of Asimov's writing style for these books (that is, most of the story movement takes place in conversations, not in action scenes) but the sheer number of times this debate goes back and forth gets downright comical. I love it. 
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Nov 17, 2021 20:55
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asimov's mysteries are in general his best stories. the straight up scifi feels a bit meandering sometimes without the mystery as a scaffold
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Nov 17, 2021 21:18
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Powered Descent posted:I'm doing a quick re-read of the Foundation series (the classic trilogy at least) just for a comparison with the TV series, and I've just gotten to the point in Second Foundation where it's just characters in a room having a lengthy back and forth that goes: The ending is basically this too, with the Second Foundation does or does not exist changes every few sentences. Also, I got to about episode 5 or 6 before I turned it off mid episode. They were overexplaining the Celon cloning and showing they had backups in case one was killed or if they found out he was color blind. I just stopped caring about the show, and figure they basically took a bunch of other sci-fi concepts and just shoved it into this I.P.
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Nov 17, 2021 22:05
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IUG posted:The ending is basically this too, with the Second Foundation does or does not exist changes every few sentences. I actually love the clone emperors story line, despite having no basis in the books. I just wish they would stick closer to the books with Terminus
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Nov 17, 2021 23:43
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Yea, but they could have done the emperor thing at the start, and just kept the same actors throughout until the eventual end of the empire. And basically mostly followed the books.
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Nov 18, 2021 00:03
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Sorry to lazy to read the thread but which was the one that started with the robot waking up in a pool of blood. Read it super young and still think about it. Also another book that I know he didn’t write but maybe some old school reader might remember it, it was about some dude waking up to a utopia hippy future and it explained some weird group soul where everyone lives a life dies then does it again but with 1 different change then lives that life only to die and relive with 1 more change….poo poo blew my mind at like 11.
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Nov 18, 2021 10:59
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a sexual elk posted:Sorry to lazy to read the thread but which was the one that started with the robot waking up in a pool of blood. Read it super young and still think about it. Also another book that I know he didn’t write but maybe some old school reader might remember it, it was about some dude waking up to a utopia hippy future and it explained some weird group soul where everyone lives a life dies then does it again but with 1 different change then lives that life only to die and relive with 1 more change….poo poo blew my mind at like 11. The first book is "The Grapes of Wrath" and the second is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".
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Nov 18, 2021 16:54
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I'm struggling to remember any story that begins with the robot waking up. Actually I can only remember one story told from a robot perspective. Was it a short story?
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Nov 18, 2021 16:56
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CainFortea posted:I'm struggling to remember any story that begins with the robot waking up. Actually I can only remember one story told from a robot perspective. Was it a short story? It might have been but I was super young at the time, it just stuck with me. I’m like 90% sure it was Isaac but I could have read it then seen Asimov name with a picture of a robot on the cover and invented a memory.
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Nov 19, 2021 04:19
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Probably from one of the anthologies he edited or from the magazine his name was on. The only story that's (partly) from a robot's perspective is "The Bicentennial Man"; otherwise, robots are sidekicks or plot devices.
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Nov 19, 2021 07:18
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a sexual elk posted:It might have been but I was super young at the time, it just stuck with me. I’m like 90% sure it was Isaac but I could have read it then seen Asimov name with a picture of a robot on the cover and invented a memory. I have the same problem with a book I read as a kid that I spent 30 years convinced was asimov, but later realized it wasn't. I still can't find the book though. Cobalt-60 posted:The only story that's (partly) from a robot's perspective is "The Bicentennial Man"; otherwise, robots are sidekicks or plot devices. Robots and Empire is sorta kinda from the robot's perspective?
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Nov 19, 2021 08:45
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a sexual elk posted:which was the one that started with the robot waking up in a pool of blood. I think it's this spin-off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov%27s_Caliban
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Nov 20, 2021 00:52
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Inverigo posted:I think it's this spin-off: loving thank you, that’s been bugging me for yeeeaaars.  
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Nov 20, 2021 04:07
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Have not yet finished book 3 from the Foundation Trilogy. Just finished the Mule plot in book 3. Two people now have been surprised upon learning where the second foundation is but it's not been revealed to the reader. I can only assume they are living in the basement under the first foundation like a bunch of hikikomori.
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Nov 20, 2021 18:09
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I recently re-read Foundation (to get the taste of the TV series out), and something seems slightly off. Particularly in the first book, I could have sworn that in the ancient library paperbacks that I read in high school, it used the word "atomic" in a bunch of places where the e-book says "nuclear" or "nucleic". At some point I acquired a hardcover of the whole trilogy, so I checked that, and it uses nuclear. Did Asimov decide to update the terminology at some point, or am I going senile for specifically remembering how I enjoyed the 1940s-style atomic lingo?
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Nov 20, 2021 19:35
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Powered Descent posted:I recently re-read Foundation (to get the taste of the TV series out), and something seems slightly off. Particularly in the first book, I could have sworn that in the ancient library paperbacks that I read in high school, it used the word "atomic" in a bunch of places where the e-book says "nuclear" or "nucleic". At some point I acquired a hardcover of the whole trilogy, so I checked that, and it uses nuclear. It was always "Nucleaics" as far as I recall from my teen years reading it. Atomics comes up more in other books I think.
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Nov 20, 2021 19:37
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Nitrousoxide posted:Have not yet finished book 3 from the Foundation Trilogy. Just finished the Mule plot in book 3. Two people now have been surprised upon learning where the second foundation is but it's not been revealed to the reader. I can only assume they are living in the basement under the first foundation like a bunch of hikikomori.  the second foundation was in our hearts all along?!
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Nov 20, 2021 21:53
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I remembered it as atomic too.
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Nov 20, 2021 22:14
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Nitrousoxide posted:Have not yet finished book 3 from the Foundation Trilogy. Just finished the Mule plot in book 3. Two people now have been surprised upon learning where the second foundation is but it's not been revealed to the reader. I can only assume they are living in the basement under the first foundation like a bunch of hikikomori. Yeah, come back and talk to us after you read Second Foundation and we can have a nice chuckle about this.
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Nov 20, 2021 22:55
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The Second Foundation is people! Second Foundation is made out of people! IT'S PEOPLE!!! 
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Nov 20, 2021 23:23
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The Second Foundation is Luke's father. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
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Nov 20, 2021 23:25
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The Second Foundation is the sled that Charles Foster Kane had as a child Okay, I'll stop.
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Nov 20, 2021 23:26
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sebmojo posted:I remembered it as atomic too. Same. It's possible that's my mind mixing details up with Dune, though.
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Nov 21, 2021 01:52
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I re-read the Foundation trilogy a couple years back. Didn't like it as much; seems way too dry now, but it perfectly hit my Very Logical teenage self. Although the plotting of second faoundation and the reveal that it's RIGHT BEHIND YOU is great.
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Nov 21, 2021 03:15
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jng2058 posted:Yeah, come back and talk to us after you read Second Foundation and we can have a nice chuckle about this. Well, I guess I gave the satisfactory answer, but not the true answer. To think the Mule was literally on top of them at the end of book 2 and none the wiser.
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Nov 21, 2021 07:31
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Are you going to go into the prequels or the sequel books?
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Nov 21, 2021 08:15
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Nitrousoxide posted:Well, I guess I gave the satisfactory answer, but not the true answer. So close, and yet so far.... Actually, if you go back to the very first story in Foundation, it's right there near the end. "Most will leave for Terminus, but some will stay."
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Nov 21, 2021 08:25
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CainFortea posted:Are you going to go into the prequels or the sequel books? I was going to go in the order of publication, so I think the sequels are next.
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Nov 21, 2021 09:24
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Nitrousoxide posted:I was going to go in the order of publication, so I think the sequels are next. In that case you will need to read Caves of Steel and all of the other robot series books before you read the sequels 
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Nov 21, 2021 15:04
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