FelixSH
(He/Him)
In TT 2.0, I made a thread about the author, because I was just reading through all his Foundation / Robots stuff, which he later merged into a single Universe, as the Foundation Cycle. Well, I'm still reading his stuff, mainly the short stories from time to time between bigger books, but I also have a few novels left. This is way too late, but I want to write a bit about each short story, just so I have something to look at. And, ideally, to have someone to talk to about these stories.
At the moment, I'm slowly (like in the time frame of over a year) making my way through the book The Early Asimov, Volume 1. As the title implies, it contains his very early works, stuff I have never seen anywhere else. And, granted, it shows. It is obvious, that he still had to get into his own, but that doesn't mean that the stories are without value. There have been a few good in there. It's just, he is trying to be humorous, and that is just not really his strength. But he also knows this - a nice thing is that there is, after each story, a short bit from Asimov, where he talks about the history of said story, if he sold it, and what he likes or dislikes about it. Generally, musings.
Spoilers, of course. Which might be bad, considering that these are short stories. I'll just put the stuff in spoiler tags.
Half-Breeds on Venus
This is an interesting case, of him writing his first sequel to another short story (Half-Breeds, have read that forever ago, don't remember it much). It's about them settling on Venus, because they are disliked on Earth. After settling in, new settlers from Earth, humans, appear, so the half-breeds scare them away. There are also sentient, friendly creatures who can communicate telepathically, and a lame romance.
Really just a typical, early story. Nice ideas, but not particularly great or interesting, and the romance is awful.
The Imaginary
Asimovs first time, where he thinks about what later would become Psychohistory - the use of mathematics in psychology. Aside from that, this story was one of the weakest I have ever read from him. The title refers to imaginary numbers, and I can't even decide, if this was a debated thing in Mathematics at the time, or if it is just supposed to be weird in the context of psychology, because no one knows what it means. Some scientist uses it, to solve some equation about a squid, about its behaviour, I guess. They apply their knowledge, weird stuff happens that might destroy the universe, and then a superpsychologist solves everything, somehow. I honestly couldn't follow, maybe because I was bored.
Said superpsychologist also comes back from vacation (or maybe a long study trip), and finds his wife to be nice, instead of the cliched, complaining housewife. Unfortunately, Asimov still often included gender stereotypes, especially with women. Which he didn't include, in general, because he didn't understand them, not knowing many. Because, you know, women are basically a different species, or something.
He did get better about this, though. It's just typical, early sci-fi.
Oh, and this story is another sequel, about an intergalactic Empire. I don't remember the first story, but it being a sequel adds nothing to this story.
I promise, I'm not trying to bash Asimov here, I love his stuff and want to read as much from him as possible. But with the amount he wrote, there is bound to be a few clunckers, especially this early.
At the moment, I'm slowly (like in the time frame of over a year) making my way through the book The Early Asimov, Volume 1. As the title implies, it contains his very early works, stuff I have never seen anywhere else. And, granted, it shows. It is obvious, that he still had to get into his own, but that doesn't mean that the stories are without value. There have been a few good in there. It's just, he is trying to be humorous, and that is just not really his strength. But he also knows this - a nice thing is that there is, after each story, a short bit from Asimov, where he talks about the history of said story, if he sold it, and what he likes or dislikes about it. Generally, musings.
Spoilers, of course. Which might be bad, considering that these are short stories. I'll just put the stuff in spoiler tags.
Half-Breeds on Venus
This is an interesting case, of him writing his first sequel to another short story (Half-Breeds, have read that forever ago, don't remember it much). It's about them settling on Venus, because they are disliked on Earth. After settling in, new settlers from Earth, humans, appear, so the half-breeds scare them away. There are also sentient, friendly creatures who can communicate telepathically, and a lame romance.
Really just a typical, early story. Nice ideas, but not particularly great or interesting, and the romance is awful.
The Imaginary
Asimovs first time, where he thinks about what later would become Psychohistory - the use of mathematics in psychology. Aside from that, this story was one of the weakest I have ever read from him. The title refers to imaginary numbers, and I can't even decide, if this was a debated thing in Mathematics at the time, or if it is just supposed to be weird in the context of psychology, because no one knows what it means. Some scientist uses it, to solve some equation about a squid, about its behaviour, I guess. They apply their knowledge, weird stuff happens that might destroy the universe, and then a superpsychologist solves everything, somehow. I honestly couldn't follow, maybe because I was bored.
Said superpsychologist also comes back from vacation (or maybe a long study trip), and finds his wife to be nice, instead of the cliched, complaining housewife. Unfortunately, Asimov still often included gender stereotypes, especially with women. Which he didn't include, in general, because he didn't understand them, not knowing many. Because, you know, women are basically a different species, or something.
He did get better about this, though. It's just typical, early sci-fi.
Oh, and this story is another sequel, about an intergalactic Empire. I don't remember the first story, but it being a sequel adds nothing to this story.
I promise, I'm not trying to bash Asimov here, I love his stuff and want to read as much from him as possible. But with the amount he wrote, there is bound to be a few clunckers, especially this early.
