So there I am sat on the tube every morning snaking my way
through the underground tunnels of London on my way to work. What do I do while
sitting there gazing around at all the other early morning tube travelling
zombies that accompany me. I read a book and listen to music once my eye lids
start getting too heavy for me to keep open. I haven’t fallen asleep yet so my
routine seems to be working well.
But what books have I read I you ask. Well, go on then….
Ask.
“What books have you read?”
Well let me tell you.
Are you sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin.
First off, I worked my way through Isaac Asimov’s Robot
novels, starting with his short story collections. ‘I Robot, the Rest of the
Robots, the Complete Robot and Robot Dreams.’ Robot dreams though isn’t really
a robot novel just a collection of short stories, some of them with very little
to do with robots. These are great collections containing some truly remarkable
stories.
My personal favourites are (in no real discernable order)
‘Ugly Little Boy’
About a Neanderthal child ripped out of time (to become the
curiosity in a company developing the technology to take things out of time) that
is befriended and eventually mothered by the woman employed to take care of
him. It’s a great little story of human emotion and the love only a mother
could hold for a child otherwise laughed at by society.
‘Bicentennial Man’
Great story of a robot who wishes nothing but to be human.
‘The last question’
A great story covering eternity from life to death to life
again.
There are many more outstanding stories but it would take a
dozen posts to cover them all in detail so I will leave it at just these 3
brief little descriptions. These are just 3 of the handful that still stick in
my mind.
After reading his collections of Robot stories I then moved
onto the Robot novels.
Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Robots of Dawn and finally
Robots and Empire.
These are all fantastic novels that really show the massive
scope of Asimov’s vision. My only gripe with them is that the 3 Laws of
Robotics are repeated too many times throughout the books, though they actually
become 4 Laws by the end of the final novel.
These also serve as a prelude to his Foundation novels as
they are all within the same universe and share the same time line. There are
even references to some of his short stories in them though, obviously when you
try and tie stories together that have been written separately then you will
always get inconsistences. But these are just minor points in what evolves,
through the course of the Robot and Foundation novels, into a massive history
of mankind’s future.
Read these books, not in the order that they were written
but in the order that they should be read and you will thoroughly enjoy being immersed
into and unfolding history of the future. Once I had finished these books I was
on the verge of reading the Foundation novels for a third time but I decided to
give fiction a break for a while. Though not before I read ‘The End of
Eternity’ this is a story detailing the lives of people who are recruited from
various points in history to look after and guide humanity through the ages,
living outside of time. I found it a slow book to start with but by a third of
the way through I was gripped. Not one of Asimov’s easiest reads but an amazing
story never the less.
Order to read
ROBOT NOVELS
I Robot, The Rest of the Robots, The Complete Robot and
Robot Dreams (these four could really be read in any order and some of the
stories are repeated within the collections.
The Caves of Steel
The Naked Sun
Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire
(The Galactic Empire Novels come next but I have yet to read
these. They are: The Stars like Dust, The Currents of Space and Pebble in the
Sky)
FOUNDATION NOVELS
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
The Second Foundation
Foundations Edge
Foundation and Earth
Till next time.....
The Voice has spoken
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