Dedicated to Isaac Asimov's novel series
Partially completed with much more to come. Please click on any thumbnail book photo for more information. And/or check out the Timeline link.
This website is dedicated to a discussion of the three main series of Isaac Asimov novels. The Galactic Empire series, the Robot series and the Foundation series. I welcome your comments and input.
Isaac Asimov, the world maestro of science fiction, born in Russia near Smolensk in 1920, brought to the US by his parents 3 years later. Grew up in Brooklyn where he went to grammar school and at age 8 gained his citizen papers. A remarkable memory helped him finish high school before age 16. He went on to Columbia University and resolved to become a chemist rather than follow the medical career his father had in mind for him. He graduated in chemistry and after a short spell in the Army he gained his doctorate in 1949 and qualified as an instructor in biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine where he became Associate Professor in 1955, doing research in nucleic acid. Increasingly, however, the pressures of chemical research conflicted with his aspirations in the literary field, and in 1958 he retired to full-time authorship while retaining his connection with the University. Asimov’s fantastic career as a science fiction writer began in 1939 with the appearance of a short story, Marooned Off Vest, in Amazing Stories. Thereafter he became a regular contributor to the leading SF magazines of the day including: Astounding, Astonishing Stories, Super Science Stories and Galaxy. He has won the Hugo Award several times and the Nebula Award. With hundreds of books to his credit and several hundred articles, Asimov’s output is prolific by and standards. Apart from his many world-famous science fiction works, Asimov has also written highly successful detective mystery stories, a four-volume History of North America, a two-volume Guide to the Bible, a biographical dictionary, encyclopedias, textbooks and an impressive list of books on many aspects of science, as well as two volumes of autobiography. Isaac Asimov’s literary works have been and are welcomed on the book shelves of high schools and universities; in encyclopedia references on science fiction or in compilations of important American contemporary authors, his name has become a common sight.
Asimov was a man of significant scientific and academic standing with a doctorate in chemistry and an associate professorship at Boston University. He ascended to a role as a popularizer of science to the public. A typical example of this role is highlighted when we reference The Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature, edited by Max J. Herzberg which lists Asimov as primarily a “teacher, science writer,” giving particular stress to such achievements as winning the 1957 Thomas Alva Edison Foundation award for his book Building Blocks of the Universe and the 1960 Howard W. Blakeslee award from the American Heart Association for The Living River a book on blood chemistry. Among all science fiction writers, Isaac Asimov is one of only a handful of authors who have left a permanent influence on the pattern of modern science fiction. The entire frame of reference of today’s science fiction robots owes more to Asimov than to any single author. He formulated the three laws of robotics (actually there are four, but more on that elsewhere): 1.) A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm. 2.) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with The First Law. 3.) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. These extremely logical limitations were not only utilized by Asimov but have been adopted by a healthy majority of modern science fiction writers. Such built-in blocs supplied the robots with discipline that made possible dozens of fascinating dramatic and humorous situations enlivening and traditionalizing the body of science fiction.
