Isaac Asimov?

[Mysterion]

Greg Cox wrote:

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If you're interested, Tor is publishing an authorized two-volume biography of Heinlein by William Patterson.

So he hasn't exactly slipped into obscurity yet!

Will definitely keep my eye out for that bio of Heinlein.

Can't say I like the idea of Heinlein's work fading into obscurity. His was the first SF I read in my teens, and there are a number of books of his I return to from time to time, and they never get old for me.

A lot of folks might dismiss him for some of his later work (Stranger, Number of the Beast, I WIll Fear no Evil, etc.), but I still think his overall body of work is an important part of science fiction in the 20th century, or at the very least an important part of american science fiction in the 20th century. The philosophical and moral underpinnings of his "juvenille" books, for example are still jsut as valid today as they were when they were written 50 or 60 years ago (and, I might add, a very sneaky way to expose younger readers to those things).

Personally, I cannot think of another science fiction autor I would rate higher than Robert Heinlein,and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Sorry for going so far off-track. I now return this thread to the subject of Isaac Asimov already in progress...

[Distorted Humor]

The moon is a Harsh Mistress is still looked as a good political novel by those of a libertarian bent...

[timothy]

who was the asimov artist who did the foundation books from the late 80's?
from foundation to foundation and earth.

[Allyn Gibson]

You're probably thinking of Michael Whelan. His cover for Second Foundation helped to instill in me a lifelong love of redheads.

[ITL]

^ I used to have the Robot series with Humongous Mecha style robot artwork. I wonder which one was Daneel?

[Steve Mollmann]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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You're probably thinking of Michael Whelan. His cover for Second Foundation helped to instill in me a lifelong love of redheads.

Me and Arkady Darrell are going to get married someday. (Those legs!)

(That was less creepy when we were the same age.)

[timothy]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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You're probably thinking of Michael Whelan. His cover for Second Foundation helped to instill in me a lifelong love of redheads.

yep you're right. he was probably one of my favorite sci fi artist next to frank frezetta. two of my favorite covers were foundantion's edge and the second foundation. I've been trying to find some posters with those covers on them for my room. any help here would be appreciated.

[Steve Mollmann]

Michael Whelan's website would probably be a good place to start.

[stj]

All these pages but no one has mentioned the short stories?
Dreaming is a Private Thing, The Ugly Little Boy, The Last Question, The Feeling of Power, The Martian Way, his short stories do include bad pulp like Friars but there is an impressive body of work there. The notion that Asimov isn't a "character driven" writer is exposed as the canard it really is. At least, in any reasonable interpretation of "character driven," which sometimes is code for some unsavory fantasies held by the (mis)user of the phrase.

Sometimes it seems to me that the real heart of science fiction is the short story. Possibly that's because short stories seem to have been peculiarly important in US literature, from the days of Washington Irving to Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Just looking at the novels is very misleading I think.

I think the best short story collections, aside from I, Robot and Foundation (using "short story" a little loosely there,) are Earth is Room Enough and Nine Tomorrows.

As to comparisons with Clarke and Heinlein, looking at the short stories, Heinlein does indeed bring up the rear, even remembering All You Zombies or By His Bootstraps. Heinlein's literary reputation I think in the end will rest upon the juveniles and the adult novels Double Star and The Door into Summer.

Stranger in a Strange Land will be remembered as a succes de scandale (pardon my French.) When conservatism becomes unfashionable again, Starship Troopers will die, while Farnham's Freehold and the brain transplant one that seems to be devoted to rationalizing sexual fantasies might kill his reputation despite the juveniles.

The day will not be soon. As noted, there is a two volume hagiography coming out. It is poor, poor stuff. It doesn't even wonder about the finances of Heinlein's silver mining venture. In discussing Heinlein's involvement in Upton Sinclair's EPIC campaign, it quotes Heinlein as talking about secret meetings of the Communist Party or about his factionalizing with EPIC without wondering what intelligence (military or police,) and business contacts Heinlein had when he was supposedly working for Sinclair!

On the subject of science fiction writers of stature, the truth of course is that H.G. Wells was and remains a writer of enormous stature. He is not considered so in conventional wisdom for political reasons and because it just offends against the canons of literature to imagine that things will be different, instead of plumbing the depths (yet again) of eternal Human Nature.

[Allyn Gibson]

Steve Mollmann wrote:

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Me and Arkady Darrell are going to get married someday. (Those legs!)

(That was less creepy when we were the same age.)

No comment. I wrote Foundation fanfic when I was that age...

[Klaus]

Whelan and Frazetta are my favorite sf/f artists as well... Though I do have a nostalgic fondness for the exceedingly-old-school covers they had in my youth:

[RAMA]

Klaus wrote:

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Whelan and Frazetta are my favorite sf/f artists as well... Though I do have a nostalgic fondness for the exceedingly-old-school covers they had in my youth:

Those are cool, and so are the famous Chriss Foss covers of the 70s.

This is the cover I have: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ima...283155&s=books

This is one of the best covers of all time:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-me...=setImg&page=0

RAMA

[Sindatur]

Klaus wrote:

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Whelan and Frazetta are my favorite sf/f artists as well... Though I do have a nostalgic fondness for the exceedingly-old-school covers they had in my youth:

My mom has that set.

[Mistral]

Distorted Humor wrote:

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The moon is a Harsh Mistress is still looked as a good political novel by those of a libertarian bent...

Excuse me? Where'd you find that brush you're painting with? The Moon... is a great little book about a revolution. Every revolution has a philosophy driving it-even if its just "more bread". To say the only fans are "libertarians" is an injustice-I'd say the fans of the story are sci-fi aficionados.

[Allyn Gibson]

RAMA wrote:

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This is one of the best covers of all time:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-me...=setImg&page=0

Ah, yes, Whelan's cover for the paperback edition of Foundation's Edge. Never did have any idea what the cover meant in relation to the novel's story. Doesn't stop me from loving it, though.