theguardian.com

Isaac Asimov

  • ️Guardian Staff
  • ️Tue Jul 22 2008

1920-1992

"If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives, and not the pattern of their words. I think He would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul."

Birthplace

Petrovichi, Russia

Education

Columbia University, US

Other jobs

Served in US army; became a chemistry professor.

Did you know?

Though in his books he travelled to the stars, he refused to fly in planes.

Critical verdict

He was never seen as more than a genre writer, and an embarrassingly prolific one, at that - Asimov wrote or edited more than 500 volumes and an estimated 90,000 letters or postcards. He has works in every major category of the Dewey Decimal System except Philosophy. Accepted as one of the greatest of genre writers, and provided for his following entirely new, vast and coherent mental universes to inhabit.

I, Robot: the first classics of the Robot series.
·

Influences

Karel Capek's RUR (1920, play; 1938, TV) coined the term "robot".

Now read on

If you're sure you've finished the Asimov oeuvre (including his guides to Shakespeare, science, and the Bible), his sci-fi stablemates, Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, provide a logical progression. Greg Bear and Patricia Anthony will also appeal.

Adaptations

Asimov himself was "special science consultant" on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but a surprisingly small number of his novels and stories have been filmed. The Will Smith vehicle I, Robot (2004) bears little semblance to Asimov's original novel, and is subject to intense criticism from Asimov fans. His novella The Positronic Man inspired the box office flop Bicentennial Man (1999).

As befits such a prolific writer, Asimov produced several autobiographical works, including In Joy Still Felt and In Memory Still Green. His final memoir, I, Asimov, is the most confessional: an enthusiastic monologue on science, writing and life.

Background
·
Asimov's Science Fiction online magazine
· Encyclopaedia Galactica: fanatically complete guide to his fictional world
· Full bibliography