hugo – Page 4 – Made by Mikal

Pebble in the Sky

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 24, 2008
Post category:Book

This is Asimov's first book, and not his best. Its set on an Earth which is radioactive (possibly because of a global nuclear war as supposed in the book, or perhaps because of events described in Robots and Empire). There is a galactic empire at this point, and overall humans have forgotten that they originated on Earth. (I find that a little hard to believe by the way. Whilst it is true that we have lost historical records from thousands of years ago, we do have some and archeology has constructed at least a partial history for humanity. Additionally, we now have pretty solid record keeping as a society, and it is left unexplained where all those records might have gone. Finally, there is no mention of techniques like carbon dating, which presumably could have been used to prove that Earth is indeed the original planet.) I did like the general gist of the book, although the conclusion was unsatisfying as well. Overall, not Asimov's best work. [isbn: B000K052KS;0345335635] [award: nominee hugo 1951]

Robots of Dawn

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 29, 2008
Post category:Book

This book is the third in the third in the Robot mystery series, and is once again set on a Spacer world. This one was written 30 years after the first two, and Asimov's style has noticeably changed between the 1950s and 1980s. The book starts off slowly, with a lecturing tone which I found quite annoying. For example, devoting an entire page to a discussion of whether the deliberate death of a a robot (even a human shaped on) is murder. Often the first part of the book feels like it is going excessively slowly. However, its only the first third of so of the book which suffers this flaw. Its as if Asimov realized after a while that he also had a story to tell, and got on with it. The book then improves massively and has a good story. So, overall I liked this book, although the first part of the book wasn't as good as the rest of the Asimov I've read. [isbn: 0553299492;0345315715] [award: nominee hugo 1984]

Caves of Steel

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 14, 2008
Post category:Book

Caves of Steel is interesting because it is a murder mystery set in the future, which at the time this book was written was a novel concept. It also presents an interesting almost-communist view of the future, where individual liberties are surrendered one by one in order to improve economic efficiency in order to support Earth's ever growing population. Implicit in that is the assertion that capitalism is inherently inefficient, but I'll leave that discussion alone. This book is a really quick read. It took me a day (including actually going to work) to knock it over, which was fun. The book is a good, light read. [isbn: 0553293400] [award: nominee hugo 1954]