Ah, Asimov. I still consider him the most important SF writer in history, rivaled only by Phillip K. Dick. It's not that any single one of Asimov's stories stunned me or changed my mind in a profound way. It's more about the cumulative effect of many works combined. He shaped the science-related mindset of at least two generation. The echoes of his writing are still seen everywhere in science fiction, but many people no longer recognize them as such.
It really disturbs me that a lot of people in US consider Asimov "no longer relevant". One, his works aged really well - as long as you don't expect stories about smartphones and cat videos. Two, his works are huge outside of English-speaking countries. In that context they seem to be far more popular than most books that Americans consider "American classics". (Just look at all the references in Anime, for example.) That ought to tell you something.
I consider "The Dead Past", a short story by Asimov, to be one of those remarkable stories that is wholly more relevant today than when it was written. I don't want to say more, since the story has multiple levels of relevance some of which are not immediately obvious, but even the last couple years have made it a more important story than ever before.
I leave it as an exercise to find a copy of this story... I'm sure it's easy to do. It's really worth it.
interestingly enough, there is a FAQ entry for this which goes like
"""
There's this really neat story by Asimov, but I can't remember the title...
The story is probably "The Last Question". It can be found in a number of Asimov's anthologies (it was his favorite of his own stories, after all):
Nine Tomorrows
Opus 100
The Best of Isaac Asimov
The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov
Robot Dreams
The Complete Stories, volume 1
The Asimov Chronicles
It is also found in a number of anthologies not consisting entirely of stories by Asimov.
There is a mathematical possibility that you're thinking of a story other than "The Last Question", but it's very slight. Asimov's own experience was that if someone couldn't remember the title of one of his stories (and especially if they weren't entirely sure if it was by him), then it was "The Last Question."
But just in case, here are some of the stories with titles that often aren't remembered as well as the plot:
* "The Last Question" concerns the fate of the universe, when a computer is asked several times through the ages if entropy can ever be reversed.
* "The Feeling of Power" describes a time in the future, when a young man amazes everyone with his ability to perform mathematical computations in his head, instead of relying on computers like everyone else does.
* "Profession" is about a boy who is brought to a house for the feeble-minded after tests show that he is abnormal, because unlike the others, who are all educated by machines and have their professions chosen for them, he is capable of original thinking.
The first time I saw a demo of Siri, as limited as it was, I immediately thought: "Well, here we go. It's only a matter of time before Siri answers the Last Question."
He also wrote a huge amount of non-fiction in which he presented all sorts of science in an accessible fashion - "The Left Hand of the Electron" springs to mind as a favourite selection of his essays, covering everything from chirality in life to an exploration of polar solvents.
Re: relevance - I'd argue that both he and PKD are more relevant than ever - Asimov probed the forces that shape society, the impact of automation, the decadent decay of empire, and the all too human reactions to forces both inhuman and inhumane, and PKD probed how we each shape our individual and collective realities, and the myriad fashions in which this could go disastrously wrong with ever escalating and increasingly magical technologies.
Hell, I almost think it should be compulsory that policymakers are made to read their respective corpii!
I was a big fan of his fiction work when I was a kid, but my favorite book from him was "Understanding Physics". It's an easy to read, notation-light, plain language book that covers pretty much every physics-related topic a layperson could care about.
I started off with a tomb of a book - An Anthology of many of his shorter works. It was an amazing experience. Part of what made (and still makes) it special was that his Sci-Fi works weren't just about technology. It was about the effect of technology on both the individual and society.
This is part of what makes his works so timeless. Many of his works were a warning about the dangers of tech on imagination, on curiosity, on our ability to learn and the control we give up for comfort. Others works spoke of technology bypassing us morally or testing our own morality. Lots of stuff in between.
I've seen lots of samples of his thinking and influence on modern sci-fi over the last two decades. Whether Asimov influenced such works or we're just catching up to much of what he wrote - hard to say.
It's been a long while since I've read Asimov. Time to start again:-)
Note that this is just the books published, and doesn't include the stories that he had published earlier (and presumably later?). For example, on of Asimov's great short stories/novels, "Nightfall" - was published in 1941 - about 9 years before this list begins.
Ah interesting. I read this list thinking "Wow, he really published so much of his greatest works early on, except Nightfall so I guess he kept it going throughout his career." So it's interesting to hear that Nightfall was super early.
Excellent list, I am currently on a reading streak with my new e-reader and this list will certainly keep me going. My favourite Asimov essay must be "The Relativity of Wrong" [1], possibly since it resonates so strongly with my views on the pitfalls of the teacher/student relationship when it comes to tests.
Ah, the list brings back memories of being involved with Ed Seiler. I originally helped to convert the Asimov FAQ on his website into HTML (1.0?) format [1]. It was manually done, and I enjoyed doing it.
Cool list! I don't think I've ever seen them all in one place before.
I cannot stress enough what an incredible force for good Asimov had (and hopefully continues to have) on society. I remember reading "the World of Carbon" and not being able to put it down -- a non-fiction organic chemistry book! The high quality and sheer volume of work he output are each impressive on their own, but combined are astounding.
There's also tons of stuff on Internet Archive, including, just in time for Easter, Asimov's Guide to the Bible ;)
I love the opening sentence of "Lastborn" from Galaxy Magazine 1958:
Edith Fellowes smoothed her working smock as she always did before opening the elaborately locked door and stepping across the dividing line between the "is" and the "is not"
Definitely my favorite author, and my bucket list is to read all of his books. So far:
Foundation series
Nightfall
I, Robot
Asimov on Chemistry
Asimov on Physics
Nemesis (almost finished)
It really disturbs me that a lot of people in US consider Asimov "no longer relevant". One, his works aged really well - as long as you don't expect stories about smartphones and cat videos. Two, his works are huge outside of English-speaking countries. In that context they seem to be far more popular than most books that Americans consider "American classics". (Just look at all the references in Anime, for example.) That ought to tell you something.