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Science-fiction

Isaac Asimov
(1920-1992)

Asimov was a very busy writer, and not only in science-fiction, as he also published many works in history, and scientific vulgarisation. Nonetheless his fiction works, like Foundation, or his Robot stories have created the basis for the science-fiction that we know today, although he always thought back to the roots of "anticipation", that is, to the reactions of society to technological progress.

He was born in Petrovichi, near Smolensk, in the newly founded USSR.
His books and short stories were long neglected by Hollywood, only recently "Bicentennial man" was adapted, starring Robin Williams, and "I Robot" will be released in July 2004, starring Will Smith.

In the collected works "Bicentennial man", he talks about "Waterclap" (1970) when a Hollywood producer asked him to sign a story... Asimov knew what sort of story he wanted, but wasn't ready to sign something like that. Asimov simply wrote the story he wanted to write - at least showing he wasn't going to be bought off.

Other stories that he wrote on demand were "Marching in" for the audio magazine "High Fidelity" and "Old fashioned" for Bell.

portrait lovecraft

The Foundation Trilogy and the Robot stories

His major works remain the long series of robot stories, and the fabulous Foundation trilogy. In the genre of science-fiction, short stories remained the norm for many years, as they were published in zines, and also because many concepts and myths had not been developed fully. Asimov created an epic which has all the elements of a great historical tale, in which science-fiction elements are a believable background for characters and events, but not its main interest.

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