Nicholas (nwhyte) wrote,
Nicholas
nwhyte

November Books 3) Isaac Asimov: A Life of the Grand Master of Science Fiction, by Michael White

For me as teenage reader, the Foundation trilogy was one of my gateways to science fiction, and I later read various of Asimov's other works (some written up here and here, but also including some of his non-fiction and detective stories); I don't think he produced much sf of note after his initial burst of creativity, and particularly dislike The Gods Themselves. I vaguely hoped that this would provide me with a decent glimpse into Asimov's mind, but it's basically a pretty pedestrian biography, not probing very deeply into what Asimov thought he was doing, why he was doing it, or why it worked; he wrote this book, married these women, had affairs with these other women, got lots of money and hated flying. It's not quite as disappointing in terms of wasted effort as that Heinlein biog from a couple of years ago (did its second volume ever appear?), but this is really not the way to do it. I gave the book away to the TAFF fund auction at Novacon, and I hope the person who bought it enjoys it more than I did.

The author claims to have been a member of the Thompson Twins, though this is not easy to verify from websites actually about the Thompson Twins. (On further examination, he and his girlfriend did play with them for a few months in 1982; she lasted longer, but fell harder when they gave her the push.)
Tags: bookblog 2013, writer: isaac asimov
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