/lit/ - Literature

Is there a good list of the Asimov timeline leading from the Robots era into his Foundation stuff? From what I can gather Runaround might be chronologically the first one since it is where the First Laws are mentioned the first time anywhere in his works. I think Bicentenial Man then maybe after Robots and Empire is where the Galactic Empire is possibly first created or mentioned the earliest origins of it anyway.

>>23116325
>genuinely original
Well, it's undeniably heavily inspired by The Foundation series from Isaac Asimov.

Considering George Lucas was inspired by Foundation, it would be Asimov.

Everything by Arthur C. Clarke.
Everything by Frank Herbert
The Foundation series
Asimov's short story collections
Kull and Conan the Barbarian (ok it doesn't have much to do with xenogears aside from genetic memory but trust me this shit is good)
Tekumel
Instrumentality of Mankind
The Dying Earth
Book of the New Sun
Hyperion Cantos

>>23088609
>>last read
The Return of the King
>>what you thought of it
There is a reason this trilogy is seen as a classic but I slogged through these books compared to sci fi (my favorite genre). The worldbuilding autism is impressive and the arcs of the hobbits are cool (the scouring of the Shire is essential). Denethor is a tragic figure that deserves too much hate imo. The battles keep you engaged. Less annoying songs compared to the first 2. 2 Towers is the best though, and while Fellowship feels like a big exposition dump at times it has better moments compared to 3. I wouldn't have read these books if they weren't classics though.
>>current read
Footfall by Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle
>>what you think about it
Mote is my favorite novel, and I like Ringworld and Lucifer's Hammer. I like the realistic science. While it reads like a TV script proposal rewritten for a book, it does a neat job balancing the threads so far, and it has an epic blockbuster scale without feeling stupid (unlike Hollywood) and it has depth. Takes a lot of time to set things up, I just got to the part where the aliens arrive.
>>next read
I plan to finish my reread of the Foundation trilogy (I was halfway through Second Foundation). Then I will read the Invincible, then try to properly finish the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, then begin Cixin Liu's trilogy.
>>expectations
Asimov's writing in Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation is superior character wise compared to the first. It will likely be good. I liked Red Mars but college work made me lose interest in going more than a third into Green. I have heard plenty off cool shit about Lem (I even saw the boring Tarkovsky adaptation of Solaris) and Cixin.
I don't care about the TV adaptations of Asimov and Cixin.
I plan to try War and Peace and Moby Dick down the road.

>>23008308
Is Asimov's foundation stories good or are they mid?

>Hated Frank Herbert's Dune
>Loved Isaac Asimov's Foundation

Wonder why

I read the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov
It's nowhere near as bad I as expected but it's still very fart-sniffingly satisfied with itself. Lots of intellectual pretense and little intellectual payoff. On the plus side it's hilarious how flagrantly Games Workshop plagiarized Foundation for Warhammer 40,000 considering how infamously litigious they are over IP copyrights, I'm amazed Harlan Ellison never snookered them while he was alive.
Overall 6.5/10, 7 if I'm being generous.

>>22954424

The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. Read this sample on Amazon to see if it's right for you: https://www.amazon.com/Foundation-3-Book-Bundle-Empire-Second-ebook/dp/B09KZ8SNS6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=12IOB2OBE7NCH&keywords=Foundation+Trilogy&qid=1705516114&sprefix=foundation+trilogy%2Caps%2C83&sr=8-1&asin=B09KZ8SNS6&revisionId=d47e9191&format=1&depth=1

I would appreciate if a Krautanon would recommend a similarly easy german title.

>>22941883

>Asimov's guide to the bible but not Foundation or even any of the Robot novels or short story collections

Why just that one particular Asimov book

>>22924519
>You're not. This is a perfectly valid concern, one that has been held by people for millennia now

The validation is greatly appreciated...I read Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" recently...so much of the ancient corpus was lost last time around. If you don't subscribe to a Fukuyama-ist End of History take on events, and instead wonder if history is a bit more cyclical than we realize, the mind starts to wonder: what happens the next time the Ostrogoths or the Sea Peoples come around, and again only 2% of ancient works survive?

What if this time around, we're in effect the barbarians, slowly razing our libraries not with fire but with neglect and ignorance?

>>22924735

Or you could engrave/impress the whole Loeb's collection on ceramic plates, similar to cuneiform tablets, then bury it all like some literary equivalent of the Terracotta Army...or you could buy the whole print collection and gift it to your local Benedictine monastery. Perhaps the most bat shit idea of all is that *anything* can be done to protect our little printed scraps of wisdom, short of creating Asimov's Foundation.

>>22904751
Something like 20 books/short stories of watching the evolution of humanity and its relationship to robots as seen by Asimov was very enjoyable (though as I said the 3 empire books felt too long to me, but still worth reading for pre-foundation context), very different feel from Dune which remains my favorite series (sadly forever unfinished, unlike foundation)
Also that retard must be new on 4chan if he thinks that kind of post has any effect on anyone here, it's just noise, might as well be a pop up ad

>>22904246
DOABLE I have been reading LIBRARY OF AMERICA collections for SCIENCE FICTION AUTHORS and it's usually like 2-3 tomes with 3-4 books each, I did Vonnegut and Dick since summer as well as robots & foundation by Asimov.
Where should I go next? I like Asimov better than Dick sometimes, but all Asimov's stories are the same. I like Vonnegut a lot in small doses

>>22887224

When you believe in Marxism, you can say meaningless things like this and think you've proven something, because the foundation of Marxism is that only the things Marx said have enduring value. But for the record... I have more sex in a week than you will have in your whole life. Exclusively with beautiful women that turn their nose up at peons like you as you shuffle past them, head down, face shadowed by a foul smelling fedora, skin tags forming under your fat, unshorn neck, pit stains growing on your duster, worn with a comic book T-shirt underneath. The one and only exception is your mother, who I am currently wallering out in the master bedroom, above your filthy basement hovel. Your father is watching from the closet masturbating, pulling feverishly at the button mushroom you inherited from him. You go on ahead defending decrepit philosophical pseuds, speaking so self-assuredly on their diagnoses of the human condition, while not knowing the nuchal ligament from nigger lips.
Tl;Dr

Herbert trolled Asimov with Dune 5 the same way Heinlein did with Starship Troopers. The Marxist is the eternal incel.

>>22843787
one diddled little boys and ran off to sri lanka to avoid the law, the other was a lecherous and randy old man who frequently pressured young women into sexual situations they did not enjoy.

more to the point, Asimov had like 2 decent SF ideas (Foundation, and the laws of robotics), but then proceeded to churn out the dullest slop from those for the next 50 years.

Clarke had a few more interesting SF ideas (2001, Childhood's End, Rama, Fountains of Paradise), but he wasn't really that strong of a writer when compared to non-genre authors.

i think the shift was probably because someone wanted to have a contrarian take so that meant moving someone else above Asimov and then making the semi-clever distinction about SF vs sciene writing, simply because he wrote a ton of non-fiction slop.

>>22826427
>>22826402
Isaac Asimov wrote a history of the Bible. So you can imply, if you need to, that you're reading Foundation.

Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science by Stephen Stich
Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke

I try to read one fiction and one non-fiction book at a time. But the Stich book is fucking dry so I only do one chapter at a time and switch to the Lembke book.

>>22774019
Arthut C. Clark
Asimov
And frank herbert
to name a few
Now if youve read the pic rel, foundation or dune you might know what im getting at

Any authors you specifically look out for the older edition paperbacks of? I've been buying them up lately especially the Asimov, and Moorcock ones because I heard the newer reissuses on Elric and Foundation/Robot stuff wasn't that great. Plus the artwork is usually always better and more aesthic,

>>22765420

What do you think the covers to Winds and Dream will be? I think Winds will be something connected to The Others or maybe the Weirwood throne itself in Bloodraven's cave. I think the last cover will be an image of a blue rose, in a partition on the wall.

>>22759778
>>22759790
I agree. I read Foundation 1 a few months back and it's pretty dated. But it's definitely 1950s Golden Era. I wouldn't let Asimov stop you from reading sci-fi - there is great stuff out there.

>>22759778
I read a lot of fantasy, but Foundation is what turned be off of science fiction. It was the first sci fi series I tried in high school, hearing positive things about Asimov. I got to the end of the first book and never wanted to touch that boring ass shit again.

Asimov explains the same through a parable in the first Foundation novel.

>>22700842
You're mostly correct, but Asimov said the same about Foundation (I'm sure he was bullshitting) and that story was definitely not finished until the third book.

>>22672235

Some of my favorite books are unironically War and Peace, The first half of Asimov's Foundation series, the Sword of Truth series, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Gulliver's Travels, and just about anything by Alex Beyman.

The Clan of the Cave Bear and its first sequel were good, but they drag on dreadfully as it progresses, but I still remember reading it happily. The Dark Tower series is nice, at least halfway through, before it gets kinda sloppy, but as for a nice stand-alone book, The Once and Future King is such a classic, and it really does stick with you.

I don't really mind uncomfortable questions, because I only take being transgender as seriously as is reasonable.

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