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 Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov
reviewed by XXXXX
Original appearance: Albedo one issue ??, date?
Isaac Asimov is sadly no longer with us. The good doctor signed off with the final part of his epic Foundation series and has closed a circle which, for many of us, began where our love for SF began. For Asimov this last novel FORWARD THE FOUNDATION appears also to have been a device for tying up loose ends in his attempt to turn a good portion of his work into a coherent future history.
Fortunately he did not allow it to be merely that, or to allow his wish to tidy up his work get in the way of a good story. In his long career that was one thing you could always say about Asimov - he never allowed anything to get in the way of a good story. To some that was one of his faults, but one which is less in evidence here. FORWARD THE FOUNDATION is a novel whose heart is firmly planted in the characters. A glance at the contents page will confirm that; it's a four part novel with an epilogue and each part is entitled with the name of one of the characters.
Funnily enough the character who dominates the book, whose story it is, does not feature in the titles but Asimov put that right by making his the first name in the text. That name is Hari Seldon, for FORWARD THE FOUNDATION is his biography, which could never be anything other than the story of the development of psychohistory.
Knowing this to be the work of a man at the end of his life adds a certain piquancy to the story. Right through the novel Seldon bemoans the onset of age even though he is in his prime when the story begins. But he is past his physical peak and sees the rest of his life as a race to finish psychohistory before death puts an end to his work. Always in this novel looms the certainty of death, the reality of decaying abilities. This could be Isaac Asimov's most personal novel, indeed in many ways it could be his own fictionalised biography.
Magic - The Final Fantasy Collection by Isaac Asimov
reviewed by Underview
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 11, 1996
If Isaac Asimov is not the most famous science fiction writer of all time (to date), then I really don't know who is. He has brought more fans into the fold through his work over the past fifty-odd years than any ten other writers put together. His work has touched the hearts and minds of several generations. He was loved by millions. So why should I worry that he is being exploited posthumously? Surely there are armies of lawyers working around the clock to protect his reputation.
No? They're only interested in his rights, I see. As long as the estate gets its cut they really don't care what people think. So whose job is it to see that his memory as one of the all time greats remains in tact? Nobody's? Yours and mine? Quite probably. Certainly not his publishers. Not if Magic - The Final Fantasy Collection is anything to go by.
Whichever way you look at it, Magic is an oddly mismatched collection of material - a mere excuse to put out more uncollected product under the Asimov name. Unfortunately for the bandwagon jumpers the good doctor had the extraordinary poor taste to die without leaving a bookful of uncollected and directly relatable material. And it is that word (if it indeed exists in the English language as we know it) relatable that is the crux of the matter.
What we are presented with in Magic, and what they have attempted to justify with the sub-title - The Final Fantasy Collection - is a weird mish mash of second rate whimsical fantasies (and believe me Asimov could be a first rate second rater when the whimsicality was on him) and articles on fantasy culled from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Though even there they have stretched a point and included material that may not have been previously published and some that is definitely not fantasy related.
The stories, in the main, are about that loveable (aaarghh!) demon from another dimension, Azazel. Those of you who have read the collected Azazel stories have my commiserations, those who have not can count themselves lucky. The Azazel stories are formula-ized to the nth degree. Each of them utilises a similar framing device, each of them begins and ends in the same way and each of them is worthless enough that they could never have been published without the weight of the Asimov name behind them. Fine, it was a lousy idea which ran away with itself and was turned into a lousy story collection. But what we have in Magic are the stories that were written too late to make it into the lousy collection. Less than a hundred and forty pages of them. And Asimov or no Asimov, one hundred and forty pages of short stories does not a viable commercial proposition make.
So what do you do, if you're a commercially minded and creative editor? You call the intergalactic demon stories fantasy, add a couple of true, and truly awful, fantasy stories about princes and dragons, and chuck in a ganzy load of articles on a similar theme. Thank heaven for the articles. Without them this would be an unremittingly depressing exploration of the depths of exploitation. Even with them, it's sheer bad value, not to mention tasteless.
But even the articles, redeeming as they are, have by necessity (because Asimov was not by any stretch of the imagination a fantasy author nor did he write extensively on the subject in his non-fiction) been augmented by... other articles? On Darwin, on IQs, on discrimination and even an obituary in the form of an open letter to Judy Lynn del Rey, which is justified on the basis of her work in popularising the field.
To anyone who loves or loved Isaac Asimov, the fields of science fiction or fantasy, or even the notions of good taste and value for money, I beg of you, send a message to the people responsible for this travesty. Vote with your wallets. Don't buy it. We don't need to be exploited and I'm quite sure the good doctor's widow doesn't need the money badly enough to justify our support. It may have appeared a good idea at the marketing meeting in which it was conceived but it is a woefully inadequate book which may contravene the Trades Descriptions Act.
Isaac Asimov, The Complete Stories Vol 2 by Isaac Asimov
Harper Collins, Hardback, £16.99
reviewed by ?
Original appearance: Albedo one issue xx, 1996?
Probably the most revered and well known name in SF is that of the late Isaac Asimov. His story, Nightfall, was voted the best SF short story of all time. He coined the three laws of robotics which still govern the actions of robots in most people's fiction. Even his non-fiction works on science are considered amongst the best of their kind.
Since his death his popularity has continued unabated, possibly increased. So it is not surprising that Harper Collins, his UK publishers, decided last year to repackage his works in uniform editions. This time last year they launched the series with THE COMPLETE STORIES VOLUME 1 and now, twelve months having elapsed, VOLUME 2 has appeared.
If you have never read SF this is probably the best place to start. The stories in this collection span most of his career from the early forties through to the seventies. The early stories touch all the classic concerns of their times from space travel to computers to the bomb while his later work harkens always toward the human element even if it is disguised beneath the shining metal skin of one of his robots.
Whenever an editor was putting together an anthology the first name on his list was always Isaac Asimov: a submission from the Good Doctor could often sell even a poor collection to an unsuspecting but faithful public. And if there was a theme to be written on, even better.
In 1975, a year befor America's Bicentennial celebrations an editor requested a story and supplied a title. the title was The Bicentennial Man and the result was the classic story of the same name which appears in this latest volume. The plot concerns a robot which, through an error of manufacture, has been endowed with artistic genius. Over the long years of his life he is freed by his owners, earns an enormous fortune and singlehandedly leads a fight for robot rights. But always there is only one goal to which he aspires. He wants to become a man; to be acknowledged human.
It is a bittersweet story which best illustrates the breath of Asimov's own genius and was also his own personal favourite of those presented herein. For anyone who values a good story well told, Isaac Asimov is a must and there is no better place to start than with his short fiction.
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