The End of Eternity Free

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The End of Eternity Free FREE THE END OF ETERNITY PDF Isaac Asimov | 192 pages | 01 Dec 2000 | HarperCollins Publishers | 9780586024409 | English | London, United Kingdom Read The End of Eternity online free by Isaac Asimov - QNovels Not sure if something The End of Eternity SF? Then post it! Science Fiction, Fantasy, Alt. History, Postmodern Lit. The key is that it be speculative, not that it fit some arbitrary genre guidelines. The Zeroth Law : Our guidelines were designed to foster a diverse and welcoming discussion community while avoiding drama, flamewars, and promotional activity. All mod actions will be taken with these goals in mind. For more explanation, see our rules wiki page. Be civil. Don't be a dick or a bigot. If you see uncivil behavior, downvote, report, and move on. No self-promotion. Do not make image postsor otherwise fish for karma. If it's worth posting, it's worth posting as a self-post with context. Print SF can include books, stories, ebooks, graphic novels, comics, webcomics, The End of Eternity, radio plays, music, and more. Posts primarily about TV shows, movies, or short films will be removedeven adaptations. Do not complain about works The End of Eternity fitting your personal definition of "science fiction". Spoiler tags are courtesy, not required. Comments with spoilers will not be moderated, and hidden spoilers are discouraged in discussions about individual books. Use common sense The End of Eternity reading about a book or author you don't wanted spoiled. Message the mods for flair. Just read "The End of Eternity" by Asimov self. I've read a lot of Asimov. The Foundation Series remains among my dear favorites, and I really liked the Robot series. I hadn't read the Empire series because they were hard to find, but now they are on Kindle and I'll get to them soon. I hadn't heard of The End of Eternity until a recent reddit post in another group, and I had bought the paperback and let it sit on the nightstand for a couple of months. For a novel that is barely over pages, this is, as the book The End of Eternity claims, one of his best works. It's basically standalone, unrelated to the Robot, Empire, or Foundation universes, and it describes one of the most interesting interpretations of time travel and eternity I've considered. The world building was cleverly done with spoon-fed introductions of the characters and the roles they play in the Eternity framework. In spite of knowing how frequently Asimov uses Checkhov's Gun, I was caught by surprise with each character revelation. I really appreciated how he resolved the definition of Realityand how Eternity planned every change and considered the downstream impacts of their actions. What was masterful was how the actions of Eternity seemed reasonable, and then how the story flipped and revealed just how bad the dysfunction of the Eternity organization was. What was most impressive for an Asimov story was how well it ended. It was satisfying to see Harlan apply the same logic of the rationalizations Eternity used to justify their actions to eliminate Eternity altogether. That it ended with a love story was actually pretty neat The End of Eternity. It's funny, I read Asimov in my twenties, and loved it. It's one of his better stories and won the Hugo for best novella in I know what you mean about the older stories, there's some that you remember even decades later. Some of the best work from that era is as good as anything being written today but is overshadowed by the sheer volume of good new stories being published. It's only available in hardback at a very elevated price! I'm going to have to pass on it for a while. Asimov's notion of 'physiotime' The End of Eternity be used more in discussions of time travel media. It was my first Asimov and the one who hooked me into sf. Cant recommend It The End of Eternity. I was mindblown. Maybe time for a reread I've always thought of End of Eternity to be the tie-in of our universe with that of Foundation; it makes the idea that Asimov's works are a The End of Eternity in our world through The End of Eternity. Those are all the same universe. And there are hints that ending of TEoE results in the alien-free galaxy of the Foundation universe. That and the neuronic whip is present in both. Though that could just be Asimov re-using a convenient idea. In spite of knowing how frequently Asimov uses Checkhov's Gun. Ah, TIL that there is a name for that idea. When watching TV shows, we often play what I will now call the Checkhov's Gun Game : some thing was mentioned; what does this mean for the rest of the show? Also, yes, TEoE is great. And there is very little that is The End of Eternity. Lot's of time-travel ideas have been reused over and over and over, but not the ones from TEoE. I'll have to give it a read. I remember reading it as a teenager after devouring all the Robot and Foundation novels. Great The End of Eternity. Also the final line of The End of Eternity novel has always stuck with me: The end of Eternity, the beginning of Infinity! Use of The End of Eternity site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy. All rights reserved. Want to join? Log in or sign up in seconds. Submit a new link. Submit a new text post. Get an ad-free experience with special benefits, and directly support Reddit. Don't enable or encourage piracy. Support the artists whose work you enjoy! No spaces around spoiled text! Welcome to Reddit, the front page of the internet. Become a Redditor and The End of Eternity one of thousands of communities. Mild spoilers marked up: I've read a lot of Asimov. Want to add to the discussion? Post a comment! Create an account. It's a shame because I like Stross's writing. This book is so old it uses 'computer' as a person's title. MNC has become a by-word in my house for not trying to over manage things. Just read "The End of Eternity" by Asimov : printSF The first edition of the novel was published in January 1stand was written by Isaac Asimov. The book was published in multiple languages including English, consists of pages and is available in Mass Market Paperback format. The main characters of this science fiction, fiction story are Andrew Harlan, Laban Twissell. Please note that the tricks or techniques listed in this pdf are either fictional or claimed to work by its creator. We do not guarantee that these techniques will work for you. Some of the techniques listed in The End of Eternity may require a sound knowledge of Hypnosis, users are advised to either leave those sections or The End of Eternity have a basic understanding of the subject before practicing them. DMCA and Copyright : The book is not hosted on our servers, to remove the file please contact The End of Eternity source url. If you see The End of Eternity Google Drive link instead of The End of Eternity url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed. Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to science fiction, fiction lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Great book, The End of Eternity pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. It's always fun to read Isaac Asimov books. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov. The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov. The End of Eternity (film) - Wikipedia Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer The End of Eternity out of date. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. NOOK Book. Harlan set the controls and moved the smoothly working starting lever. The kettle did not move. Harlan did not expect it to. He expected no The End of Eternity neither up nor down, left nor right, forth nor back. Yet the spaces between the rods had melted into a gray blankness which was solid to the touch, though nonetheless immaterial for all that. And there was the little stir in his stomach, the faint psychosomatic? He had boarded the kettle in the th Century, the base of operations assigned him two years earlier. At the The End of Eternity the th had been the farthest upwhen he had ever traveled. Now he was moving upwhen to the th Century. Under ordinary circumstances he might have felt a little lost at the prospect. His native Century was in the far downwhen, the 95th Century, to be exact. The 95th was a Century stiffly restrictive of atomic power, faintly rustic, fond of natural wood as a structural material, exporters of certain types of distilled potables to nearly everywhen and importers of clover seed. Under ordinary circumstances all this would be so.
Recommended publications
  • The End of Eternity Ebooks Free This Stand-Alone Novel Is Widely Regarded As Asimov's Best Science Fiction Novel
    The End Of Eternity Ebooks Free This stand-alone novel is widely regarded as Asimov's best science fiction novel. Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a member of the elite of the future. One of the few who live in Eternity, a location outside of place and time, Harlan's job is to create carefully controlled and enacted Reality Changes. These Changes are small, exactingly calculated shifts in the course of history, made for the benefit of humankind. Though each Change has been made for the greater good, there are also always costs. During one of his assignments, Harlan meets and falls in love with Noÿs Lambert, a woman who lives in real time and space. Then Harlan learns that Noÿs will cease to exist after the next Change, and he risks everything to sneak her into Eternity. Audio CD Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks (January 1, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 0792760581 ISBN-13: 978-0792760580 Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars 306 customer reviews Best Sellers Rank: #2,919,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #4 in Books > Books on CD > Authors, A-Z > ( A ) > Asimov, Isaac #1732 in Books > Books on CD > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction #2045 in Books > Books on CD > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy Praise for The End of Eternity:“His most effective piece of work. Asimov’s exemplary clarity in plotting is precisely suited to the material at hand. Asimov’s engagement with the present is clearer here than in his other works, as is his engagement with the human.â€Â--Locus“By literary standards, this tale of time travel from the 95th century is generally rated Asimov’s best.â€Â--Entertainment Weekly“Asimov’s flirtation with the tropes employed by A.
    [Show full text]
  • Postgraduate English: Issue 09
    Boyd Postgraduate English: Issue 09 Postgraduate English www.dur.ac.uk/postgraduate.english ISSN 1756-9761 Issue 09 March 2004 Editors: Anita O’Connell and Michael Huxtable Does Anyone Have the Right Time Please? A New Perspective on Time Travel Narratives in the 1950s & 1960s Sinead Boyd* * Lancaster University ISSN 1756-9761 1 Boyd Postgraduate English: Issue 09 Does Anyone Have the Right Time Please? A New Perspective on Time Travel Narratives in the 1950s & 1960s Sinead Boyd Lancaster University Postgraduate English, Issue 09, March 2004 Introduction: Searching for science When considering the term science fiction some useful questions to ask are: what is the ‘science’ in science fiction? Is it a sort of science that as readers, we can trust? Are there any facts hidden behind the fiction? Also, what would the ‘fiction’ be without the science? It is a widely held belief that genre fiction (which is to include science fiction) occupies a separate cultural space to that of non- genre literature. Some for example, Patrick Parrinder, DarkoSuvin, have tried to bridge the gap by performing literary analysis on certain authors, for example, J G Ballard and Kurt Vonnegut, who themselves choose to cross the invisible boundary between genre and mainstream. However, rather than applaud the ‘literary’ nature of science fiction texts in order to afford them a place in the canon, this essay will examine science fiction within the wider cultural space of intellectual understanding and speculation. Taking as its central theme the subject of time travel in both non-fiction and fiction, this essay aims to illustrate the interconnectedness of science, culture and literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Science Fiction
    Copyright © 1989 by Teddy Harvia Centenos Isaac Asimov..................................... by Teddy Hanna...Front Cover Table of Contents & Artists, Colophon........................................... 1 I®®®© From the Editor: Mutterings...........................................by Lan...2 My Debt to Mom and Dad.............................. by Laura Turtledove...? Asimov and the Integrated Story..............by Alexander Slate...4 Isaac Asimov: The Foundation of Science Fiction.... by Alexander Bouchard...5 Asimov The Non-Metallic Isaac, or It's a Wonderful Life... by Ben Bova...6 Asimov and the Soviet Union............................. by Tom Jackson...8 Robot AL 76 Goes Berserk..................................... by John Thiel..10 Asimov, Foundation and Me............................. by Marie Parsons..11 Table of Artists My Encounter with Isaac Asimov................by Alexander Slate..12 Isaac Asimov: A Memoir.............................. by Alexis Gilliland..12 Sheryl Birkhead -- 34 The Future of Seldon's Plan............................... by Greg Hills..14 Cathy Buburuz — 27 My 15-Year Love Affair with Isaac Asimov.......... by Janice M. P.L. Caruthers-Montgomery (Calligraphy)-- Eisen..22 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, Foreward to The Edge of Tomorrow......................... by Ben Bova..24 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, Short Comments on Isaac Asimov...from David Palter, Lloyd Kurt Erichsen — 32 Penney, Larry Nowinski, and Timothy Nowinski...26 Chuck Ermatinger -- 21 Isaac Asimov: A Chronology......................... by Robert
    [Show full text]
  • CHAPTER I Isaac Asimov
    UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN CARRERA DE LENGUA Y LITERATURA INGLESA "Isaac Asimov and the Golden Age of Science Fiction: A Study in Terms of his Contribution to the Genre” Trabajo de graduación previo a la obtención de un título de Licenciado en Ciencias de la Educación en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa AUTOR: ISMAEL ALEJANDRO OCHOA COBOS CI. 0106650153 DIRECTOR: FABIÁN DARÍO RODAS PACHECO CI. 0101867703 CUENCA-ECUADOR 2017 Universidad de Cuenca RESUMEN Este trabajo investigativo trata de la vida y la obra literaria de una persona extraordinaria: Isaac Asimov. Su vida fue la de un genio que aprendió a leer y escribir por sí mismo y que escribió su primer relato a la edad de once años. Su producción literaria abarca diversos campos del conocimiento: ciencia pura, religión, humanismo, ecología y, especialmente, el campo de la ciencia ficción. Este último, género literario al cual él contribuyó a darle la forma definitiva que tiene en la actualidad. Concomitantemente, entonces, esta investigación cubre la historia de la ciencia ficción como género literario, desde sus manifestaciones más tempranas hace miles de años, hasta las absorbentes producciones audiovisuales que cautivan la atención tanto de niños como adultos hoy en día. Por este motivo, los contenidos de esta tesis también incluyen una descripción, llena de abundantes ejemplos, sobre las características que este género ha adquirido en nuestros días. Entre los numerosos trabajos de Asimov que se encuentran ligados a la ciencia ficción, dos series de libros aparecen como los más importantes. Se trata de sus series Fundación y Robots.
    [Show full text]
  • The Science Fiction Handbook
    The Science Fiction Handbook M. Keith Booker and Anne-Marie Thomas A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication The Science Fiction Handbook The Science Fiction Handbook M. Keith Booker and Anne-Marie Thomas A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication This edition first published 2009 # 2009 by M. Keith Booker and Anne-Marie Thomas Wiley-Blackwell is an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, formed by the merger of Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148–5020, USA For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book, please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley- blackwell. The right of the authors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks.
    [Show full text]
  • St.Louiscon Report St.Louiscon, the 27Th World Science Fiction Convention, Held Over the August 28-Sept
    No. 5 October 1969 St.Louiscon Report St.Louiscon, the 27th World Science Fiction Convention, held over the August 28-Sept. 1 Labor Day weekend, fulfilled its promise of being the largest convention the science fiction world has ever known. Some of the staggering statistics include registration at 1919, attendance officially posted at 1534, and auction income (gross) of $6,800. Not only was this the largest convention to date, it was also the longest. Although official registration didn't begin until noon on Thursday, par­ tying began Tuesday evening in the con committee suite; and the parties continued through the following Tuesday night. Paid attendance at the banquet was 660 and would have been more except that tickets were only sold until Saturday noon. Hugo Awards BEST NOVEL: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (accepted by Gordon Dick­ son) BEST NOVELLA: Nightwings by Robert Silverberg BEST NOVELETTE: The Sharing of Flesh by Poul Anderson BEST SHORT STORY: The Beast That Shouted Love by Harlan Ellison BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: 2001: A Space Odyssey (accepted for Arthur C. Clarke by Dave Kyle) BEST PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE: Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST: Jack Gaughan BEST FAN ARTIST: Vaughn Bode BEST FANZINE: Psychotic (accepted for Dick Geis by Bruce Pelz) BEST FAN WRITER: Harry Warner Jr. (accepted by Bill Evans) SPECIAL AWARD: presented to astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins "for the best moon landing ever" (accepted by Hal Clement) Other Awards BIG HEART AWARD: presented to Harry Warner Jr. by Forry Ackerman (ac­ cepted by Bob Bloch) FIRST FANDOM AWARD: presented to Murray Leinster by last year's winner, Jack Williamson (accepted by Judy Lynn Benjamin) At the banquet Lester Del Rey presented a moving eulogy to Willy Bidding for the 1971 convention provided more of a contest with the Ley, in which he paid tribute to Willy's contributions to man's landing choice between Boston and Washington.
    [Show full text]
  • Oil, Scarcity, Limit Gerry Canavan Marquette University, [email protected]
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette English Faculty Research and Publications English, Department of 1-1-2014 Retrofutures and Petrofutures: Oil, Scarcity, Limit Gerry Canavan Marquette University, [email protected] Accepted version. "Retrofutures and Petrofutures: Oil, Scarcity, Limit," in Oil Culture. Eds. Ross Barrett nda Daniel Worden. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. Publisher link. © 2014 University of Minnesota Press. Used with permission. 17 Retrofutures and Petrofutures Oil, Scarcity, Limit Gerry Canavan Fredric Jameson has written that “in our time . the world system . is a being of such enormous complexity that it can only be mapped indirectly, by way of a simpler object that stands as its allegorical interpretant.”1 In this chapter, I offer up oil, and oil capitalism, as one such interpretant for the historical world-system as a whole—and further offer up science fiction as a means to register the different meanings of “oil” that are available in different historical moments. Oil’s ubiquity and centrality within contemporary consumer capitalism suggests it as an especially useful allegorical interpretant. Oil is extremely local—as local as your corner gas station, as your car’s gas tank—but at the same time it is the token of a vast spatiotemporal network of seemingly autonomous actors. In his story “The Petrol Pump,” Italo Calvino evokes this immense, even sublime, interactivity: “As I fill my tank at the self-service station a bubble of gas swells up in a black lake buried beneath the Persian Gulf, an emir silently raises hands hidden in wide white sleeves, and folds them on his chest, in a skyscraper an Exxon computer is crunching numbers, far out to sea a cargo fleet gets the order to change course.”2 To Calvino’s totalizing vision of oil’s global interconnectedness we might add not only the million-year geological time scale necessary for oil’s creation, but also the immeasurably complex flows of money, power, and technology that make the current global economy, and U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • THE MENTOR 78, April 1993
    THE MENTOR AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE FICTION CONTENTS #78 ARTICLES: 20 - THE STARS OF OUR STORIES by Jim Verran COLUMNISTS: 16 - THE YANKEE PRIVATEER #16 by Buck Coulson 21 - ISAAC ASIMOV by Andrew Darlington 24 - FANTASY DOWNUNDER #2 by Bill Congreve 38 - ARGENTINE SF HISTORY by Claudio Omar Noguerol COMIC SECTION: 53 - THE INITIATE by Steve Carter DEPARTMENTS; 2 - EDITORIAL SLANT by Ron Clarke 63 - THE R&R DEPT - Reader's letters 77 - CURRENT BOOK RELEASES by Ron Clarke FICTION: 3 - COLDMACE MOONLIGHTS by Duncan Evans 23 - ESCAPE FROM YINN by Brent Lillie 31 - THE PROBLEM OF THE PERIPATETIC CORPSE by Evan Rainer POETRY: 18 - HEY, HE'S A FISH by I. Lubensky 49 - POETRY, TOO - Monique DeMontigny, J. C. Hartley, William P. Robertson, Douglas A. Guilfoyle, Julie Vaux Trent Jamieson, Maria-Louise Stephens Cover Illustration by Steve Carter. Internal Illos: Steve Fox p. 15, Peggy Ranson p.22, 23, THE MENTOR 78, April 1993. ISSN 0727-8462. Edited, printed and published by Ron Clarke. Mail Address: THE MENTOR, c/- 34 Tower St, Revesby, NSW 2212, Australia. THE MENTOR is published at intervals of roughly three months. It is available for published contribution (Australian fiction [science fiction or fantasy]), poetry, article, or letter of comment on a previous issue. It is not available for subscription, but is available for $5 for a sample issue (posted). Contributions, if over 5 pages, preferred to be on an IBM 51/4" or 31/2" disc (DD or HD) otherwise typed, single or double spaced, preferably a good photocopy (and if you want it returned, please type your name and address) and include an SSAE! Contributions are not paid; THE MENTOR 78 page 1 however they receive a free copy of the issue their contribution is in, and any future issues containing comments on their contribution.
    [Show full text]
  • History, Expansionism, and Guardianship in Isaac Asimov’S Science Fiction
    The Cowboy PoliTiCs of an enlighTened fuTure: History, Expansionism, and Guardianship in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction JARI KÄKELÄ UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI FACULTY OF ARTS The Cowboy PoliTiCs of an enlighTened fuTure: History, Expansionism, and Guardianship in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Jari KÄKelÄ Department of Modern Languages University of Helsinki © Jari Käkelä 2016 Layout and cover design by Jari Käkelä Cover background image: www.pixabay.com, public domain; foreground diagram collage by Jari Käkelä. ISBN 978-951-51-2404-3 (paperback) ISBN 978-951-51-2405-0 (PDF) Helsinki, 2016 ABSTRACT Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) was one of the central writers of the formative period of importance of the genre. This dissertation examines the themes of history, frontier expansionism, and guardianship in Asimov’s key works, the Robot and Foundation Robot and Foundation as serials in the 1940s and 1950s Astounding Science-Fiction publishing context is crucial in order to understand Asimov’s impact on the genre. Thus, this dissertation combines the contextual examination of Asimov’s main themes with a discussion of the views of the Astounding history. construct a sustainable future becomes the pivotal theme, both on the level of narration and on the level of characters that turn their knowledge of history into action. This will decline if stagnation is not reversed by frontier expansion. The pervasive frontier the intellectual frontier of the future. Finally, the historical and frontier aspects in Asimov’s series point toward the notion of guardianship and the aspiration to apply the understanding of both history and science to engineer a more peaceful, yet non- stagnant future.
    [Show full text]
  • Isaac Asimov (1920--1992)
    On SF by Thomas M. Disch http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=124446 The University of Michigan Press, 2005 Isaac Asimov (1920--1992) Isaac Asimov was a lot like the sci-‹ magazines he wrote for as a boy genius—astonishing, astounding, and amazing. Astonishing for an out- put that allowed him to publish, in 1984, his Opus 300, with selections from his ‹rst three hundred books. Astounding for both the range and the lucidity of his scienti‹c learning. He could produce, off the top of his head, guidebooks to any scienti‹c subject as up-to-date and well-orga- nized as a textbook vetted by a committee of specialists, and so yes-of- course comprehensible that even quantum mechanics could be coped with in the Asimov version. He was amazing, most of all, for his co-invention, with Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein, of modern science ‹ction. “Nightfall,” the story he wrote at age twenty-one, has repeatedly been hailed as the great- est sf tale of all time. It tells the story of a panic that overwhelms a planet when there is a total eclipse of its six suns and for the ‹rst time in its his- tory the stars become visible—and the size of the universe imaginable. That gasp of wonder was the Asimovian grail, and it is evoked most powerfully in the early novels of the Foundation series, and in the books mandating the Three Laws of Robotics, especially The Caves of Steel (1954). That book is also Asimov’s ‹rst cautionary tale about the dangers of overpopulation.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophers' Science Fiction / Speculative Fiction
    Philosophers’ Science Fiction / Speculative Fiction Recommendations, Organized by Author / Director August 15, 2016 Eric Schwitzgebel Since September 2014, I have been gathering recommendations of “philosophically interesting” science fiction – or “speculative fiction” (SF), more broadly construed – from professional philosophers. So far, 48 philosophers have contributed (plus one co-contributor). Each contributor has recommended ten works of speculative fiction and has written a brief “pitch” gesturing toward the interest of the work. Below is the list of recommendations, arranged to highlight the authors and film directors or TV shows who were most often recommended by the list contributors. I have divided the list into (A.) novels, short stories, and other printed media, vs (B.) movies, TV shows, and other non- printed media. Within each category, works are listed by author or director/show, in order of how many different contributors recommended that author or director, and then by chronological order of works for authors and directors/shows with multiple listed works. For works recommended more than once, I have included each contributor’s pitch on a separate line. The most recommended authors were: Recommended by 13 contributors: Ursula K. Le Guin Recommended by 11: Ted Chiang Philip K. Dick Recommended by 8: Greg Egan Stanisław Lem Recommended by 7: Isaac Asimov Recommended by 6: Margaret Atwood Octavia Butler Recommended by 5: Edwin Abbot Robert A. Heinlein Kazuo Ishiguro China Miéville Neal Stephenson Kurt Vonnegut Recommended by 4: Douglas Adams R. Scott Bakker Jorge Luis Borges Ray Bradbury David Brin P. D. James Charles Stross Gene Wolfe Recommended by 3: Iain M. Banks Italo Calvino Orson Scott Card Arthur C.
    [Show full text]
  • Mind and Iron a Collection Inspired by Isaac Asimov's Positronic Robots
    Mind and Iron A Collection inspired by Isaac Asimov’s Positronic Robots by Jacqueline Cast We live in a technologically driven world. Many of my classmates could never imagine living without their mobile devices- I am no exception. We live in a world that gets more and more connected thanks to machines. Last year I used a computer to communicate with a robot in Chile which took pictures of the night sky according to coordinates that I gave it, and then it emailed those photos back to me. I think robots and outer space are amazing, and I am so lucky to live in a time when I, personally, can interface with them in such a profound and simultaneously casual way. That’s what makes the work of earlier science fiction writers so inspiring, and that is part of the reason I have fallen in love with this genre. I was raised in a house where Star Trek was often on the television in the living room after dinner, so sci-fi was nothing new to me, but it was not until high school that I started reading a lot of the classics. I remember the first work I ever read by Isaac Asimov. In my 10th grade English class, during a unit where we also read selections from The Martian Chronicles, I was assigned his essay “Dial Versus Digital.” It is an essay that explains, in the classic elegance and simplicity of Asimov’s style that I would later grow to love, the cultural significance of analog clocks, most notably in their importance in describing direction.
    [Show full text]