My Favourite author of all time

Isaac Asimov (b. 2 January 1920 - d. 6 April 1992)

When I visited the library in 1994 and saw the first Foundation novel I thought it was just another interesting sci-fi novel. Little did I know then that this series would be as gripping as it turned out to be. I read nothing else for the next few years, searching for every single Foundation novel I could find and reading them all in sequence. I then moved onto the Elijah Bailey detective novels and then the short stories and even the Lucky Starr novels when I ran out of other books of his to read. He wrote with an ease and effortlessness that could be seen in his work and which I greatly admired. It is a shame that he is not around to write any more books. What set him somewhat apart from some of his contemporaries was the fact that he was a Biochemist and had a PhD. The man knew what he was talking about when he wove his stories together on distant plantes and that to me made then all the more believable. His short stories are entertaining and they have a real twist in the tail like you won't believe. At least two of his short stories ahve been made into movies (loosely adapted but they're his stories nonetheless). They are Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams based on a short story of the same name and I, Robot starring Will Smith based on a collection of stories titled I, Robot. There was no one story titled I, Robot written by him. He was the first to coin the term robotics and is famous for his Three Laws of Robotics. The Three Laws are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

he later added a fourth, or zeroth, law for the first time in Robots and Empire which stated:


      0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.


I am planning to reread all the Foundation novels and every one of the Elijah Bailey novels as well in my 75 books challenge. It has been quite a while since I completed the series and it is about due for a revisit so watch this space.