Great Books you've probably never heard of or read

Quote: Pacomartin

Asimov (1920-1992) believed his life's work should be read in chronological orders. So if you haven't started here is the list.

Sort of.

The Empire novels really don't impact anything, except insofar as they get cameo mentions here and there in latter works. Then, too, some parts of the prequels can spoil the sequels, and viceversa.

Prequels aside, the gap is explained due to how Asimov saw his career, or how he stumbled through it if you'd rather. it's all in his three volumes of autobiography and memoirs.

Briefly put, the original Foundation stories were written for the pulp magazines of the time (in the 1940s, actually) for Joseph W. Campbell Jr. When SF started being published in hard cover in the 50s, the rights to the Foundation were handled by an amateurish man named Martin Gardner with a house called Gnome Press. They sold poorly, along with everything else Gardner handled, and rarely paid Asimov any royalties. So he simply lost interest.

By then he'd published a few novels with Doubleday, and they kept receiving inquiries about the Foundation. Asimov famously replied "I'm not interested. I don't get royalties from those books." Doubleday then wrestled (ie bought) the rights from Gnome press and that's when they became a hit.

But in the 50s, too, Asimov had both moved past them and grown interested in writing non-fiction (primarily science writing). Indeed, through the 60s and 70s as far as fiction goes he wrote mostly short stories, a few novellas and only one major novel (The Gods Themselves), though the pressure mounted for him to return to the Foundation.

By the early 80s Doubleday offered him a $50,000 advance for a Foundation sequel (couched in somewhat different terms), and that opened the floodgates for Asimov's second run at writing SF novels. He wrote not only Foundation and Robot novels, but also some stand-alone originals like Fantastic Voyage II and Nemesis.


But for my money, Asimov's best ever works are, in order, The End of Eternity and The Gods Themselves.

Quote: Nareed

Sort of.

The Empire novels really don't impact anything, except insofar as they get cameo mentions here and there in latter works. Then, too, some parts of the prequels can spoil the sequels, and viceversa.

Prequels aside, the gap is explained due to how Asimov saw his career, or how he stumbled through it if you'd rather. it's all in his three volumes of autobiography and memoirs.

Briefly put, the original Foundation stories were written for the pulp magazines of the time (in the 1940s, actually) for Joseph W. Campbell Jr. When SF started being published in hard cover in the 50s, the rights to the Foundation were handled by an amateurish man named Martin Gardner with a house called Gnome Press. They sold poorly, along with everything else Gardner handled, and rarely paid Asimov any royalties. So he simply lost interest.

By then he'd published a few novels with Doubleday, and they kept receiving inquiries about the Foundation. Asimov famously replied "I'm not interested. I don't get royalties from those books." Doubleday then wrestled (ie bought) the rights from Gnome press and that's when they became a hit.

But in the 50s, too, Asimov had both moved past them and grown interested in writing non-fiction (primarily science writing). Indeed, through the 60s and 70s as far as fiction goes he wrote mostly short stories, a few novellas and only one major novel (The Gods Themselves), though the pressure mounted for him to return to the Foundation.

By the early 80s Doubleday offered him a $50,000 advance for a Foundation sequel (couched in somewhat different terms), and that opened the floodgates for Asimov's second run at writing SF novels. He wrote not only Foundation and Robot novels, but also some stand-alone originals like Fantastic Voyage II and Nemesis.


But for my money, Asimov's best ever works are, in order, The End of Eternity and The Gods Themselves.

Very interesting post. Thanks. I was unaware of the whole backstory to the Foundation trilogy.
I don't remember The End of Eternity (getting old, I'm sure I enjoyed it) but The Gods Themselves blew me away. Such imagination.
Is there any great modern science fiction out there?
We all got so spoiled by Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke. They were such great story tellers.

I read Solaris recently. George Clooney science fiction movie been out for years. read the book before renting the movie, kind of interesting but not great.

Where is the modern great sci fi?

Quote: terapined

Very interesting post. Thanks.

You're welcome.

I guess I'm a bit of an Asimov scholar. But then, too, so would be any assiduous readers of his. He talked a great deal about his life and work in the introductions to his novels (if any), but also on essays, short story collections, and there are the two volumes of autobiography and one of memoirs (In Memory Yet Green, In Joy Still Felt, and I, Asimov if you want to look them up).

OK, it's not a "hidden gem", probably everyone but me has heard of it before. But I finally found a copy of "Big, Two-Hearted River" and it's one of those things that will stay with me forever.

I usually like a wordy book. I like when something simple is described in a very obscure and round about way. I guess it sort of makes it seem bigger than it is, to me. But this was different. It's not wordy at all. I'd almost call it brutishly simple. No, I WILL call it brutishly simple.

It's like everything I read is a Gordon Ramsay special. Intricate mixes, myriad spices, all specifically made just so, just to your taste. That's good. But BT-HR is like a slab of meat cut fresh off the elk and cooked over a camp fire. Beautifully splendid in its simplicity, so much that the simplicity itself is like an exotic herb that pushes it over the edge.

Forget understanding, forget a connection. When I read that story, I am there. I see the camp, I see the swampy marsh that I'm saving for tomorrow, I feel and even smell the ice cold water. I can see the hoppers bouncing in the grass, feel their tickle as they get threaded on the hook. I see it clear as day, not as if some guy wrote this 90 years ago, but as if I was just there this morning. He might have been writing about me. I might have wrote it myself, were I able to bottle that magic for once.

If you have a spare 20 minutes, the reading is mandatory. Just sublime.

Quote: Face

OK, it's not a "hidden gem", probably everyone but me has heard of it before. But I finally found a copy of "Big, Two-Hearted River" and it's one of those things that will stay with me forever. I usually like a wordy book. I like when something simple is described in a very obscure and round about way. I guess it sort of makes it seem bigger than it is, to me. But this was different. It's not wordy at all. I'd almost call it brutishly simple. No, I WILL call it brutishly simple.
.

That's what Hemingway did. He would get up at
dawn and read what he wrote the day before
and take out any words that weren't needed, and
write more on the story that day. The next day
he would read and correct the last few days
and continue on. Always, constantly, rewriting
and cutting out the chaff. What was left was
the bare bones of what he was trying to say.
Like the sculptor who chips away at the marble
until all the excess is gone and whats left is
is the result of his concept.

Before then, writers used as many words as
possible to tell their story. Hemingway changed
writing forever. It's a ball breaking way to write,
you can't cover your ass with half a page of rambling
nonsense. He makes you do half the work with
your imagination. If you go back and read the story
again later, you'll see things you missed before and
wonder, how the hell did Hemingway do that.

'Nick slipped off his pack and lay down in the shade. He lay on his back and looked up into the pine trees. His neck and back and the small of his back rested as he stretched. The earth felt good against his back. He looked up at the sky, through the branches, and then shut his eyes. He opened them and looked up again. There was a wind high up in the branches. He shut his eyes again and went to sleep.'

I would like to recommend John Varley. His trilogy, Titan/Wizard/Demon, is pretty great, though Demon tails off into inanity at points. His other books which fit into the 8 Worlds are pretty good also. And his short stories (several collections) are brilliant in places, at least good. He's nearly 70 but still writing. A couple of his other books are a bit thin but still inventive and interesting. And a series set in Daytona Beach in the near-future/now (Red Lightning, Red Thunder) are fun but a little less visionary.

He takes a very Heinleinian approach to his worlds and characters, and was often compared to him in the first decade or two of his writing. Anyway, I enjoy him and own all his books. He's won a few sci-fi awards along the way.

I was very fond of all the Robot works from Asimov, a little less so of the Foundation stories. I will look up the Delany, thanks.

Quote: Mosca

What kind of books do you like? I read incessantly, but I don't think I've read much that would fit the title. Most truly great books get heard of.

Lately I've been reading more history and non fiction looking for ways to better understand the world and in particular human nature. Most of the fiction I have read most people would be familiar with or are considered classics. I very much enjoy(ed) anything Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Niel, Sarte.
Plays and short stories are lots of fun, Flannery O'conner is great.
I think I read most of Steven Kings stuff up until 1995, Clancey too. Those are always page turners. I'll put up the Stand as a great read for anyone going on a loooong train ride.

I've never read much if any science fiction so I think I am going to read the Asimov works Chronologically as suggested... that seems like fun.

Quote: Evenbob

That's what Hemingway did. He would get up at
dawn and read what he wrote the day before
and take out any words that weren't needed, and
write more on the story that day. The next day
he would read and correct the last few days
and continue on. Always, constantly, rewriting
and cutting out the chaff. What was left was
the bare bones of what he was trying to say.
Like the sculptor who chips away at the marble
until all the excess is gone and whats left is
is his the result of his concept.

Hemingway said "every writer needs a built in shock proof shit detector"
Its hard, I wrote a few short stories in my college's writing program and the Mantra was always "show, dont tell" Succinctness is a difficult task, at least for me it was.

Quote: Nareed

Among the best of what I've "read" that way are two books by Bill Bryson: "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and "Made in America."

putting them on my list, thanks.

Quote: terapined

Rereading what I consider the Greatest science fiction books ever.
This is actually my 3rd time in my life I am rereading my 3 favorites
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation

Awesome, this is what I was looking for, thanks for sharing.