One of the Holy Grails of science-fiction writing is the Convincing Alien Sex Scene. Has it ever been done? You get these claimed sightings, but then the sceptics move in. Okay, it's sexy and alien, but is it really convincing? Or, it's alien and convincing, but does it come across as sexy?Anyway, this book is one of the stronger contenders, as Asimov treats us to a graphic, no-holds-barred description of how a three-gendered species get it on. I found it convincing, and many people agree that i...

I remember reading the first few sentence of this novel not being terribly impressed, not that I would ever considered giving up reading of one of HIS novel, but the descriptions of character seemed childish and I may have even though (blasphemy) there is something lacking there, but then I pulled myself together and told myself 'What do you know? This is Asimov. Have you ever read anything by Asimov that didn’t amaze you? Off course not. So shut up.' Anyhow, it didn’t take me long to become eng...

Sometimes particularly when reading about Octopuses editing their DNA, giant fungi in the USA, or super Ant colonies I wonder why anyone ever bothered to write any science fiction - the variety and strangeness of actual life on earth seems to trump with ease the modest products of human imagination, perhaps that is precisely the point, the story is a way of controlling the world, of reducing its complexity to the manageable oddness of a novel.In this case if it looks too good to be true - it pro...

What’s a man supposed to do? Here is a novel that is greatly revered by critics and fans alike. It received both the Nebula and Hugo awards for best novel (1972 and 1973 respectively). Asimov himself identified this as his favourite. And yet…I normally really enjoy Asimov’s works. Foundation, especially, is one of my favourite SF novels. I am going to go against what appears to be the norm by not giving this novel four or five stars. It’s a novel I respected rather than enjoyed. I can certainly

This reread for me was still fun, well-paced, imaginative, and thought provoking. The tale concerns an opening with a parallel universe discovered by a physicist whose tungsten is converted into an impossible isotope of plutonium. When it decays usable energy is produced. At the point of the story when a science historian is interviewing this scientist, the massive construction of “Electron Pumps” is producing free energy on a scale sufficient hold the prospect of a coming shift to utopia for hu...

the soft-formed, tri-sexed aliens have their roles: the Id, the Ego, the Superego: the Feeler, the Thinker, the Carer. they flow together and apart like mist, like amoebas making love; they watch the stars, they study their lessons, they nurture their young; they report dutifully to the hard-formed ones. their hard kin have a plan to save their cooling universe: transmute energy from another, warmer dimension! and so they enact their attack on Earth, on our dimension.this middle section in the t...

"The Gods Themselves" by Asimov was an interesting read. One of those books I've been meaning to read for a long time. One quick thing- I noticed the three Parts titles all combine to say "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain" and can assume Asimov is quoting Friedrich Schiller who, in "The Maid of Orleans", said "Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.", which is exactly that saying in German.It is an interesting premise. Frederick Hallam , a scientist, has found a ne...

Isaac Asimov is a writer of ideas: and this is one of his best.The concept is mind-boggling. Energy transfer between parallel universes, a universe which contains a three-gendered species, a convincing thermodynamic problem solved in a convincing way: it's all there for the aficionado of Hard SF. Also, the shortsightedness of governments regarding possible disasters, when there are goodies available for the taking by ignoring the dangers seem strangely prophetic in the face of the Climate Change...

Isaac Asimov rarely wrote about either aliens or sex. In response to critics who complained about these omissions, he wrote a book about alien sex. Rather, a book whose middle third is mostly about alien sex. (Mostly.) The other two thirds of the book tell one of the "purest" and "hardest" science fiction stories I've ever read.By pure, I mean that there's a single, science-related "what-if," and that the story hinges upon that. (In contrast to, for example, a space opera such as Star Trek, in w...

More tomorrow, but it’s Asimov and 5 stars⭐️ , what did you really expect?I have to say up front that Isaac Asimov is probably my favourite author. Yes I have favourite books by other authors, but taking into account that a large percentage of my favourite novels and stories are by this fantastic author, I think it qualifies him (today at least) as my favourite.So, I am guessing that I first read this book back in the mid 1970s, and maybe I haven't read it since as I remembered very little of it...

"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." – Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, The Maid of OrleansThe overarching storyline involves a method by which matter is exchanged between our universe and a parallel universe, resulting in what at first appears to be an unlimited supply of free energy to both. The process has been initiated by otherworldly beings, but Dr. Hallam, a scientist from earth, takes credit for it, to great acclaim. Later, a lone dissenter, Dr. Lamont, believ...

There’s No Free LunchThe wonder of Asimov’s fiction is that it has so many possible interpretations, many of which are acutely philosophical and often counter-cultural. Here’s one about The Gods Themselves:Scientific method is the modern intellectual fetish. We talk like we know what it means; and that what it means is the rational expansion of knowledge, leading to an improvement in the human condition. But both presumptions are questionable. Historically, scientific progress has been more acci...

Though a science fiction novel, The Gods Themselves is also primarily about magic. Throughout the courses I took for my my undergraduate degree in Economics, we talked a lot about the driving forces behind the choices people make. One of the greatest is magic. We all want to find that magical thing that makes us not have to work as hard; magic makes life easier.This quest for magic has helped us innovate on a grand scale and use the resources around us for our own benefit. Whether it's been good...

I just reread this book for the umptieth time over many years, and was struck once again by what a fine piece of work it is. This is one of the best pieces of pure science fiction every written. It isn't the best STORY, of course -- Asimov himself has better ones, as do many other science fiction authors from the post WWII era. But only a handful of other stories such as Forward's Dragon's Egg come to mind as being such excellent science fiction.I am a physicist, mind you. The amazing thing abou...

This book came along in 1973, at the time Asimov was dedicated to write books which were all connected; not exactly in a series but with common themes and even characters. So, looking at it from that point, The Gods Themselves is an outcast that doesn't follow the pattern. It's a book with marked differences to much of what Asimov wrote, and that's exactly one of the reasons why I like it so much.One of the first interesting differences is that this book is told from two quite opposite points of...

A good foreword by Asimov. It's can be fun to find out the inspiration for a story & since this one involved Silverberg, another giant in the SF genre, that was even better.The basic premise is good, too. Actually, it might be great, especially the way he leverages it to show the realities & politics behind science & society. It's easy to see where a catch 22 can & would develop. Unfortunately, the narrative & characters are so flat that I kept zoning out. I didn't like any of the characters & t...

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Dua, Odeen, and Tritt: "The Gods Themselves" by Isaac Asimov"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."Friedrich SchillerI admired it much more than I actually enjoyed it. Asimov's ideas are brilliant but his characters are somewhat bloodless and cardboard. Even when he tries to work against this it comes out all embarrassing. The third section on the moon is a pale imitation to Heinlein's 'Moon is a Harsh Mistress'. Given the

Asimov foresees the climate change debate29 May 2012 The title of this book is a part of a longer title, which is used to split up the three sections of the book: Against Stupidity the Gods Themselves Contend in Vain'. I believe that that is actually an Ancient Greek saying, which is not surprising at all. Nope, as it turns out I am incorrect (thankyou Internet), it was in fact a saying of a German Poet named Friedrich von Schiller, but it is not the saying or the meaning of the saying that I re...

No wonder this thing won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973!The story is divided into three parts: Part one first opens on Earth in the year 2070, about 70 years after the "Great Crisis", where an ecological and economic collapse reduced the world's population from six billion to two billion. A scientist, Hallam, discovers an isotope from a parallel universe: plutonium 186. This leads to the development of a cheap, clean and apparently endless sourc...

*sigh* Some books should remain fond memories.I'm dropping a star on the re-read. Enjoying the insistence of intuitionalism doesn't make up for the abysmally uninteresting aliens or the 1970's culturally-locked ideas surrounding smart human women and smart alien women. It was actually pretty groan-worthy. As for the actual story idea, I enjoyed the extrapolation of a modified natural law and the SF conversation Asimov was having with Silverberg, but it turns out that a tiny handful of ideas isn'...