Asimov Estate Authorizes New I, Robot Books 426
daria42 writes "In a move guaranteed to annoy long-term science fiction fans, the estate of legendary science fiction author Isaac Asimov, who passed away in 1992, has authorized a trilogy of sequels to his beloved I, Robot short story series, to be written by relatively unknown fantasy author Mickey Zucker Reichert. The move is already garnering opposition online. 'Isaac Asimov died forty years after they were first written. If he had wanted to follow them up, he would have. The author's intentions need to be respected here,' writes sci-fi/fantasy book site Keeping the Door."
Re:Cry, Robot... (Score:5, Informative)
Why, because someone is making books with the same name? If it offends you, don't read them. If you always wanted more I, Robot then read them.
Nobody's going to be calling them canon.
Re:How about we pay the author not to write them? (Score:5, Informative)
You should read Alistair Reynolds then - it's probably the best (and sadly, probably nearly the only) new hard science fiction there. It's really very good.
If you're not sure, try reading Galactic North - it's a collection of short stories, most of which are set in the Revelation Space 'universe'. It's interesting in that there is no travel faster than c, and people are the usual - grubby and self-serving - no Captain Picards.
Re:How about we pay the author not to write them? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How about we pay the author not to write them? (Score:5, Informative)
Well, Foundation didn't even start out as books but was a series of short stories in a science fiction magazine.
Nevertheless it was a trilogy for a long time. There were thirty years between SF and FE.
Re:How about we pay the author not to write them? (Score:4, Informative)
On top of the ones already mentioned by the sibling posts, I'll add my recommendation for Robert Charles Wilson [wikipedia.org], specifically his novel "Spin" which is one of the finest sci-fi novels I've ever read, and decidedly on the 'hard' side of the genre.
Perhaps the best thing about it is that it wouldn't be so hard to turn it into a movie, as most of the plot happens on "10 seconds into the future" Earth. Unlike, for instance, Asimov's Foundation series or Larry Niven's Ringworld which have *huge* potential of turning into campy, CGI-ridden monstrocities simply by virtue of their settings.
My additional reccomendation (Score:3, Informative)
Neal Asher and Richard Morgan, two relatively new British SF authors of hard SciFi, both just as bloody and violent as Alastair Reynolds yet with much better characterisation, and less waste ; they get to the point very fast and keep the pace through much of the book. Seriously, give them both a try, starting with Asher's Grid-Linked and Morgan's Altered Carbon.
Re:Revisionist Colored Glasses (Score:4, Informative)
(it has been a while, but I think I enjoyed the first couple of them)
He didn't mind other people writing on his ideas...
Re:How about we pay the author not to write them? (Score:3, Informative)
I tried to connote my tastes.
What I found was Stephenson's demonstration of his own obvious intelligence in recreating a parallel world whose development too closely paralleled this one. Even if I suspended belief, his invention of a parallel vocabulary to meet the timeline of his story was flawed.
His 'close your eyes and imagine....' descriptions were like slogging through a seemingly endless journey predicated in two feet deep mud. My mental legs tired of it, and was unrewarded by its relentlessness. If you can't get my attention in the first 250 pages, the 750 remaining aren't going to be worth it. The gymnastics remind me of the same D&D- induced madness that is fantasy sci fi, a genre that I find wholly unsatisfying.
I recognize some find such a tome invigorating. I do not. _Anathem_ was overly 'clever' to me. The fact that it was a "#1 New York Times Bestseller" shows its market relevance, and I'm not that market.