Isaac Asimov
The Foundations of Science Fiction
Description:... One of science fiction's most distinguished historians and critics here offers a rare insider's view of the writer whose name has become synonoymous with science fiction today. Drawing on his thirty-year friendship with Isaac Asimov, James Gunn shows how Asimov's life was shaped by science fiction and how Asimov in turn shaped the field from the beginning of its Golden Age in 1939 to recent times. Gunn discusses the entire science fiction output of this prolific man of letters whose books total far beyond 200. He pays special attention to the Foundation stories and to the robot novels and stories. In tracing the circumstances that have molded Asimov's fiction, Gunn has devoted himself to what he calls "criticism in context," examining Asimov's work in light of the rise of science fiction magazines, the influence of his editors, and the writer's own rational approach to the problems of the world -- and of the universe.
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