Isaac Asimov is one of the most towering and influential writers in the history of science fiction. Born in 1920, he was an actual scientist: a professor of biochemistry at Boston University. Along with Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, he’s considered one of the “Big Three” of science fiction.
He was of a generation of sci-fi writers who put ideas at the forefront. His characters may seem a bit flat and one-note. His plots sometimes drag. But the scientific ideas at the core of his stories were what really mattered. He coined the Three Laws of Robotics all the way back in 1942. His writings dealt with ethics around robots, AI, and galactic political intrigue.
His publication history is long. I mean, so, so long. In his lifetime, he published more than 300 books, many of them short story collections. By his own accounting, he published 1,000 words per day in the first 20 years of his career and more than 1,700 per day in the second 20 years.
This begs the question: Where do you start reading Isaac Asimov?
The Robot Series
Asimov’s greatest contribution to science fiction and, indeed, s...
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