THE SCI-FI MASTERS
"...For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;..."
Alfred, lord Tennyson (1809-1892) "Locksley Hall" lines 119-122
Quite a seer, was our Tennyson. Born the same year as Lincoln and died just when the fervor of automobile experimentation was at its' height, foretelling the airplane and its' commerce and role in warfare. Especially when you consider that the poem these lines appear in was first published in 1842, long before automobiles and airplanes were common-in fact before many men had even dreamed of such.
Other prophets had done so before, but few, if any, had expressed it quite so clearly. Even the Bible had its' share of prophets, and visionaries have existed throughout history. Nostradamus and da Vinci come to mind immediately. Da Vinci even made drawings of some of his and they bear remarkable resemblances to modern day inventions.
Modern day visionaries' thoughts are even more far out of mainstream writing. Three of them were exceptional: Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke. And over the past fifteen or so years we have lost all three, but their ideas live on in such stories as the Rama series by Clarke, the Foundation series by Asimov and the Future History series by Heinlein.
Isaac Asimov was the son of a Russian immigrant to the United States. He was very young when his family came to America. His life is well documented so I will not go into it, except to say that he received an excellent education, obtaining the professional use of his doctorate to teach biochemistry at the university level for a number of years. But his greatest love was his writing. And he was the writer of hundreds of books-texts, opinion pieces, criticism, general sciences and science fiction and mysteries.
When I was the tender age of ten, my father brought home a short novel named "Nightfall." From that moment on I was a fan of Asimov. The story concerned the natives of a planet located in the central core of galaxies where there was always a sun shining in the sky. Every few millennia, the movement of the galaxies was such that there descended upon the world a complete and total darkness, lasting only one night. "Nightfall" deals with the social and religious implications of such an event.
Asimov's "Foundation" series was a landmark series. Originally written as a trilogy in the late forties and early fifties, he expanded it to include his "Robot" novel characters in the seventies, and brought it full circle at the end of the complete series which ran to some six or seven books, not counting the original robot novels. The series chronicle the attempt by a changing group of men to allay the effects of the downfall of of an empire from internal corruption and to reduce the time required to rebuild a new empire from its' ashes, thereby reducing the time of chaos from thirty thousand years to a fraction of that time.
Although I have enjoyed every book he ever wrote that I could lay my hands on, I have always felt that his general sciences books were the very best. He could take extremely difficult subjects and explain them in everyday terminology which even youngsters could usually understand. My personal favorite is "Adding a Dimension," but I leave it to you to read and see for yourself. You may very well find others that you deem better, and that is what makes a horserace.
Robert Heinlein passed away a few years ago. He was, like Asimov, a very prolific writer, most always in the science fiction genre. Early in his career, he constructed a future timeline of events and people, and then proceeded to write short stories and novels based upon that future history. His future history encompassed the rise of the religious right to include a theocracy for the United States, the bringing forth of a family of very long lived men and women and the resultant turn=moil when their longevity was made public, the birth and life of a human youngster on Mars and what occurs after he is brought to the Earth for 'humanization', and many others all welded into a framework which includes the 'black hats' of the Universe. I have never tried to figure out just how many of his works are tied into this framework, but it always seemed to me that he was very consistent in the views which were expressed throughout his works.
I could not assign a favorite among his many works. Each of them has its' own worth and comparisons are difficult. My own screen name, by the way, is taken from one of his novels, "The Moon IS A Harsh Mistress." But the term appears in many other works by Heinlein. One note I will make is that he uses alternate Universes and alternate Earths throughout his histories. Many times the story actually revolves around that alternate theory. Tanstaafl simply means "there aint no such thing as a free lunch," which pretty well expresses my view on life.
The third of the triumvirate is probably the best known around the world. We all know at least one work by Arthur C. Clarke, "2001: A Space Odyssey." But a great deal of the science in that novel and film was known at the time and the novel, while interesting, does not really display the depth of his knowledge. His "Rama" series is probably much more indicative of this than many of his other novels.
Like Asimov and Heinlein, Clarke was a very prolific writer. As well, he hosted his own television series which was a scientific coup. and drew many younger viewers to the field. During his later years, Clarke teamed with other authors, most notably Gentry Lee, a writer of some renown in his own right. Clarke's and Lee's "Cradle" is an excellent novel.
For pure technical works, Clarke was difficult to match. His understanding of basic science was on a par with Asimov and his ability to weave the science into his stories was unparalleled, especially so in that he introduced it in a manner that even non-technical minds could, if not entirely grasp it, at least see that the work was well grounded in science.
His crowning achievement, of course, was being knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
All three are gone from us now. This world will, undoubtedly, have others just as great. But my time of reading will not discover them. I have large collections of all three, although my Clarke's are not as extensive as I'd like. And the science is now something that I do not keep up with too well. Newer writer that I enjoy are primarily those who deal in the fantasy genre, where science is left by the wayside and the social and interpersonal relationships are explored.
But after a few of those, I find myself rereading some of these three masters for relief and I find that the enjoyment of rereading one of their works is as much or more pleasurable than trying to grasp the nuances of new writers.
So, goodbye old friends. Your great works are for the ages now. They serve as a fine memory and current comfort to me. You will be read as long as my eyes and inclinations remain.
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;..."
Alfred, lord Tennyson (1809-1892) "Locksley Hall" lines 119-122
Quite a seer, was our Tennyson. Born the same year as Lincoln and died just when the fervor of automobile experimentation was at its' height, foretelling the airplane and its' commerce and role in warfare. Especially when you consider that the poem these lines appear in was first published in 1842, long before automobiles and airplanes were common-in fact before many men had even dreamed of such.
Other prophets had done so before, but few, if any, had expressed it quite so clearly. Even the Bible had its' share of prophets, and visionaries have existed throughout history. Nostradamus and da Vinci come to mind immediately. Da Vinci even made drawings of some of his and they bear remarkable resemblances to modern day inventions.
Modern day visionaries' thoughts are even more far out of mainstream writing. Three of them were exceptional: Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke. And over the past fifteen or so years we have lost all three, but their ideas live on in such stories as the Rama series by Clarke, the Foundation series by Asimov and the Future History series by Heinlein.
Isaac Asimov was the son of a Russian immigrant to the United States. He was very young when his family came to America. His life is well documented so I will not go into it, except to say that he received an excellent education, obtaining the professional use of his doctorate to teach biochemistry at the university level for a number of years. But his greatest love was his writing. And he was the writer of hundreds of books-texts, opinion pieces, criticism, general sciences and science fiction and mysteries.
When I was the tender age of ten, my father brought home a short novel named "Nightfall." From that moment on I was a fan of Asimov. The story concerned the natives of a planet located in the central core of galaxies where there was always a sun shining in the sky. Every few millennia, the movement of the galaxies was such that there descended upon the world a complete and total darkness, lasting only one night. "Nightfall" deals with the social and religious implications of such an event.
Asimov's "Foundation" series was a landmark series. Originally written as a trilogy in the late forties and early fifties, he expanded it to include his "Robot" novel characters in the seventies, and brought it full circle at the end of the complete series which ran to some six or seven books, not counting the original robot novels. The series chronicle the attempt by a changing group of men to allay the effects of the downfall of of an empire from internal corruption and to reduce the time required to rebuild a new empire from its' ashes, thereby reducing the time of chaos from thirty thousand years to a fraction of that time.
Although I have enjoyed every book he ever wrote that I could lay my hands on, I have always felt that his general sciences books were the very best. He could take extremely difficult subjects and explain them in everyday terminology which even youngsters could usually understand. My personal favorite is "Adding a Dimension," but I leave it to you to read and see for yourself. You may very well find others that you deem better, and that is what makes a horserace.
Robert Heinlein passed away a few years ago. He was, like Asimov, a very prolific writer, most always in the science fiction genre. Early in his career, he constructed a future timeline of events and people, and then proceeded to write short stories and novels based upon that future history. His future history encompassed the rise of the religious right to include a theocracy for the United States, the bringing forth of a family of very long lived men and women and the resultant turn=moil when their longevity was made public, the birth and life of a human youngster on Mars and what occurs after he is brought to the Earth for 'humanization', and many others all welded into a framework which includes the 'black hats' of the Universe. I have never tried to figure out just how many of his works are tied into this framework, but it always seemed to me that he was very consistent in the views which were expressed throughout his works.
I could not assign a favorite among his many works. Each of them has its' own worth and comparisons are difficult. My own screen name, by the way, is taken from one of his novels, "The Moon IS A Harsh Mistress." But the term appears in many other works by Heinlein. One note I will make is that he uses alternate Universes and alternate Earths throughout his histories. Many times the story actually revolves around that alternate theory. Tanstaafl simply means "there aint no such thing as a free lunch," which pretty well expresses my view on life.
The third of the triumvirate is probably the best known around the world. We all know at least one work by Arthur C. Clarke, "2001: A Space Odyssey." But a great deal of the science in that novel and film was known at the time and the novel, while interesting, does not really display the depth of his knowledge. His "Rama" series is probably much more indicative of this than many of his other novels.
Like Asimov and Heinlein, Clarke was a very prolific writer. As well, he hosted his own television series which was a scientific coup. and drew many younger viewers to the field. During his later years, Clarke teamed with other authors, most notably Gentry Lee, a writer of some renown in his own right. Clarke's and Lee's "Cradle" is an excellent novel.
For pure technical works, Clarke was difficult to match. His understanding of basic science was on a par with Asimov and his ability to weave the science into his stories was unparalleled, especially so in that he introduced it in a manner that even non-technical minds could, if not entirely grasp it, at least see that the work was well grounded in science.
His crowning achievement, of course, was being knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
All three are gone from us now. This world will, undoubtedly, have others just as great. But my time of reading will not discover them. I have large collections of all three, although my Clarke's are not as extensive as I'd like. And the science is now something that I do not keep up with too well. Newer writer that I enjoy are primarily those who deal in the fantasy genre, where science is left by the wayside and the social and interpersonal relationships are explored.
But after a few of those, I find myself rereading some of these three masters for relief and I find that the enjoyment of rereading one of their works is as much or more pleasurable than trying to grasp the nuances of new writers.
So, goodbye old friends. Your great works are for the ages now. They serve as a fine memory and current comfort to me. You will be read as long as my eyes and inclinations remain.
posted by tanstaafl | 11:13 AM
4 Comments:
I read this about an hour ago, then came back and read it again. I have a confession to make.
I always figured Asimov would be way over my head, so I've never even given him a try. I like science fiction a lot, and the universe does fascinate me, as does technology--but I'm not well versed in any of it. Two things intimidate me--math, and technical aspects of science. General ideas I can grasp, but technicalities lose me.
The way you write about it, though, has made me curious. My imagination can't seem to be satisfied lately, so I think if I make it to the bookstore this week or next weekend, I may just suck it up and give it a try, see what I can find.
Blogger doesn't seem to want to let me comment. Trying again here...
I always figured that Asimov was way over my head. I love science fiction, am interested in science in general (because it really opens up the imagination), but, to be honest, the technicalities of both science and math really do intimidate me.
Anyway, the way you have written about it (and I think I recall some of you discussing it on the Hot Topics blog, too) has made me curious. I think if I can make it back to the bookstore this week or weekend, I might just give it a try. If I start to find it confusing, I can just slow down and take my time. See, that's my main problem, I think. I read very fast (it is almost a compulsion) and when things get technical my brain starts shutting down. Still...I think I'll give it a shot, see what I can find.
A really good sci-fi writer will either make the science clear or will relegate it to a minor position in his/her works. Heinlein pretty well relegates it to a minor area. Clarke goes both ways and Asimov makes it so easy you don't even realize he's teaching you. All three are excellent yarn spinners. But there are dozens of others that are good, too. If you ever get into it and want to read some fine stuff, let me recommend Larry Niven and David Pournelle's Motie books. The first is "The Mote in God's Eye" and the sequel is "The Gripping Hand."
With them, you just accept the science and get on with the story. The basis is that the Moties (named for the star), are much more procreative than humans and as a result, their civilizations collapse fairly often. In an attempt to break the cycles, they are looking for new worlds to settle. After sending a slow craft under a sunsail through the void, it is destroyed by a Federation patrol ship. The Federation has never located an alien race previously and send ships into the Mote system to investigate. The Moties are much more technically advanced than humans in engineering but hopelessly behind in social sciences. The clash of the two civilizations makes for interesting reading.
Or, if you like zero science, you might try Ann McCaffrey's series revolving around the planet of PERN. This series is one which tells the ongoing story of a group of settlers on a second rate planet, with few mineral resources. The struggle for survival and the threat of a destructive organism falling from another planet into their atmosphere makes an interesting read. But you have to accept the man-made dragons!
I'm sure you will find something you like.
Oh, by the way, if you have a fair library in the area, it is a whole lot cheaper to utilize it. I seldom buy books anymore as I have access to the Barboursville and Cabell County library system. And if they do not have what I want, I can order it through the Western Regional Library Authority. Sure has saved me a chunk of money that way.
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