The Roving Mind

Rating:
Summary: a view into the thinking of Isaac Asimov
Review: Isaac Asimov was probably the best person ever to write science fiction. He was also one of the best people to ever write science fact. His death in 1992 was a great loss to the world.

This book provides a good look into how Isaac Asimov thought about various issues. With all the problems in the world, the views of Asimov might help to make the world a bit more logical place if we pay attention to him.

Rating:
Summary: a view into the thinking of Isaac Asimov
Review: Isaac Asimov was probably the best person ever to write science fiction. He was also one of the best people to ever write science fact. His death in 1992 was a great loss to the world.

This book provides a good look into how Isaac Asimov thought about various issues. With all the problems in the world, the views of Asimov might help to make the world a bit more logical place if we pay attention to him.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly outdated, but insightful thoughts and crisp prose
Review: The late Dr. Asimov's clear wit and wisdom is taken to bear here on fools and the future. He begins by excoriating "Religious Radicals," in harsh liberal prose that seems rather outdated today. (For instance, there is a chapter called "The Reagan Doctrine" that pokes fun at tactics Ronald Reagan used in battling the Soviet empire.) Other chapters are also dated, including several chapters on environmental predictions that are informed by distinctly Malthusian notions of supply shortages. (To wit, "And in the mad scramble for food on your part and on the part of billions of others, the people of eath will further damage the world they live in and will begin to fight each other over scraps.") Still, Asimov writes lucidly on science in a number of historical and opinion pieces, which are carefully reasoned. Five essays at the book's end give perspective to the late thinker's personal life, and a number of inserted memorials (new to this edition) from other prominent scientists and science fiction authors really round out a book that shows Asimov's incomparable breadth of interest. The "Roving Mind" of the title is Asimov's own intellect; any thoughtful reader will find his own mind broadened for having read it.