The Gods Themselves

Rating:
Summary: Wayward plotlines pull together inventively, if awkwardly.
Review: In exchange for a large deus ex machina, Asimov gets a lotta bang out of the ending here. Payoff feels rushed and comes out of nowhere but it's quite creative.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best Asimovs
Review: Not set in any of Asimov's series, this book is independant of all timelines and universes created by this master.
This book shows what a powerful mind Asimov was ... the plot, the writing and the quote are so well suited, you'd think that they were created for the sole purpose, to meet in Asimov's genius and produce this book.
If you have never read Asimov, read this ... it shows his genius and with what style; this is one book that will capture your mind and hold it.

Rating:
Summary: Nostradamus move on over, Asimov has taken over
Review: In yet another compelling novel by one of Science Fiction's greats, Hugo and Nebula Award winner Issac Asimov evelates himself to the level of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Aldus Huxley in his prophetic view of the future. While what shall pass may be indistinct, Asimov demonstrates that the scope of Humankind's role is not: Presented with a boundless source of energy, human culture develops at an astounding pace. Scientists, blinded by the infinite rewards of their newfound power refuse to consider that what they do -- the soul of their work -- is endangering the sun, our Earth, and the entire Human race. The fate of billions of humans is within their own hands as they have become The Gods Themselves.

Rating:
Summary: A gripping, imaginative and awareness weakening book.
Review: Humankind finally found the endles, non-polluting source of energy. But still, destruction lurks, a whole universe could be destroyed.Will mankind's endless imagination find a solution or give up this sensational discovery? Infinite possibilities lie ahead when human beings don't need to care for energy supplies anymore, but is this energy supply safe? The responsability of destroying the whole universe or building a new one lies on one accidentally intuitive man. Besides, fantastic descriptions of future and alien societies. A must for every science-fiction lover.

Rating:
Summary: Ideas over verbal mastery
Review: Anything by Asimov is worth reading. The man was one of the great geniuses of our time. If only his writing style was a bit more sophisticated, his works might have a wider audience outside of the sci-fi arena.

This book, "The Gods Themselves," is one of his most original and interesting. Like almost anything the man has done, it's been influential to a degree that reading it now one can't help but recall a plethora of sci-fi books that have recycled some of these ideas. What's fascinating beyond that are the ideas that haven't been pilfered before. The book is divided into three sections, each trisecting the line "Against ignorance, the gods themselves contend in vain" from Schiller. The first section is a telling portrait of how scientific progress is often motivated by irrational male posturing. The last third posits hope for the future. However, it is the middle section - Asimov's rare depiction of a truly alien species - that is the best.

If you like more ideas than verbal mastery or just following the Master on one of his flights of fancy, you'll enjoy "The Gods Themselves." This is one of his best.


Rating:
Summary: The Gods Themselves as a science tutor
Review:
I recently read The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov. The book displayed wonderful insights into complicated scientific theories that I for one would not have been able to comprehend without the story to help. Through all of the subtle hints and clues presented in the book, I found myself coming to the same conclusions at roughly the same time that the characters in the book did. Asimov took science fiction and used it as for which it was meant, taking the difficult concepts and explaining them within plotline. I believe that this book would be a great tool for a person that wants to understand parts of theoretical physics but does not know where to start or a person that wants to get his teenage child interested in the field.

The story itself takes place in three segments, each building on the first with little or no direct overlapping. The three places are the moon, earth, and the home of the paramen, a parallel universe that gave the new technology to the humans. There are a handful of people that believe that the earth will be destroyed due to a new technological source and they have to figure out how they are going to get their peers to accept their conclusions and save the universe. Each character has to go behind the backs of those in higher power and intellectual regard than themselves to try to save the doomed universe.


Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece worthy of the praise
Review: On the surface, the book is about the issues relating from a seemingly free energy source taken from three points of view: Some Earthbound scientists, an alien trio from a parallel universe, and a Moonbound scientist and intuitionist. The book is written in three large chapters, containing each point of view.

Throughout the story, many issues are implied above and beyond the science fiction at hand. Left brain/right brain difference are covered in the alien interactions. The morality of putting one species over another is touched upon. The difficulty of replacing an energy source are touched on - Asimov could have been predicting the oil crisis and resultant pollution impacts.

At times when reading this book, I really felt, "So this is what a truly great writer is about..." The prose was fantastic, the weaving of the three story lines was fine craftmanship, and the meaning broader than just the surface plot. In many ways Asimov transcends the genre of science fiction in this amazing story.

Rating:
Summary: Totally Different Asimov
Review: This book stands alone among Asimov's Science Fiction works. About the only thing that could be considered even closely related to this book is The End of Eternity. No Robots, no Foundation, no Empire. Its been quite awhile since I've read the book, and the person I lent it to never returned it, so I'll have to go off memory... but, the things I remember most about the book are: 1) The character who discovers the window into the other dimension - the kind of guy you love to hate; 2) The aliens from the other dimension - they are so bizarre, it is cool.

Rating:
Summary: Better as 3 Stories
Review: Asimov presents very convincing character development, pulling the reader in and presenting many interesting twists. Sometimes the physics was a big overwhelming, and I had to reread certain passages a number of times, and remember back to Atomic Mass theory. I was particularly intrigued with the emerging environmental consciousness presented: ideas of future renewable, free energy sources, in a metaphor for our current unquestionable unquenchable pursuit of nonrenewable resources, within the ever-present myth of a free lunch.

Asimov explores many possibilities in the human and alien psyche, considering how our negative impulses can push us on to greatness- great glory, or great tragedy. He investigates how the perceptions of who we are will change with time- the perceptions of others, and our self-perception. I was engrossed- I wanted to know what was going to happen next to these characters that I cared about. And what happened next, especially at the end of the units, was usually not what I expected. It is a well written novel. And therein lies the flaw.

Perhaps if the characters weren't so well portrayed, it wouldn't matter that we never get to find out what happens to them. This is written more as three separate stories, around a common theme, rather than a novel. And the three stories themselves are more slice-of-life than the traditional Western novella genre. So we begin to care a great deal about character, only to see him disappear at the end of the first unit, and only be tangentially mentioned in the third unit. Then we get a very interesting display of a completely foreign and alien psychology and anthropology, with 3 mates in one, and a complicated lifecycle- only to have a surprise at the end of the second unit, never fully explained, and the aliens never really again mentioned. And in the third unit, with a long rendition of what life is like on the moon, we focus on a character tangentially mentioned in the first unit- and in this story, there is at least some completion, albeit with unfortunate gratuitous dwelling on nudity. Each would be quite good alone, with extra material added. But I'm left feeling that this is an unfinished novel- worse, 3 unfinished novels. I'd rather have the author finish his own work, and not be made to complete the novel for him.

Rating:
Summary: Wildly uneven, but sometimes brilliant
Review: Mankind discovers a method of energy transfer with the aliens of another universe that promises unlimited energy. Unfortunately, it also promises ultimate destruction. Only a few scientists are capable of seeing beyond their own self-interest and hubris to recognize this fact, but can they make others believe? Asimov has constructed an admirable allegory for the environment quandry that we face here on earth, although he fails to show how limitless power would transform our lives.

The novel is constructed in three parts. The first and third sections involve human beings and rely too much on telling and not enough on showing--lots of long, didactic conversations and far too little incident. The third section is particularly weak; it is dull and bloodless with a take on human sexuality which is supposed to be advanced but, from today's standpoint, seems firmly mired in a seventies mentality.

The triumph of this novel is the masterful middle section. Asimov depicts an alien society that is truly unlike mankind, yet he manages to depict distinct individuals. This is quite surprising coming from a writer who is known neither for characterization or alien-building. It's just a shame that the rest of the novel could not maintain this quality and had to end on such a tragically dull note.