Rating: 
Summary: One of his best!
Review: "I, Asimov" is not just an informing autobiography, it is rather a wonderfully written tale of the most personal experiences and thoughts of an author who made himself known around the world. The reader will not only get informed about Asimov's personal life, but will discover his rich and smart views on life in general as well as a vast amount of information about the character traits of many other prominent SF-authors of the golden age and today. This book is great and, unexpectedly, keeps one reading straight to the end. Recomended to all devoted fans of Asimov as well as anybody else...
Rating: 
Summary: Superb, ultimately sad, memoir.
Review: "I, Asimov" was the penultimate book to pour from the pen of Isaac Asimov. During a career that lasted over five decades, Asimov wrote on more topics than virtually any other writer in literary history. From the sciences to history and Shakespeare to the Bible, his clear, concise writing style and ability to simplify even the most complex ideas earned him the nickname "The Great Explainer." His fiction, with the exception of his early Foundation novels, "The Gods Themselves" and some shorter pieces, consisted largely of filler. Nonetheless, by the time of his death, he was quite possibly the most famous SF writer of his time.Asimov's first volumes of autobiography were published in 1979 and 1980. As his health declined and the end drew near, his wife, Janet, encouraged him to write a third volume, less explanatory and more introspective. He obliged. "I, Asimov" lacks the surface detail of the early memoirs, but is rich in thought, emotion and self-revelation. The man that emerges from these pages was witty, intelligent, kind, loyal and genuinely devoted to sharing his knowledge and talents with others. He could also be vain and arrogant, but he is so honest about these less-attractive attributes that the reader is willing to forgive him anything. There is a cloud of nostalgia and approaching death that hangs over most of "I, Asimov." The book was written when the author knew he didn't have long to live, and the book reflects that state of mind. In the end, however, it is uplifting and optimistic rather than depressing and gloom-ridden. What keeps me from giving it a full five stars is the rather dull middle section, which is significantly less interesing than the beginning and ending. The first 150 pages of the book are particularly unputdownable. All in all, this is a superb memoir and well-worth reading. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Superb, ultimately sad, memoir.
Review: "I, Asimov" was the penultimate book to pour from the pen of Isaac Asimov. During a career that lasted over five decades, Asimov wrote on more topics than virtually any other writer in literary history. From the sciences to history and Shakespeare to the Bible, his clear, concise writing style and ability to simplify even the most complex ideas earned him the nickname "The Great Explainer." His fiction, with the exception of his early Foundation novels, "The Gods Themselves" and some shorter pieces, consisted largely of filler. Nonetheless, by the time of his death, he was quite possibly the most famous SF writer of his time. Asimov's first volumes of autobiography were published in 1979 and 1980. As his health declined and the end drew near, his wife, Janet, encouraged him to write a third volume, less explanatory and more introspective. He obliged. "I, Asimov" lacks the surface detail of the early memoirs, but is rich in thought, emotion and self-revelation. The man that emerges from these pages was witty, intelligent, kind, loyal and genuinely devoted to sharing his knowledge and talents with others. He could also be vain and arrogant, but he is so honest about these less-attractive attributes that the reader is willing to forgive him anything. There is a cloud of nostalgia and approaching death that hangs over most of "I, Asimov." The book was written when the author knew he didn't have long to live, and the book reflects that state of mind. In the end, however, it is uplifting and optimistic rather than depressing and gloom-ridden. What keeps me from giving it a full five stars is the rather dull middle section, which is significantly less interesing than the beginning and ending. The first 150 pages of the book are particularly unputdownable. All in all, this is a superb memoir and well-worth reading. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant end to a brilliant career
Review: "I. Asimov" is a much more personal work than Isaac Asimov's previous autobiographies. Although "In Joy Still Felt" and "In Memory Yet Green" provide the reader with an amazing amount of detail, they don't go much further than to narrate the day-to-day events of the writer's life. If you want to learn something of the inner man behind the writer, this is the book for you. We learn more about his rocky relationship with his mother, the basis for the stereotypically stupid female characters which show up in most of his early works; his relationship with his second wife, the basis for the much more realistic female characters which show up in his later works such as "The Caves of Steel" (which makes me wonder if this is why young men subconsciously prefer the earlier works); his troubles with academia, which he admits were as much his fault as academia's; and of course his famous ego, which at times gets in the way of the story. Even so, I cried at his admission that his son was not all he had hoped for, and rejoiced at his pride in his daughter's accomplishments. I can see how this book might not appeal to a young reader looking for a hero to worship. Asimov isn't an easy character to understand; a combination of insufferable ego and blinding insecurities, of bad luck and incredibly good fortune, of horrendous thoughtlessness and heart-warming kindness. He was an imperfect man and he knew it, and he still loved himself. And good for him.
Rating:
Summary: One of his best!
Review: "I, Asimov" is not just an informing autobiography, it is rather a wonderfully written tale of the most personal experiences and thoughts of an author who made himself known around the world. The reader will not only get informed about Asimov's personal life, but will discover his rich and smart views on life in general as well as a vast amount of information about the character traits of many other prominent SF-authors of the golden age and today. This book is great and, unexpectedly, keeps one reading straight to the end. Recomended to all devoted fans of Asimov as well as anybody else...
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant end to a brilliant career
Review: "I. Asimov" is a much more personal work than Isaac Asimov's previous autobiographies. Although "In Joy Still Felt" and "In Memory Yet Green" provide the reader with an amazing amount of detail, they don't go much further than to narrate the day-to-day events of the writer's life. If you want to learn something of the inner man behind the writer, this is the book for you. We learn more about his rocky relationship with his mother, the basis for the stereotypically stupid female characters which show up in most of his early works; his relationship with his second wife, the basis for the much more realistic female characters which show up in his later works such as "The Caves of Steel" (which makes me wonder if this is why young men subconsciously prefer the earlier works); his troubles with academia, which he admits were as much his fault as academia's; and of course his famous ego, which at times gets in the way of the story. Even so, I cried at his admission that his son was not all he had hoped for, and rejoiced at his pride in his daughter's accomplishments. I can see how this book might not appeal to a young reader looking for a hero to worship. Asimov isn't an easy character to understand; a combination of insufferable ego and blinding insecurities, of bad luck and incredibly good fortune, of horrendous thoughtlessness and heart-warming kindness. He was an imperfect man and he knew it, and he still loved himself. And good for him.
Rating:
Summary: A Gread Read for Writers
Review: As a novelist, I found the biography very insightful. It is one of those books that eases the Struggling Writer's mind that every one of us is human, and that we all have our own struggles in life.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is an embarassment to a great sf writer
Review: As Martin Amis once pointed out, every anecdote Asimov tells involves him tossing off a witticism and ends with "Everyone laughed." Well, reading this book you might enjoy laughing at Asimov as he tries to pass platitudes off as deep thinking and flaunts that famous ego nonstop. You'll be laughing and laughing until you reach the part where Asimov is joking about what his last words will be and says (after the joke) that really his last words will be an affirmation of love for his wife; his wife here adds an editor's note that, those were, indeed, his last words. And then you go "Awwww" and feel bad for laughing at this poor guy. After all, he did write "Nightfall" and _Foundation_. But this book, this book is awful. If you want to read a good sf memoir, read Pohl's masterful _The Way the Future Was_ and see how it ought to be done; if you want to read a worse one you're goingto be hard pressed (but Anthony's _Bio of an Ogre_ might do the trick).
Rating:
Summary: A book written from the author's deathbed.
Review: Asimov finished this book shortly before he died in 1992--on a sad day for sf fans who admired him. Of course his fame went much further than that, for Asimov was the foremost "explainer" of science in our time. I admit a bias toward him since he was good enough to answer three letters I wrote him at the tender age of twelve or so. But I will not sentimentalize him, nor claim great things for his fiction. He was a competent plotter and had good ideas. No one reads his work for its characterization or style. Nevertheless, he has been praised by writers John Gardner (author of Grendel) and Thomas Pynchon. This book, published two years after his death, gives a vivid impression of his last attitudes about his life and those who were part of it. He comes across as an insecure workaholic who clung to the people he loved (his second wife and his daughter), and surrounded himself with casual acquaintances to while away the time with, especially with meals and speeches where he was the center of attention. His charisma is evident, but his continual references to women being attractive (something he always did) gets old. He was of his generation, coming of age in the late thirties. The sadness of his last years, especially due to friends dying, is palpable. He is frank about conflicts with his first wife (whom he was never happily married to) and other writers. The table of contents reads like a non-alphabetized index--if you're looking for something specific about his output or life, you can quickly scan to find it. Recommended to those who already know and like this author's work.
Rating:
Summary: A book written from the author's deathbed.
Review: Asimov finished this book shortly before he died in 1992--on a sad day for sf fans who admired him. Of course his fame went much further than that, for Asimov was the foremost "explainer" of science in our time. I admit a bias toward him since he was good enough to answer three letters I wrote him at the tender age of twelve or so. But I will not sentimentalize him, nor claim great things for his fiction. He was a competent plotter and had good ideas. No one reads his work for its characterization or style. Nevertheless, he has been praised by writers John Gardner (author of Grendel) and Thomas Pynchon. This book, published two years after his death, gives a vivid impression of his last attitudes about his life and those who were part of it. He comes across as an insecure workaholic who clung to the people he loved (his second wife and his daughter), and surrounded himself with casual acquaintances to while away the time with, especially with meals and speeches where he was the center of attention. His charisma is evident, but his continual references to women being attractive (something he always did) gets old. He was of his generation, coming of age in the late thirties. The sorrows of his last years, especially due to friends dying, is palpable. He is frank about conflicts with his first wife (whom he was never happily married to) and other writers. The table of contents reads like a non-alphabetized index--if you're looking for something specific about his output or life, you can quickly scan to find it. Recommended to those who already know and like this author's work.
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