Opus 100

Rating:
Summary: Engaging summary of Isaac Asimov's first 99 books
Review: Certainly there is no one who can match the breadth of Asimov's writings, although there are a few who can match the volume. The man truly can be described as "the human writing machine." This is a book about books, being a summary of the first 99 that he wrote. To be more precise, it is a collection of excerpts from several of those books interspersed with Asimov's personal commentary concerning his writing and how he came to write about that particular topic.
I found the commentary to be more interesting than the excerpts. He writes in a very personal style that seems to be directed to you as you read it. His tactics and even occasional humility, a rare thing for Asimov and something he readily admits, gives you a great deal of insight into how he could be so prolific and broad. He sums up his career very well when he admits that the only thing that he is expert at is in sounding like an expert.
I confess that I learned more science from reading Asimov's books than I did in satisfying the requirements for two majors in areas of science. He writes very well, making the complex understandable. If you are unfamiliar with his work, then this book is a good place to begin. If you have read nearly all of his over 300 books, then you can still read this for pleasure, something I just did for the third time.

Rating:
Summary: Engaging summary of Isaac Asimov's first 99 books
Review: Certainly there is no one who can match the breadth of Asimov's writings, although there are a few who can match the volume. The man truly can be described as "the human writing machine." This is a book about books, being a summary of the first 99 that he wrote. To be more precise, it is a collection of excerpts from several of those books interspersed with Asimov's personal commentary concerning his writing and how he came to write about that particular topic.
I found the commentary to be more interesting than the excerpts. He writes in a very personal style that seems to be directed to you as you read it. His tactics and even occasional humility, a rare thing for Asimov and something he readily admits, gives you a great deal of insight into how he could be so prolific and broad. He sums up his career very well when he admits that the only thing that he is expert at is in sounding like an expert.
I confess that I learned more science from reading Asimov's books than I did in satisfying the requirements for two majors in areas of science. He writes very well, making the complex understandable. If you are unfamiliar with his work, then this book is a good place to begin. If you have read nearly all of his over 300 books, then you can still read this for pleasure, something I just did for the third time.

Rating:
Summary: Compulsory reading for anyone interested in Sci or Fi
Review: In this book Mr. Asimov reviews his first 100 books. He presents a chapter from each one with some comments about the way the book was written, the characters (if it's a fiction story) or the research if it's a Science book. Compulsory reading for anyone interested in Science and/or Fiction.