Dolphin starship pilots! Chimpanzee scientists! Hordes of vicious aliens! And a fleet of billion-year-old warships connected to a galactic conspiracy. 1984's Hugo-winning novel Startide Rising has everything — yet something important is missing.
Though not without its flaws, Forward the Foundation is a fascinating book, in which both author Isaac Asimov and his hero scientist Hari Seldon strive to finish the works that would define them after they were gone.
In the prequel Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov takes us back to see how psychohistory, the science that saved humanity, was born — and it's kind of a crazy ride. Knife fights, mustaches, and high-level math await!
Having determined the fate of the galaxy, our intrepid space travelers move on to the next task at hand — finding the long-lost planet where humanity was born. It's a strange trip into yesteryear, in Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Earth.
Three decades after his Foundation stories became classics, Isaac Asimov returned to that universe. In Hugo winner Foundation's Edge, he covers old ground and new, and shows how a whole galaxy can work in harmony, in more than one sense.
The Mule has disrupted Hari Seldon's plan, and nothing can save the Foundation. Unless — yes! There's another Foundation, hidden away at Star's End. Or is there? Let's find out, as we dig into Second Foundation, by Isaac Asimov.
Hari Seldon's plan is working perfectly, and thanks to psychohistory, the Foundation is well on its way to saving what remains of Galactic civilization. And then Isaac Asimov throws a wrench or two into the works, in Foundation and Empire.
On the planet Terminus, a group of academics struggles to survive as the Galactic Empire crumbles. With no weapons, all they can rely on are the predictions of a dead genius named Hari Seldon. That's right - it's time to discuss Isaac Asimov's Foundation!
Take one highly vulnerable space station. Pack it with realistic characters. And then start a war. You'll end up with 1982's Hugo winner, Downbelow Station, by C.J. Cherryh — and a hell of a story.
Do you enjoy space opera, fantastic technologies, millennia-old mysteries, and terrifically wicked villains who want their offspring to embrace their dark side? Do you like women too? Then you'll love 1981's Hugo winner, The Snow Queen, by Joan D. Vinge.
If cleanliness is next to godliness, then I can't help but think God must like 1980's Hugo-winning novel, The Fountains of Paradise, by Arthur C. Clarke — even if it's all about getting in His face.
It's Dreamsnake weekend for Blogging the Hugos! Today, an interview with author Vonda McIntyre about writing 1979's Hugo-winning novel, how much things have changed for women in SF, and how she hopes you don't notice the trick she pulled.
Back when it won the Hugo in 1979, Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake was one woman's radical ride through a post-apocalyptic world. Too bad it's been out of print for over a decade.
Long before he was named Best Fan Writer — way back in 1978, in fact — Frederik Pohl won another Hugo (and a Nebula too), for his novel Gateway. And yikes, what a book.
The musical, measured Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, by Kate Wilhelm — which won the Hugo in 1977 — is an artful admixture of clones and poetry, with a message that'll never get old.
It's been nine years since our own interminable War on Terror started. Can we learn anything from 1976's Hugo-winning novel, Joe Haldeman's The Forever War?
After a short break, "Blogging the Hugos" is back with 1975 Hugo winner The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin. I thought it was right in so many ways — so what went wrong?
People have talked about turning Arthur C. Clarke's 1974 Hugo winner into a movie, but no one's done it. Should that change, here are some thoughts on how a Rendezvous With Rama screenplay should look.
At long last we come to perhaps the biggest name in science-fiction literature. Settle in for a long, long — long — look at what might be the least Asimovian story Isaac Asimov ever wrote.
There's a lot going on in 1972's Hugo-winning novel, Philip José Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go. But in this introduction to his legendary Riverworld, the waters can get a bit choppy and muddy.
