Asimov's Foundation fans...

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Well, I just watched the Foundation TV Series and I have nothing nice to say about it.

Spoiler:

It was a complete re-imagining of Asimov's universe. One where Asimov's 3 laws don't exist. Where Eto Demerzel is nothing more than a nurse-maid, instead of the power behind the throne. The Emperors (yes plural) are clones. Gaal Dornick, the greatest psycho-historical scientist is an over-emotional young girl prone to violent outbursts and fights Hari Seldon and sleeps with his adopted son, Raych.

This show should be a how-to guide for ruining a story.

Anybody else seen the show?

Still likely closer to the books than that awful I, Robot movie. I knew I was in trouble when Will Smith was announced as the star. But I had hopes that director Alex Proyas would save the day.

[ZodWallop]

What is the best Asimov adaptation, movie or TV?

Off the top of my head, I think it is Bicentennial Man. I know critical opinion runs from 'meh' to negative. But I enjoyed the movie and it felt like Asimov.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

[...] Off the top of my head, I think it is Bicentennial Man. I know critical opinion runs from 'meh' to negative. But I enjoyed the movie and it felt like Asimov.

I agree. It wasn't such a great movie that I've wanted to watch it again and again, but I enjoyed it and thought it kept to the spirit of Asimov's robot stories quite well.

It's a pretty small field to start with and then "best" adaptation whittles the choice to very few indeed by the time you exclude the stuff that was only "suggested by" or whatever. For example I thought "I, Robot", with Will Smith, was an entertaining enough action movie, but it didn't feel like Asimov despite how much it borrowed.

[Karellen]

The author Jeffrey Brown has released The End of Foundation which is the final installment of the "Final Foundation" Trilogy...

https://ibmjob.dk/?page_id=72

I haven't started it yet, but it's in my queue. I'll have to go back and read the first two first as a refresher.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

What is the best Asimov adaptation, movie or TV?

Off the top of my head, I think it is Bicentennial Man. I know critical opinion runs from 'meh' to negative. But I enjoyed the movie and it felt like Asimov.

That's interesting, thanks. I've not seen it, but the source short is one of my favourite Asimov stories, by quite a long way. More pathos and depth than many of hisworks, I thought

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

What is the best Asimov adaptation, movie or TV?

Off the top of my head, I think it is Bicentennial Man. I know critical opinion runs from 'meh' to negative. But I enjoyed the movie and it felt like Asimov.

IMO it's better than other Asimov books adapted to movies, but not as good as the rather crazy infeasible "Fantastic Voyage", which is often wrongly ascribed to Asimov, though he did write the novelization of the movie based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby. The Bicentennial Man film is very like the 2nd period Asimov SF (after the detective and text books when the publisher persuaded him to do more SF again and he explicitly combined Calvin & Foundation series). The 'Caves of Steel' is Robots and a hint of Foundation universe (1953, near end of 1st SF period), but 'Robots of Dawn' is firmly 2nd period SF as it's 1983.

I found the story 'Bicentennial Man' a bit weak compared to older Asimov works (I don't know which version I read). I thought the film was more Asimov than the poor "I Robot" film, but also weak. I've not read the novel expanded from Bicentennial Man, 'The Positronic Man', co-written with Robert Silverberg.

But OTOH, I'm only a fan of older Asimov. I don't much like any of the stuff he did when he took up writing SF again in the 1970s.

'Bicentennial Man' is echoed a bit by one of the ST-TNG stories about Data.*

Edit:
IMO, Fantastic Voyage is "magic by another name".

*Neither of those is really like Pinocchio as that is a sort of parable. If you pay attention, the fairy that makes Pinocchio into a 'real' boy is the one that enchanted the wood in the first place. Data and the Positronic robot are both made by humans. Pinocchio was carved by a human, but was really created by a transcendental magical creature, even before the carving started.

[Byrdie]

Is anybody else having trouble downloading from Mr. Brown's site? I just tried to get the book but malwarebytes browser guard keeps blocking it as a suspicious/dangerous file. First time that's happened in a long time. No problem with zip files elsewhere, only there. :-(

[Karellen]

No problems here. I just downloaded it again and it downloaded a zip file which contains a mobi and epub file.

I don't really want to repost the zip file because I don't want to ruin the authors download count.

[rantanplan]

I haven't read foundation past Second Foundation. However, I was under the impression that Foundation and Earth would close all open story points. Is that not so?

With that regard, is this unofficial trilogy sort of companion piece, a replacement piece, or does it close the story which wasn't finished by Asimov?

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

With that regard, is this unofficial trilogy sort of companion piece, a replacement piece, or does it close the story which wasn't finished by Asimov?

It closes the stories of the larger Robot, Foundation and Empire series of books.
None of Asimov's Foundation books really finalise the story, it's just an end to the current dilemma.

But while many of the books were mini-arcs in the Robot/Foundation universe, like Mirage, Chimera, Aurora and Caliban, Inferno, Utopia, plus all the Foundation books by Asimov and other authors, this final trilogy brings them all together in a story arc to finalise the events.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

With that regard, is this unofficial trilogy sort of companion piece, a replacement piece, or does it close the story which wasn't finished by Asimov?

There is a review by Attila Torkos posted yesterday that goes some way to explaining the scope of the trilogy...

https://ibmjob.dk/?p=548

[rantanplan]

Thank you so much!

[fduniho]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

What is the best Asimov adaptation, movie or TV?

Off the top of my head, I think it is Bicentennial Man. I know critical opinion runs from 'meh' to negative. But I enjoyed the movie and it felt like Asimov.

I agree with that. I read The Positronic Man after seeing the movie, and it told essentially the same story. It also became my favorite of Asimov's novels.

The runner-up would be Foundation. It does depart more from the original story, but I enjoyed it more than I did the novels. As I recall, the novels did not have any prominent female characters, and they weren't unified by main characters who stayed alive for multiple generations. I appreciate how Gale Dornick, Salvor Hardin, and the cloned emperors have helped give more narrative continuity to the TV series. When I have time, I plan to reread the trilogy so that I can better compare it with the TV series.

Will Smith's I, Robot was fine as an action movie, but it mainly just used the name without trying to adapt any of Asimov's stories.

The worst would be the 1988 version Nightfall, which I described as "somewhat inept." I hope the 2000 version is better. While its 3.4 IMDB rating is slightly higher than this movie's 2.7 IMDB rating, it's still very low.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by fduniho

When I have time, I plan to reread the trilogy so that I can better compare it with the TV series.

I detest the tv series. It's nothing like the original stories.

With the recent release of the final installment of the Final Trilogy of Foundation, I have started re-reading select novels from Asimov.

I was originally going to reread the final installment on its own, then decided I should reread the trilogy. Then I remembered some stunning revelations in the first two installments, so then decided I should re-familiarise myself with the Universe again so I could completely immerse myself in the stories.

I've started off with I, Robot: To Protect, I, Robot: To Obey and I, Robot: To Preserve by Mickey Zucker Reichert. There is no connection between these three books and the Final Installment, but they were a great read and I still enjoyed them immensely on my second read.

Then onto Nemesis, The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and currently reading The Robots of Dawn.

Then I'll be following on with
Mirage,
Chimera
Aurora
Robots and Empire
Caliban
Inferno
Utopia
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Foundation and Chaos
Foundation's Triumph
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge

The onto the Final Trilogy.

There's also some fan fiction that I came across a little while ago, so I'll be inserting those into the reading list at the appropriate time...
https://archiveofourown.org/users/wo...ndom_id=116519