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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Started intriguing but then continued to get more and more complex until the last 60 pages or so were purely false revelatory monologues explaining the too-intricate and hard to follow plot ‘twists.’ If anything, this book is proof of how much Asimov improved as a writer over his career. He has far better-executed mysteries than this one. Also, Samia’s character existing only to be assaulted by Terens—who goes on a murder-spree and gets off scot-free—yikes.
3.5 stars on the easy curve because it’s not really a high concept book. A lot of the scene setting was excellent. There is a pretty bad caricature of a gay man but there’s definitely a lot less sexism and creepiness. That leaves room for a competent sci fi story and this delivers that.
On to the next.
On to the next.
This is one of asimov's early writing and tries to present the picture of interstellar politics, describing the incidents of slavery expounded by some master planets over the planets they control. This is brilliant piece about how owners of a handful planets think and negiotate for their own prosperity as they reap the benefits of work done by other planets. The story is about a spatio-analyst, who is lost and been physic-probed, i.e his memory has been erased. Spatio analysts are supposed to be neutral people and not be affected by politics. Who in the world might have done such a harsh deed and why has it has been done is central thread of this novel. The story, as revolves the central thread, portrays the culture and dealings of the planets like Florina, who inhabitants are mostly workers, Sark with four major Squires who control Florina and a 3rd powerful planet called Trantor. The way politicians of these planets deal with each other are presented very well by Asimov. The piece that struck with me most was the concept of Nationalism that was worked out by this story towards the end.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A far more political leaning story than the other books I’ve read by Asimov but I found it interesting with the mystery surrounding Rik’s memories and importance and how the political leaders chose to handle the knowledge they had about him
Pretty interesting story, somewhat flat characters though. It appears obvious to me at least that Asimov honed his craft to a very fine point over time, and this was during his early works so while it’s good, the others are much better. Also isn’t quite as consequential to the universe as I was hoping but again - the universe wasn’t even planned by Asimov so that’s not a real fair critique.
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No