The Gods Themselves

[dyre]

Spoilers ahead

Damn, am I glad I gave Asimov's books another chance after Foundation and Earth! What a wonderful book (The Gods Themselves, that is; F&Earth was a heap of trash), one that I feel grasps human nature a lot better than the Foundation series did, especially when he started adding psychics that alter human emotion in the later books of the series...

I was especially impressed with his creation of a new species (or three in one, w/e) in Part 2. Though, I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a whole lot of closure regarding Estwald / Odeen, Dua, Tritt. Even Lament got his closure through Denison's narrative, but we leave Estwald just as s/he presumably attempts to stop the pump (or, does the merging result in a being that now supports the pump, seeing as s/he was the one who created it). I wonder if Asimov ever addressed this?

It would be awful if a few years after Denison develops the counter-pump, the Hard Ones stop their end of the original pump in order to "protect" Earth, not knowing that the Earthlings have already found a solution!

 

[BAYLOR]

A very good and underrated book.

 

[farntfar]

I personally found this to be one of Asimov’s most creative books in many ways leaving the Foundation series standing..
Yes, Foundation is a terrific series in terms of the vastness of the society it creates, but in the end it ‘s still about humans. Psychohistory is interesting, but again, it’s a question of intelligent guesswork/analysis pushed to it’s human limits. The rest is space opera almost of the ‘Lucky Starr : Space Ranger’ type.

But with The Gods Themselves,Asimov has done something else entirely.
In the space of one fairly short book he has created an alien race which is totally believable but more different to our own than most other alien races in SF, which still manages to teach us about ourselves.
And in the same book he presents a law/limitation of the physics of multiple universes and its own moral judgement.

Spoiler Alert.

 

[Fried Egg]

Yes, this is definitely one of his best books and one that people who's dismissed Asimov should consider trying.

Personally I liked 'Foundation and Earth' also but there you go...

 

[BAYLOR]

It would make a great film.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Yeah I feel like this is an underrated gem. Also the word Cosmeg is totally underutilised today.

Anyone for some scrambled Cosmeg?

Asimovs aliens were rarely anthropomorphic in their physical nature and I found the aliens in The Gods Themselves especially different.

 

[DZara]

This book was one of my very favorite books that Asimov wrote. The concept of the 3-in-one aliens really captured me. I modeled the aliens in my own book on his. Does anyone know if anyone else wrote about species that were similar to this one? I'd love to find another story that was similar.

 

[Bick]

Can't think of any off the top of my head DZara - I think Asimov went out of his way to come up with something different. There were always two criticisms of his work (by some) that he acknowledged freely - he didn't have aliens in his books, and he didn't write about sex. So when it came to his comeback novel, I think he thought, right I'll surprise everyone, let's give them alien sex! I like the book too, but its not actually my favourite of his.

 

[BAYLOR]

Or it could be the basis for a tv series

 

[psikeyhackr]

I just learned the The Gods Themselves was written because of Robert Silverberg.

Geek Trivia: To write a wrong - Page 2

Plutonium-186 follows Asimov Rules!

I may have read that in the book 40+ years ago but long since forgotten.