Now, I’ve only read a little bit of Asimov, but as an occasional sci-fi fan, I certainly acknowledge him to be one of the founding fathers of the genre. His ideas about robots have actually shaped and informed robot research for decades, which I think is one of the marks of a great sci-fi writers. Now, as you may know, Asimov died in 1992. The Robot series, as it is known, was written primarily in the 40s. Now, if Asimov had wanted more Robot stories written, don’t you think he would have done so himself?
But Asimov’s estate, apparently concerned more for the bottom line than the man’s literary legacy, has authorized a new trilogy: sequels to the Robot series, to be written by a guy I’ve never heard of, a Mr. Mickey Zucker Reichert. Classy.
Now, I understand if you want to allow, say, a crappy movie to be made — it provides exposure, introduces some younger people to Asimov, and so on. And I’d be thrilled if they wanted to do a big “75th anniversary” thing or whatever, and do a big promotion, and re-issue the book all nice. But authorizing new content to be added? I don’t think he’d approve.
[via Slashdot]
It depends on what he is doing i guess. If hes just adding on stories and carries on the robot stories in their universe then i dont really see a problem with that. Ive personally read all of his books and a few based in his universe and i find them acceptable. I,Robot was never a story, but a group of stories so more groups of stories wouldnt be so bad.
Ooooh! ooooh! ooooh! More Foundation!!! PLEASE MORE FOUNDATION!!!
Maybe get John Edwards to channel Dr. Asimov…. They might make billions and billions….
Dear god please leave Foundation alone. It was and should have always remained a trilogy.
I guess adding to the Robot stories bothers me less if they stay away from the original characters. Someone could easily build on it just using US Robots and Mechanical Men along with the three laws.
Just a point of order form a lifelong Asimov fan… :)
It’s actually 11 books and a collection of short stories by Asimov, and three additional books that the Estate had published by Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and David Brin – the so called “Killer Bees”
I’m sure you would freak out to know that Frank Herbert’s Dune series was revived years ago by his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson – they have had a lot of success with the additional 10 or so books that they have added to Franks original six…
There was also a set of books written within the Foundations worlds by Roger McBride Allen that were great. The stories didn’t include Asimov’s characters, but picked up an idea Asimov mentions (something Harry finds in his investigations).
I would hope Reichert submitted something that was so good that it couldn’t be ignored.
I really don’t see Asimov objecting to another writer taking up the mantle of writing stories in the universe of Susan Calvin and U.S. Robotics And if you have never heard of the author or not probably would not mean much to him either.
Asimov generally concentrated on non-fiction after the SF market collapsed in the latter part of the 1950’s. He essentially had other things he could write that paid more — so I would not put to much stock in him “not wanting” any more robot stories.
Bah, who cares? It’s not like he’s going to mind it… Did Shakespeare rose from the grave after DiCaprio’s performance as Romeo?