Life has begun

When I was a child and early teen I only read Science Fiction, even diversions into fantasy were a bit dubious.  I bought most of my books second hand, which is why the books were skewed towards the science fiction of the 1940s and 1950s (actually that turned out fine as the 1960s New Wave is something I have never enjoyed).  There were three titans of that period.  I never got into AE van Vogt (though Graham liked his work).  Robert Heinlein, who it turned out was the kind of loony right winger that was the USA’s speciality, until other countries started breeding them.  It is worth reading Starship Troopers – even at the age of 13 I was shocked at how mad it was (it is not really like the film) and definitely read Joe Haldeman’s Forever War afterwards for a more realistic view of space war.

I liked Isaac Asimov though.  Maybe because his books were almost exclusively about men – none of those pesky girls getting in the way with feelings.  This was concepts and plotting and intricacy.  Asimov was (in) famous for not having women or aliens in his books.  He explained it was the fact that he did not know many women (this was in the 1930s), I guess he did not know many aliens either.

Asimov invented the laws of robotics – a codified way of programming robots so they would not rise up and kill humanity (a staple of early science fiction) and created the Foundation series about one man’s plan to orchestrate the rise of civilisation after it fell the next time.

First Law

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

Second Law

A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

Third Law

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Asimov also wrote detective fiction.  His books The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun combine SF with detective fiction.  Satisfyingly depicting two very different societies with a mystery that gives you all you need to solve if you think through how those societies work.

My favourite of his books is a time travel story – The End of Eternity.  Eternity is a time travel organisation that safeguards humanity by tweaking its history.  The hero is disturbed by one of the few women to have a major plot role in his books who suggests Eternity may be doing more harm than good.  This is one of his few standalone novels, not set in the robotics/ Foundation universe (though fans being fans have found a way of including it).

His final book I would recommend comes in the 1970s, after a long break from SF he wrote The Gods Themselves – featuring aliens and sex, just to prove he could do it.  He won the major SF awards for that.  His later work is sadly verbose and covers old ground.

One of the many writers who has actually influenced the way scientific discoveries have been used to this day.  Not well known as he should be, you should really trey one of his books, Caves of Steel is probably a good place for a non SF fan.

This song is very twee and probably a complete cash in on the hippy movement.  Jonathan King cashed in on lots of fads with novelty singles, like Una Paloma Blanca.  This is so sweet though, a British version of all those San Francisco songs from a couple of years earlier.  Jonathan King has been in prison for rapes carried out in this period.  It is terrible and his seeming lack of remorse makes it worse.  He obviously is a smart man in many ways but it seems like he is a monster too – sad when people you admire turn out like that.

Everyone’s Gone to the Moon