"Steven Wandy" <Swandy.TakeThisOut@si.rr.com> wrote:
>I have read most of Dr. Asimov's books, but for some reason never read the
>early Robot stories, including most of the short stories and the first two
>Robot novels (Caves of Steel and Naked Sun).
>I have copies of The Complete Robot and the two novels, but I understand the
>stories in The Complete Robot are not written in any order. Should they be
>read as published in the book, in the order they occur in Asimov's history
>or the order published? And if not in the order in the book, can someone
>provide me with a suggested order?
The short stories don't matter, either in terms of the CoS/NS
novels, or the Foundation works, other than for general knowledge
of robots. Since characters introduced in the two robot novels
reappear in the 'second' coming of the Foundation series, you may
feel a little less uneasy if you have read them before reading
Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire, the two "earliest" of that
second foundation visit. The two other "prequels" of that second
foundation visit are Prelude to Foundation and Forward the
Foundation. And, of course, a character we met in Caves of Steel
plays a key role in Foundation and Earth, the last, Foundation
chronologically, in the Foundation series.
Caveats. IA was as good as anyone at writing "stand alone"
stories and novels. While having read some work previously might
make you more comfortable with a "later" story/novel, it isn't
really necessary.
Same thing with spoilers. Particularly with the latter 'half' of
the Foundation series. While Prelude to and Forward the
Foundation might be considered to have spoilers, particularly for
a person totally new to IA's Foundation works, for the later
works, they are not huge or disastrous.
Two helpful web sites:
Ed Seiler's Asimov site <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.asimovonline.com" target="_blank">http://www.asimovonline.com</a>
and John Jenkins’ Spoiler-Laden Guide to
Isaac Asimov at
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/Asimov/Asimov.html" target="_blank">http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/Asimov/Asimov.html</a>
--
OJ III
[Email to Yahoo address may be burned before reading.
Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast.]<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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