Any Asimov buffs?

[Darryn]

I managed to aquire 54 Asimov books from Freecycle... which is nice.

Ive read a few several years ago, and im planning on reading these in free time (at work) over the next few months... Im struggling to find much info regarding the order in which they should be read. Im tempted to simply go for chronological order, which is all i can find, but, then there is the possibility of prequels, which would be better read out of order... Also, maybe bunching the foundation series together, which isnt

Anyone got any pointers?

Heres the list of what i got;

Asimov's Mysteries
Azazel
Before the Golden Age 2
Child of Time
Counting the Eons
Earth Is Room Enough
Exploring: The Earth and Cosmos
Fantastic Voyage
Far as human Eye could see
Forward the Foundation
Foundations Edge
Foundation
Foundation And Earth (2 Copies)
Foundation And Empire
I, Robot
Nemesis
Nightfall One
Nightfall Two
Nordy's Other Secret
Pebble in the Sky
Pirates of the Asteroids
Robot City -Book One
Robot City -Book Two
Robot Dreams
Robot Visions
Robots and Empire
Second Foundation (2 Copies)
Space Ranger (2 copies)
Tales of the black Widowers
The Best of Asimov 1954-1972
The Bicentennial Man
The Big Sun of Mercury
The Caves of Steel
The Complete Robot
The Currents Of Space
The Early Asimov - volume 1 (2 copies)
The Early Asimov - volume 2
The Early Asimov - volume 3
The End of Eternity (2 copies)
The Gods Themselves
The Martian Way (2 copies)
The Naked Sun
The Rest of the Robots (2 copies)
The Rings of Saturn
The Robots of Dawn
The Stars Like Dust
The Subatomic Monster
The Tragedy of the Moon
The Union Club Mysteries
The Winds of Change
Through A Glass, Clearly
Today and Tomorrow
Towards Tomorrow
'X' Stands for Unknown

 

[memyselfandi]

I like the Elijah Bailey Robot stories;

[ Mother Earth from the Early Asimov Anthology ]
The Naked Sun
[ Mirror Image from the Complete Robot Anthology ]
The Robots of Dawn

the [] being short stories with the first a prequel set a great deal earlier covering how things got how they are in the books. (and yes I pulled that order off wikipedia )

The first few Foundation books I found quite good although I never got into the later ones.

Good collection of books there .... wish I had some of them to fill in a few gaps in my collection and had the time to read or re-read them.

 

[strumpusplunket]

IIRC (and I may well not, it's been ages), the Lige Bailey series (which I really liked as well) originally went:

Caves of Steel
The Naked Sun
Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire

I only read the first of the Foundation series and then jumped to Foundation and Earth for some reason, and missed all of what was happening. I mean to read it through properly one day.

A lot of short stories will be repeated across those anthologies, too.

Asimov's Mysteries and Azazael are a departure from his usual stuff because he wanted to write something different. I liked Mysteries quite a lot, Azazael not so much.

I think the Lige Bailey, Foundation and Susan Calvin stories should be read in order. For the rest I don't think it matters too much.

 

[Darryn]

Thanks for the replies... ive sorted them all chronologically now, and managed to find a Asimov FAQ, which also lists them by series order, so ive got the Foundation sequence, rather than published order.

 

[Shamikebab]

Baily series then Foundation series = Novelgasm

 

[Darryn]

Baily series then Foundation series = Novelgasm

Novelgasm noted and rearranged for the Bailey series accordingly... Thanks again guys.

Still tempted to start at the beginning, just so i can fully appreciate his writing style before i get to his better work... Also, if i dont do them in some kind of order, my memory is terrible and ill end up missing some and reading others twice.

 

[ElliorR]

I haven't read the Elijah Baley novels in years. I just ordered The caves of Steel and The Naked Sun and look forward to reading about my favourite robot once again. The pay off at the end of Foundation and Earth was sweet.