Random thoughts on sci fi authoring.

We finished The Naked Sun (1957) tonight. Second in a sequence the Caves of Steel (1954) / The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov.

He had already written Foundation (1951) before Caves of Steel. It is fascinating to have read these books but years later to go back and think about how Asimov developed his ideas and stitched these stories together. What I had never realized was that Robots were intended to explain Foundation. This was affected in part by Asimov having been criticized for writing stories about superior aliens. So he decided not to ever write about aliens. and he wanted to explain why the universe was void of alien life. This was why he never produced Star Trek or Star Wars type universes. I always wondered about that. it was planned, but planned after an evolution. Fascinating is what Spock would say.

Surprise Ending

I noticed the Naked Sun story ends in a major Story Pivot Point in the “I, Robot” saga. I believe Asimov wrote this pivot point first when planning these two Elijah Bailey books, then designed the detective story of Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw to produce the pivot point.

Story Arcs A’Plenty

There are many other story arcs involved in the I,Robot saga. Some stories in Asimov’s universe have no robots at all.

I have been ruined.

Unfortunately I have been ruined by Clifford Simak. He too writes about robots, but in a totally different fashion. My thoughts run far ahead into a Simak future.