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Apr 11, 2008

Jason rated it:

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0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2007

D_Davis rated it:

Science fiction often deals with allegory, postulating “what if?” questions concerning present day Earth, with the possible solutions and outcomes beaming from a mirror image reflected from a familiar yet altogether different reality. By examining real problems under the light of imaginary technology, far fetched ideas, and otherworldly beings, the science fiction author affords himself a unique perspective into the inner workings of humanity.

Written in 1972, Isaac Asimov's The Gods More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Richard rated it:

Isaac Asimov rarely wrote about either aliens or sex. In response to critics who complained about these omissions, he wrote a book about alien sex. Rather, a book whose middle third is mostly about alien sex. (Mostly.) The other two thirds of the book tell one of the "purest" and "hardest" science fiction stories I've ever read.

By pure, I mean that there's a single, science-related "what-if," and that the story hinges upon that. (In contrast to, for exam More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

May 14, 2008

Marcel rated it:

Chosen as my leadership institute award-winning novel in the genre sci-fi. The Gods Themselves is a 1972 science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973.

This book is a real page turner! I seem to have put aside all of my other books to fully engage this one. The plot is imaginative, especially when one considers that it was written before computers. The character development is excellent!
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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 13, 2008

rgb rated it:

I just reread this book for the umptieth time over many years, and was struck once again by what a fine piece of work it is. This is one of the best pieces of pure science fiction every written. It isn't the best STORY, of course -- Asimov himself has better ones, as do many other science fiction authors from the post WWII era. But only a handful of other stories such as Forward's Dragon's Egg come to mind as being such excellent science fiction.

I am a physicist, mind you. The a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2007

Brian rated it:

Another "one off" from a major sci-fi master. Totally unrelated to any of his other stories, this one is a mind-bender. A trans-universal thriller in which everything depends upon a near-impossible cooperation between physicists here on earth, and beings in another existence so alien and bizarre it disrupts your basic understanding of what it might mean to be alive and conscious.

Bonus: alien "marriage" and reproduction so inventive it's not even sexy. But it is More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2008

Spiro rated it:

Who knew that a novel written in 1972 could touch on global warming, woman empowerment, lax views on different sexual orientations, and foreign policy...all with very pristine and at times technically beautiful scientific writing.

Some of my favorite quotes from this year come from this book:

"Now then, young man, don't ask me to stop the Pumping. The economy and comfort of the entire planet depend on it. Tell me, instead, how to keep the Pumping from exploding the S More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2011

Tancredi rated it:

- Possibile che uno debba credere solo a quello che desidera?
- Sì, finché gli è possibile. E talvolta anche oltre.

La mia prima volta con Asimov: e non poteva andare meglio!
Volendo iniziare con questo mostro sacro della letteratura fantascientifica ho preferito cominciare da un romanzo singolo, anche se peculiare e un po' differente dalla produzione mainstream. E in effetti è stata una buona idea.
Neanche gli dèi è un capolavoro di una certa e ormai vecchia parte della fantascienza. In questo ro More...

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Nov 15, 2010

Giacomo rated it:

L'originalità di questo romanzo, che va di pari passo con la sua atipicità nell'ambito della produzione di Asimov, è la descrizione compiuta e particolareggiata di una razza aliena non filtrata attraverso i paradigmi degli esseri umani. Una descrizione che deve essere affrontata senza alcun pregiudizio, come per il romanzo Flatlandia di Edwin Abbott Abbott, in quanto in entrambi gli esseri mostrati sono così distanti dalle nostre concezioni da non consentire paragoni efficaci.</p>

Come elem

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Jan 04, 2012

Petr rated it:

Isaac Asimov má klan věrných fandů a já do něj nepatřím. Přesto jsem postupem času přelouskal větší část jeho románové tvorby. Roboti mě nudili hodně, Nadace o něco míň. Tahle knížka, pojmenovaná citátem ze Schillera (Proti hlouposti ani sami bohové nic nezmohou), mě mile překvapila. Z mého hlediska je tím nejzajímavějším, co jsem od Asimova četl. Skládá se ze tří nesourodých částí, zdaleka nejlepší je prostřední. Popisuje svět těžko představitelných inteligentních tvorů v „paravesmíru“, který s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 29, 2011

Ian rated it:

I read this when I was a boy, back before I shifted from sci-fi to fantasy and when I was still high on my parents' enthusiasm for Asimov. I still consider it a classic and one of Asimov's finer novels, largely because, as one reviewer noted, it's one of his few books that can be read as a stand-alone. I liked the idea of a scientist desperately trying to appear knowledgeable about a subject he couldn't truly understand or explain (especially after encountering SO DANG MANY scientists who do exa More...

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Aug 07, 2011

Michaelbert rated it:

Yawn...This is a Star-Trek style SF parable about our own problems with energy and the environment. While the notion of physical laws diffusing from one universe to the another is an interesting thought, Asimov fails to run with this interesting idea. Instead, he gives us a tedious 1/3 of the book told from a bizarre (and not so well thought-out) alien perspective. This large part of the book strikes me as filler. Asimov says in the introduction that this novel grew out of a short story which w More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Tobinsfavorite rated it:

I thought I'd be reading this into the recycling bin, but despite 92 pages falling out one night, I still have them all, so they're going on to someone else... who knows how many will be able to read it before it is too far gone to read?

I haven't read so very much Asimov, fewer than ten novels, but this is my favorite so far. I liked this book quite a bit, right from the first paragraph. There came a point near the end where I was almost hoping it would end in catastrophe; even thoug More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 04, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

I read Issac Asimov's The Gods Themselves a few years ago while lying in the sun on a beach so I'm not sure if any positive feelings I have are linked to the quality of the novel or my tan.

The novel is divided into three parts. The overall story revolves around aliens from a parallel universe (the para-Universe) who exploit a difference between the physical laws in their para-Universe and our Universe: in our Universe plutonium 186 decays into tungsten 186 and in the para-Universe t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 19, 2010

Felix rated it:

I’d been looking forward to this book ever since I bought it in exchange for Ark in Phuket Town, being a big fan of Isaac Asimov and having read a good percentage of his total output during the endless summers of my school days. The central concept of this sci-fi is that a new method of power generation has been discovered by exchanging material from this universe with another governed by differing physical laws. Unfortunately, this exchange leaks the laws of each universe into the other, weaken More...

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Jun 04, 2009

Mariecato rated it:

sometimes i love a good ol' sci-fi book. this one was pretty good! in the future, mankind finds a source of infinite clean power. not only was it basically an accident, but it's also coming from a parallel universe. the man who "discovered" this source is hailed as a hero by the world, with the exception of two men who figure out that this power will ultimately destroy us.
i really enjoyed the 3 sections of the book. it's told from the men on earth's side, the para-men's side, an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 18, 2009

Carlos rated it:

Overall, I'd say that this book is quite an engrossing story, though I found the last third to be a touch warying. While definitely a more personal touch for an Asimov novel than might be expected, I honestly found the romance to be a bit forced, though I think it was the sort of failure until the last few pages to give the woman as much character as she deserved. Still, especially for its time, it was fairly daring. I also admit that it's a touch of a letdown after the truly astounding second s More...

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Jul 07, 2011

Josh rated it:

I'm ashamed that I had never really even heard of this book before starting my Hugo/Nebula project. It is simply one of the giants of the genre. What continues to separate Asimov from other writers is two things: 1) the clarity of his writing, it is breezy and communicates complicated ideas in an almost effortless way (perhaps because of his background writing popular science); 2) the fun exploration of ideas. For example, in the first section of this book Asimov clearly explains a political rea More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 25, 2009

Migdalia rated it:

This is a great book. For one thing, Asimov has written a very entertaining story, and he fleshed out each character. It was simple to read, for the most part, but for those non-hard science types you will find it difficult to follow the theory. He does explain the physics well (so much so that I wish he had been my physics teacher), but some will still have a hard time. Regardless, this does not detract from the story.

Long and short: A chemist becomes famous for "discoveri More...

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Dec 12, 2009

Max rated it:

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Jan 03, 2012

Synger rated it:

This was part of my summer of reading Hugo/Nebula award nominees and winners.

I really enjoyed this book, though it was a bit difficult to follow in places due to the science. But that's half the fun for me of reading a "hard" SF book -- increasing my exposure to science that is not day-to-day conversation. It is in three sections: the first from the human perspective, the second from an alien perspective, the third from human perspective again.

This book has THE B More...

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Dec 31, 2011

Laura rated it:

This book was hard to start, but worth the effort. The three parts of this book are so different as to be three separate novellas, all happening to tell a related piece of a longer tale. The first one is the most dreary of the lot, but sets the stage: a bunch of man sized boys pissing on their scientific territory to lay claim to a new discovery. This focus on the most unpleasant part of the scientific process reminds us of the human tendency to not think beyond their own self interest, much More...

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Apr 21, 2011

James rated it:

Told in three parts (each reading like a self-contained novella), it’s about the discovery of a new type of power source by transferring matter between parallel universes and using the matter they send to us (stable in their universe but unstable in ours) for pollution-free energy. But there’s a catch. The process is going to destroy the sun. So why don’t we just give it up? Asimov presents the answer very well, ending part one with a Twilight Zone punch that stuck with me for days. The boo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2011

Tiago rated it:

O tema deste livro não poderia ser mais óbvio. Se você juntar os títulos das três secções que compõem o romance, você tem: "Contra a estupidez os próprios deuses lutam em vão." Ninguém nunca acusou Isaac Asimov de ser sutil. Na verdade, a história em geral é sobre a ciência triunfando sobre os problemas causados pela ciência. Em seu núcleo está uma declaração de fé no futuro da ciência e da humanidade.

Na primeira seção, aprenderemos sobre a invenção da bomba de elétrons. Ele More...

1 comment like

May 31, 2011

R. August rated it:

Aliens who spend 30 pages furtively masturbating in caves, or "rock rubbing" as Asimov's euphemism was, is not outside of human experience - neither is a jilted lover who wants revenge. The issue was Asimov made such a big deal about the utter impossibility of a human understanding some thing from another universe where you couldn't even count on natural law as a point of commonality. Then our utterly incomprehensible aliens have their all too human soap opera. This wouldn't have be More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2011

Jeff rated it:

The first of the three sections of this book was outstanding - a nice, swift sci-fi ass-kicking. Good science (especially for anyone who came in touch with atomic physics in college) and a great ending. The story has the feel of a great one-hour Twilight Zone episode.

The second section is the part that is Asimov's much-discussed rare foray into "sex" and "alien life". The ball got rolling here slowly but eventually ended well and added a fresh spin to what happene More...

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Oct 13, 2009

Tom rated it:

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Oct 11, 2011

Stephen rated it:

4.0 to 4.5 stars. Along with "The End of Eternity" Asimov's best non "Robot" or "Foundation" novel.

Winner: Hugo Award Best Science Fiction Novel (1973)
Winner: Nebula Award Best Science Fiction Novel (1973)
Winner: Locus Award Best Science Fiction Novel (1973)
Voted to 1998 Locus List of "All Time Best" Science Fiction Novels (Pre 1990)

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2011

LL rated it:

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Nov 13, 2011

Caroline rated it:

The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov consists of three interconnected novellas. The first takes place on earth, where an amazing source of free energy has been invented by a mediocre scientist. He insists the “Electron Pump” is perfectly safe, but others are not so sure. Dr. Peter Lamont believes that the electron pump will destroy the universe, only no one will listen to him. This part is full of theories and explanations that I could not follow. They may be the hardest of hard science or the More...

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