Opus 200

by Isaac Asimov

Opus Two Hundred

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Collections, Literary Fiction, Fantasy, Criticism

Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a selection of essays and excerpts from Asimov's second hundred published books; a sort of thematic sequel to his Opus 100. The first book concerned mostly science and science fiction, but his second hundred includes sections on literature, mystery stories, Biblical topics, autobiography, and a section of no-longer-politically-correct humor as well, though science does seem to dominate. As with the first book, the selections are accompanied by amusing and interesting autobiographical stories that put the pieces in context. Though he was a product of his time, Asimov was -always- amusing and interesting, and educational as well.

[Remo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pocos autores llegan a 200 libros, y el maestro Asimov se saca la chorra en este, como ya hizo con su opus 100, y nos hace una breve introducción a su segundo centenar de libros (incluyendo algún relato completo de propina).
Lamentablemente, cuando no divulga lo hace bastante peor. Sus novelas, por mucho que las tengan en altares, me parecen muy inferiores a su obra de divulgación. Y sus escritos de opinión nos hacen ver con más claridad aún que el maestro tenía un ego del tamaño de un planetoide. Que se le puede tolerar, por supuesto, porque tenía bastantes motivos para estar pagado de sí mismo, pero una cosa es saberlo y otra que nos lo refrote por el careto en sucesivas introducciones a sus libros.
El libro es interesante si andamos buscando temas sobre los que haya podido escribir Asimov y que se nos hayan despistado. No es interesante que tengamos que leer las opiniones, generalmente de entre nueve coma nueve y diez sobre diez, que emite en torrente el autor sobre sí mismo y su obra.

[Sergey Selyutin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice sampler of Asimov's second hundred books. On the positive side, it includes full texts of two great SF-stories, a complete essay on mathematics and some snippets from his books on history. On the negative side, you have to put up with Asimov's inflated ago which reaches truly gargantuan size in a (totally unsuccessful) attempt at a detective novel. Listened to the audio version which was recorded back at the end of the 1970s. While lacking in sound quality, it added greatly to the atmosphere and the aura of authenticity

[Douglas Larson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Issac Asimov, a prolific author, wrote this to celebrate his 200th book. Like his earlier Opus 100 It is filled with commentary on writing as well as some short stories. Not as interesting or as humorous as his Opus 100 but still filled with Asimov's engaging prose style.

[Anthony Faber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excerpts of his second hundred books. Not bad as a sampler of his work.

[The Random Walk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recall liking it at the time...

[Dhaval · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

While others wrote more than Isaac Asimov did, no one can match the breadth of his writing. To many people, he was a science fiction writer, but in fact that was only a small percentage of his output. Furthermore, all of writings were well done. None were scholarly works by any means, but it is clear that he knew what he was talking about. A chemist by training, he wrote about all areas of science, history, literature, religion, and social and political commentary.

In this book, he has put together a collection of what he considers the high points of his second hundred books. He has split the excerpts into fifteen groups, which demonstrates the wide range of topics that emerged from his fertile mind.

* Astronomy

* Robots

* Mathematics

* Physics

* Chemistry

* Biology

* Words

* History

* The bible

* Short-shorts

* Humor

* Social sciences

* Literature

* Mysteries

* Autobiography

In reading this book, you cannot help but be impressed by the quantity and quality of his writing. He can take topics ordinarily considered either incomprehensible or dull and uninteresting and make them come alive. I was most impressed by his forays into explaining literature, especially Shakespeare. It is still some of the greatest dialog in the history of the English language, but few of us can appreciate the plays in their historical context. Asimov supplies that in his "Guide to Shakespeare" and it is very interesting to read of the historical events that provide the backdrop to most of the plays.

If you are unfamiliar with the work of Isaac Asimov, this book will give you an excellent

This review also appears on Amazon

[Franco Olcese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este es un libro compilatorio de los libros del 101 a 200 publicados por Isaac Asimov. Él los divide en categorías (química, física, literatura, etc.) y pone un pequeño fragmento. Creo que es más un libro escrito para los muy fervientes seguidores de Asimov, en particular de su faceta de divulgador científico.

[Robu-sensei · Rating 3 out of 5]

A logical successor to Opus 100, this book contains a sampling from Isaac Asimov's second hundred volumes in print. Unsurprisingly, Asimov showcases his science fiction and fact, but half of Opus 200 is devoted to the author's non-science fiction, as well as his writing on classical literature, social studies, humor and even the Bible.

While there is much of interest here for both new and experienced Asimov readers, I found Opus 200 less engaging than its predecessor. Dr. Asimov includes the entirety of several fairly long works, all of which I had read before, and the variety of this compilation suffered accordingly. A related difficulty for me, for which the Good Doctor cannot be blamed, was that more of his second hundred books are still available than of his first hundred.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Asimov's Opus 100 a few days ago, and the books came together, so... As in the last one, it's a great achievement to have written so many books but I prefer the original pieces (especially the science pieces) to the sum of the parts. However, this collection gets an extra star from me for including the full text of "The Bicentennial Man", for which I have some fondness.

[Curtiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Good Doctor presents short introductory reviews of each of his second 100 books. [books 101-200:]

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit like a clip show. A recap of his second 200 books. Interesting, and helpful for discovering books by the author that you wouldn't have come across otherwise.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der Meister zwischen dem 100. und 200. Sehr schön. Nicht ganz so gut wie Opus 100 und schlechter als Opus 300. Was auch daran liegt, dass er in der Zeit anfing sinnlos Anthologien herauszugeben.