The Beginning and the End

by Isaac Asimov, Carlos Gardini (Translator)

Pocket Books #42378-7, 1978. Second Printing in very good condition. Rubs to the spine tips and corners. Faint crease at the front wrapper's upper right corner. Creasing along the length of the spine.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

253 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

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

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

I likely bought this book in the late 70's early 80's because it was by Asimov but it languished on my shelves for a decade at least because I thought that it was "only" non-fiction and would not be as much as fun as fiction. What an embarrassingly large error that turned out to be. Asimov is the world's best essayist. At least there are none better. Get it. Read it. Hurry. :)

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Asimov's collection of essays reprinted from various publications touches on topics such as chemistry, physics, electronics and astronomy as well as the philosophy of humanity's usage and development of these sciences. I have to admit that I didn't read them all in their entirety, but rather started them and read until I got bored or my head hurt to much. I am not personally well-versed in any of these areas, and so learned quite a bit. However, the information is rather dated especially in electronics and other technology. This is mostly a collection for the die hard fan of Asimov, or some of his more scientifically educated fans. I'm pretty sure I thought it was science fiction when I picked it up, probably without even reading the back.

[Mmiller400m · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew something felt out of whack the last year and a half. No, it wasn't the global pandemic. I hadn't read an Asimov since the spring of 2020! Since I've discovered the good Doctor I've never gone this long without finishing another of his books. I had to make sure I didn't make 2021 a complete waste in that regard and just squeezed in the last essay on New Years Eve.

I wasn't expecting much because the Jenkins review site I use to pick out Asimov books had rated this a 1/1 which is on a scale from 0-3/0-3 but I won't get in to what they all mean other than you see it looks like it would be on the low side. Maybe it's just because I've been so long since reading him but I quite enjoyed it. I'd love to know if there's some pop science article collections or magazine out like this currently because I do enjoy them.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1978, 'The Beginning and the End' is another of Asimov's essays previously published in mags/periodicals. This is probably not his best - his optimistic outlook that science will always triumph, whilst seemingly just not seeing the potential social downside is grating - it worked when the essays were first written, but it can make some of them quite cringeworthy nearly 50 years later. At the same time, some of his observations, particularly about the energy crisis and its implications are even more spot on than they were when he wrote them.

[Xime Ponce 📚 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 estrellas
Es un conjunto de artículos que escribió Asimov y finalmente hizo un compendio, dividido en pasado, presente y futuro, no da un acercamiento a lo que fue y a lo que ese entonces se pensaba que sería
Asimov siempre tan agradable para la lectura y la comprensión hace fácil y rápida la lectura

[Dale Sanford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid collection of essays, decent variety in the topics. Asimov's voice is always easy to read and entertaining.

[David Debacher]

I didn't actually read this book. I read a very little bit of it and decided that it wasn't for me. However, I can't find out how to communicate as much to Goodreads. The only options seem to be to either mark the book as "read," or move it back to my "want to read" list (which is just as misleading, as I do not actually want to read it). So if anybody knows how to take a book off of my "shelf" without marking it as "read," please let me know so I can stop writing nonsense reviews that aren't actually reviews about books I haven't actually read.

[Kham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy was the brainiest dude ever. Just read the book and you'll agree, and you'll learn a whole heck of a lot about science--

[Dale Rosso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting collection of short stories by one of the classic SF authors.