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Saturday, April 17, 2010

More on Damon Knight

Damon Knight and Isaac Asimov were both members of the Futurians, a group of science fiction fans and writers since the 1940s. However, they didn't like each other (and indeed, the Futurians were not really a group for long.)

Damon Knight also wrote science fiction criticism (criticism, rather than reviews, although truth to tell I can't tell the difference between the two). His collected reviews were published in a book called In Search of Wonder.

It's kind of funny, Knight critiques Asimov's work:

"But as a writer oftwice-told tales, I think Asimov is as dull as anybody. That's why I've been waiting, long and impatiently, for The Caves of Steel, because I wanted to praise Asimov, and because, if I reviewed Pebble in the Sky, The Stars Like Dust, Foundation and Empire, The Currents of Space or Second Fundation, I couldn't.

In other words, Knight dismisses Asimov's Foundation trilogy as not worth bothering about, but praises The Caves of Steel, and even The End of Eternity.

If you take a look at Asimov and Damon Knight's ouvre at Amazon, the work of both is still avialable, but if you check for the best selling Isaac Asimov, it is, and probably always will be, The Foundation Trilogy.

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