The Gods Themselves: A Novel

I chose this book as part of my ongoing goal to read every book that's ever won the Hugo Award for Best Novel: this is the 1973 winner, one of Asimov's five! I could tell right away that the book was worth my while, and it delivered right to the finish! BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The Gods Themselves tells the story of a not-to-distant future (though it was 100 years out for Asimov) in which a bumbling scientist (Frederick Hallam) stumbles upon a cross-universe transfer of energy that facilitates limitless clean energy for all mankind. The "science fiction" part of it is that the nuclear balances of protons and electrons are different between the two worlds, so when matter portals back and forth between the two universes its atoms produce continual energy as they work to adjust to the laws of their new universe. The problem, though, is a familiar one in science fiction: when man pushes against the laws of nature, nature pushes back. The story primarily follows two of Hallam's academic rivals who thwart his desperate bid to protect his scientific reputation by successfully alerting the world about the downsides of the "electron pump" and proposing a mind-bending alternative. FANTASTIC, VARIED SCI-FI: Comprised of three overarching parts (which, when strung together, form the quote by Friedrich Schiller: "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain."), the novel really has about everything a sci-fi reader could want. Part 1 tells the story of Hallam and his great detractor, Peter Lamont. Lamont offers a great lens through which Asimov helps introduce readers to the world of the novel and provides ample opportunities for Asimov to decry the downsides of defensive, politicized science. Part 2 is my favorite: a detailed, emotionally-evocative glimpse into the "parauniverse" (parallel universe) that sends its matter to our own universe. The beings and family units in that universe form "triads" comprised of one emotional intelligence, one rational intelligence, and one parental intelligence. I don't want to give away too many spoilers here, but I will share that Asimov's creation of a completely different universe with fundamentally different laws of biology and physics is SUPER compelling. Taken alone, it's an absolutely first-class alien and worldbuilding short story of which I loved every second. I can't recommend Part 2 enough. (Note: In his autobiography, Asimov wrote that the novel, especially the second section, was the "biggest and most effective over-my-head writing [that I] ever produced".) Part 3 returns to our own universe and, to complete the sci-fi trifecta, is set on a human colony on the moon! Reminiscent of "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", the denizens of the moon have adopted a different familial and social order than that found back on earth, setting up quite an interesting set of political and scientific clashes that lead to the climax of the entire book. CONFUSED PHILOSOPHICAL "BOTTOM LINES": As stated above, I sincerely enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to any sci-fi fan! But something didn't sit right with me at the end of it, and I couldn't figure out until the next day what it was--I didn't really like that, at the end of the day, the human race didn't face any consequences associated with the "stupidity" (Schiller/Asimov's word) that they exhibited by failing to take the threat of cross-universe tampering seriously. It was like reading a novel about climate change where, at the end of the day, nobody does anything differently but all the denialists get the self-satisfaction of being proven right in their do-nothingism after all. That rubs me the wrong way. I understand that Asimov wasn't really attacking that particular element of humanity (he instead focuses pretty extensively on the egoism of the scientific establishment), but it still got to me. My disagreement with the final resolution notwithstanding, this is an absolutely first-class sci-book and I enjoyed it fully! I will read it again, and put it on my short-list of classic sci-fi books to recommend.

Really enjoyed this book. I love Asimov in general, and this is one of his weirdest works that I've read so far. Incredibly imaginative, particularly the second part, which was hard to get into at first because it's so challenging but then became completely engrossing. The only reason I'm giving this 4 stars instead of 5 is that it was a big letdown not to return to the characters and world of part 2. He spent a hundred pages getting me invested in those characters and their issues and then abandoned it. It gets a glancing mention in part 3 but that wasn't enough for me. There's a lot of hard science in this that went over my head, but Asimov does a superb job of breaking down complex scientific concepts for lay people.

I have been conducting a long march through science fiction novels [so much of what's in the movies is so bad], comparing and contrasting both contemporary and classic, as well as re-reading novels I read in my teens and 20s, over three decades ago, to see how they hold up. Recently I read Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) , specifically because it is being made into a movies, and I wanted the experience of the novel first; I re-read The Great Gatsby for the same reason, and that was way better than when I had to read it in high school, and I enjoyed the movie as well on its own terms. I also read Old Man's War because I recently read Agent to the Stars . That is a VERY funny book. Old Man's War, like Ender, is about the relentless killing of hostile aliens. They are fun on the action level, and maybe if I read more in each series they would be more thought provoking. And now I've finished Gods. In contrast with the war novels, while there are aliens, nobody kills anybody. This is a novel of ideas, and the conflict is between physicists: who gets credit for what, and who is looking at the long range consequences of scientific breakthroughs. In this case, more lethal than even the thermonuclear bomb. Asimov, being the polymath that he was, and the author of hundreds of nonfiction books, imbues the story with real principals: the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, the laws of thermodynamics and more. You needn't understand any of it; at the very least it makes the dialogue sound realistic [for a really good example of cool science fiction dialogue, see Primer , one of the best science fiction movies I have ever seen]. While it was published in the late 70s, it still seems contemporary: I thought of both global warming -- which was much less politically controversial in the 70s than it is now, and very much in keeping with the plot -- and the Large Hadron Collider. The prose is, well, prosaic, but it certainly doesn't detract from the story nor call attention to itself. The characters are well defined, although the humans are closer to stereotypes. On the other hand, I found the inner lives of the and the aliens moving. And, one last book on my march: I went back to The Illustrated Man because my niece was reading it in school and I wanted to be the cool uncle. I probably would have enjoyed high school a lot more if they had assigned that to me.

One of the most important life lessons came to me through this book (although I still had to confirm it the hard way :-))

Avevo letto questo capolavoro di Asimov più di quarant'anni fa, e da allora la frase schilleriana che gli dà il titolo (Contro la stupidità, anche gli Dei colpiscono a vuoto) è entrata a far parte delle mie citazioni preferite. Sto rileggendo il libro in inglese con grande piacere (a parte la sensazione di ritornare alla mia giovinezza!....): il plot è originale, i personaggi sbalzati con vivacità, il racconto, nell'insieme, non ha perso smalto col passare degli anni, e il sottofondo ironico di Asimov aggiunge un tocco di distaccate leggerezza. Aggiungo infine, per i lettori italiani, che l'inglese di Asimov è assai trasparente, perciò la lettura risulta scorrevole anche per un lettore non di madrelingua.

Not a usual Asimov. Loved the imagination. This is one work I found to be at par with Cixin Liu's trilogy.

Un libro grandioso y una de las obras más geniales de ciencia ficción, para todos aquellos fan del género que no tengan problemas con el inglés definitivamente es una lectura imperdible.

The story itself is great however the SF masterworks print has typographical errors which are often enough to be distracting and to appear careless.