Living Space and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov

Book Review

Catherine Berridge

There are stories that stay with us, floating around our subconscious, half-remembered from childhood. And there are also stories that make us. Asimov is like that for me. If I am honest, of all the writers I have read, he is the one who has influenced me the most. 

I must have begun to read Asimov in my early teens. And his works lit up the world for me. I remember reading a short story about beings with three genders, and then there was Nightfall, and the Foundation Series (now showing on Apple TV). The Foundation Series, with its Kung Fu practicing mathematician Hari Seldon, was the reason I went to university to study maths with theoretical physics, a degree I regretfully did not complete. And so it was with great excitement that I spotted this collection of short stories by Asimov in the list of books sent out to review and decided I must have it. My favourite in this collection, and one I remember reading when I was younger, is “The Last Question.” This story summed up my inchoate existential thoughts and framed, for a while at least, my foolish explorations into philosophy. I won’t outline the story here, only to say that it must be the origin of Douglas Adams’ “Deep Thought” and that should give you an idea. It is by far the best in the collection and because it is such a special experience, I will say no more about the plot. I only want to say Read It!

Apart from this, I am sorry to say that many of the rest of the short stories in this collection do not live up to my fond memories. Maybe it is always a mistake to revisit one’s teenage heroes? I found many of them to be rather clumsy and clunky, with uninspiring ideas that don’t quite work. I did enjoy the humours poetry, however. Asimov’s humour does shine through in these stories. That Asimov had a wry, gentle form of humour is something that is often forgotten about him.

This collection would also really benefit from short introductions to the stories that are sometimes found in similar collections. Something to help ground them in their place in the canon. It is necessary to flip to the copyright section at the back to discover that they are written between 1951 and 1958. It is comforting to realise that all writers later considered great have to start somewhere. And in that sense, it is quite encouraging. And so, Asimov is inspiring again! It must also be said that Asimov was always a writer I valued more for his ideas rather than his prose style.

Having been fairly critical of this collection, I still love Asimov. I suspect this is not the best collection of his work. And I still plan on re-reading at some point some of the rest of the canon, from the Robot stories, to the Foundation sequence to short story collection “The Stars Like Dust.” Nevertheless, I would still recommend acquiring this collection. It is worth it for “The Last Question” alone. And will also give any true Asimov fan a sense of where their hero has come from.