Book: Nemesis by Isaac Asimov

The first book I remember really enjoying was Foundation by Asimov. I eventually read the entire series, but after that I went genre hunting never to seriously return to science-fiction. Thinking about it now, I think I made the right choice in exploring other genres rather than sticking to what I was comfortable with.

Science fiction does one thing really well. There are countless examples in this book of a character making an observation and reporting it to an audience, the audience discussing the observation at length coming up with reasonable explanations, and one explanation is deduced to be the correct one. That might sound fairly bland, but when we're talking about celestial bodies, alien life forms, and faster than light speeds, it's pretty neat. 

Science fiction does not do human emotion well though. The essential requirements were fulfilled to build out perfectly believable characters, but once that was done Asimov chose to focus on the plot, the conflicts, the physics. The few scenes of intimacy between characters were either glossed over or broad-stroked to the point of picturing the author as someone who had yet to pass second base with the fairer sex. 

Intimacy obviously wasn't the point of the book though. The point was to stir the imagination, to picture the universe as a beautiful yet unfathomably destructive environment, to picture a future humanity still struggling with prejudice and greed, and to give a few really good examples of logical reasoning. And if there's one thing modern society needs, it's some help with patient logical reasoning. 

4/5