INFLUENCES//ASIMOV

Every writer started as a reader. I am no different. I’d rather not lie and pretend like my work sprang immaculate from my mind. And, honestly I think that’s okay. I stand proudly upon the shoulders of giants. So, I thought I might start a series of blog entries centered around the works that influenced my own.

My beloved copy of Second Foundation

FOUNDATION // ISAAC ASIMOV

Second Foundation, more than any other book, had such a profound impact on me. I discovered the Foundation series by accident while browsing books in my hometown used books store, McKay’s.

I was about 14 at the time and back then, I had no idea who Isaac Asimov was and why his works were so important. I was just a nerdy kid who likes space stuff. I was captured by the ideas and grand scale of Asimov’s world. It was like Star Trek or Star Wars set to maximum.

In my book When the Wolves Come, a character named Mystic fills a role very much modeled after Hari Seldon.

“…the billions that occupied planets; the trillions that occupied Sectors; the quadrillions that occupied the whole Galaxy, became not simply human beings, but gigantic forces amenable to statistical treatment — so that to Hari Seldon, the future became clear and inevitable, and the Plan could be setup.”

Asimov’s ideas permeate the science fiction landscape, and it’s easy to see that if you’ve ever read his work. I mean, Foundation was awarded the Hugo for Best Series Ever. It’s rumored that Asimov himself thought Lord of the Rings would have claimed that title. Yeah… Foundation beat Lord of the Rings.

The scale at which he writes is just enormous. Everything from planetary cities, hidden groups directing the fate of humanity, and galactic scale political scheming just drip with a sense of infinite possibility. Today I still use those concepts when writing about the far, far future because it’s just the backdrop of my imagination. Asimov is my own personal cosmic x-ray background.