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In the period between the publication of Asimov's first novel in 1950 and his leaving the teaching position at Boston University in 1958 for the full-time writing of non-fiction, Asimov's science-fiction writing reached a high point of skill and significance that culminated in The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun. These two novels form another series that deserves separate consideration from that of the unconnected novels in Chapter 6. |
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The Caves of Steel was serialized in Galaxy in 1953, published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1954, and published in paperback by New American Library in 1955; The Naked Sun was serialized in Astounding in 1956, published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1957, and published in paperback by Bantam Books in 1958. They were brought together in the hardcover edition with The Rest of the Robots published by Doubleday in 1964. In 1972 they were published by Doubleday in one volume under the title by which they are better known, The Robot Novels. Asimov, however, calls them "science fiction mysteries." Whatever they are called, they represent Asimov at the peak of his science-fiction powers. |
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Asimov agreed with that judgment, in almost those exact terms, when he discussed The Caves of Steel in Chapter 55 of Part I of his autobiography, In Memory Yet Green. Chapter 55 itself is titled "Science Fiction at Its Peak," and Asimov wrote: |
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I was very proud of the stories I was writing now [1953]. It seemed to me that they were much more deftly written than my stories of the 1940s. I think so to this day. |
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It seems to me that most people associate me with the 1940s and think of the positronic robot stories, the Foundation series, and, of course, "Nightfall," as the stories of my peak period. I think they're all wrong. I think my peak period came later in 1953 and the years immediately following. |
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By now, after all, the pulpishness in my writing had completely disap- |
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