Isaac Asimov

Asimov was working on a new science fiction novel. A story where once again, Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw united their efforts to unravel a mystery. It is likely that the starting point is not very different from what would later become The Robots of Dawn: A murder in Aurora, the largest of the fifty worlds that once were colonies on land.

In any case, this novel never comes to term. With little more than a couple of chapters written, Asimov leaves. Why? So poor was becoming?

No, actually has nothing to do with it. Or at least, is what Asimov has always affirmed.

According to his own, what happened was that in late 1957 the Russians put Sputnik into orbit and started ahead of the Americans in the space race. And that changed everything.

One way or another, had made science his life and his main interest. From that time is also their main source of income.

Were they going to win the space race the Russians?, Wondered Asimov. Why? Perhaps because the American people, surely the greatest human potential in the history of mankind, is unconcerned by science, not interested, did not understand and, in essence, thought not to be affected? Without a strong popular support, the American space program was destined to fail. And, for the existence of such popular support, the people must understand the science, the importance of science and had to feel interested in her.

So Asimov embarks on a personal crusade, determined to become the best science writer in the world and to educate the American people. To put in its way, doing their bit to support the American space program.

* * *

That's the official version of the case. The version that Asimov himself was a long time ago and never changed.

One wonders, however, if it is totally correct.

No doubt the blow he had to represent to see the Russians take the lead. Affected the entire American society to a greater or lesser extent, public interest turned to something that had hitherto only concerned.

An interest which, incidentally, it will fade a little over ten years later when the Americans arrive first to the moon. They have won the race. Since that time, astronauts are no longer brave heroes of the free world to go to become bored technicians who perform routine work. Only when the Apollo XIII has an accident and is a disaster about to happen, the public interest in recovering the space program. An interest, it must be said that at that moment is pure morbid curiosity.

But the romance, excitement, adventure lost as Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface.

We said that the launch of Sputnik changed the sensitivity of American society. And Asimov certainly was no exception. But I find it hard to believe that this was the only reason they decided to abandon an established literary career rather than for scientific publication.

We can not know what really happened. But you can see some clues.

The first is that in recent years has found that Asimov write about science you like, gives you great pleasure and much easier to write science fiction.

The second is that their income in the area of disclosure are becoming interesting and who knows if they will soon surpass what you get writing novels and stories. The fiction begins to not be profitable: the relationship between time employee results is great, too, especially compared to scientific articles that almost seem to write themselves.

Let us add that science fiction is changing. Little by little, but is beginning to be perceptible, are emerging as new writers whose concerns are not the same as those who began their careers in the pulp magazines. The new wave is just around the corner. Science fiction is growing, diversifying, becoming more competitive and quality requirements are increasing. Asimov requirements which, perhaps, feared to be unable to comply with its simple style, direct and devoid of presensiones "literary."

And if we round to the family situation of Asimov get a fairly complete picture. The family is growing, and increasingly more expensive to maintain. Currently there are no concerns, but who knows if in the future ...

I suspect it is a confluence of all these factors (plus the undoubted fact of the blow which is the launch of Sputnik) that lead him to take the decision to stop actively science fiction.

Not entirely, however. Had it been strictly logical, rational, practical, no doubt would have shrugged his shoulders, he would have abandoned the literary niche in which he took his first steps and then gone back on his way without thinking about it. But, fortunately or unfortunately (fortunately sometimes, unfortunately, many others) human beings are not entirely logical and practical.

Although he has decided to stop writing it, not want to leave science fiction. Wants, somehow, maintain a presence in the genre. In part because it is their home, the place where they really feel comfortable and where he made much of his best friends. And largely, no doubt, by vanity.

So his figure, his name will remain in the magazines and conventions of the genre. First through scientific articles published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Then, through occasional science fiction stories, which still writes from time to time, or introductions and prefaces to some anthology of stories by other authors. And, of course, acting as master of ceremonies and actively participate in conventions and conferences, when you can afford to attend.

One way or another, although science fiction is soon to become a small part, almost irrelevant to his literary production, gender identification with the remains. His books are still sold and reissuing and his name is never entirely absent from the world of American CF.

He himself, when asked what he does, what he writes, always answers the same: "For a variety of topics, from Shakespeare to biochemistry. But above all, I am known as a writer of science fiction. "

Because in their hearts, but others write it easier, less laborious and more rewarding financially, always seen as an SF writer. And, again and again, the circumstances make return to the genre, albeit occasionally.

Back end in a definite way in the early eighties. But we'll talk about that later.

The disappearance of the magazines Asimov's science fiction is, however, gradual, and never total. As a man is prolific, has accumulated enough material for a time the fans will not notice that has been partially removed gender. It does not publish novels, true, but in the next few years his stories continue to appear in magazines.

Will decline, but almost to the end of the fifties did not explicitly notice a trend.

In 1958, in fact, manages to publish (along with, once again, some irrelevant material) some of you best stories.

* * *

"My name is spelled with an 'S' is a kind of farce about a man's stubbornness on the correct spelling of his surname, which is played with the idea that, often, just an insignificant event, trivial, to trigger major social changes. The story is carried with ease and it floats on an air of unpretentious entertainment that makes it very enjoyable, but upon completion we stay with the feeling that we have not been told anything about the other world.

"Lenny", by contrast, is a story entirely dispensable. Although the initial idea is not bad (show the way Susan Calvin dump their emotional needs in the robots), the story makes us predictable from the beginning and ends up being too obvious right away.

One of lime and one of sand, you might say. For the next month of "Lenny", published "The feeling of power," one of the most shocking stories that Asimov wrote. His appearance is, perhaps, a trivial game. It seems that the author has been limited to taking certain common places, turn them over and then bring it to its final consequences with some ingenuity, but in reality the moral implications, and one might almost say that metaphysical-that are behind that story , are profound and, more importantly, in no case we explicitly show or throw us in the face. The story is so well run that seems to have nothing behind, only to finish it understand and begin to be aware of all the ideological baggage it has.

Pity we did not know to do the same "stupid asses", a cautionary tale whose main virtue is its brevity and in which the author launches public face his warnings about the nuclear threat without any subtlety.

"All the world's problems" is a story that revolves around Multivac, the supercomputer that, over the years, will be displayed on a few of his short stories. In a way, is a detective story, with Multivac anticipating that is going to a crime against her and the humans trying to stop the future author even before he is aware that it will commit any crime. The final twist of the story, in which the large computer suddenly becomes human and shows his tiredness is perhaps too obvious, but the moral place pointed to (a humanity that has been discharged of responsibility to itself and has put all its problems and decisions in the hands of a higher intelligence that they themselves have created) is food for thought and speaks volumes about us as a species. And not necessarily good.

"Buy Jupiter" seems to be a simple joke, a story soon led to the final image that is supposed, must start at least a smile. It is also a superficial analysis, but the advertising world-wise and quite characteristic human behaviors. The funny thing is that in this story, no doubt inadvertently Asimov Campbell follows the cliches of that once bothered him so much and who were responsible to stop aliens include in their stories. The humanity that appeared in "Buy Jupiter" just showing its superiority over other species because of his shrewdness and commercial greed. I am sure that Asimov did not think he was following the pattern that he liked his old editor: surely simply get carried away by the logic of the story without further ado. But the result is certainly curious.

In "drew a picture a day" trying to create a comedy style Gilbet & Sullivan. The story, written in a deliberately archaic tone, almost Victorian parody works well as expected despite what the final joke, mainly because of the hyperbolic mode, full of circumlocution "decency" might say, which is narrated.

And the year I could not finish better.

With "The ugly child" Asimov himself acknowledges that in some ways, I was writing above their means, creating a narrative piece with an emotional reach that I would never achieve.

The vicissitudes of the story is simple: researchers have managed to bring the past to a Neanderthal child and hire a nanny to care for him while in the present. The story telling is limited to the relationship between the nurse and the child, and it is always in a distant tone, without emotion, without getting involved in what is happening. That is, without doubt, its great success narrative and getting that when the story reaches the conclusion and it is time of sacrifice, the reader is unequivocally excited and, at that time, feel an almost total identification with the attitude of the babysitter.

The narrative tools that Asimov has been used for this are as simple: always presents the action from the eyes of the sitter, but narrated in third person, and slowly passes initial dislike of women, your decision to become professional above all the way in which, day by day, you will love taking the child to his care. We are witnessing the birth of what can only be described as maternal love almost at once that forms inside the babysitter and do all that without that history falls for a single moment in maudlin or glib.

It is precisely this tone distant, without emotional implications, and its contrast with the highly emotional story that is telling us what makes the story work. Asimov is revealed here as a consummate storyteller, dosing events to perfection, the plot and the structure and measuring it all in an almost extreme. It's almost as if, reluctantly, we allow the emotional identification with characters who feel as if we were holding at all times and not allow us to get too close.

That makes what we want even more. Thus, when the nurse made the ultimate sacrifice, their ultimate act of love and devotion as a mother, we have become a pressure cooker that has been allowed to blow off steam. When the story ends, we find ourselves exhausted and excited and for a long time we are unable to keep reading more. We have to stop and digest what we are feeling.

Asimov says that he cried when he finished writing the story. However, his great success was just not excited as narrator at any time, thereby consiguendo convey empathy for the situation and characters in a sober but extremely effective.

It is a pity that the author did not know to take the same lesson several years later, when he sits down to write "The Bicentennial Man" and what is a piece gets a little maudlin and sappy. It says much of how Asimov wrote: a completely instinctive in which there was no time for reflection, or to go back and try to see the narrative mechanisms that had worked in the past. Had I known analyze their own work, without doubt "The Bicentennial Man" would have been a different story.

But when all is said and done, what matters in the career of a writer are his successes rather than failures. And with "The ugly child" gets one of them and not just lower. It is somewhat curious that shine so hard just at the moment was abandoning the genre in which he had begun.

REFERENCES:

• "My name is spelled with an 'S'" (Spell my name with an 'S'). In Star Science Fiction, January 1958. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992)
• "Lenny" (Lenny). In Infinity Science Fiction, January 1958. Most recent Spanish edition: The complete robot (Alamut, 2008).
• "The feeling of power." (The feeling of power). As If: Worlds of Science Fiction, February 1958. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992).
• "Stupid asses" (Silly Asses). At Future Science Fiction, February 1958. Most recent Spanish edition: Buy Jupiter (Plaza & Janes, 2000).
• "All the world's problems" (All the troubles in the world). In Super-Science Fiction, April 1958. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992)
• "Buy Jupiter" (Buy Jupiter). In Venture Science Fiction, May 1958. Most recent Spanish edition: Buy Jupiter (Plaza & Janes, 2000).
• "The day witch" (The up-to-date sorcerer). In The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1958. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992).
• "The ugly child" (The ugly little boy). In Galaxy Science Fiction, September 1958. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992).

They're about to reach the sixties and, with them, will become apparent removal of the gender Asimov has made him famous. In 1959 he published five stories, which become in just two a year in 1960, 1961 and 1962. It reached its lowest level in 1963, during which not publish any science fiction story.

Appears to recover somewhat next year with the publication of "Author! Author! "But in reality it is an old story that was sold to the late forties, which was published now, more than ten years later.

One way or another, they are going Breaded Asimov over the decade to publish at least one science fiction story every year (except in 1963, as already mentioned) so that his name was still present in the genus . That, along with the various anthologies of science fiction short story that goes along by compiling these years and the novelization of the movie Fantastic Voyage (which appears in book form in 1966, after serialization in The Saturday Evening Post) make remains, in part out of sheer inertia, an important figure in the genre and a name to consider in the memory of fans.

But by the early sixties, Asimov is now clear that science fiction is just an anecdote in his literary production. It is the scientific publication which has become their main activity, a process that starts with the textbook he wrote in the early fifties in collaboration with two professors from the University of Boston. Or perhaps we could consider that his first text of disclosure was that parody on Campbell scientific papers published under the title "The properties of the thiotimoline resublimada endocrónicas." Certainly it was not true disclosure, but it was the first time that Asimov saw something that, at least, looked like a science article might interest the public.

In any case, are books on science that becomes their main source of income (although the royalties from his various books of science fiction, whether novels or collections of stories, continue to enter and remain a not insignificant amount) and will occupy most of his time as a writer.

That will be a constant for the rest of your life ... or almost. Because when you reach the eighties, things will change in a significant and Asimov spend the last ten years of his life returning to the genre that made him famous. With mixed fortune, that is true.

* * *

A little pride and a little because, of course, there are certain services that never end up leaving at all, Asimov continued to write, from time to time, some science fiction story.

In 1959 he published five, as stated above.

Start with "A statue for dad," a humorous tale character who plays with some unexpected consequences of time travel. Not a bad entertainment and it is properly ironic tone, though not a particularly memorable story.

"Anniversary" is a continuation of "Isolated Vesta, his first published story. Their interest is almost more historical than literary: see how Asimov uses the same characters and tells a similar intentions (a kind of puzzle that there be resolved on the basis of ingenuity) in its first story is to check how much you have learned in all this time, both in purely technical matters, his language is now more refined, has a sequence to another in a softer, smooth transition as in definition of characters, whose attitudes have become more credible, less stilted than in "Isolated from Vesta." Apart from that, there is a story that leaves much impression on the reader's mind, for better or for worse.

"Fourth Generation" is a strange story for several reasons. Not only is this a story of explicitly religious overtones (something rare in the narrative asimoviana) but is also perhaps the first time where the author uses his Jewish roots in a clear and straightforward in its narrative. The result is an evocative story and sometimes disconcerting, however, works and convincing. It demonstrates, once again, the little fear that Asimov had to work without a net, to face challenges that narrative was not sure how I would go out and meet them without worrying about what might happen. Perhaps I am not saying that necessarily the case, the fact that he never saw them as challenges or problems but, just as he wanted to tell stories that were interesting because it has a lot to do with he managed to let off where you got the hook.

In "Obituary" tells a story rather cruel that, once again, revolves around the vicissitudes of a dysfunctional family: an abusive husband and occasionally dominant, doomed to be a mediocre researcher whose success will always be trampled by others, and a woman brilliant but weak that it swayed and over again. The story revolves around more or less of the time travel and has a full end of a very black humor and very acidic. It is narrated in first person by the female character (a character extremely credible and very well built with two pincieladas) and all those detalels make this story into a remarkable piece of storytelling that asimoviana. The plot works seamlessly (by then, the domain of Asimov's narrative structures is almost complete), is perfectly locked and the final, cruel and black as we have said, falls short of what is narrated. Leave a rather bitter taste in the mouth, really.

"Rain, rain, go away" is, however, little more than a trivial game which, fortunately, is not long enough for us to be upset. Asimov sometimes faced with ideas that did not quite know how to play (beyond making them a brief vignette oriented toward a final joke) and this is a clear case of that.

* * *

We said before that in 1960, Asimov had published only two stories, but in fact one of them, "The Pact" is a round-robbins (in particular formula that an author starts the story, more than the van and another continuing the ends) written in collaboration with Poul Anderson, Robert Sheckley, Murray Leinster, and Robert Bloch. It has never been included in any anthology of Asimov, so I can not say anything about him, beyond the obvious curiosity you may have by checking the results of this strange artifact.

The other story is "thiotimoline and the space age," a new installment of his series on the remarkable substance that is dissolved just before you add water, in this case written in the form of a speech at the Twelfth Annual Symposium "Cronoquímica American Society." Less fun, perhaps, than previous releases, however fulfills its purpose of parody of the bombastic language of some dark and scientific communications.

* * *

The two stories of 1961 are "The machine that won the war" and "What is this thing called love?".

The first is a minor work (very minor, actually) with hardly any interest.

The second, however (originally titled "Playboy and God slimy") is a crazy parody of the cliches of pulp unbridled libidinous intentions on the bug-eyed aliens (the famous BEMS) to human females. In a style nineteenth century, almost Victorian sexual Asimov wrote a satire in which he plays over and over again with misunderstandings and certain behaviors Humans constantly ridiculed by the method simple and effective, to show us through the eyes of the aliens. One of the funniest stories Asimov, without doubt, full of pretty bad baba (pardon the pun easy) but also, curiously, fraught with a certain nostalgia for a time when science fiction was less sophisticated and innocent.

* * *

None of the stories published in 1962 all too memorable. Or "My son, the physicist" and "Starlight" are a big deal. The first joke is a short, fairly predictable and the second a mystery story can be read but forgotten almost immediately. They have a small interest have appeared in two issues of Scientific American, in a few pages of advertising financed by an electronics company, but otherwise do not contribute much.

And, after being a year without posting anything science fiction in 1964 appears "Author! Author! "In an anthology dedicated to compiling the best of Unknown, twin magazine dedicated to the fantasy of Campbell's Astounding (which, incidentally, then now called Analog). Asimov tried many times to write for it (alone and in collaboration with Frederick Pohl) but the only time I get it almost went with this story.

We say "ready", although the report was accepted and paid. However, before the issue of which was to contain it went on sale, it was canceled by the publisher. Unknown had always been more expensive than a magazine with a circulation Astounding significantly less, to the extent that at some point, ceased publication of financial compensation. So, just when Asimov was on the verge of achieving its goal, it disappeared from the market.

It would be more than ten years later when, in his own words, get sneak "obliquely" in Unknown message through the anthology mentioned.

"Author! Author! "Is therefore a first-story somehow. Written in the mid-forties, however not at odds with what Asimov has been publishing in recent times. Certainly humorous content (like most of his fantasy, as if he could take quite seriously the genre) and a tone that at times recalls the comedies of the forties, tells the story of a novelist pursued by police the character that has made him famous: a relentless detective refined tastes and seductive ways is about to turn his creative life a living hell. The story flows with ease and grace (thanks, again, the tone used, a first person somewhat antiquated vocabulary referring once again to PG Wodehouse) and his conclusion is perfectly consistent with the plot that went tacking . Has been published at the time, certainly would have been the first story of Asimov where he would have been a complete success in their attempts humorous. His first story wodehouseiano clearly, so to speak.

Appeared in the mid-sixties is simply one more story.

* * *

The 1965 vintage is composed of three stories.

The first, "the man who created the twenty-first century is not only perfectly forgettable (a prospective, not too interesting, disguised as a story), but Asimov himself never considered him worthy of being included in any of his anthologies.

"Founding Father" runs a very similar underlying idea, oddly enough, "Adam without Eve" by Alfred Bester. Unfortunately, Bester's story has an emotional charge and a wisdom far above the narrative story of Asimov. Well worn and well resolved has not passed, however, be a story among so many that were published in his time.

Instead, "The eyes do something more to do" is much more satisfying. A short story in which a highly evolved humanity (have become beings of pure energy) but longs for his old flesh and all that it made them feel. A love story in a way, of loss and longing for lost emotions, with moments really intense and a finish quite heartbreaking. Although it is a story that often goes unnoticed in the narrative asimoviana, I have to admit that he has been among my favorites.

One might ask why and the answers may lead us to a place that has more to do with myself than with the merits of the story. Despite that (and I will not go into detail in it, after all, these comments are about Asimov, not me), I can not continue to find one of his best stories, in which the power of ideas and the images are perfectly balanced with the emotional burden of what we are told.

REFERENCES:

• "A Statue for Father" (A Statue for Father). In Satellite Science Fiction, February 1959. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales II (B, 1992).
• "Anniversary" (Anniversary). Amazing Science Fiction, March 1959. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales II (B, 1992).
• "Fourth Generation" (Unto the Forth Generation). In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1959. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992).
• "Obituary" (Obituary). In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, drained 1959. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales II (B, 1992).
• "Rain, rain, go away" (Rain, Rain, Go Away). In Fantastic Universe, September 1959. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales II (B, 1992).
• "The Pact" (The Covenant). In Fantastic Story Magazine, July 1960. Not been collected in one anthology.
• "Thiotimoline and space-age" (Tiotimiline and Space Age). In Analog Science Fact & Fiction, October 1960. Most recent Spanish edition: Chronicles (Plaza & Janes, 1992).
• "What is this thing called love?" (What Is This Thing Called Love?). In Amazing Stories, March 1961. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992).
• "The machine that won the war" (The Machine That Won the War). In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1961. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992).
• "My son, the physicist" (My son, the Pthysicist). In Scientific American, Februrary 1962. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992).
• "Lus Star" (Star Ligth). In Scientific American, October 1962. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales II (B, 1992).
• "Author! Author "(Author! Author!). In The Unknow Five, 1964. Most recent Spanish edition: Chronicles (Plaza & Janes, 1992).
• "The eyes do something more to do" (Eyes Do More Than See). In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1965. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales (B, 1992).
• "The man who created the XXI century" (The Man Who Made the 21st Century). In Boy's Life, September 1965. It has not been included in any collection.
• "Founding Father" (Founding Father). In Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1965. Most recent Spanish edition: Complete Tales II (B, 1992).

Fantastic Voyage is the only novel Asimov published in the sixties. And somehow, not quite one of his novels.

It is, in fact, the novelization of the film of the same title directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmund O'Brien and Donald Pleasence. The film part of an argument of Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby, adapted by David Duncan and Harry Kleiner.

During the sixties, science fiction film is in some ways, of age. On the one hand, longer grass on the Series B and on the other hand, will gradually becoming more mature in his approach. We can put the beginning in 1968 such explicit maturity, with two capitals for the genre films such as Planet of the Apes Franklin J. Shaffner and 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick. For the remainder of the decade and more than half of the next, the science fiction film becomes progressively more complex and proving to be a useful tool to address certain issues and face certain topics and concerns from an adult perspective. With the advent in 1977 of The Wars of George Lucas, however, this development will be truncated and, from that moment, and with few exceptions, the science fiction film will focus increasingly on visual spectacle and pure entertainment without much complexity.

Fantastic Voyage is in some way a precursor of it. Share with other science fiction films of the sixties their willingness to series A (and well known actors cache, a large investment in special effects) but his intentions are more like science fiction to be dominant twenty years later.

Because, admittedly, Fantastic Voyage is little more than a story of adventure and intrigue. A submarine thriller, actually, except that in this case we are not going through the seas of the Earth, but the circulatory system of a human being. The stage becomes, thus, the protagonist and what we are witnessing is a little more than a sightseeing tour in a wonderful environment. The characters are outlined in two strokes and clipping in certain archetypal roles, unpretentious complexity, and the plot is reduced to a skeleton classic hits that effect are happening at the right pace to keep the viewer hooked to the chair. What matters is the show, the purely visual and everything else is in the service of that premise.

On that basis, what interest can the novelization of the story? Narrative, as we say, is little more than a vehicle for a visual spectacle. Translation into the pure word should be, logically, unattractive.

However, it is not.

The Asimov novel that builds on the film script that is provided is flexible, dynamic and plunges the reader into the story from the first page and not let go until the end. It is possibly one of Asimov's novels are easier to read, where the pace is more accomplished, and the epic captures the reader more effectively. And at the same time, it is a completely novel asimoviana, in which the author does not waive any of its basic characteristics as a writer of science fiction.

And that's because he has put his hand to history and made some changes to the script that has happened. The first and most important is to correct several errors that occur in the film about the scientific issues addressed in it. And, especially, insists on extracting Asimov submarine body at the end of history. Faced with a carefree growers who see no problem in the case (in order of the day, the submarine is engulfed by a white blood cell), an increasingly desperate Asimov them insists that it does not matter, that once the effects of miniaturization will be spent, the atoms of the submarine would expand and burst the body where they are.

For producers, as we say, that's irrelevant. Who, among the public, will look at this detail?, They say. For Asimov obsessed with consistency and credibility (not only science but also the narrative) that must be solved somehow.

And it does so in his novelization.

How does a few things.

Somehow, Asimov manages to bring the game to their land and build a novel that is not at odds with the rest of its production: a story based primarily dialectical exchange, where the action is often described by dialogue, where there are no villains (only protagonists and antagonists, each with their own good reasons for doing what it does) and where, and that's the most surprising of all, the characters are perfectly compatible with those that have appeared in his novels of the past decade .

In fact, it is fascinating to see how the transition from script to novel becomes the protagonist (the character played by William Boyd in the movie) is an action hero in the style of Bond-film franchise that was in its infancy at that time - fully asimoviano a hero: rational, focused and confident. Throughout the novel, the character looks, clear and remains cool and in command and when it's time to unmask the traitor does detailing each and every one of the factors that have led to this conclusion, which in the film, probably because of the dictates of cinematic rhythm, barely bothered to mention. Thus, what was a fairly straightforward thriller plot is transformed in the hands of Asimov in a well-run police in which, moreover, is not an evil villain of operetta, but a human being with a credible motivations.

* * *

Have we mentioned how Asimov faces its narrative tasks. Basically, imagine a problem and a possible resolution. From there, the construction of the story is to go find the various steps by which, from the statement of the problem, just getting to the resolution.

However, in this case and at least apparently, the author did not have to do anything like that. The story already had been given and all I had to do was narrate. However, Asimov was forced to try to change the proposed solutions (that is incapable of writing a story that does not create and do not believe the story that have happened) and on the other hand, finds that the characters, such as are outlined in the script, not comfortable to use.

The first problem is solved as we have said.

For the latter, it is easier still. At the end of the day, in the script, the characters are nothing more than patterns, archetypes defined without too deeply. Based on them, and without contradicting them, you can create characters with which to work and be closer to the type of character designs for their own stories.

After resolving that, the actual process of writing the book is a breeze. From the time Asimov endorses the story and the characters discover that it is much easier to write Altered States than any other of his novels. Why not: the end of the day, the trip is already marked, the epic is charted in advance and, once it has known about his field and limarla of what is inconvenient, the rest of the process is ridiculously easy.

Asimov while the novel ends long before the movie is ready and is published before it is released. This has meant that some readers come to believe that the Fleischer's Fantastic Voyage is an adaptation (and maladaptation, full of plot holes and characters of little interest) asimoviana a story, rather than the reverse.

Logical confusion, on the other side. Asimov he managed with genuine ability to make theirs a story that was not, and to write a novel in his own style and without betraying any of its features as a narrator. Asimov's concerns known for his novels of the fifties are in Fantastic Voyage, and if at some odds with the rest of the production asimoviana, is the fact that there is too much action for what we are accustomed Asimov. Except for that little detail, plot, structure, elements of mystery and resolution of the story are entirely consistent with what had been written so far.

* * *

Asimov always saw himself, and he was, as a writer of compass, rather than map. As we have said, posed a problem, imagine a resolution and then began to pursue the path that would lead to this problem to the resolution on the fly solving various problems that could be found along the camimo. Building the landscape in a way, as you walked.

By his own admission, never Outlines or preparing a previous structure. In fact, the only time he tried, proved a complete failure and ended up pulling everything to the trash.

However, when other researchers who prepared the previous scheme, he did a bad job. Fantastic Voyage is not, of course, Asimov's best novel, but is far from being one of the worst. In fact, as pure entertainment , is one of the most successful stories.

REFERENCES:

• Fantastic Voyage (Fantastic Voyage). Houghton Mifflin, 1966. Most recent Spanish edition: Plaza & Janes (2003).