Isaac Asimov died of Aids!!

[Pax]

I did not know that.

[SlowwHand]

Wiki

Illness and death

Asimov suffered a heart attack in 1977, and had triple bypass surgery in December 1983. When he died in New York City on April 6, 1992, his brother Stanley reported heart and kidney failure as the cause of death.[29] He was survived by his second wife, Janet, and his children from his first marriage. Ten years after his death, Janet Asimov's edition of Asimov's autobiography, It's Been a Good Life, revealed that the myocardial and renal complications were the result of an infection by HIV, which he had contracted from a blood transfusion received during his bypass operation.[30] Janet Asimov wrote in the epilogue of It's Been a Good Life that Asimov's doctors advised him against going public, warning that the anti-AIDS prejudice would likely extend to his family members. Asimov's family considered disclosing his condition after his death, but the controversy that erupted when Arthur Ashe announced his own HIV infection (also contracted from a blood transfusion during heart surgery) convinced them otherwise. Ten years later, after most of Asimov's doctors had died, Janet and Robyn Asimov agreed that the AIDS story should be made public.[31]

[Hauldren Collider]

nvm

[kittenOFchaos]

I love his writing, despite it being rather simplistic and the characters rather improbable.

Nemesis is probably his best book, quickly followed by Nightfall, but the Foundation series is the most enjoyable.

He should never have been allowed to write about sex...ever.

[Elok]

I don't recall reading any of his writing about sex. Was it worse than Heinlein's sex scene in "Farnham's Freehold?" It's the only sex scene in sci-fi I can recall actually reading, but it was remarkably silly.

[Hauldren Collider]

I don't know about Asimov, but I do know that Larry Niven and Kim Stanley Robinson should never have been allowed to write about sex ever.

[Elok]

Oh, now I remember Ringworld. Yeah, that was pretty bad too, but not as obviously Mary-Sueish as Farnham's Freehold.

[N35t0r]

There was sex in Nemesis. Between the earth-protagonist and some scientist from one of the space habs he had to rcruit for the hyperdrive, IIRC.

I liked 'The Gods Themselves' as well.

[Hauldren Collider]

Oh, now I remember Ringworld. Yeah, that was pretty bad too, but not as obviously Mary-Sueish as Farnham's Freehold.

And Destiny's Road.

[Elok]

My sci-fi background is pretty puny. And haphazard. I read Jerry Pournelle's Jannissaries on the recommendation of my brother when I was little, and a little of the Man-Kzin Wars (the first volume) because my dad thought they were terrific--I disagreed and stopped at the first book. Then not much else until I became an adult and read the Dune series through God-Emperor, a lot of the Foundation series, a smattering of Heinlein, and Ringworld. Oh, and also Childhood's End, but I want that colossal bummer scrubbed from my neurons.

Unless the Star Wars expanded universe counts, I think that's it.

No, wait, I also read Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, and the "Shadow" spinoffs. Can't think of much else. That's scanty by Poly standards, at least.

[kittenOFchaos]

I don't recall reading any of his writing about sex. Was it worse than Heinlein's sex scene in "Farnham's Freehold?" It's the only sex scene in sci-fi I can recall actually reading, but it was remarkably silly.

Golan Trevize ('Foundation's Edge' and 'Foundation and Earth') was always getting it on. Also the Robot series had a decent amount of sex in it, including sex with robots.

[Elok]

Really? I remember Golan got it on, but I seem to recall Asimov mercifully sparing us the details.

[rah]

John Ringo is one of the only SF writers that can write a sex scene that is actually sexy. And he has been known to go quite overboard on these types of things also.