Book Review: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov ("Kirkus-Style")

Tritt felt no resistance, no friction.  There was just a floating inward and a rapid palpitation.  He felt himself beginning to thin in sympathy, and without the tremendous effort that had always accompanied it.  With Dua filling him, he thinned without effort into a thick smoke of his own.  Thinning became like flowing, one enormous smooth flow.

Legend has it that Isaac Asimov, after receiving criticism for not including enough sex in his previous books, wrote The Gods Themselves to satisfy (or taunt) his critics.  This book is brimming with fornication ... but exclusively between non-humanoid aliens.  Sex?  Yes.  Sexy?  That depends on the tastes of the reader.

Despite this sort of intercourse being a principal focus of the book, Asimov devotes an equal portion to the human realm, on Earth and on the Moon.  When an alien society contacts the humans with a seemingly-positive-sum solution to both worlds’ energy needs, the myriad characters of both worlds, spurred by their equally diverse respective motives, work to use this discovery to their own advantage.

Asimov shines with his plausible-sounding descriptions of scientific events and unearthly realities in this Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science fiction classic.  A sure bet for any science-fiction fan looking for a quick page-turner!

Pub date:  May 1^st, 1972

ISBN:  038502701X

Page count:  288pp

Publisher:  Doubleday & Company

Review Posted Online:  February 11, 2018

Reference (for original publication information)

Goodreads, Inc. (n.d.). The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov. Retrieved from Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1264533.The_Gods_Themselves