This book substantiates the unpopular reality that Mr. Asimov is bluster and hype. I have yet to encounter anything of his pen that warrants a positive adjective. Clearly, the factory has consumed the wayward crickets & dumbfounded sparrows; consequently, the gentleman's legend enters a room 10 yards previous to his apparition. The phantasm should not be mocked--the man has his legions and he is entitled to the throngs--but a scrutinous qualification of what denotes & defines interesting literature should be taken under wing. This book, like his other books, never yields a jolt and I asseverate that it was not worth the nickel that was extracted from my lint-infested pocket to pay its way into my library. BOREDOM.

I frankly cannot believe it won both Hugo and Nebula awards.
Terribly boring with stereotypical charcters. Even the aliens whose eating, living, mating, and reproducing habits are completely different from humans, seemed to have emotional and psychological habits remarkably like humans.
This is the second book I read of Asimov, and both times, I wondered what the point was to put incredibly typical and mundane characters in an extraordinary situation and make them think and say very ordinary things. Maybe it was newish back in the 70s, I don't know.
But the alien life in Part 2, was enjoyable, kind of cute, and fun to read. In order to understand Part 2, you would need to go through Part 1. And if you've read until the end of Part 2, you might as well read it until the end. In that sense, it is a fairly readable book.

I picked this up at the library since I didn't recall reading it. What a horrible borefest. It drags on and on and on. Even the first few chapters are completely repetetive. In short, he had a poor three-part short story that he turned into a dreadful three part novel.

Six years ago I was friends with a very smart girl at UCLA. Since she was so smart I thought I would ask her what she read. (This proves that I do read books that people recommend to me: I just might be a bit late in reading them). She recommended that I read the book, The Gods Themselves, written by sci-fiction author, Issac Asimov. There is no doubt that the author is incredibly intelligent and well-versed in the field of science. However, the man is not very good at character development. The story does delve into a lot of interesting scientific knowledge (a great deal of which goes over my head but was still intriguing). The problem I had with the book is the character formation. The characters seem wooden, stiff, and unlikable. I couldn't feel really connected to any of the characters. They just didn't have any intriguing personalities.

Great literature introduces the reader to incredible characters; Iago in Othello; Falstaff in Henry IV; Yossarian in Catch-22; Pick in Great Expectations; Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged. That's absent in the book, which is perhaps its greatest limitation.

To elevate a work of science fiction from mere novel to literary masterwork is an achievement to which few authors can lay claim. Asimov is one of those authors and "The Gods Themselves" is one of those rare classics. Asimov has expertly blended visionary and imaginative yet credible hard science with a softer side of science fiction that includes an exciting story line, both human and alien characters that are so much more than cardboard cut-outs and a thoughtful exploration of the world in which he has placed his story.

Those who prefer their sci-fi hard will marvel at Asimov's prescient cosmological vision of communication and transportation of matter between parallel universes. This communication, a source of unlimited non-polluting energy,also causes a slow leakage of the fundamental characteristics of the joined universes resulting in a reduction of the magnitude of the strong nuclear force in our universe. A few scientists have determined that as this effect accumulates, the sun will become a super nova and our little galactic corner of the universe will explode into a quasar. (There goes the neighbourhood!).

On the softer flip side of this particular sci-fi coin, Asimov has actually created three quite distinct short stories that combine to create an exhilarating unified whole. In the first we witness the purely serendipitous discovery of the portal between universes and we gasp as research into the potential harmful effects of the inter-universe communication is systematically suppressed by purely political and ego considerations. In the second story, Asimov takes us on a brief tour of the other side of that portal creating alien beings that are manifested in three distinct parts - rational, parental and emotional - and feed on pure energy. Asimov's rather imaginative exploration of their sexuality is exciting and evocative without losing sensitivity. In the final story of the three, Asimov takes us to a manned lunar station. The science issues are resolved satisfactorily in a setting that also includes a brilliant, probing exploration of the likely psychology of permanent human settlement away from earth in a physically, hostile alien environment such as the moon.

An added bonus - a warm, fuzzy ending that cannot fail to bring a smile to any reader. If you're a lover of science fiction, your library remains incomplete unless you've added a copy of "The Gods Themselves"!

Paul Weiss