Monday 11 January 2021

Detective Fiction By Two SF Writers

I have repeatedly argued that Poul Anderson's Technic History is light years better than Isaac Asimov's better known Robots and Empire future history. Each of these authors also wrote a contemporary detective series:

Anderson, three novels and at least one short story about the private detective, Trygve Yamamura;

Asimov, sixty six short stories about the Black Widowers monthly dining club.

We have discussed Yamamura. I am glad that Anderson sold and therefore wrote more sf than detective fiction and would not have written this blog if he had been mainly a mystery writer.

What does anyone think of the Black Widowers? It is implausible that there is a mystery, puzzle or problem every month and that Henry, the robot-like waiter, solves it every month.

The Black Widowers raise another question about series fiction in general which will be appropriate for another post.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree with you on ho supeerior Anderson's Technic stories are compared to Asimov's ROBOTS and FOUNDATION series.

Anderson has stated that he enjoyed writing mysteries and would have liked to do more--except that SF and F paid better. Like you, I'm glad he focused largely on science fiction and fantasy, because he wrote better in those genres than he did mysteries.

I have read a fair number if Asimov's Black Widower mysteries, and they are not bad, well worth reading. I have stated that he wrote better short stories than he did novels.

Ad astra! Sean