Author Archives: Damien Walter

There’s a common misconception that Isaac Asimov’s Foundation saga is based on the Roman empire. It’s not an unreasonable assumption. Asimov was inspired to write Foundation while reading Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon was a rather inaccurate historian. Mid 18th century society didn’t have very much knowledge of Rome. I’mContinue reading “Isaac Asimov’s Empire of Reason”

I was working on an essay about the swimming pools of J G Ballard. Then the dismal Apple TV adaptation of Foundation ended, and I thought “I’ll just do something quick about Asimov to explain Foundation for all the people who have been disappointed by the show”. Just a short video essay. Two weeks laterContinue reading “The Asimov Essay”

Ursula Le Guin is among the greatest science fiction writers of all time, and one of the hardest to write about, as I realised when the 2nd draft of my Ursula Le Guin essay emerged dead-on-arrival. You can read the 3rd draft, and make constructive comments, as a member of the Science Fiction podcast. JustContinue reading “That Le Guin essay – member preview”