Only a few know the terrifying truth - an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun... They know the truth - but who will listen? They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy - but who will believe?These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to the Earth's survival.

Listening Length

11 hours and 26 minutes
Author

Isaac Asimov
Narrator

Scott Brick
Audible release date

January 14, 2014
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Audio
ASIN

B00HJYQUTU
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	11 hours and 26 minutes
Author	Isaac Asimov
Narrator	Scott Brick
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	January 14, 2014
Publisher	Random House Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00HJYQUTU
Best Sellers Rank	#8,789 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #69 in First Contact Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #277 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #391 in Adventure Science Fiction

Customer reviews

5 star		59%
4 star		25%
3 star		11%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Skip Hughes

Among the greatest, by one of the greatest.

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2017

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Isaac Asimov was certainly among the greatest of twentieth-century science-fiction authors, and "The Gods Themselves" is arguably his masterpiece, of hundreds to chose from. Science-fiction aficionado or not, if you've never read it you are in for a treat. Not at all complex, it may be the most imaginative story, from the most imaginative writer bibliophiles have ever read.

Asimov was a polymath, of the widest ranging fields of study. His library of original writings, much more than science-fiction, remains astounding. I recommend the reader dip into his work, and to start with "The Gods Themselves." Avoid reading it too rapidly.

48 people found this helpful

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therosen

Masterpiece worthy of the praise

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2004

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On the surface, the book is about the issues relating from a seemingly free energy source taken from three points of view: Some Earthbound scientists, an alien trio from a parallel universe, and a Moonbound scientist and intuitionist. The book is written in three large chapters, containing each point of view.

Throughout the story, many issues are implied above and beyond the science fiction at hand. Left brain/right brain difference are covered in the alien interactions. The morality of putting one species over another is touched upon. The difficulty of replacing an energy source are touched on - Asimov could have been predicting the oil crisis and resultant pollution impacts.

At times when reading this book, I really felt, "So this is what a truly great writer is about..." The prose was fantastic, the weaving of the three story lines was fine craftmanship, and the meaning broader than just the surface plot. In many ways Asimov transcends the genre of science fiction in this amazing story.

11 people found this helpful

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Bill S

still relevant after all these years!

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2019

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Asimov is a master at creating logical and completely imaginary worlds and cultures. He blends a very believable story line in with what were cutting edge scientific concepts. In this book the blending of story within the earth universe frame is cleverly juxtaposed with his concept for an alternate para universe populated with beings totally unlike us. On top of this he weaves a complex plot that keeps you guessing right to the end!

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Peter Levine

Asimov is one of the best scifi writers of all time.

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2021

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Typical Asimov book with great characters, well explained science and a view of the civilizations that makes them
come alive. You will find the science as interesting as the story line and the characters. This is a classic.

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C. Fusner

One of Asimov's most imaginative

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2014

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There is something about this book that makes it clearly different from most of Asimov's works:

While I have read and enjoyed the Robot series, the Foundation books, as well as the "Empire" books (Pebble in the Sky, the Currents of Space, The Stars Like Dust), as well as a couple of others, the one thing that always strikes you is how "human-centric" Asimov typically is. Indeed, in later Foundation books, it is strongly suggested that Earth itself was the only real source of sentient life and that native life on other worlds was always lesser life forms only. If I recall, R Daneel Olivaw even suggests a whispered legend (which appears to be a reference to Asimov's "The End of Eternity") that hints it may have been made that way on purpose to suit humanity.

So imagine how delighted I was to finally find a work of Asimov that mentions (and depends upon) an entire alien culture. And what an alien culture! Asimov doesn't just propose finding them on another planet, but in a parallel universe altogether, where the laws of physics are slightly different than ours, resulting in beings that are so different from life as we know it that the reader is challenged to struggle a bit at first to comprehend them when they first appear in part two of the book. Yet, amazingly, as weirdly different at they are, Asimov still makes their minds and motivations such that we mere humans can relate and understand. They are not some two dimension alien threat out of a 50's B grade movie, but real people (despite their clearly different life form) to whom we can attribute real motives.

This glimpse of another universe is sandwiched between two brilliantly written glimpses of humanity's future that will both please and surprise fans of Asimov's work. Part 1 introduces a fictional new future tech around which the entire story will revolve, showing vividly the all too human politics behind its creation and why it harbors a hidden danger no one wants to acknowledge. (And if you find it hard to believe so many characters are unwilling to consider the dangers of this tech, consider climate change denial in the real world, and this portrayal of human behavior becomes surprisingly true-to-life.)

And finally, part 3 takes us (literally) to the Moon, where Asimov proves his mettle as a futurist, giving a fairly realistic glimpse of what it might mean to colonize our nearest neighbor, while integrating this beautifully into the ongoing story of the struggle to save humanity from its own short sightedness. Indeed, after reading the Robot and Foundation presentations of human colonization, I would say this view is surprisingly less "space opera" and more realistic that I'm used to from Asimov.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who considers themselves a fan of Asimov.

2 people found this helpful

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docrbk

One of Asimov 's best

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2018

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As a stand-alone novel this is wonderfully written, with largely credible science...as one might expect. I choose to ignore the lack of concern about alteration in earth-moon physical interactions. Indeed, I think the writing is superior to that of the Foundation series!

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Amazon Customer

Asimov playing the god of theory of everything?

Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018

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Three narratives two interlocked on the same concept complementing each other, on the quest of keeping multiuniverses bonded to satisfy the natural laws of conservation. Amazing assumptions at what point is sci-fi becomes an insight or a prediction?

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#####

The Master Speaks!!!

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2018

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As usual an extremely well written novel. Isaac Asimov has no peer in this genre. This novel put the strings in a knot generated by all the Foundation, and Robot stories. This is a must read!

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Top reviews from other countries

M. Duncan

a bit lacking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2016

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The Gods Themselves has a reputation as Asimov's best novel. In my opinion, that isn't saying much: although Asimov's short stories (particularly the Robot ones, and the Wendell Urth stories in 'Asimov's Mysteries') are among the great works of science fiction, like many of his Golden Age contemporaries, he had trouble moving from the short story format or novella to the full-fledged novel. The novels written by these guys tended to be 'fixups' - short stories padded out to an unnecessary length. This book is an exception, since it seems to have been written with a novel in mind, but it still suffers from the problems of other novels by Golden Agers: it is episodic, split into three sections rather than a single coherent narrative, and it fails to maintain any sense of momentum from beginning to end. The central idea is interesting: a scientific advance called the Electron Pump, which may or may not lead to the end of the world. Asimov is at his most didactic in this book, and it is what he is good at - explaining complex ideas with a simplicity and enthusiasm that makes them, rather than people, the centre of the novel. Ah, yes: people. In a short story, you can get away with little character development, because the whole thing is over very soon. In a novel, this is problematic. Instead of character-building, Asimov has pages and pages of stilted dialogue, in which characters 'infodump' - i.e. either explain the plot, or just talk about what it's like, for example, to live on the moon without advancing the story one iota. I have to say that I found long sections of the book a bit dull. The most interesting section of this novel is the middle part, where Asimov creates an alien society. It says a lot that the aliens are by far the most interesting characters in the book. They seem to allow the author to sidestep the 1950s scientist-hero cliche and do something interesting. The aliens sulk, get depressed, become elated, sexy, confused - in short, all the things that Asimov humans tend to forget to do. For true Asimov fans, I guess this is an interesting read. For more casual browsers, or especially those new to Asimov, I would start with his short fiction to really get a measure of the genius of the man, and if you want to move to the novel length, try the Robot or Foundation books rather than this.

14 people found this helpful

William James, Brasenose

Monkeying around with the strong nuclear force

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2016

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For me, this has the classic ingredients for good sci-fi: only one significant deviation from the universal laws as we know them, and good development of plot and character from that one premise. There are sufficiently important, unanticipated plot developments for me not to include spoilers here, but I think the following are OK. The trilogy is takes as its starting point the widely discussed "multiverse" concept, in which the remarkable fact that the values of the fundamental physical constants in our universe are, to a high degree of precision, the only ones that could support a universe that could support stars, planets, life, etc. One way of dealing with this suspiciously improbable situation is to posit that in some sense there exist many other universes with all other conceivable values for these constants, and we just happen to exist in this one (a bit like happening to live in an age of mobile phones). This and other "anthropic" interpretations are not articulated in "The Gods Themselves", but are elft implicit. Very slight differences from the strengths of the strong and weak nuclear force in our universe might, in fact, support predictable properties in alternate universes, such as more but fewer stars, shorter or longer lifetimes of matter, and so on. So far, so standard physics. The only deviation Asimov introduces is the idea that sufficiently adept denizens of one such universe might be able to find a way of making very small exchanges of matter with our own. he then allows the plot line to develop from that point: what would the effect be? How would it affect people and their interactions? How would it look like on the other side of the coin, etc. I found the character development and plot lines engaging, and in the second book particularly intriguing. The resolution to book 3 is very slightly weaker than teh rest, robbing it of the fifth star.

One person found this helpful

Ivan's choice

eye opening SF work by Asimov

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2019

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This is an excellent work by Asimov published in 1972 and his ideas are still relevant to how we see the world in this universe.
In his own words, The God Themselves, is his favorite work among his abundant writings. It is very imaginative of him to conceive a pump that exchanges energy between the two worlds where diverse beings inhabit.
In actual fact, this novel has intriguing subplots to keep readers hooked, which proves that he has learnt from his earlier novels. The presence of 2 female characters are almost dominant in the first 2 sections.
A thoughtful and reflective work from the famous Asimov.

One person found this helpful

DSSmith

A brilliant story. Three distinct worlds, all with the same needs.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2019

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Earth, the moon and a parallel universe. Asimov describes life on them all with great detail, bringing together a story that is fascinating as it is terrifying. His description of the life forms from the parallel universe and their interaction is incredible. A must read for anyone who is a fan of hard SciFi.

One person found this helpful

Astro Mark

Great Sci-fi read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2014

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As a fan of Asimov I was quite pleased to find a book that I had not yet read. It is rather good. There is a fantastic few chapters describing how an alien race acts and thinks from there prospective and then how they interact with our world. I would have liked to have read more about them which is why I did not give a full five stars. But an excellent sci- fi read all the same.

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