The Planet that Wasn't

Isaac Asimov

Doubleday, 1976 - Nature - 206 pages

All were orphans when they met in their teens in the late seventies, and they vowed to be a family. As they reunite at a film party in London, it is Rosalind Madigan, the angel of the title, who holds them together. An Academy Award-winning designer blessed with innate goodness, Rosie is troubled by commitments that leave her feeling estranged from herself and her friends: Gavin Ambrose, a Hollywood megastar, a brilliant actor/producer whose personal life is not as successful as it appears (Nell Jeffrey, head of an international public relations firm and Rosie's best friend, a glamorous woman having a secret love affair (and Kevin Madigan, Rosie's brother, an undercover cop in the NYPD Crime Intelligence Division who specializes in fighting organized crime, an assignment that threatens his life. Into their midst come a dashing French aristocrat and the world's most successful popular singer, two men who disrupt--and irrevocably transform--"the family."... ANGEL Told with the power that only Barbara Taylor Bradford can bring to the page, this stunning novel is about a group of friends--and also about individuals who, facing their own mortality, must reevaluate their lives and strengthen their commitments. Exciting and moving, it will fascinate you from beginning to end. From the Paperback edition.

Contents

• 1THE PLANET THAT WASNT: 1
• 2THE OLYMPIAN SNOWS: 13
• 3TITANIC SURPRISE: 25

About the author

Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia, on January 2, 1920. His family emigrated to the United States in 1923 and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where they owned and operated a candy store. Asimov became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of eight. As a youngster he discovered his talent for writing, producing his first original fiction at the age of eleven. He went on to become one of the world's most prolific writers, publishing nearly 500 books in his lifetime. Asimov was not only a writer; he also was a biochemist and an educator. He studied chemistry at Columbia University, earning a B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. In 1951, Asimov accepted a position as an instructor of biochemistry at Boston University's School of Medicine even though he had no practical experience in the field. His exceptional intelligence enabled him to master new systems rapidly, and he soon became a successful and distinguished professor at Columbia and even co-authored a biochemistry textbook within a few years. Asimov won numerous awards and honors for his books and stories, and he is considered to be a leading writer of the Golden Age of science fiction. While he did not invent science fiction, he helped to legitimize it by adding the narrative structure that had been missing from the traditional science fiction books of the period. He also introduced several innovative concepts, including the thematic concern for technological progress and its impact on humanity. Asimov is probably best known for his Foundation series, which includes Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. In 1966, this trilogy won the Hugo award for best all-time science fiction series. In 1983, Asimov wrote an additional Foundation novel, Foundation's Edge, which won the Hugo for best novel of that year. Asimov also wrote a series of robot books that included I, Robot, and eventually he tied the two series together. He won three additional Hugos, including one awarded posthumously for the best non-fiction book of 1995, I. Asimov. "Nightfall" was chosen the best science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America. In 1979, Asimov wrote his autobiography, In Memory Yet Green. He continued writing until just a few years before his death from heart and kidney failure on April 6, 1992.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Planet that Wasn't
• Author: Isaac Asimov
• Publisher: Doubleday, 1976
• Original from: the University of California
• Digitized: Mar 11, 2008
• ISBN: 038511687X, 9780385116879
• Length: 206 pages
• Subjects: Nature / General; Science / General