#56 in Classics
The Gods Themselves
- 317
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Nebula Award for Best Novel
- Locus Award for Best Novel
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Our view
“The Gods Themselves” is Asimov at his least conventional, and its aliens from a parallel universe are its most memorable invention. It is also sharp about the vanity and rivalry of working scientists. The three sections differ widely, and some readers feel they never quite join up and that the last is weaker than the first. Science fiction that lives on its ideas.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Gods Themselves is a 1972 science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov, and his first original work in the science fiction genre in fifteen years. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 388 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 73% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Classics average of 7.7. That is how 8.1 comes out. A further +0.20 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.1 | 46 | 12% |
| Hardcover | 8.0 | 342 | 88% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Gods Themselves?
It has 317 pages — shorter than 77% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 8.1 and 8.2, closest to this book.
