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Wow I thought I was all alone with these two favorite authors of mine...
Thinking about commonalities of the authors, for me it's a "purest" angle. While there have been great ones over all decades, my take on SF is that the best stuff was written in the mid 20th century. "Classic" SF as it were... whats appealing to me is that the vision of the future, while relfecting some of the nuclear drama of the time, is more forthright. Less encumbered by techno babble and futurist speak. There is a real feeling of vision of the future IMO. Real people in a real obtainable future. Likewise, I (purest again) feel that the best fantasy fiction was - well - Tolkien and RE Howard. All written in mid 20th century again. History was (to me) more alive during this pre-technological age to us as a culture. Asimov was as grounded as a Humanist, as Tolkien was grounded as a Catholic, and both used that foundation in their writings.
For the body of works - well the pattern was the same in both authors. Tolkien had his legendarium, where the attempt to fit the pieces together was made to incorporate the body of work as a whole. Asimov had his Foundation novels, which was a microcosm in itself, but the Empire novels, Robot novels, most of his short stories, all fit, or had a natural place in his "legendarium". In his novel "The End of Eternity", he even explains why, in his future, mankind is the only intelligent space faring species around.
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