User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Love...is...
Forever...
CHAPTER ONE The Foundation Trilogy By Isaac Asimov
INTRODUCTION:In my life, there have been
three science fiction books/series that will always hold
special shelf space in my
heart’s library. The first, and the subject of this review, is
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. Yet, before I begin my history with this extraordinary story, let me briefly mention my other two great loves.
A.
Dune:
The second of these pivotal SF relationships was with Dune, who I first met while in college during my “wilder” days. Dune, being born in 1965, was 5 years my senior when we first “hooked up.” I was so immediately and powerfully smitten with this
tail tale that I actually became fearful that I had so completely spun out of control. But now is not the time to discuss that relationship as there may be children present. I’ll just say that Dune, that saucy, talented cougar, took me to heights of ecstasy that I’d never before experienced with its richly exotic and poetically descriptive prose, its nuanced characters and its plot as complex as anything I’d encountered before.
Give me just a minute...*wipes brow*
Where was I?
Oh yeah...anyway, being less than a literary Casanova at the time, I was only able to read a few pages at a time due to
premature...fatigue. Later, as my endurance improved, I was able to last for hours before reaching the point of satiation.
I’ll always be grateful to Dune for being my Mrs. Robinson and so eloquently teaching me that
science fiction = literature.
B.
Hyperion:
My third great SF love was Hyperion. I first encountered this alluring novel several years after having graduated law school and become established in what is now my life. Prior to first laying eyes on this beauty, I honestly thought I was beyond the age of going “gaga” or experiencing the kind of sweaty-palmed, stutter-causing, bladder-control-losing nervousness that I used to feel when I was chasing comic books around the grade school schoolyard.
Well, I was WRONG!!
When Hyperion showed up on my doorstep with its bodaciously brainy concepts, its gorgeously sensual prose and a plot so stacked and loaded with curves that you could actually hear
”BOOM CHICKA WAH WAH” when its pages turned, all I remember was my
sweaty hands slipping off the doorknob as I wet myself while falling and gasping “H...H...He....Hellllloo” just as my head hit the floor.
Again, since this is not a review of Hyperion, I will save the details of that affair for another time. However, I can say that Hyperion currently represents to me the “ideal of perfection” within the science fiction genre. I have never read better and it is the book against which all other science fiction experiences are judged.
C.
Foundation Trilogy:
Finally, we get to my very first SF love:
The Foundation Trilogy. They say you never forget your first. They are right.
It was “The Trilogy” that began my life-long affair with science fiction. Without Asimov’s epic space opera, I might never have met Dune or Hyperion and my life would have been the poorer for it. Therefore, this series will always hold a special, sentimental place with me.
Of course, I was very inexperienced when I first “awkwardly” touched this book and clumsily fingered the first few pages. I had no idea what to expect, I only know I was excited. I mean there were 3 of them, 3 stories, and only one of me. I was petrified that I would be inadequate to the task. Later, when I was older and had “been with” many, many other books (don’t judge me), I looked back on my initial nervousness and chuckled.
Heck, this is the kind of experience people write letters about in magazines.
Anyway, as it turns out, I could not have wished for a better “first” in the world of science fiction. Asimov’s tight, straight-forward prose took me “in hand” and gently guided me through the amazing world of the two Foundations. Each of the stories that make up The Trilogy are special in their own way and so I’ve decided to review each of them separately at a later date. Here, I will just summarize the series as a whole.
SERIES OVERVIEW:The Galactic Empire spans
25 million worlds and has a population of over a
quadrillion people...
FYI, that is 1,000,000,000,000,000 or over 166,000 times the population of Earth. It’s huge...TWSS.
The empire is in decline. However, only a handful of brilliant scientists can see the collapse coming, thanks to the science of “psychohistory” created by their leader, Hari Seldon. Hari and his group have determined that the empire’s demise will lead to 30,000 years of barbarism and have formulated a plan (named after Seldon) to reduce that “dark period” to only 1000 years.
The 3 books in The Trilogy chronicle the formulation and the initial implementation of the Seldon Plan.
This series is such an amazing way to be introduced to the science fiction genre. The prose is uber readable, the pace is lickity split and the stories themselves are full of larger-than-life characters doing larger-than-life things. It’s just highly entertaining, with a “feel good” vibe that will whet the appetite for more.
Now I would not argue with those that find this work less than compelling when viewed against the complete body of science fiction work out there. This does not hold up under scrutiny with subsequent works (including both Dune and Hyperion). Still, this a terrific starting point for someone new to science fiction and embodies the essence of what grand old space opera is supposed to be. Big ideas, larger than life characters and a story packed with smiles.
FINAL THOUGHTS:In conclusion, I’d like to say a few words to those who may doubt the depths of my feelings for this book given my literary promiscuity. Those who’ve seen my “currently reading” shelf and know that I go through books like the U.S. spends money. You might think me a bit disingenuous for writing so “glowingly” about these books in light of my behavior. To those who would judge me, let me just say, with all due respect:
I’ll grant that I enjoy a bit of experimentation when it comes to literature, and frequently hook up with other genres, sometimes several at a time. However, this practice in no way diminishes my love for science fiction. Therefore, please stop your moralizing. What Science Fiction and I have is very special and I’ll thank you not to point your judgments in our direction.
6.0 stars. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!
Winner: Hugo Award for Best All Time Series (The Foundation Trilogy) (1966)
Voted onto the Locus List of All Time Best Science Fiction Novel (4th)
Rating: really liked it
When Isaac Asimov learned that the World Science Fiction Convention would be giving a special Hugo Award in 1966 for "Best All Time Series," he believed that the category had been created specifically to honor J.R.R. Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings trilogy. Indeed, for a modern reader, it's surprising to learn that Asimov's
Foundation Trilogy was once so highly revered in the canon of speculative fiction that it beat Tolkien's masterpiece for the prize. Such are the fortunes of a genre built on the challenge of looking forward: when the future actually arrives, even its greatest masterpieces are left looking like the relics of a hopelessly distant past.
The Foundation Trilogy is not the greatest multi-novel series to emerge from modern science fiction. Nor is it, by even a generous assessment, a masterpiece. Perhaps the series fared better in a time when the expectations placed upon sci-fi writers was that they would produce entertaining pulp -- when the novelty and intellectual reach of Asimov's ideas could distract from his lacking style. By today's standards, however, the work is almost hopelessly inept.
The premise is this: Harry Seldon, the greatest psychologist of the far future, predicts that the Galactic Empire will crumble ala Rome within a few hundred years of his writing. Using the "science" of psychohistory (his own invention), he foresees an intellectual Dark Age of approximately 30,000 years following this collapse, but he also calculates that this period can be shortened to a single millennium if the right people are in the right places to keep the flame of knowledge lit. Thus, he creates two "Foundations," groups that work behind the scenes to keep learning alive through the empire's fall.
The story spins bizarrely but predictably from there: wars, rumors of war, deranged mutants, psychologists with seemingly supernatural abilities, resolution. Asimov's unflinching faith in the potential of science is the real focus throughout. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, we've come to understand that even closed systems are fundamentally unpredictable over any considerable length of time; in Asimov's time, there was still faith that science could predict the future of a galaxy-spanning empire over the course of thousands of years.
The naivety of the late 40s and early 50s, however, is not what prevents
The Foundation Trilogy from being the masterpiece it was once considered to be. Asimov's plot isn't perfect, but it's functional. Rather, the work's real failings are literary. The characters are flat, cardboard cutouts of people, the great leaders of one generation virtually indistinguishable from the next (women, of course, are almost never to be seen, with the notable exception of a rather likable young heroine in the second part of
Second Foundation). Nor is there poetry in Asimov's prose; instead, there are merely endless pages of expository dialogue occasionally graced with the most meager of descriptions.
Fundamentally at issue here is the fact that science fiction has earned the right to be considered literature, and that the canonization of works like
Foundation serve only as unpleasant reminders of the genre's humble beginnings. It is not an altogether terrible work, and certainly worth reading for historical context alone, but advocates of contemporary science fiction can only hope that novels such as these will one day no longer be the standard by which the genre's literary merits are weighed.
Rating: really liked it
The Foundation trilogy is made up from a series of short stories published between 1942 and 1953. At the dawn of American dominance, Asimov as a fiction writer was inspired to write about decline and fall, rather like Edward Gibbon turned his attention to the end of Rome no sooner had victory in the Seven Years War set the seal on British ascendancy, but with science-fiction as his medium.
Asimov was fond of locked door murder mysteries and this technique of creating a seemingly impossible situation and resolving it cleverly is one that he used in the Foundation series. The resolutions are clever. The series is enjoyable for its interest in big questions rather than big battles in spaces with loads of exploding things.
But back to locked door mysteries. First Asimov locks the door by inventing a concept that he calls psychohistory. This is a super-science that allows the reasonably precise prediction of the future and this is the basis of the whole set of stories. Super scientist Harri Seldon using his
magic powers mcguffin technique of psychohistory realises that the Galactic Empire in which he lives, is going to decline and collapse into a horrible galactic dark age in the very near future. However he has also calculated that by planting a colony of scientists in a safe spot this dark age can be minimised. This Foundation will undergo various ups and downs and existential threats as it grows to create/become a future galactic republic, all of which ups and downs are predicted by psychohistory, and by means of a fancy nuclear powered hologram thingamajig, he, Harri Seldon, can broadcast suitably condescending messages to impress the people of the future. The door is closed - how can the stories be interesting if the results are known and predictable in advance - and the key turns in the lock.
The first solution is that the people of Foundation don't have access to the predictions and so fulfil them unwittingly. Then random events do occur (particularly in Foundation and Empire), which appear spectacular but don't turn out to have a long term impact. Finally it turns out that a super secret cabal of psycho-historians had been hidden away to keep the plan on course. In the last of these early stories the Foundation becomes aware of this Second Foundation and embarks on a McCarthite witch-hunt for them.
Very much of its time with its fear of infiltration by people with mysterious mental powers (think of The Manchurian Candidate), its interest in technology as the under pining of power, and its concern with Imperial rise and fall. Since apparently this series went on to influence Newt Gingrich I can only recommend it to careful readers.
Rating: really liked it
In the last days of a future human Galactic Empire spanning countless galaxies, mathematician Hari Seldon develops psychohistory theory using research analysis and statistics of significant numbers of humans across the Empire; it can be used to predict the future of large populations. He foretells the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, a 30,000 year dark age and a second empire rising. Seldom devises a plan of action, creating the Foundations to limit the length of the dark age and preserve civilization, to become the seeds from which the second empire will grow far more quickly.
How did this book make me feel?This made me feel full of wonderment that a writer could produce such a detailed and believable galactic saga over 1000s of years centred around mathematical theory, and make it a compelling and entertaining read! Foundation, Foundation & Empire and Second Foundation - a supreme sci-fi work by a grand master and now, in the 21st century, still a scintillating read! It deservedly won the one-time
Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. 9 out of 12.
Rating: really liked it
Introduction
Bibliographical Note
Select Bibliography
Chronology--Foundation
--Foundation and Empire
--Second Foundation
Rating: really liked it
An excellent trilogy, with a lot of surprising twist and turn. I swear the final twist took me so much by surprise, that I actually laughed out loud.
Rating: really liked it
Foundation (1951): Gigantic brain-warping grand science-fiction, this is as big as it gets, so big it's difficult to fully comprehend. From the first page of Chapter 1, "The Psychohistorians", which begins with a quote from the "Encyclopedia Galactica", beginning in the 11,998th year of the Galactic Era, you know that Isaac Asimov is going to be writing on the largest possible scale. Let's take a look at what type of a man would dare write on such a staggeringly gigantic scale:
This is the most confidant looking man in horn-rimmed glasses and a bow-tie that you will ever see. That confidence and determination in his eyes is borne from the knowledge that he is going to blow your world into another freaking universe. He is concocting a story which will encompass
25 Million inhabited worlds and will involve time-lines which play out over tens of thousands of years, involving sciences which will stretch your powers of comprehension. With 'Foundation', Asimov sets his sights as high and as far as it is possible to conceive, resulting in a marvelous, and indeed humbling, intellectual edifice of awesome proportions. I was very satisfactorily and indubitably rocked by it's mind-warping majesty. It makes perfect sense that the Hugo Award for 'Best All Time Series' was created in 1966 specifically to honor this achievement in science fiction.
This first book in the series begins with establishing both a new science, psychohistory - a type of mathematical sociology. The first book is a whirlwind of ideas and descriptions of a gigantic and futuristic human empire of the distant future.
Foundation And Empire (1952): Perhaps not so great as 'Foundation', this book is written in two main parts, the first of which was gigantic, epic science-fiction that I was hoping for. The second part, 'The Mule', I frankly did not like. I did not care to be reading about the Mule or Magnifico the Clown, I wanted hard Foundation stuff, big science, psychohistory and scientists performing stunning upsets. I was unsure how all this played into psychohistory or how these characters fit into Hari Seldon's timeline of the future. Maybe I didn't like it because it derailed Seldon's psychohistory and thousand year plan. However, these concerns were assuaged in 'Second Foundation'.
Second Foundation (1953): Split into two parts, the first part deals with the Mule and his easy conquest and the disruption of the Seldon plan. I did not particularly care for this and was anxious for it to be over. The second part finally does away with the Mule and it's back to Foundation scientists and Second Foundation psychohistorians, which I absolutely loved. Asimov basically tells a plausible story with some weird bits, and then in the last chapter, a character comes along and you have to totally reinterpret what has happened, and why the weird bits were absolutely important even though the reader overlooked them and was focused on other events in the story. Asimov does this again and again and it's always marvelous. He did it in the first book, a bit in the second, and here in 'Second Foundation'.
As a trilogy, I had some concerns which may or may not have been cleared up but that I perhaps didn't notice - maybe I just wasn't smart enough to notice them being cleared up in the subtle and elegant fashion which Asimov moves the plot along by slipping in facts which become relevant later.
1) With interplanetary travel, the people on any given planet will age normally, but people traveling between worlds will not age as fast, because space travel is time travel. If you travel from planet A to planet B, then back again, you may have taken 5 years to travel, but once you get back to planet A, it should be hundreds of years from when you left (depending on how fast you were traveling). Asimov must have known this, but it seems to not have been incorporated into the story. A possible workaround is that that they make 'jumps' in space, so traveling from planet A to planet B requires no great disparity in the elapsing of time on either the planets, or to the travelers - However, this is never explicitly stated. Perhaps this is obvious to other SF readers?
2) There seemed to be no great emphasis on the advancement of human biology or culture. One girl character is 5'4" and Hari Seldon dies when he is about 73 years old. That's not very futuristic, is it? I would expect the human race of thousands of years hence to be vastly taller, to live longer, and to to have very high IQs. There were other anachronistic elements, like Darrell having a maid (?), and a soldier saying "Ain't". Keep in mind that these events take place at least 12,000 years after the establishment of a galactic empire, where the original home world of humans is no longer even known because it is lost in the mists of prehistory. But people still say "Ain't" and sit around smoking cigars and reading newspapers? And there are farmers? Is this the future, as conceived of circa 1950?
3) I am likewise incredulous that Asimov has constructed a fictional galaxy of over 24 million inhabited worlds in which there is no mention of any alien life, sentient or otherwise. Given the vastness and age of space, and the uniformity of physical laws and elements, many astronomers will opine that the universe is quite literally teeming with life. It seems implausible that human life is the only one across millions of inhabited worlds.
Despite these issues, Asimov has constructed a grant universe and plot which takes place over 500 years, a trilogy which is not only grand but very detailed, his story is filled with intricacies and shows a dedicated attention to detail and story construction. An absolute monument of Science Fiction.
Rating: really liked it
Wow, WHAT AN END to the trilogy!! :)
After going through the 'pains' of the three books, because I am not used to reading Space Operas like this, the third book ended on an extremely satisfying note.
All the three books contained some dull sections for me, not to mention several times when I was coming across what I would call Asimov's bad writing style. However, I will say that the chronicling of the events taking place within the confines of the trilogy have been in itself brilliantly structured and placed. It was the mystery of the Second Foundation that made me kept going, and the twists! (It is surprising however, that Asimov has avoided the inclusion of any extra-terrestrial life-forms in the books, which to me makes me think: that either they were irrelevant and thus intentionally not included, or perhaps they have been kept away from the brinks of the Galaxy in the Foundation Universe only to may be include them in the later books of the series.) :P
(view spoiler)
[Spanning about 400 years of history during the Foundation Era, Foundation (book one) deals with the organised establishment of its colony and on how it prevents itself from destruction.
Foundation and Empire (book two) deals with the coming and rise of a 'black swan' and how it deviates the prognosis - Hari Seldon's Plan using psycho-history.
Second Foundation (book three) then deals with how the Second Foundation gets rid of the Mutant, and is now faced with a situation wherein the required outcome's probability of the Seldon Plan is reduced drastically. The story then progresses as to how the Second Foundation manipulates events that happen, using the mathematical equations representing the science of human behaviour, to increase this level of probability such that future events occur as devised by Hari Seldon. (hide spoiler)]The ways and levels to which the Second Foundation's agents have to go through, to manipulate people, events, and happenings, to be happening as a pre-determined event, reflected to me at least three things: 1) that sometimes one has to give away some good, for a far greater 'good' of events to happen, 2) all that comes-to-be (becomes, happens) is (probably) a result of some pre-determined plan, which reminds me of the Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. 3) It also made me question Intuition, if it ever is made as a mind-controlling method? Or are we controlled already … by something which we have always liked to refer to as Divine (as defined by language and meaning) or perhaps by some Extra-terrestrial life-form??!
The third book deals the story in a way which can be very confusing to an un-focusing reader, and eventually may not understand its intricacy of the plot.
Overall, if I contemplate on the three books individually, none of them have really 'amazed' me by their contents and storyline, but the whole, I can now certainly say, was spell-binding enough!
Rating: really liked it
I read some short stories by Asimov in High-School and although he never measured up to the likes Rohald Dahl or Kurt Vonnegut I seem to remember actually enjoying some of them, but there's no way I can pretend that this novel was anything other than awful. This is bad science fiction in every sense of the word, overly descriptive of irrelevant details, filled soulless characters all with the same emotionless analytical voice, events that seem to have no purpose and all take place in a world that's extremely difficult to contextualise and even harder to care about and written with no style or eye for pacing. I read at least half of the book and I honestly can't tell you what was happening, who any of the characters were or what was at stake. This is one of those books that is so uninteresting it's actually infuriating. Great science fiction uses the conceits of the genre to deal with big philosophical and questions and confront socio-political constructs, but it makes the reader care about these issues by putting a relatable character with basic human dilemmas at the centre. This is where Foundation fails, it's all ideas and no humanity. I'd love to disseminate it more, but honestly, who cares? Who the fuck even cares? Do not recommend.
Rating: really liked it
You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.
Mind games at their finest! In The Foundation Trilogy, comprised of Foundation (Book 1), Foundation and Empire (Book 2), and Second Foundation (Book 3), you’ll quickly find yourself in front of an author whose grasp on science-fiction is beyond belief. Far more idea-driven than character-driven, Isaac Asimov crafts the rise and fall of civilization in an intricate and astonishing prose. Tackling subjects ranging from religion to politics, this story will challenge your comprehension of individuals, but especially of collectives. Spanning over centuries, the Foundation series is nothing like you’ve ever seen before. Foundation propels us in a time period where the Galactic Empire has thrived for over 12000 years. Psychohistorian Hari Seldon however shocks the world by announcing an impending Dark Age where the Empire will fall and dwell in barbarism for almost thirty millennia unless the Empire’s Commission of Public Safety permits him to establish a back-up plan that will guarantee a much more shorter age of barbarism and the promise of rebirth. It is on this premise that resides the adventures to come and thus leaves us with the torturous question: Will Hari Seldon’s plan bear fruit?
In Foundation, Isaac Asimov introduces readers to psychohistory. The idea behind this field of study is that the behavior of masses, in billions, can be predicted thanks to complex mathematical algorithms, while an individual’s behavior remains almost impossible to anticipate. The originality behind this concept is beyond reproach and will drive this universe from the very beginning. It’s in Hari Seldon’s comprehension of masses that the faith of humanity resides on and it’s in Isaac Asimov’s creativity that this series wonders will shine in success. Of all three books, Foundation will undoubtedly go down as my favourite of the trilogy because of not only how magnificent and grandiose the ideas were, but because Isaac Asimov manages to fit what seemed like a gargatuan amount of content into just 250 pages. To put the cherry on top of the cake, the major plot twist in the first book—one that merits praise and definitely secured the first book’s spot as my favourite book of the trilogy—changes the game in unimaginable ways and remains one of the most important moment in the Foundation series.
What I also loved a lot about Foundation is its themes. Isaac Asimov serves us with countless questions to ponder on as events unfold on galactic scales. For instance, the idea of free will is greatly challenged as Hari Seldon’s plan basically strips individuals of their ability to control their destiny on a societal level. It just makes you wonder how people feel when there actions as individuals won’t matter in the bigger picture. I also love how violence is depicted and how the author represents true power. Throughout this series you’ll quickly come to realize that there’s often only one type of behavior that will win the war, while the other will only win battles. The writing style also helps in delivering the prose fluidly without ever feeling jaded or overwhelmed. In fact, I found that the structure, composed of short stories, packed a lot punch and kept the intrigue at a high level. In all honesty, this one series that felt extremely accessible and easy to follow. Everything was straight-forward, even the countless twists to come. While characters come and go, their dialogues remain pertinent and striking whenever they do appear.
Foundation and Empire takes place a couple years later and introduces us to new characters. The story presents us a much more powerful Foundation that easily takes care of the menace that represents the Empire until an unexpected force enters the stage. This individual who goes by the name of The Mule is known by countless to be a mutant with powers that no one has ever seen before. He is also the one factor that Hari Seldon’s plan had never accounted for. Its the inclusion of such a character that threatens to put an end to a future that seemed sealed that brings new life to a story that seemed to know only one end. This second book in the series also presents us with our first female character when you would’ve thought that this whole series would only have had men doing the impossible and changing the world individually. This was definitely interesting since the introduction of a woman also brought into play the one thing that never seem to be in the way of men in this story: emotions. Foundation and Empire also changes its structure by splitting the book into two parts rather than having multiple short stories. The change was sort of unfortunate as the short stories seemed much more poignant, but it definitely didn’t take away the astonishing historical scope of this story.
The third book in the series, Second Foundation focuses on a second Foundation that was hidden away in a secret remote location that no one knows about in order to remain unaffected by the actions and events that the Empire and the Foundation will come face to face with. Similar to the second book, this one is also split in two as the first part neatly ties things up regarding The Mule and the second part weaves us through the hunt for the second Foundation. One of the elements that was regrettable is the level of predictability. In these last two books, I found myself foreseeing the ruses and the twists that were integrated. Even if I saw a couple moves ahead, I still thought that the ideas conveyed were brilliant. In Second Foundation, I also loved the introduction of a second female character—a little girl this time—who glowed with a radiant Sherlock Holmes vibe in whatever she did. If Isaac Asimov ever wrote a book just for her, I’d read it now (please let me know). The finale in this book was also brilliant and kept you at the edge of your seat without you realizing. Just when you think things were done, expect the unexpected.
The Foundation trilogy isn’t an adventure where you’ll find yourself connecting with characters. It’s a universe where you’ll be mesmerized by the ideas and Isaac Asimov’s foray into the human psyche and the evolution of civilization. As you acquaint yourself to key players in a plan to save humanity from falling into barbarism, you’ll find yourself in awe at the countless twists and turns that are thrown into this giant game of chess. Science, religion, economy, history, philosophy and politics will all be explored in their rawest forms and everything will always feel complementary to one another. While the trilogy remains the three most important books of the series and must-reads for any science-fiction fan, Isaac Asimov expands the universe with sequels and prequels, as well as separate short stories for starving devotees. Published in 1951, this trilogy remains a colossal piece of art in this day and age. There is honestly no excuses out there that could justify putting this classic aside.
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
____________________________
Mind games at their finest! In The Foundation Trilogy, comprised of Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation, you'll quickly find yourself in front of an author whose grasp on science-fiction is beyond belief. Far more idea-driven than character-driven, Isaac Asimov crafts the rise and fall of civilization in an intricate and astonishing prose. Tackling subjects ranging from religion to politics, this story will challenge your comprehension of individuals, but also of collectives.
P.S. Full review to come soon.
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
Rating: really liked it
The Foundation Trilogy is widely considered one of the most influential science fiction series ever written - it even won a Hugo award for the best all-time series back in the 60's.
And I get it. I can see why it's so influential, mostly because I've read and seen the books and movies and television shows that have been influenced by it (I'm mostly talking about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and
Futurama, but there are countless others). Isaac Asimov has so many fantastic, interesting ideas - he's tracing the fall and rise of a civilization, using past history to guide him. In the span of three novels we've seen this history play out over 400 years, and seen how people originally seen as minor players were revered down in history later on.
It's just that it's
so dry. Seriously. I realize that the ideas are more important than the writing, but this is a book. I need more than interesting ideas to keep me motivated to read.
The books do get better, however, I will admit that. But
Foundation, the first book in the series, is hard to get over. I took a four month hiatus in between that and the second book because I couldn't get over how dry it was. Seriously,
Foundation consists of people sitting around talking about ideas. All the action happens off the stage, and we're left to hear people discuss ideas. I get that Asimov is telling a broad history, and that history is more influenced by backroom politicking than different battles, but I wish he had given us something. And since the novel takes place over quite a long period, I never really felt like I had the time to devote much attention or interest in any particular character.
Asimov definitely picks up the pace in
Foundation and Empire. While the first half is reminiscent of
Foundation, he at least seems aware of this fact, and has one of his characters comment on the absurd amount of talking everybody does. But it's the second half, about the Mule, where things really get interesting. This is the story that deviates from intended purpose of the series, where one man with abnormal capabilities disrupts the plan and a small band of people have to join together to defeat him. There was still quite a bit of talking, but it was spliced in between action and characters having to make important decisions in order to save the whole galaxy while on the run from a great evil. Bayta Darrell and The Mule are interesting, flawed characters who grow and change. Bayta especially is one of the most clever people in the series, and I wish that she had appeared in more than just this book - she's clever enough to match wits with any science fiction hero, and she's able to use her inherent goodness against the most manipulative of foes.
Second Foundation was my favorite book of the series. Asimov still reverted to talking, but there was far less of it. Besides, this book also introduces us to the first truly funny character in the series: Arkady Darrell, who is mostly funny by the virtue of her being 14 and who gains all of her knowledge from books and television stories about spies and other romance stories. This is not a new character archetype - Don Quixote is the most famous, but there are many others. And it's a lot of fun to see Arkady go from a naive 14-year old girl, obsessed with living out the roles in her books and movies like any true hero to a 14-year old girl who understands that the world is an incredibly dangerous place and that her actions can cause great harm to a lot of the people she holds near and dear. It's the most true journey of any character presented in this series (so far), and it's incredibly rewarding. I'd go back and read about Arkady any day, though I'd probably skip the last chapter.
I get what Asimov was trying to do with the Foundation series. And there are times, when he moves away from the archetypical science fiction hero who is right and doesn't really have any sort of interesting journey to characters who learn and grow and change, that he really succeeds. And while the last half of
Foundation and Empire and almost all of
Second Foundation are worth it, I just can't get over the first book and a half.
I'm glad I read it, because now I get so many of the references that I see in other science fiction series, but I don't know that I'd ever reread it; I certainly wouldn't reread all of it. But when I inevitably reread
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its sequels, at least I'll have a better understanding of the jokes.
Rating: really liked it
4.5/5
(Reseña en español debajo)
My problem with science fiction is the freedom of the authors to use words referring to physical phenomena to describe a certain technology. For those who do not know, I have a degree and a PhD in physics, and the nerd in me can not avoid to think about how that technology would work, so I usually spend a lot of time frustrating myself because I can not find the meaning. Something like that happened to me with Hyperion, by Dan Simmons.
However, although Asimov left me thinking for a while with some artifacts, in general the narrative has focused on aspects such as the personality of several characters in this trilogy. I thought it was a wonderful book, which I could not stop reading. It is really fascinating to read about the development of the Foundation during the years of anarchy, and I definitely want to read much more about this author. There is not a minute of boredom.
Since the saga of the Foundation takes several centuries, we do not see the point of view of a few characters, but several generations are the ones who tell us this story, people with different personalities and motivations.
I really recommend it a lot.
Mi problema con la ciencia ficción, es la libertad de quienes la escriben de utilizar palabras referidas a fenómenos físicos para describir una determinada tecnología. Para quienes no lo saben, tengo un grado y un doctorado en física, y la nerd en mí no puede evitar ponerse a pensar cómo esa tecnología funcionaría, por lo que suelo pasar mucho tiempo frustrándome por no poder encontrarle el sentido. Algo así me pasó con Hyperion, de Dan Simmons.
Sin embargo, aunque Asimov me dejó pensando un buen rato con algunos artefactos, en general la narración se ha enfocado en aspectos como la personalidad de varios personajes de esta trilogía. Me ha parecido un libro maravilloso, al que no podía parar de leer. Es realmente fascinante acompañar al desarrollo de la Fundación durante los años de anarquía, y definitivamente tengo ganas de leer mucho más de este autor. No hay un minuto de aburrimiento.
Dado que la saga de la Fundación ocupa varios siglos, no vemos el punto de vista de unos pocos personajes, sino que varias generaciones son las que nos cuentan esta historia, personas con diferentes personalidades y motivaciones.
Realmente lo recomiendo muchísimo.
Rating: really liked it
Ok, let's begin with the fact that I tackled this trilogy when I was 12. I'm sure that, were I to pick it up once more, my appreciation would grow exponentially... HOWEVER, as wonderful as Asimov is, he writes like an engineer. He's careful and methodical, and the plot that weaves through the
Foundation series is unbelievably complex. If you've got the time, and you enjoy Sci-fi, go ahead and pick up Prelude and follow Hari's awesome adventure.
Rating: really liked it
Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy ranks up there, IMHO, with Frank Herbert's Dune in terms of being a pillar of the sci-fi community. Strangely I had read this series when I was young and then encountered it again in later. The concepts behind Hari Seldon's mathematical interpretation of groups of people acting in predictable patterns to be intriguing. In time, that concept grew on me and actually had a practical application in my Intelligence work and then, post-military, during my PhD work. The seed planted by Asimov had germinated, over the course of a decade or two, into my doctoral research into the mathematical interpretations of conflict. So I am, obviously, fond of this series.
My copy by the Everyman's Library was rather nice. It has all three books here: Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation. The series starts with Foundation. The Galactic Empire has stood for millennia. Spread across millions of worlds it is an entity that seems built for eternity. Such is not the case, as proven by a brilliant scientist named Hari Seldon. Realizing that individuals are exceedingly difficult to predict, he starts to calculate probabilities for mass movements. Essentially "herd theory".
But Seldon's warnings are either misunderstood or ignored by the powers that be. So Seldon founds two Foundations. One on a small planet called Terminus and a mysterious Second Foundation that is mentioned only in passing. The story then follows the events on the tiny planet of Terminus and we see the Foundation struggle to survive. As time passes the Foundation, which has managed to keep all science and technology unlike the decaying Empire, grows in power and attracts the attention of nearby powers. These existential threats, Seldon Crisis, are then dealt with- in the first case by the Mayor Salvor Hardin. We also learn in the first book, the bare hints at a Second Foundation.
The 2nd book is Foundation and Empire. In this the last great Imperial General launches an assault on Terminus and is defeated, but the greater part of the book is about the Mule. The Mule is a mutant and thus outside the mathematics of Seldon's Plan. The Mule is opposed by Toran and Bataya Darell and Ebling Mis. The Mule comes to conquer the First Foundation and seeks the Second.
The 3rd Book is Second Foundation which covers the Mule's attempt to find the location of and destroy the Second Foundartion. It also reveals where the Second Foundation is located and its abilities.
I have tried to be vague and not give away any spoilers since this is a book you should read for yourself. Clever, fast paced and with some great characters this is a series that will keep you wanting more. It truly does deserve a place amongst the best sci-fi stories out there.
Highly recommended for any fan of sci-fi or even just a very good story.
Rating: really liked it
What can I say except THE BEST scifi books. I've read the Foundation books several times and, each time, I felt the same way. I got my son hooked on them too. He read the whole series at the age of 11 and loved them. I recommend it to people of all ages.
P.S. I always hoped (and still do) that I will make psychohistory a reality.
