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What are readers saying about Foundation?
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-23 12:05:52.
(Language: English)
 
Humanity is sick, and the cure... is in the mathematics. Actually, the cure is psychohistory, but that seems alien and less poignant.Though first published books of the Foundation series, this is the 3rd in the storyline (Prelude to Foundation, Foward the Foundation precedes it). The premise is simple, humanity, having endured millenia of strife and expansion, has formed an empire so vast that it's crumbling under the weight of its own logistics and bureaucracy. And mathematics, or rather, psychohistory, would be developed (at some urging) by Hari Seldon and his successors to model human behavior on a galactic scale and guide the race from darkness to enlightenment. And people (mostly bureaucrats) thought him mad.Thus, two Foundations were founded one at each end of the galaxy, to guide humanity through the inevitable collapse. This is the story of the First Foundation, for the rabbit hole is far deeper.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-28 01:15:27.
(Language: English)
Isaac Asimov is, as anyone who reads the genre knows, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. The Foundation Trilogy is therefore that much more of a gem, as it's one of his greatest works. The Foundation series follows the trials of a group of men and women,the Foundation, exiled to a planet at the distant edge of the galaxy, as they struggle over a millennium to define themselves and save humanity from thirty thousand years of barbarism and anarchy. Told as a series of short narratives, each detailing a specific Crisis facing the Foundation and their efforts to follow the mathematically charted Seldon Plan, created by the brilliant statistician and psycho-historian Hari Seldon. Epic in scope and richly detailed in its telling, these books are a must for any serious sci-fi fan. (I know this sounds like I copied it from some review site, but these are my own words. This is an awesome set of books that simply haven't--yet--been recognised by the mainstream literary community for their immense worth.)
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-05-29 05:04:38.
(Language: English)
Whenever I've just finished a particularly heavy read, I like to turn to science fiction or fantasy as a way to escape from the reality of the difficulties of life. In this case, having just finished "The Road" by Kormac McCarthy, I decided to pick up "Foundation", as I've always been meaning to read it due to its legendary status.It served its purpose well, and I'll soon follow up with the other two books in the original trilogy.All in all, it was a pleasant read. The premise was fascinating, and Asimov's vision of the future was truly... ah... visionary.However, like other reviewers, I was dismayed by the lack of female characters and the lack of true depth to any of the characters. Asimov didn't seem to have the skill to project emotion as much as I am accustomed to in the books I enjoy most.Anyway, this book served its purpose as the respite from deep feelings I was looking for.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-29 11:36:52.
(Language: English)
One of the reasons this book is a classic must be its influence over so much science fiction that came after it. But like so many creative works at the beginning of movements, Asimov's "Foundation" is primitive in comparison to later examples in the genre. The first two-thirds of the book are gripping. Asimov is clearly writing about ideas here, and the ideas are interesting enough: that the lifespan of empires and social systems are similar, no matter the millennium or the duration of the system. The arc of the story is clearly and unabashedly taken from the fall of the Roman Empire. Asimov's thesis caused me to initially forgive such flaws as lack of characterization and perfunctory dialogue. Unfortunately, by the last third -- or maybe as early as the story's middle -- the shorthand description of characters and endless pages of spoken exposition (which is often repeated from earlier chapters, revealing the seams of short stories that were later joined to make the novel) wore away my generosity of patience. The final straw was the brutal misogyny. For two-thirds of the book, female characters are almost non-existent. Later, the only women in the story are giggly, gullible bubbleheads or vindinctive, shrewish wives. That the book was originally published in the early 1950s is not an excuse for such a simplistic and binary view of women. Complex female characters, written by men and women authors, had long been a staple of fiction. I'm told that the next book in the "Foundation" series is better than this first. My hope is that it must be.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-25 03:39:27.
(Language: English)
Foundation was ok. I liked the story and basic ideas of the book but it was not very discriptive and whenever you got in tune with the setting and charactors, it changes to a future setting so the man you got to know is now old or dead. I like the storyline and the cleverness of the foundation but it is like you pass it on the highway (going the oposite direction)without getting a feel for it like longer novels. Also this is not one story, it is a collection of short stories like IRobot that go in one direction. I know this is the foundation of mordern scifi and a legend by its own right and I admit the gagets and plots made are good,I dont think it can compare in entertainment value to other sci fi books such as Enders Game, The Hichhhikers Guide or Harry Turtledove's epics, call me spoiled. This is the first foundation book Ive read so this is only a reveiw for the first book.
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Qing Ze posted a review at 2009-09-14 03:44:33.
(Language: English)
'Fantastic' A very simple way to describe this book. It has plots within plots and the maze of plots just fit in so well. Its a labyrinth. One that Asimov created to trap our wondering minds, but somehow. Everything works out. At the end of the book Magnifico, the clown. IS THE MULE. Somehow, he has managed to manipulate the entire book. Attacking from both fronts. Deep in enemy lines. The Mule, which is a mutant in case you haven't read the book, has managed to take down the last seed of humankind. The foundation fell to its knees under the oppression of the Mule. He has defied all laws of psycho-history, making Hari Seldon's plan, the only hope of mankind, obsolete. But, as it all works out. All plans, have a Plan B. Thats where the Second Foundation comes in. It makes you really wonder. As you walk out of this labyrinth- how will humankind fare under this oppressor? This is enough to keep you on your toes and eager to continue the saga. Great job Asimov. As always.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-11-08 09:26:15.
(Language: English)
Finally found just the original and in great condition! I think that the story was actually harmed by the fact that I expected so much from it. I'm left disappointed, but the story is actually quite solid. Told from the perspective of different people along Seldon's predicted timeline of Empire collapse - it still has quite a bit to say about modern society and life on the edge of a former Empire. The only weak point is the characterization. All of the main people are men, culturally white, ambitious men. There are only brief forays into the beauty of tech, usually alongside the practical and always as part of a trading ploy. Only once does a character describe the failure of a power ploy in the past. It seems that the losers fade away into the background and never try to stick another fork in. I wish conflict was ever that simplistic. But still, is a fascinating read and one of the best philosophy courses that you can get your hands on to look underneath the skirts of society and culture and think about what's really behind the school board, state representation, and presidential propaganda. Is this a tempest in a teapot or a turning point for the better? Who knows - it might be a "Seldon crisis."
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-05 03:59:09.
(Language: English)
This is a great work of SF. The sheer Imaginative genius of Asimov blended with a murderous plot (that can only be discovered towards the end) Une Femme Fatale...An Idiosyncratic Clown...A legendary founder of the most advanced galaxy who predicted the events on the universe to unfold in his absence based on mathematical psycho history...the human species at it's advanced best...atomic laws are the way to clean homes and discussing mundane stuff is not an electron's worth. Rise of a mutant tyrant...human species endangered and in the possibility of being enslaved by the new tyrant...the empire that ruled the galaxy for eon years defeated and the psycho history of the new foundation challenged in the face....Hari Seldon the founder's predictions having not considered a mutant threat...the psychic scientist must reveal a secret that can save the universe from a clown. A lovely read. Sure to set ur imagination on fire.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-09-09 09:17:11.
(Language: English)
As the Galactic Empire disintegrates, Hari Seldon gathers humanity's best minds to a sanctuary called the Foundation, with the purposes of preserving civilization and shortening the coming dark age. Asimov's imagination liked big units-- centuries and parsecs. Seldon's science of psychohistory statistically predicts the future for large groups of human beings. In an almost Hegelian pattern, the Foundation faces a series of crises and contradictions where agents unwittingly act out impersonal forces. Asimov's rationalism also displays itself at a micro level, where various characters professionally and coolly reason their way out of encountered predicaments.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-16 09:53:56.
(Language: English)
The book illustrates powerfully the dilemma concerning morality that Asimov's humanist worldview was confronted with towards the end of the 20th century. It is a disturbing look at relativistic morality, and the book _inadvertantly_ argues for an absolute morality of the Judeo-Christian tradition. (Warning * spoilers ahead *) In bringing together the various strands of his various fictional worlds-- robots, Foundation, Empire, Gaia, search for origins, collectivism versus individualism, human scientific advance, genetics, post-colonialism -- the moralities collide. Then, Asimov walks off the reader from the story with the final scene of a puzzled hero Trevise avoiding the unfathomable gaze of the hemaphroditic child Fallom, that he and Bliss have been playing parents to, now giiven into the care of the heretofore benevolent robot Daneel. The tension Asimov has been building through the book in each anti-Odyssean connection to "island" planet societies is left unresolved. Despite the brilliant argument Trevise gives in favor of Daneel's solution, his intuition seems to trouble him about Daneel's decision in merging with Fallom and creating Galaxia rather than staying with the individualism of the 2nd Empire. When one finishes the book, one is pervaded with an uneasy sense of a problem Asimov refuses to solve.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-10 07:42:35.
(Language: English)
Foundation is a classic piece of science fiction that charts the beginning of the end of a galactic empire and, with the use of some convincing pseudo-science, the foundation of a new colony designed to minimise the impact of said fall on human knowledge. As ever with Asimov, character takes second place to story but this rarely matters since its the puzzles that are thrown up and how they are resolved that carry the narrative. The story follows a number of crises that threaten the creation of the Foundation and its subsequent early survival which all seem impenetrable but are resolved in an equally clever fashion. The characters leading the way are practically interchangeable but its their machinations and maneouverings that make Asimov such a joy to read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-22 05:27:16.
(Language: English)
Foundation and Empire, the second novel of the Foundation trilogy, contains two novellas. First, the Foundation must stop the designs of Ben Riose, an ambitious general from what remains of the Empire. Next, a mutant by the name of the Mule makes his entrance into the trilogy, a sly villain who reminds me of Ben Linus from television's Lost. Science fiction often assimilates the form of religion; Asimov's Foundation novels are no exception, resembling a secularized Judaism. Many of Asimov's best protagonists have the character of democratic, blaspheming parvenus, placing confidence in individual calculation rather than the transitory traditions of an external culture. We even have a rationalist Moses-- Hari Seldon, founding father of the Foundation. Asimov's characters are always making grave decisions with a non-confrontational tone, as if direct conflict entails annihilation. But their most feared fate is conversion, not death.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-01 09:33:42.
(Language: English)
This book is one of the original science fiction novel of all time. I read this book as an outside reading assignment for my English class. First of all, I chose this book out of all the other books because I didn't want to read something that sounds dull and unexciting. I wanted to read something more innovative, and I certainly made the right choice when I picked this book from the library shelf. Hari Seldon, the protagonist, develops a area of study called psychohistory, which allows psychohistorians to predict future events in big pictures. According to psychohistory, the Empire will encounter decay in the future and an age of collapse will follow. This book portrays how our civilization tries to shorten the age of collapse by preserving all human knowledge. The book is divided into five section, each with different settings. First section explains the psychohistory and sets up the stage. Second section takes place 50 years after the first, and the new Empire starts encountering conflicts with resources. Third section starts 30 years later, and it deals with religion. Fourth section takes place 55 years later and the new civilization gets involved in a trade conflict. Last section takes place 20 years later and involves merchandise matters. Each section has different characters. Each experiences different conflicts, but they all pile up to show us how a civilization grows and how history is made. I liked how the writing is terse and straightforward. It is hard to follow the story because of the change of settings and many characters, but they do come together. I liked how I could observe the history being made. It is fun seeing a civilization encounter conflicts, digress from religion to economics, and so on. It feels like I'm experiencing a century of history. It's easy to read because there isn't really any complicating science that you need to understand or in-depth character conflicts into the story. Definitely a book to read if you want to know how it feels like to be a god looking down at human civilizations and how they behave. Read it if you want to know what Hari Seldon's true plan is!
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-11 05:58:45.
(Language: English)
Every since I was young, I've wanted to read Isaac Asimov's sci-fi series Foundation. I finally got my change... and enjoyed it. Asimov doesn't bore you with the details of how the science works, as the story isn't about the science... it's about people who just happen to be part of a future where technology is advanced. He writes the story as if it was simply a person recounting the events behind the history of the fall of the Galactic Empire, and the rise of the Second Empire. In doing so, Asimov speaks to the reader as an intellegent person- who is smart enough to know that a neuronic whip is painful without being told WHY it's painful. The characters are interesting and well written, while illustrating the sociological evolution of a rising empire. The events flow from one to the other in a well crafted, natural-feeling way. You can't help but travel along the path of history being related to you... and welcoming the guiding hand of the author. I waited years to read this book, and I for one have no regrets.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-12 02:06:38.
(Language: English)
Considered by many to be the greatest science-fiction series of all time (at least the original trilogy). In the far future, psycho-historian Hari Seldon has created an avenue of mathamatics that can predict the general sweep of future history. Seldon predicts the Galactic Empire will fall, leading to a long period of chaos and barbarism. But Seldon has a plan--create a society and storehouse of the civilization and knowledge of the Empire to help shorten the gap to possibly only a 1000 years. This is the Foundation. But Seldon has a different plan for the Foundation, one that he keeps secret from the Empire that creates the Foundation as well as the scientists who become a part of it. The story examines the creation of the Foundation and two of the first several crisis the Foundation faces. It also looks at how the Foundation becomes the only nuclear power in the known universe and creates a form of religion in order to consolidate its power base over the various kingdoms and factions that come onto the scene. Asimov has created a fascinating future history, populated by interesting characters who all have plots within plots. The story features political mechanizations, power grabs and the creation of various factions, kingdoms and empires within its short 250 or so pages. The story holds up well, even though it's not as focused on characters as many of todays' sci-fi stories are. But it's still a good read and one that I enjoyed.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-25 06:18:10.
(Language: English)
God this is such a good book, I just picked it up at random as something to read while waiting in line and then I wound up finishing it that day and now I'm reading all the Foundation books again. The whole series is just so solid, it takes a great premise (there's been an intergalactic empire ruling for the past thousand years, but it's falling and a dark age is coming - however, a foundation was created to preserve all human knowledge and hasten the dark age's end), and there's so many interesting concepts within. This is pretty much the best golden age sci-fi you could ask for.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-03-01 08:48:25.
(Language: English)
Asimov continues his daring ideas on the 4th installment of the Foundation series, but honestly it falls short in various aspects. The last quarter of the books changes tempo drastically and becomes "rushed", the climax that follows becomes predictable. Also, Foundation's Edge lacks the deepness that characterized the previous 3 books, the fact that Golan Trevize was chosen because he had the talent of "being right" and knowing what do to do was a cliche concept and lacked thoughtfulness. It was a good book, but nothing else. Asimov wrote this book due to pressure from his fans and publisher, and in reality it shows. It didn't feel like he wrote it from the heart.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-04 11:05:44.
(Language: English)
Mixed emotions about Asimov's Foundation. First, it is not really a novel, rather a set of short stories that form a connected history of the collapse of the first galactic empire, and the rise of the second. The stories themselves, focusing on particular historical crises are very interesting to read and Asimov handily creates a scenario in each that the reader desperately wants to see the resolution too (the solution to the Second Seldon Crisis was particularly fascinating). The sociological ideas underlying the premise are themselves fascinating. That Asimov started writing this at the age of 21 is more so. All that being said, the work suffers from the discontinuity between the individual crises (decades in each case), which brings completely new characters and scenarios with each crisis--a situation which results in a detachment between the reader and the characters. Now, in a sense, the people are not the characters in this novel, rather the sociological and historical forces are, so on some level this detachment is ok. However it does make the novel less satisfying.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-22 07:51:36.
(Language: English)
This short book is epic in proportion. I had been meaning to read this for a number of years after being told that it was up there with some of the best science fiction ever written and I would have to agree - this book is full to the brim with political and social issues that are hidden behind Asimov's brilliant style. He manages with expert skill to use our own history to describe the fall of his Galactic Empire. There are a number of parallels between the fall of the Roman empire and the time that has followed since, the use of religion and trade that has swept the world leaving those best suited to massaging our spiritual sides or easing the boredom of our mundane lives with technological or sparkling trinkets in the position of power. The story is focused on different eras after the founding of the foundation and the main characters are only small pawns in the greater scheme of things. I found myself unable to put the book down and read it in one sitting. Classic
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A Reader posted a review at 2012-01-26 03:05:04.
(Language: English)
The Grand Master of SciFi! Very Futuristic.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-05 01:33:52.
(Language: English)
The whole Foundation set endures as one of the great traditional science fiction works. It's important to note differences here among character driven science fiction or action/plot driven science fiction and the sort of traditional science fiction one finds in Asimov and other writers of his era. Yes, Asimov's characters are all generic whitebread, pocket-protector using, crew-cut wearing "guys" of the 1950s (no matter the era in which they are operating) who usually have the personalities of defunct toasters. The real strength of the Foundation (along with Asimov's other fiction) is the focus on speculative ideas of the potential for socially and scientifically driven change. If you can overlook many of the critical ideologies that dominate our contemporary approaches to understanding literature, then you may find some merit in such classic works as Asimov's Foundation as artifacts of a unique subgenre of literature, with its own rules and expectations.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-16 04:22:20.
(Language: English)
In this book Asimov presents several, usually extreme, futuristic societies and attempts to justify which one he thinks is the best. I do not particularly admire his use of language, it seems awkward to me a lot of the time, and he likes to reuse plot devices a lot. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this book is his shadowy attempts to justify atheism. In his attempts to formulate possible explanations for various questions such as why intelligent life only developed on Earth (in his fiction) he constructs highly improbably situations that are much harder to believe than Deism. Foundation and Earth is as a result, though inadvertently, one of the most rational arguments for Deism and in fact for Christianity (as he points out by the varying moralities of each of his societies and the inability of an atheist to judge one to be better than another). It would be interesting to read about his life and see why he was so blind to this.
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Peter posted a review at 2009-12-22 01:34:03.
(Language: English)
Part Two of the Foundation epic (masterpiece) by the grandmaster of sci-fi. Despite the presence of (relatively)outdated commodities like cigarettes and newspapers this series is a must read for anyone interested in science fiction. It is futuristic, other worldly, complex, intelligent, thought provoking, an excellent (sort of good vs. evil...but not on a simplistic level)story on one hand and a social commentary or sorts on the other... "Kalgan was the luxury world. With the edifice of mankind crumbling, it maintained its integrity as a producer of pleasure, a buyer of gold and a seller of leisure."
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-14 01:20:25.
(Language: English)
I first received a copy of this book from my Grandfather when I was 10 or 11 but I never got through the first chapter. A couple of decades later I have decided to tackle the series by order of publication and find myself well rewarded. It's amazing how this whole universe is vividly constructed from what is essentially a series of vignettes of men talking in boardrooms, palaces, or aboard spaceships. There is surprisingly little action and yet the story of the Foundation compels you from age to age stretching across the centuries. It's a little hokey in stretches but it's refreshing to read a story in which the problems aren't solved with swords, guns, or an especially powerful spell.
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Mary posted a review at 2010-10-13 08:29:43.
(Language: English)
Amazing. Set in 15,000 years in the future! Wrap your head around that. I read all three of the Trilogy and reread them again, and am beginning to get it. He presents a 'what if' science called 'psychohistory'... that can predict the behavior of the masses, mathematically, so as to prepare for future crisis. Creates the Foundation to save all humanities knowledge so that it isn't lost during the crisis that could last tens of thous. yrs. Kind of like the dark ages. I will read this again and again. Of course I have some memory loss so that helps keep things fresh lol.
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