Forward the Foundation

Again I thought I may not enjoy this book as much as the others but as the story unfolded it really travelled the full circle and explained everything leading up to the first Foundation book.

I listed this one. I liked the first prequel a little bit better, but this one was also really good. I'm excited to start diving into the originally published part of the series.

Having read the first six books in this series, I found myself unexpectedly moved by this one. I’ve found Hari Seldon’s story as narrated in this and Prelude to Foundation to be far more compelling than those in the preceding books, save possibly the first, Foundation, if only because it sets the scene for everything. Those were stories about ideas only disguised as stories about people.

I think it is worth reading the books in the order they were written, starting with the original Foundation books, working through the sequels, before circling back round to the prequels. Things will make a lot more sense then, and certain themes will resonate a lot more strongly. Even if some of those earlier books are a bit dry (I found the sequels in particular to be somewhat tedious), they are worth working through for the prequels.

Having read the first six books in this series, I found myself unexpectedly moved by this one. I’ve found Hari Seldon’s story as narrated in this and Prelude to Foundation to be far more compelling than those in the preceding books, save possibly the first, Foundation, if only because it sets the scene for everything. Those were stories about ideas only disguised as stories about people.

I think it is worth reading the books in the order they were written, starting with the original Foundation books, working through the sequels, before circling back round to the prequels. Things will make a lot more sense then, and certain themes will resonate a lot more strongly. Even if some of those earlier books are a bit dry (I found the sequels in particular to be somewhat tedious), they are worth working through for the prequels.

Best of the lot so far, in terms of characters, storyline, etc. Still processing.

Really must get hold of some Robot books soon too.

I'm excited for Foundation now. Forward was perhaps not as intriguing as Prelude, but it was quite a story. There were some points at the start that irked me a little - coming directly from the end of Prelude when Dors quite explicitly agreed she was a robot to the start of Forward where Hari is confused about her nature. Thankfully that's only a few paragraphs.

Asimov has managed to capture the complexities of following a person's life long ambition exceptionally well. There are no overly complex day to day explorations of specifics like say, Stevenson does in Seven Eves. However you do get the joy, dispare, hopelessness, pride, depression and confidence that Hari goes through.

Quite a nice read.

Holy cow.

I loved all of these books. I realize that they aren't perfect. It was still an amazing read. Thank you, Isaac.

Interesting but not great.

While 2nd in the Foundation series, it was written last of the Foundation novels, and it shows. It felt very much like an "in between" book.

I think I didn't like the frequent time jumps throughout the novel. There are 5 "sections" to the book, each one separated by about a decade. It reminded me of sitcom episodes - little events happen in each one of them, but everything is "reset" to a known good between them.

Certainly don't regret reading it, but from what others have said I'm looking forward to more from the remaining Foundation novels.