Jonathan Zacsh reviewed Foundation by Isaac Asimov (Foundation (3))
second read: liked it a lot more
4 stars
Really shows its age, but still a page turner.
Paperback, 244 pages
English language
Published Aug. 14, 2004 by Bantam Books.
One of the great masterworks of science fiction, the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building.
The story of our future begins with the history of Foundation and its greatest psychohistorian: Hari Seldon. For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. Only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future--a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.
But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of …
One of the great masterworks of science fiction, the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building.
The story of our future begins with the history of Foundation and its greatest psychohistorian: Hari Seldon. For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. Only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future--a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.
But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. And mankind's last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and live as slaves--or take a stand for freedom and risk total destruction.
Really shows its age, but still a page turner.
I enjoyed re-reading Foundation and plan to continue to read the others in the series. As I've grown older I've become more appreciative of history and how it has shaped our lives, so reading about a science fiction setting where people effectively write the history they want to have is just fun.
The principles of psychohistory, the statistical study of masses of humans to predict their behavior, was fascinating and today's real-world applications of data science scratch at similar concepts. Of course, this is a science fiction book, but it nonetheless explores the what-if: what-if this psychohistory were real and could be applied on human civilization at large?
For a more in-depth review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2021/08/book-review-foundation-by-isaac-asimov.html
I enjoyed re-reading Foundation and plan to continue to read the others in the series. As I've grown older I've become more appreciative of history and how it has shaped our lives, so reading about a science fiction setting where people effectively write the history they want to have is just fun.
The principles of psychohistory, the statistical study of masses of humans to predict their behavior, was fascinating and today's real-world applications of data science scratch at similar concepts. Of course, this is a science fiction book, but it nonetheless explores the what-if: what-if this psychohistory were real and could be applied on human civilization at large?
For a more in-depth review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2021/08/book-review-foundation-by-isaac-asimov.html
Dicen en el podcast de los Retronautas que las historias de Asimov son señores hablando. Es más, yo diría que son señores hablando y fumando. Porque, ¿de qué sirve conversar con otro señor en un planeta en el otro extremo de la galaxia si no puedes disfrutar de un cigarrillo del mejor tabaco de Vega? En fin, que estas historias que se publicaron inicialmente en revistas pulp y después juntadas en libros tienen ya ochenta años y ese toque viejuno que tienen me gusta cada día más.
I don't know. Since I've been reading Asimov's books up to Foundation in story order, actually arriving at this cult classic has really felt lacklustre.
To me, this book is something akin to Rogue One. If you consider it within the lore then it's enjoyable, fun, interesting, makes sense. But take the lore away and it's just a bunch of things you don't care about happening to faceless people.
You have to gauge Foundation like this, since for all intents and purposes, this was the ONLY book in the series to begin with. From that reference point, I don't know what the fuss is all about.
Foundation is ultimately book 11 of 15 in the series if you're reading in story order. I'm committed to finishing, and perhaps will appreciate it more once I know the rest of the story.
I like how Asimov strings together series of stories, each of which could stand alone, into a fully coherent whole, and he does this as well as always in 'Foundation', sketching out a solid historical and cutural foundation for his universe. I think he did a better job of bringing his stories fully into four dimensional, polychromatic life in 'I, Robot' or 'Bicentennial Man', but 'Foundation' certainly has enough to it to make me want to read more.
I could not stop reading it. Despite a lack of 'action' it was gripping and entertaining.
Il faudra un jour que je relise et que j'écrive une critique plus complète de ce grand classique de la science-fiction, un roman et une saga que j'avais lu avec énormément de plaisir quand j'étais plus jeune.
Awful treatment of female character. But fascinating to see the roots of modern sci fi.
This holds up a lot better than I remembered. There are some definite artifacts of the Golden Age (every character is a dude who smokes, and the dialogue can be... clunky) but it moves along much better than you'd expect for a novel literally about ideas.
Asimov is great at pulling you in with ideas. His prose is great and his plots combine action and idea to great effect.
Foundation is a great book set over something like two centuries covering the descent into chaos of a great Empire and the work of scholars to try and preserve what they can of civilization. The book is organized into vignettes of the various crises that befall the Foundation, and how the people work past them. Highly recommended.
A book I'd heard about many time but never made the time to read. Foundation is rightly a classic of Sci-Fi, although perhaps slightly dated by todays standards. The big ideas are certainly here - psychohistory, fall and decline of empire and a new hope for the future, religion as a tool of power, economics as a tool of power etc. Its a fun read - essentially 5 novellas linked together in a single iver arching narrative.
My only reservations are that it is a book of its time - the technology forseen is firmly routed in the 1950s world as is the narrative and characters similarly shaped by the period (for example there is only a single female character and she is merely a template of a harridan wife, everyone smokes cigars, everything is nuclear etc). This is understandable and the scope of ideas and central plot are not …
A book I'd heard about many time but never made the time to read. Foundation is rightly a classic of Sci-Fi, although perhaps slightly dated by todays standards. The big ideas are certainly here - psychohistory, fall and decline of empire and a new hope for the future, religion as a tool of power, economics as a tool of power etc. Its a fun read - essentially 5 novellas linked together in a single iver arching narrative.
My only reservations are that it is a book of its time - the technology forseen is firmly routed in the 1950s world as is the narrative and characters similarly shaped by the period (for example there is only a single female character and she is merely a template of a harridan wife, everyone smokes cigars, everything is nuclear etc). This is understandable and the scope of ideas and central plot are not affected by this but it is perhaps jarring to a modern reader.
Nonetheless this is a great book - big on ideas more than action but ideas that are engrossing and interesting, and I throughly recommned it.
A chilling vision of the future in which humans are made of plywood. The effort to achieve gender parity in STEM education will be remembered as a failure; there will be only two career paths open to women: to be a sort of walking Christmas tree bearing nuclear-powered baubles, or an emasculating Xanthippe to a tinhorn dictator.
Excellent.
Creaky, tedious, obvious. "Space only knows" why so many people love this book.