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nerdkitten's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation
Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
hotwaterbottle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
I was happily surprised that it manages to remain tense despite the premise of
Graphic: Gun violence and Suicide
Moderate: Colonisation
gingerbreadman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I personally really enjoy the rather dry political tone, and both the lack of focus on character development and the long time-skips are fitting given the premise of the story (which posits a theory of "psychohistory" in which the overall trajectory of a large group is emphasized over the actions of individuals, and which can be used to predict and direct the future over long periods of time). The plot twists and reveals also never come out of nowhere, and sufficiently tie back to previous details to make each individual part feel neat and tidy.
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Misogyny, Violence, and Colonisation
Minor: Xenophobia and War
peregrinwho's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
The world is hardly different from our own back when this was written. The story focuses less on sci-fi and more uses the genre as a conduit to cover large swathes of time. If you don't care about characters and just want to explore the idea of psychohistory/mob psychology then this is very focused on that. It will, however, be so focused that everything is delivered in a bunch of smug monologues explaining why everyone else in the story is stupid. Interesting at first, I became fatigued by it near the end and found myself wanting a moment to breathe to enjoy the world set up for us. We're hopped through decades at a time and thus have to have the state of things explained to us repeatedly. It's a hard task, and one that's done well, but something to keep in mind. I'm going to continue to see where this goes. Hopefully there's more than one woman in the next book (doubtful) and there will be at least one scene where the room isn't clouded with cigar smoke (doubtful).
Graphic: Xenophobia
Minor: Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Suicide
alsira98's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Gun violence and Suicide
columbo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, Xenophobia, and War
kinddog2073's review against another edition
Graphic: Suicide
maeverose's review against another edition
TL;DR: I found it boring and it does in fact read like it was written in the 40s for a male-only audience.
I wanted to read the books after watching season one of the show because I really liked it, but unfortunately I found this book to be pretty boring. I really like the changes that they made for the show, tbh I think those changes make for a much more interesting story. Obviously I can’t fairly compare it to the books being as I couldn’t even finish the first one, but I already know based on what I did read that I personally prefer the show, and I’d rather not waste my time reading the books if I’m just gonna be bored…
As for my thoughts on what I did read: This book is all politics. Yes the show has a lot of politics as well but at least there are some breaks from it… Plus in the show I felt much more invested in the characters and therefore the plot. I felt zero connection to the characters in the book because we didn’t get to know them at all. They’re also almost all old men. I did know going in that there were no female characters but it just feels so strange to read a book where you hardly know if women even exist because they’re never mentioned… It’s also super dialogue heavy. There’s very little description of the environment, people’s thoughts, or what’s actually happening visually. Which I think added to my boredom. Not that I expected poetic writing but some description would’ve been nice.
Sorry to all the cishet dudebros out there who will get mad at this review lol (except I’m not actually sorry..)
Graphic: Gun violence and Suicide
Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Animal death
catapocalypse's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
This eponymous first book of the Foundation series by classic sci-fi author Isaac Asimov follows the decline of a galaxy-spanning empire and psychohistorian Hari Seldon's plans to seed a successor to it in an effort to reduce the ensuing dark age. His preparations based on his calculations of the future's probably course, as well as the decisions of a few savvy individuals over time, help usher these plans along.
It's an interesting premise, with some interesting questions about what drives governments and societies, but Asimov's execution is excruciatingly dry. This isn't just a matter of the time period; I read and enjoyed a lot of Arthur C. Clarke's work growing up. But I was not prepared for a story of empire told almost entirely as a series of meetings between officials.
Meetings can be slow enough, but they often followed a similar pattern, where one of the men involved has it all figured out and smugly strings others along, etc. With the exception of the very beginning and a chunk of the last 50 or so pages, almost all the actual action driving galactic politics happen "off the page." Readers experience very little actual plot themselves.
Nor can it be described as character-driven. The book spans about two to three centuries or so, and jumps between characters as it goes. It's not super long, so not much time can be spent on even the primary individuals driving things. Even Asimov readers admit character isn't his strength, so we're left with very little there.
There is of course the glaring lack of women. Even Clarke managed to sprinkle women into his stories, but I counted only three women in the entirety of this first Foundation volume: a brief mention of an operator with no lines, a Commdor's daughter who only says "Oh!" as she's dazzled by jewelry, and the Commdor's wife, who is the only one with lines, has only a title but no name, and is flatly portrayed as shrewish but placated by jewelry.
Unfortunately, cool premises alone do not a narrative make. I appreciate that for its time, it was playing with ideas others may not have yet, but I don't feel it has much value for the modern reader. As is, it's best left for those interested in studying the progression of sci-fi writing and narratives, which have thankfully come a long way.
Despite all this, I intend to try out I, Robot at some point. I'm DNFing this series, though; I cannot chance having to slog through two more books of <i>meetings.</i> Good grief.
Moderate: Suicide