Reviews

Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov

greenflowervole's review against another edition

1.0

This was pretty boring, almost nothing happened and the characters just rambled about the same ideas/concepts to one another while achieving very little. I would recommend only reading 1-3 of the Foundation series.

indefati9able's review against another edition

1.0

Great plot, but anti-climactic end and unexpectedly subpar execution throughout by Asimov, of whom I have always been a great fan. I cannot believe I could ever be this harsh of any of his prior stories too. The dialogs between characters are mindbogglingly repetitive and trite. Especially, the dialogs between Trevize (who's arrogant and condescending) and Bliss (who's also condescending, selfish, and pompous), which are no more interesting than dialogs between bickering old married couples, are all coma-inducing. The end was disappointing. Trevize proved to be not special at all. What was the whole point of him? What was his specialty--making right decisions without sufficient but more importantly "right" data? Everything apparently was our good ol' Daneel Olviwav's doing including the whole psychohistory too. And, now Galaxia is our future so we can—as a single, "united" entity— stand against what "might" come from other galaxies? I don't know; I wouldn't want to lose my individuality, which the book seems to be depicting as a disease and the impediment to peace and harmony. I would disagree. The end also seemed to have undermined the whole Foundation epic. I was expecting more out of this book. I am not impressed at all. At times, I wanted to stop reading, wondering why the author was putting the reader through such triteness and inane dialogs when telling the end of a great epic (i.e., the whole Foundation series). It's as if Asimov was forced to write the whole book but he in fact didn't want to. Nevertheless, I've managed to finish it, but I cannot rate it with more than one star.

lysen's review against another edition

2.0

A tedious and often boring book that is only saved by Asimov’s ability to bring everything together in the end for a satisfying completion of the series.

bearpause's review against another edition

1.0

Read the original trilogy, it's solid. Antiquated, but for its era and what it did for science fiction, its fantastic.

Asimov writes 3 epic books at the scale of an fledgling empire sprawling 500 years. Books whose themes (mostly) are that the collective movement of civilization is more than any one person can possibly stop.

Spoilers:

Then he writes 2 more books about how one man changes the fate of the whole galaxy on a hunch, isn't sure why he has a hunch and finds a planet where a robot says "I gave you your hunch".

Other random complaints:

After visiting 4 planets, discovering 3 uncharted worlds, 2 new cultures, a new race, and robots, the old man who has never been to space before 6 months ago finds out they can go to Earth's moon and says "Something new, that would be nice."

After no mention of sex in the first 4 books, Asimov decides, "this dude is going to have some sex".

Bliss is introduced in book 4 in a sheer dress obviously trying to seduce the protagonist, talks about how her great awareness allows her to experience the whole planet's sensations, including sex, and then later shames the protagonist for having sex.

In the last sentence, maybe the whole galaxy is given to the mind of an alien species from another galaxy?

sebgoll's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

olityr's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is more sexual than the rest of the series, though it never crossed the line into unreadable for me.

It was fun to have an even stronger connection to the Robot universe, including R. Daneel Olivaw showing up at the end.

Favorite Quotes:

•  "You and I are eccentrics. We’re certainly not typical of the people living on Terminus. As for criminals, that’s a matter of definition. And if criminals are the price we must pay for rebels, heretics, and geniuses, I’m willing to pay it. I demand the price be paid."
• "Rules, established with reason and justice, can easily outlive their usefulness as circumstances change, yet can remain in force through inertia. It is then not only right, but useful, to break those rules as a way of advertising the fact that they have become useless—or even actually harmful." 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual content

henshw's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

bradenjdowdy's review against another edition

4.0

This one was a little too meta for me at times. The large-scale conflict of the book (the search for humanity’s origins and future trajectory), while compelling, didn’t have the same appeal as the original trilogy’s conflicts.

Age range: 16+
Very little mature content, but there are complex philosophical themes throughout that would be incomprehensible to most younger readers.

samuelchadhardy's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

emptybee's review against another edition

1.0

Everyone talks a lot, someone thinks Trevize is attractive, they talk some more, Trevise is so smart and handsome, they talk a lot more, eventually some story happens, but first they need to needlessly debate and talk a lot.