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crass_mann's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
jennepher's review against another edition
3.0
Al principio super super bien pero los saltos de 50 años hizo q fuese dificil de entender y conectar con la historia. Ademas cada crisis parecia exactamente igual q la anterior, disfruté mucho de la ingenuidad de las primeras pero hacia el final se hizo cansino. Me costo bastante terminar las ultimas 50 paginas
emilyb_chicago's review against another edition
3.0
Not exactly what I expected of this often referenced science fiction. Barely connected short stories that talk about lives and have little action or even concrete science to pin down the fiction. Enjoyable however. Glad I finally got around to reading them!
tomasthanes's review against another edition
2.0
This book is extremely dated. Even though it was written in 1951, it's hard to believe that people believed that much in psychology that, even coupled with mathematics, that it could understand human nature well enough to predict events 1000 years into the future. Not very plausible.
Along with this was Asimov's apparent belief that all religions were manufactured out of nothing to server some political or proto-technological purpose. This view is very ignorant of history.
Along with this was Asimov's apparent belief that all religions were manufactured out of nothing to server some political or proto-technological purpose. This view is very ignorant of history.
bongotayla's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
jackserio's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-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? Yes
3.0
fulare's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
This is interesting and I can see why it's a science fiction classic. The structure is very unique - I enjoyed reading short episodes with long gaps in between. The plot itself was intriguing.
There was a distinct lack of characterization though. Due to only meeting each character for a brief time, we didn't learn much about them. They all felt same-y too. Probably a bit because there was such low diversity - only one woman in the whole book with lines and she was a complaining wife. I understand that's due to the time period but it was noticeably weird.
Overall, I enjoyed the book but wasn't blown away. There were a lot of elements that could be improved upon but would reduce its short serial nature.
There was a distinct lack of characterization though. Due to only meeting each character for a brief time, we didn't learn much about them. They all felt same-y too. Probably a bit because there was such low diversity - only one woman in the whole book with lines and she was a complaining wife. I understand that's due to the time period but it was noticeably weird.
Overall, I enjoyed the book but wasn't blown away. There were a lot of elements that could be improved upon but would reduce its short serial nature.
beeah's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
any_direction's review against another edition
3.0
3.5
Foundation was a book that was on my “I’ll get to it eventually” list, but nothing like a film adaptation to get you to read something. The Foundation show was incredible, but my free apple trial ran out before season 2 was released, and I still wanted more. I liked the show so much that I’ve had to reevaluate my opinions on stories set in space. Anyway, I remembered that I could get my Foundation fulfillment via the books and finally picked them up.
This book is a classic, and it is not written in a classic way. It is almost entirely dialogue. There is more dialogue in this book than there is some play scripts. Which confirms my beliefs that no, your fantasy novel does not need to be 1000 pages and yes, dialogue can lead to effective world-building. It also suggests that you can get away with very little description and still have effective world building. I feel like writing communities get really caught up in rules on how to write things, and this book proves that you can write successfully without following any of the rules. As someone who leans heavily on dialogue, this book felt validating.
The story itself had some interesting things. There’s this constant battle between the characters knowing that the path has been laid out for them, but not knowing what the path is. There are questions about how religion and legends become so and some underdog vibes.
The TV show does this thing where it changes the race and gender of many characters. The show is not about race or gender but oh man does that make a difference in how I perceived the characters. Maybe this is some sign of my internalized biases, but the characters in this book are high and mighty. Everyone is confident in themselves and in their plans despite looming more powerful forces on the horizon. It was fun for one segment, but then it kind of keeps repeating. Mallow in the final part being insufferable, so much so that the other characters point it out. These men are painted a bit as underdogs, or at least part of underdog groups, but this doesn’t bare out as all their plans work perfectly.
There are three (I think) women in novel. Two are obstinate wives, one is a servant with no dialogue. Obnoxious, but not unexpected.
My critiques of this book are similar to my critiques of Dune. Something that makes this book more tolerable is the short length. It’s hard to think of this book as a chosen one narrative (though it is) when you have a new chosen one every time you jump a generation. Each chosen man, at the end of his segment acknowledges that they are leaving problems for the next generation. Most notably the person with the foresight is long dead by part two. The society is democratic, and thus this feels more like parallels can be made to modern day politics. The commodities of necessary are energy sources, which again feels more substantive than Dune’s spice. Read this book if you loved Dune because the similarities are there. Read this book if you hated Dune, because it proves that you can do the stuff Dune is trying to do better.
Overall, this was a mediocre but painless read. I still don’t have an Apple TV subscription, so I guess I’m going to go read the sequel.
Foundation was a book that was on my “I’ll get to it eventually” list, but nothing like a film adaptation to get you to read something. The Foundation show was incredible, but my free apple trial ran out before season 2 was released, and I still wanted more. I liked the show so much that I’ve had to reevaluate my opinions on stories set in space. Anyway, I remembered that I could get my Foundation fulfillment via the books and finally picked them up.
This book is a classic, and it is not written in a classic way. It is almost entirely dialogue. There is more dialogue in this book than there is some play scripts. Which confirms my beliefs that no, your fantasy novel does not need to be 1000 pages and yes, dialogue can lead to effective world-building. It also suggests that you can get away with very little description and still have effective world building. I feel like writing communities get really caught up in rules on how to write things, and this book proves that you can write successfully without following any of the rules. As someone who leans heavily on dialogue, this book felt validating.
The story itself had some interesting things. There’s this constant battle between the characters knowing that the path has been laid out for them, but not knowing what the path is. There are questions about how religion and legends become so and some underdog vibes.
The TV show does this thing where it changes the race and gender of many characters. The show is not about race or gender but oh man does that make a difference in how I perceived the characters. Maybe this is some sign of my internalized biases, but the characters in this book are high and mighty. Everyone is confident in themselves and in their plans despite looming more powerful forces on the horizon. It was fun for one segment, but then it kind of keeps repeating. Mallow in the final part being insufferable, so much so that the other characters point it out. These men are painted a bit as underdogs, or at least part of underdog groups, but this doesn’t bare out as all their plans work perfectly.
There are three (I think) women in novel. Two are obstinate wives, one is a servant with no dialogue. Obnoxious, but not unexpected.
My critiques of this book are similar to my critiques of Dune. Something that makes this book more tolerable is the short length. It’s hard to think of this book as a chosen one narrative (though it is) when you have a new chosen one every time you jump a generation. Each chosen man, at the end of his segment acknowledges that they are leaving problems for the next generation. Most notably the person with the foresight is long dead by part two. The society is democratic, and thus this feels more like parallels can be made to modern day politics. The commodities of necessary are energy sources, which again feels more substantive than Dune’s spice. Read this book if you loved Dune because the similarities are there. Read this book if you hated Dune, because it proves that you can do the stuff Dune is trying to do better.
Overall, this was a mediocre but painless read. I still don’t have an Apple TV subscription, so I guess I’m going to go read the sequel.