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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
A little thin in plot, essentially "wander the lands for wisdom". That form serves well for the Empire-Foundation link, as it shows the reader the shape of the Empire. The retconning of Foundation's origins grates on me a little, I think because it takes a little away from Seldon. I'll see if that feeling stays with me as I continue to the originals.
The first ~100 pages seemed to drag about bit and felt to move rather slow. Which is why this is not rated as a 5 star read, although I did enjoy the story a lot!
After the story picked up after this slow start it became such a fun story to read. As someone who has so far only seen the Foundation series, it was amazing to find out how psychohistory started out. Also to see where such a controversial character as Hari Seldon came from - where he started from - has been so much fun. Hari has been a love-hate character for my entire foundation watching progress, but this book has really made me like him - although his choices are somewhat questionable and stubborn at times.
I didn’t want to pick up „Forward the foundation“ too fast at first, but now I feel like I need to jump right into it.
4.5⭐️
After the story picked up after this slow start it became such a fun story to read. As someone who has so far only seen the Foundation series, it was amazing to find out how psychohistory started out. Also to see where such a controversial character as Hari Seldon came from - where he started from - has been so much fun. Hari has been a love-hate character for my entire foundation watching progress, but this book has really made me like him - although his choices are somewhat questionable and stubborn at times.
I didn’t want to pick up „Forward the foundation“ too fast at first, but now I feel like I need to jump right into it.
4.5⭐️
My first time coming across Asimov as a writer of novels.
Regretfully I was kind of disappointed at how this book was presented - the flow of the book was a bit too haphazard. The characters travel huge distances under dire circumstances - but this was treated as quick trips without any further trouble.
Everything in the plot just seemed to go the characters way, without any dramatic fiction. A bookish mathematician who also just happens to be an adept street fighter? Takes a lot to buy that right off the bat.
The overall premise is interesting though!
Regretfully I was kind of disappointed at how this book was presented - the flow of the book was a bit too haphazard. The characters travel huge distances under dire circumstances - but this was treated as quick trips without any further trouble.
Everything in the plot just seemed to go the characters way, without any dramatic fiction. A bookish mathematician who also just happens to be an adept street fighter? Takes a lot to buy that right off the bat.
The overall premise is interesting though!
So, of the "later written" Foundation books that Asimov wrote in the 1980s (near the end of his life), this one is the best so far. It does not have nearly the levels of cringy-ness that the sequels had, and the characters actually had some variability and understandable motives. Also, Asimov starts to bring up actual dynamic science in his character discussions of psychohistory - chaos theory, deterministic systems, path dependence, etc.
All that being said, it seems that Asimov was so incredibly fixated on two motifs in his fiction - finding Earth and robots - that he simply cannot escape from them. One gets the sense that he uses them as a crutch, so it makes sense that he would staple this to the end of his previous series (Robot and Empire) to make it into a not-so-subtle appendage.
While not Asimov's fault really, he did a truly terrible job with forecasting how technology would advance. I have to remind myself that, when this was written (1988), public knowledge and use of the Internet was in its infancy, because he does not conceive of the idea that computers could be networked, which would save a lot of the problems encountered by the characters.
Finally, the idea that forecasting the future, a la psychohistory, would be of absolutely no interest to most people in the future just seems baffling. Humans have been trying to forecast the future for literally millennia - magic, augurs, astrology, and now mathematical models. There is no reason to believe that people would stop being interested in that pursuit. Even now, social scientists are trying to develop a real-world psychohistory (though I am dubious of the prospect that we would have enough data to validate the conclusions).
All that being said, it seems that Asimov was so incredibly fixated on two motifs in his fiction - finding Earth and robots - that he simply cannot escape from them. One gets the sense that he uses them as a crutch, so it makes sense that he would staple this to the end of his previous series (Robot and Empire) to make it into a not-so-subtle appendage.
While not Asimov's fault really, he did a truly terrible job with forecasting how technology would advance. I have to remind myself that, when this was written (1988), public knowledge and use of the Internet was in its infancy, because he does not conceive of the idea that computers could be networked, which would save a lot of the problems encountered by the characters.
Finally, the idea that forecasting the future, a la psychohistory, would be of absolutely no interest to most people in the future just seems baffling. Humans have been trying to forecast the future for literally millennia - magic, augurs, astrology, and now mathematical models. There is no reason to believe that people would stop being interested in that pursuit. Even now, social scientists are trying to develop a real-world psychohistory (though I am dubious of the prospect that we would have enough data to validate the conclusions).
Какво ли е да започнеш деня си с някакво безобидно и скучно мероприятие, а до вечерта да си беглец на планета, на която опасности дебнат от всички страни. Едва ли когато се е събудил същата сутрин Хари Селдън си е мислил, че един доклад ще го превърне в най-издирваната личност на Трантор. А това е само началото.
Азимов продължава да ме изумява с моралните и философски виждания за света, звездите , галактиката и мечтите. Страхотна гимнастика за въображението и мисълта.
Азимов продължава да ме изумява с моралните и философски виждания за света, звездите , галактиката и мечтите. Страхотна гимнастика за въображението и мисълта.
“Kiss me again Hari - please.”
*swoon*
I love this book and not just for the agonizingly slow and bland love story *snickers to self* but because it makes logic sound so soothingly nice. Every conversation MATTERS and goes into each idea from every angle without repetition.
Oh this book was so good. It is like falling in love with someone’s mind or typing skills or how they order take out. It makes me feel whole and complete in the same way that my favorite physics textbook made me feel.
*swoon*
I love this book and not just for the agonizingly slow and bland love story *snickers to self* but because it makes logic sound so soothingly nice. Every conversation MATTERS and goes into each idea from every angle without repetition.
Oh this book was so good. It is like falling in love with someone’s mind or typing skills or how they order take out. It makes me feel whole and complete in the same way that my favorite physics textbook made me feel.
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Another fairly interesting Asimov story; he tied it in quite cleverly to the Foundation stories he had already written, and it has a vintage Asimov surprise or two at the end. (I took the advice of an Asimov descendant and went ahead and read the Foundation books in the order written, rather than in chronological order within the fabula, and I have to agree that this is the way to go if you want to get the most out of the surprises.) As with the last few I read, however, this book was desperately in need of an editor. It could easily have been 150 or more pages shorter--loads of stuff that was ultimately totally irrelevant.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I decided to try to read this classic sci-fi series starting chronologically with the prelude so I can get the full story. I went in mostly blind other than knowing it was one of the greatest sci-fi stories of our time. Because of the time it was written and the characteristics of the author, the projections of the future are limited in terms of social structure. While it was interesting to read about the different worlds and how they are comprised, it was hard to suspend my disbelief to think that hundreds of thousands of years in the future human society would be so hung up on the gender binary. Given the original was written when gender norms were strictly enforced, and anything outside of that was rarely even considered, I’m not saying the author was necessarily misogynistic, but the views of men and women in a far advanced and future world are very dated.
I will say I was very pleasantly surprised by how engaging the writing is. I thought it would be more science/society based storytelling, but there’s some romance and mystery involved as well to keep me invested. I was genuinely surprised by the twist ending. I don’t know if I will read the entire series, but I plan on at least reading up through the first book in the Foundation trilogy before deciding if I’ll finish all of them.
I will say I was very pleasantly surprised by how engaging the writing is. I thought it would be more science/society based storytelling, but there’s some romance and mystery involved as well to keep me invested. I was genuinely surprised by the twist ending. I don’t know if I will read the entire series, but I plan on at least reading up through the first book in the Foundation trilogy before deciding if I’ll finish all of them.