Scan barcode
phantomfra's review
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- 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
kayay's review
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.25
alannathellama's review against another edition
3.0
When I was reading this, I couldn't decide whether it was gonna be 3 or 4 stars.
However, around 60% of the way through I realized THERE HAD NOT BEEN A SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER OR REALLY JUST ANY CHARACTER THAT WASN’T A MAN… what the fuck dude
And the rest of the book was like that. There were like two female characters and they didn’t really have names or much significance. LITERALLY NOTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IF ANY OF THE CHARACTERS HAD BEEN WOMEN
This isn't the kind of book where the identity of the characters really matters that much but still I can’t get over the complete lack of important women….
Anyways, this book is very obviously not meant to be about the characters, even the ones we end up following, it’s more about society as a whole, making it really plot driven with enough character ideas and interactions to prevent it from reading like a textbook. Having the whole plot depend on any one character too much would go against the central driving philosophy of the novel, and I think the general style with the different characters and the time skips (etc., etc.) does a good job of demonstrating this. I even found myself liking the different characters we focused on, especially Salvor Hardin. They were about as unique, interesting, compelling as they could be given their circumstances and the writing style.
In general, I felt like the novel did all the things it set out to do well. Nothing really felt out of place or awkward. It was straight-forward, not too intricate or stylized, but it's meant to be more of a matter of fact portrayal of history than anything else. It’s not trying too hard or setting up too many things that will lead to readers feeling disappointed.
I like how the collapse of society mimics many things we see in modern day capitalism (heavy administration, rejection of progress, etc.), which is really fun because I know it's supposed to be based on the fall of the Roman Empire. I think it really helps add to the central idea about history being cyclical and predictable due to human psychology and the constructs of power in our societies.
Most of all, I found the use of religion as a control tactic to be really fascinating. In modern times religion is mostly tied to conservative practices, so the use of religion to preserve technology and ultimately progress society is an interesting thing to see as a modern day reader, and it helps remind readers of the original uses of religion that helped explain (at the time) unexplainable natural phenomena and create rules to keep people alive.
—
Generally, I really love how you can tell Asimov is a biochemist. He says hyperdrive and nucleics and visiplate and all this future technology stuff and makes 0 attempt to justify it or bullshit an explanation. Ultimately it works because the characters aren't the ones inventing the technology, but I still found it funny.
However, around 60% of the way through I realized THERE HAD NOT BEEN A SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER OR REALLY JUST ANY CHARACTER THAT WASN’T A MAN… what the fuck dude
And the rest of the book was like that. There were like two female characters and they didn’t really have names or much significance. LITERALLY NOTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IF ANY OF THE CHARACTERS HAD BEEN WOMEN
This isn't the kind of book where the identity of the characters really matters that much but still I can’t get over the complete lack of important women….
Anyways, this book is very obviously not meant to be about the characters, even the ones we end up following, it’s more about society as a whole, making it really plot driven with enough character ideas and interactions to prevent it from reading like a textbook. Having the whole plot depend on any one character too much would go against the central driving philosophy of the novel, and I think the general style with the different characters and the time skips (etc., etc.) does a good job of demonstrating this. I even found myself liking the different characters we focused on, especially Salvor Hardin. They were about as unique, interesting, compelling as they could be given their circumstances and the writing style.
In general, I felt like the novel did all the things it set out to do well. Nothing really felt out of place or awkward. It was straight-forward, not too intricate or stylized, but it's meant to be more of a matter of fact portrayal of history than anything else. It’s not trying too hard or setting up too many things that will lead to readers feeling disappointed.
I like how the collapse of society mimics many things we see in modern day capitalism (heavy administration, rejection of progress, etc.), which is really fun because I know it's supposed to be based on the fall of the Roman Empire. I think it really helps add to the central idea about history being cyclical and predictable due to human psychology and the constructs of power in our societies.
Most of all, I found the use of religion as a control tactic to be really fascinating. In modern times religion is mostly tied to conservative practices, so the use of religion to preserve technology and ultimately progress society is an interesting thing to see as a modern day reader, and it helps remind readers of the original uses of religion that helped explain (at the time) unexplainable natural phenomena and create rules to keep people alive.
—
Generally, I really love how you can tell Asimov is a biochemist. He says hyperdrive and nucleics and visiplate and all this future technology stuff and makes 0 attempt to justify it or bullshit an explanation. Ultimately it works because the characters aren't the ones inventing the technology, but I still found it funny.
hippahop's review
4.0
- wish I could give 3.5 stars
- glad I came back to this after reading the robot series, feel like I can fall into his writing style better
- kind of surprised I haven't seen other versions of psychohistory in other sci-fi books that have been written since, I like the idea and think it could do with some exploring. Maybe he explores it more in the following books?
- glad I came back to this after reading the robot series, feel like I can fall into his writing style better
- kind of surprised I haven't seen other versions of psychohistory in other sci-fi books that have been written since, I like the idea and think it could do with some exploring. Maybe he explores it more in the following books?
libellum_aphrodite's review
5.0
Excellent read - quite a masterpiece of political machinations and socio-economic forces. Can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the original trilogy to find out what happens to the Foundation and the galaxy. One thing that this first book has illustrated well is that history is written by the victor. With each Seldon crisis, I can't help but wonder if I should be rooting for the undisrupted continuation of the Foundation's rise or hope for some individual to emerge and throw the whole thing on it's head and somehow "save the galaxy," but which course would be absolutely right? Unfortunately, there is no unbiased absolute - the values of the victors will decide.
kamharellano's review
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
"The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity—a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop."
I don't know why I held out so long on finally reading this, especially since I consider myself a huge fan of other sci-fi classics (Frank Herbert, Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Jules Verne, etc.), but oh wow was I absolutely blown away. Although told in five short stories rather than a full-length novel, Foundation paints a picture of human evolution charted over the course of centuries. Isaac Asimov certainly proved that he's got an excellent grasp of the human condition. This book contains no epic space battles, no lengthy descriptions of fancy ships, no black holes or terrifying landscapes or alien skies. But it stands the test of time not just by being the driving force behind numerous sci-fi tropes, but also because of how it more or less predicted the rise of concepts such as AI, big data and its analysis, rational psychology, trend forecasting, and so much more.
If you're into action-packed sci-fi, this is not the book for you. However, if you enjoy reads that dissect and satirize political theories and ideologies, international relations, religion, the desire for power, and just human nature in general, all while commenting on the relentless march of time and technology and how everything, everything, is just a vicious cycle, then definitely pick this one up.
I don't know why I held out so long on finally reading this, especially since I consider myself a huge fan of other sci-fi classics (Frank Herbert, Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, Jules Verne, etc.), but oh wow was I absolutely blown away. Although told in five short stories rather than a full-length novel, Foundation paints a picture of human evolution charted over the course of centuries. Isaac Asimov certainly proved that he's got an excellent grasp of the human condition. This book contains no epic space battles, no lengthy descriptions of fancy ships, no black holes or terrifying landscapes or alien skies. But it stands the test of time not just by being the driving force behind numerous sci-fi tropes, but also because of how it more or less predicted the rise of concepts such as AI, big data and its analysis, rational psychology, trend forecasting, and so much more.
If you're into action-packed sci-fi, this is not the book for you. However, if you enjoy reads that dissect and satirize political theories and ideologies, international relations, religion, the desire for power, and just human nature in general, all while commenting on the relentless march of time and technology and how everything, everything, is just a vicious cycle, then definitely pick this one up.
ianacook's review
2.0
I can see how it might be fairly foundational (pardon the pun) to modern science fiction, but yikes it is Of Its Time.
It seems to be very pro-authoritarianism and predeterminism, and often seems to resolve precisely in the way it feels it's arguing against. It almost seems to make parody, only to at the last moment fall into awkward sincerity. For example, one character mocks another for not understanding science and turning it into religion, which seemed like an excellent way to interpret and critique what was happening. And then a few moments later, he proceeds to do the same thing but in a slightly different way. (Later, he quite literally creates a religion of Science, which we discover was the Correct Thing To Do according to the Predetermined Course.)
Further, there was only one (1) singular and lonely female character, who only appeared in two scenes and was not named until the second, and whose whole purpose was to gawk at and later be appeased into silence (amongst “the men”) by a fashionable bauble. Yikes.
It seems to be very pro-authoritarianism and predeterminism, and often seems to resolve precisely in the way it feels it's arguing against. It almost seems to make parody, only to at the last moment fall into awkward sincerity. For example, one character mocks another for not understanding science and turning it into religion, which seemed like an excellent way to interpret and critique what was happening. And then a few moments later, he proceeds to do the same thing but in a slightly different way. (Later, he quite literally creates a religion of Science, which we discover was the Correct Thing To Do according to the Predetermined Course.)
Further, there was only one (1) singular and lonely female character, who only appeared in two scenes and was not named until the second, and whose whole purpose was to gawk at and later be appeased into silence (amongst “the men”) by a fashionable bauble. Yikes.
quentinwal's review
challenging
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? It's complicated
2.0
amigo_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
3.0
fairytalearista's review
5.0
Took me a while to get through, mostly because I had to get used to a completely new main character every few chapters, but other than that, I really liked it. For anyone who likes mystery and science fiction, and not-in-your-face danger, this is a must read.