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alsira98's review
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Gun violence
columbo's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- 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
Crazy how this was written in the 50s. Like there's aspects where it really shows, obsession with nuclear power, the plots about states falling into "barbarism" after an empire's collapse, and the only hope is science and ingenuity paving the way to another empire - a return to status quo, not a shining future. Still, played out over a series of vignettes over the history of the Foundation, each story was clever, interesting, and still contains good commentary.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Xenophobia, Gun violence, and Suicide
kinddog2073's review against another edition
I picked this up entirely because it was reverently referenced in Liu Cixin's The Dark Forest and I wanted to understand the context of the reference. The reference made sense within the first 2 stories of the book and I wish I had set it down then. It is clear that Liu took a great deal of influence from this book in his own story of political machinations and behaviour prediction. That influence is clear in the last two of the Rememberances trilogy. Unfortunately I enjoyed Liu Cixin's writing and narration far more. Asimov might just not be for me, even ignoring his obvious misogynistic blindspots. I regret reading as much as I did of this and considered finishing it (only 50 pages left) but life is too short to read something you're just not that interested in and I have other books I am eager to jump into.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
maeverose's review
Dnfed at 67%
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..)
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..)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Suicide
Moderate: Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Violence, Ableism, Confinement, Sexism, War, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
Minor: Animal death
catapocalypse's review against another edition
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
1.0
I came so close to DNFing this a few times, but pushed through out of pure curiosity to see if things got better. They didn't.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
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