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clarks_dad's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to give this book like a four, but upon further reflection I just can't. Foundation and Earth is the conclusion of Asimov's masterpiece Foundation Series (I haven't read the two prequels yet) and it takes the series in a completely new direction. Which is wonderful, and also problematic. The Seldon Plan and the Galactic Empire on which the series were founded become side notes, mentioned in parenthesis and trivial in the wake of Golan Trevize's solving the ultimate human mystery in the story line: Where is Earth and why can't people find it any more. I have to admit, I loved the mystery and I loved the futuristic archeology, mythbusting and history work that went into the characters finding the planet and unraveling its mysteries. But the writing was just not A+ typical Asimov.
Golan Trevize becomes increasingly annoying. He is arrogant, pedantic, self-absorbed and just plain mean spirited. Hardly four pages go by when he doesn't have a philosophical argument with Bliss about whether or not its better for humanity to remain isolated individuals or to join together in a superorganism that spans the galaxy, giving up their individuality and humanity to become something far bigger and better. It's repetitive, esoteric and slows down the pace of the story for no good purpose. Once the argument is outlined, at the end of the last novel in the series no less, he then proceeds to beat the dead horse into a bloody pulp until I found myself, quite frankly, skipping pages. It got really old. Asimov also uses Trevize to give mini-astronomy lessons, which altogether weren't that bad and interesting. But he makes Trevize talk in this Sherlock Holmes sort of way where he's always giving the deductive and inductive evidence for every decision he makes - again annoying. "I decided we should go to Planet X because A) I'm hungry, B) the Stars align every so precisely in that direction, C) the women on the planet might be hot, D) the computer in it's complex model has illustrated a design flaw in the universe that intrigues me because: D1) the laws of physics forbid such anomalies, D2) blah, blah, blah, blah. You get the picture.
This novel was a plot success and a failure in the execution. I think that's my main problem with a lot of the "bad" books I read. People have good ideas and then muck it all up. I think by this point Asimov was really doing fan-service and really had no idea where the heck he was going with it. In fact, his wife comments in the afterword that he never wrote a sequel because he didn't know how to finish it, so he wrote the prequels instead. I can understand this. The plot shift at the end is dramatic and way out of left field. It's intriguing and quite genius and has enormous potential. It's a shame it couldn't be developed further. But this particular installment is in it's character development and dialogue is atrocious. Wikipedia it to clear up the mystery and move on with life.
Golan Trevize becomes increasingly annoying. He is arrogant, pedantic, self-absorbed and just plain mean spirited. Hardly four pages go by when he doesn't have a philosophical argument with Bliss about whether or not its better for humanity to remain isolated individuals or to join together in a superorganism that spans the galaxy, giving up their individuality and humanity to become something far bigger and better. It's repetitive, esoteric and slows down the pace of the story for no good purpose. Once the argument is outlined, at the end of the last novel in the series no less, he then proceeds to beat the dead horse into a bloody pulp until I found myself, quite frankly, skipping pages. It got really old. Asimov also uses Trevize to give mini-astronomy lessons, which altogether weren't that bad and interesting. But he makes Trevize talk in this Sherlock Holmes sort of way where he's always giving the deductive and inductive evidence for every decision he makes - again annoying. "I decided we should go to Planet X because A) I'm hungry, B) the Stars align every so precisely in that direction, C) the women on the planet might be hot, D) the computer in it's complex model has illustrated a design flaw in the universe that intrigues me because: D1) the laws of physics forbid such anomalies, D2) blah, blah, blah, blah. You get the picture.
This novel was a plot success and a failure in the execution. I think that's my main problem with a lot of the "bad" books I read. People have good ideas and then muck it all up. I think by this point Asimov was really doing fan-service and really had no idea where the heck he was going with it. In fact, his wife comments in the afterword that he never wrote a sequel because he didn't know how to finish it, so he wrote the prequels instead. I can understand this. The plot shift at the end is dramatic and way out of left field. It's intriguing and quite genius and has enormous potential. It's a shame it couldn't be developed further. But this particular installment is in it's character development and dialogue is atrocious. Wikipedia it to clear up the mystery and move on with life.
lordbrainless's review against another edition
3.0
Although a good book overall, this one feels the less connected to the whole Foundation saga. Trevize, Pelorat and Bliss are good characters so I didn't mind having a whole other book about them again and the search for Earth was something that intrigued me as much as Trevize.
The problems I had with this book are mainly to: first, the constant fighting between Trevize and Bliss about if one entity as Gaia is better than bein an Isolate, it really is an interesting discussion, but not when it drags throughout the whole book without never really getting to a conclusion, except towards the very end. This brings me to the second problem: the ending. It feels rushed.
All the traveling through the Spacer worlds is nice, but the stay in world that matters the most not only is short, but also rushed. We get almost no information, Trevize's resolution about Galaxia being the right choice is so quick after all the arguing with Bliss, so many questions still to be asked and answered.
However, I did enjoy the book and no doubt will read the prequels.
The problems I had with this book are mainly to: first, the constant fighting between Trevize and Bliss about if one entity as Gaia is better than bein an Isolate, it really is an interesting discussion, but not when it drags throughout the whole book without never really getting to a conclusion, except towards the very end. This brings me to the second problem: the ending. It feels rushed.
All the traveling through the Spacer worlds is nice, but the stay in world that matters the most not only is short, but also rushed. We get almost no information, Trevize's resolution about Galaxia being the right choice is so quick after all the arguing with Bliss, so many questions still to be asked and answered.
However, I did enjoy the book and no doubt will read the prequels.
bedwinnjamin's review against another edition
adventurous
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
2.5
This book had some interesting ideas and worlds to discover, but that's not why I was interested in the Foundation series. I truly wanted to know what happened in the 1000 years of Foundation crises, and we were only up to year 500 at this point. Thankfully the characters have remained the same and the story picks up where we left off, but we're so off the beaten trail, Asmiov may have brought new ones into it anyway. This book was a bit too preachy and humanist for me. The entire decision of forever resting on one guy is interesting if you make it interesting, but there was no real character growth even from the previous book to this one. So it didn't really build to anything spectacular. This book felt more like a sight seeing visit to worlds that Asimov had already built in the Robots series. It's just not what I was looking for.
yjsoon's review against another edition
2.0
"Foundation and Two Characters Bickering" would have been more accurate.
kynan's review against another edition
TL;DR: Well, the grand finale was on par with the rest of the series, in that it was quite the disappointment. It's a whistle-stop tour of Asimov's greatest hits, but done in such a way as to paint them in the worst possible light. There's no reason to read this standalone, and barely any reason to read it as part of the Foundation series.
TL: Our companions from Foundation's Edge are back for one last repetitive and drawn out expository dialogue. Trevise has found the (disappointing) ending of Foundation's Edge weighing heavily upon his conscience and elects to journey out into the universe on a mission to find Earth, which will help him justify (or rescind) his vote for Gaia...because.
Based on this compellingly sound logic, what follows is kind of a "Greatest Hits" tour of the Baley/Olivaw and old Empire series with our secondary protagonists, Bliss and Pelorat, taking turns verbally jousting about the perceived benefits of individuality vs collective Gaian community with Trevise. When they're not repeatedly having the same argument over and over again, they're visiting planets in order to assess the sexual beauty of the female inhabitants through a rather subjective lens. At one point whilst visiting a location where female nudity was par for the course, Gollan assesses a pair of breasts this:"though shapely, were small". However it's OK for Gollan to keep ogling her because "she did not seem unripe". Unripe! This sexual theme continues with sexual intercourse being the primary solution to whatever problems arise.
Actually, that's unfair, it's purely incidental sex in most cases, but damn, why is everyone on every planet carrying on about sex now? I think Asimov, like Heinlein got a little obsessive about this, especially as he got older and I feel like both Trevise and Pelorat are authorial stand-ins to demonstrate just how much sex he's getting despite his age (kind of like how Seldon appeared, in the prequel books, to be Asimov considering/railing against his mortality).
I think that there are general points that manage to get put across for consideration: skeptical science, anti-racism (not so much anti-sexism...), the potential clash of individual freedoms with slowly failing societies, even the concept of gender (and the trouble with pronouns) makes an appearance. But the whole thing is just so clunky that I wonder if it wasn't written purely to satisfy a contract and pander to the fans by "tying up" every loose-end and, in the process, completely undermining the entire premise of the series.
Eh, I would not recommend this to anyone.
TL: Our companions from Foundation's Edge are back for one last repetitive and drawn out expository dialogue. Trevise has found the (disappointing) ending of Foundation's Edge weighing heavily upon his conscience and elects to journey out into the universe on a mission to find Earth, which will help him justify (or rescind) his vote for Gaia...because.
Based on this compellingly sound logic, what follows is kind of a "Greatest Hits" tour of the Baley/Olivaw and old Empire series with our secondary protagonists, Bliss and Pelorat, taking turns verbally jousting about the perceived benefits of individuality vs collective Gaian community with Trevise. When they're not repeatedly having the same argument over and over again, they're visiting planets in order to assess the sexual beauty of the female inhabitants through a rather subjective lens. At one point whilst visiting a location where female nudity was par for the course, Gollan assesses a pair of breasts this:"though shapely, were small". However it's OK for Gollan to keep ogling her because "she did not seem unripe". Unripe! This sexual theme continues with sexual intercourse being the primary solution to whatever problems arise.
Actually, that's unfair, it's purely incidental sex in most cases, but damn, why is everyone on every planet carrying on about sex now? I think Asimov, like Heinlein got a little obsessive about this, especially as he got older and I feel like both Trevise and Pelorat are authorial stand-ins to demonstrate just how much sex he's getting despite his age (kind of like how Seldon appeared, in the prequel books, to be Asimov considering/railing against his mortality).
I think that there are general points that manage to get put across for consideration: skeptical science, anti-racism (not so much anti-sexism...), the potential clash of individual freedoms with slowly failing societies, even the concept of gender (and the trouble with pronouns) makes an appearance. But the whole thing is just so clunky that I wonder if it wasn't written purely to satisfy a contract and pander to the fans by "tying up" every loose-end and, in the process, completely undermining the entire premise of the series.
Eh, I would not recommend this to anyone.
missexploder's review against another edition
4.0
Great book! I was a bit annoyed at the constant recaps of "previously on the foundation series"...
thurminator's review against another edition
3.0
5/10.
This should have been called Foundation and Robots. The ending explains things well enough I suppose. The Robots series lends itself well to the way things went here, but it was distressing to see the entire premise behind the superior work, Foundation, completely dismantled and explained away at the cost of both series being wrapped up at the same time. I'd much rather have continued to see how the Foundation and Second Foundation dealt with more events during the 1,000 year plan, culminating in the fulfillment of Hari Seldon's plan after much struggle and calculation. It would have been better than this tie-in thing. The re-introduction of robots at some point would have served as a fun and interesting callback in later Foundation novels, but didn't need to become the hinge upon which all of Asmiov's major novels swing.
This book in and of itself is good enough, but succumbs to too many sci-fi tropes. It was the longest book so far in the series, and I was very ready for it to be done by the time I got there. It has plenty of enjoyable portions and elements of Asimov's writing that I do enjoy thoroughly, but I felt like he didn't quite stick the landing with this one.
This should have been called Foundation and Robots. The ending explains things well enough I suppose. The Robots series lends itself well to the way things went here, but it was distressing to see the entire premise behind the superior work, Foundation, completely dismantled and explained away at the cost of both series being wrapped up at the same time. I'd much rather have continued to see how the Foundation and Second Foundation dealt with more events during the 1,000 year plan, culminating in the fulfillment of Hari Seldon's plan after much struggle and calculation. It would have been better than this tie-in thing. The re-introduction of robots at some point would have served as a fun and interesting callback in later Foundation novels, but didn't need to become the hinge upon which all of Asmiov's major novels swing.
This book in and of itself is good enough, but succumbs to too many sci-fi tropes. It was the longest book so far in the series, and I was very ready for it to be done by the time I got there. It has plenty of enjoyable portions and elements of Asimov's writing that I do enjoy thoroughly, but I felt like he didn't quite stick the landing with this one.
yorso's review against another edition
5.0
"Este es el axioma no declarado: que sólo hay una especie de inteligencia en la galaxia y que esta es el Homo Sapiens" Golan Trevize, refiriéndose al plan Seldon.
El último libro de la Saga Fundación es también el más largo. Es algo cansado de leer pues en este la acción es menos y el diálogo predomina, y se siente como si se alargara para llegar al desenlace. Pero felizmente el desenlace es inesperado y ata muchos cabos (al menos sobre la fundación y no sobre la saga completa de más de 10 libros que aún no acabo de leer). El final está lleno de referencias y personajes anteriores a la trilogía original pero que de ninguna forma dificulta su comprensión.
Es una lástima que Asimov fallezca y acabe la saga, ya que daba para algunos libros más (aunque según entiendo Asimov no llegó a tener ideas sobre como continuarla). Y con el buen sabor que deja motiva a leer los primeros libros sobre La Tierra y el origen de los robots, cuando El Imperio y La Fundación aún no estaban imaginados.
El último libro de la Saga Fundación es también el más largo. Es algo cansado de leer pues en este la acción es menos y el diálogo predomina, y se siente como si se alargara para llegar al desenlace. Pero felizmente el desenlace es inesperado y ata muchos cabos (al menos sobre la fundación y no sobre la saga completa de más de 10 libros que aún no acabo de leer). El final está lleno de referencias y personajes anteriores a la trilogía original pero que de ninguna forma dificulta su comprensión.
Es una lástima que Asimov fallezca y acabe la saga, ya que daba para algunos libros más (aunque según entiendo Asimov no llegó a tener ideas sobre como continuarla). Y con el buen sabor que deja motiva a leer los primeros libros sobre La Tierra y el origen de los robots, cuando El Imperio y La Fundación aún no estaban imaginados.
fisk42's review against another edition
4.0
Not really sure what to say about this book. On the one hand it was 5 stars up until the last... 20 pages. The ending completely fizzled for me and I couldn't buy into the answers the main character found at the end. There just wasn't enough justification given for his sudden realization. I'm glad I'm reading these in published and not chronological order because I think otherwise I would find this a let down. Here's to hoping the two prequels will shed some light.