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A review by talne
Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov
3.0
Spoiler free - A lackluster conclusion to the saga, some cool ideas and lore cannot save this from being a read-only for Foundation diehards.
Spoilers
The final entry in the Foundation saga, and one that has some really great lore tie-ins with Asimov’s Robot series of novels, ultimately ends flat for me. One of the best parts of the original Foundation trilogy was the epic ideas wrapped up in psychohistory, an obviously fictional concept, but one still based in sound scientific principals. One of the core concepts of Foundation and Earth is this idea that our main character, Golan Trevize, has such a powerful sense of intuition, that the fate of the entire galaxy was given over to him. It’s never elaborated on why or how Golan is always right, but the novel ends with it still being true. It feels like a huge logic gap and missed opportunity that was never addressed.
Add in that Golan is a raging asshole for most of the book, and a healthy dose of weird sexism, bigotry and obsession with the female body from Asimov, there is better science fiction to read today.
Spoilers
The final entry in the Foundation saga, and one that has some really great lore tie-ins with Asimov’s Robot series of novels, ultimately ends flat for me. One of the best parts of the original Foundation trilogy was the epic ideas wrapped up in psychohistory, an obviously fictional concept, but one still based in sound scientific principals. One of the core concepts of Foundation and Earth is this idea that our main character, Golan Trevize, has such a powerful sense of intuition, that the fate of the entire galaxy was given over to him. It’s never elaborated on why or how Golan is always right, but the novel ends with it still being true. It feels like a huge logic gap and missed opportunity that was never addressed.
Add in that Golan is a raging asshole for most of the book, and a healthy dose of weird sexism, bigotry and obsession with the female body from Asimov, there is better science fiction to read today.