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A review by peregrinwho
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
A classic in sci-fi, and one I wanted to try after falling in love with the world in the tv show. Boy is this different. It's such a departure in fact, that I don't think it's right to compare the two, so I will be judging this strictly on its own.
The world is hardly different from our own back when this was written. The story focuses less on sci-fi and more uses the genre as a conduit to cover large swathes of time. If you don't care about characters and just want to explore the idea of psychohistory/mob psychology then this is very focused on that. It will, however, be so focused that everything is delivered in a bunch of smug monologues explaining why everyone else in the story is stupid. Interesting at first, I became fatigued by it near the end and found myself wanting a moment to breathe to enjoy the world set up for us. We're hopped through decades at a time and thus have to have the state of things explained to us repeatedly. It's a hard task, and one that's done well, but something to keep in mind. I'm going to continue to see where this goes. Hopefully there's more than one woman in the next book (doubtful) and there will be at least one scene where the room isn't clouded with cigar smoke (doubtful).
The world is hardly different from our own back when this was written. The story focuses less on sci-fi and more uses the genre as a conduit to cover large swathes of time. If you don't care about characters and just want to explore the idea of psychohistory/mob psychology then this is very focused on that. It will, however, be so focused that everything is delivered in a bunch of smug monologues explaining why everyone else in the story is stupid. Interesting at first, I became fatigued by it near the end and found myself wanting a moment to breathe to enjoy the world set up for us. We're hopped through decades at a time and thus have to have the state of things explained to us repeatedly. It's a hard task, and one that's done well, but something to keep in mind. I'm going to continue to see where this goes. Hopefully there's more than one woman in the next book (doubtful) and there will be at least one scene where the room isn't clouded with cigar smoke (doubtful).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia
Minor: Racial slurs, Suicide, and Misogyny