ztaylor4 's review for:

Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov

3.0

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I didn't dislike this book, but it didn't feel essential to the Foundation saga as a whole. Although the book comes together by the end, I felt as though the descriptions of location and society were sometimes overly drawn out and detracted from the pace of the narrative (even given the importance of studying distinct societies to the protagonist's development of psychohistory).

The book also seemed to have been written largely to tie together Asimov's Foundation and Robot series. I don't mind the connection, but the story needed more that this connection to justify itself.

As a fun and quick sci-fi adventure, the book did its job, but it didn't stand out enough to deserve a hearty recommendation.

Spoiler

The standout feature of the story was the twist ending, which I didn't see coming and which may have been my favorite part of the book. Oh, also "computering" someone to mean looking someone up online.