I just finished this classic series (the first three). I liked them way more than I thought I would. Truthfully, I'm not the biggest Asimov fan. I've read some of his short stories and a couple of his nonfiction books before this. He always felt to me as pretty high concept, low polish and a little dated. There's definitely some of that in the Foundation trilogy. It's a little uneven – the first and second books are much better than the third in my opinion – and the dialogue and character development isn't going to blow you away. It's very unfussy and straightforward vintage Sci-Fi meant to fill magazine pages. THAT SAID, it's the absolute best of that genre in my opinion. The concepts are great, the plot moves you forward, and the fragmented structure (which I think is a result of them starting as a bunch of stories and novellas) really worked for me. It always struck me that in Asimov stories he has great, borderline visionary, concepts of a future that was hard to imagine – but the characters all smoke cigarettes and all the secretaries were women. They are very much products of their time in that sense. There's definitely a little of that in the Foundation books, but to me at least, it's not as bad. By the design of the plot the characters are barely characters, they are roles played in a machine of larger narrative. Anyways, if you are inside this winter and want some easy reading of a pretty classic series, I'd definitely recommend these books.I haven't see the new TV show, I'm excited to see how they adapted it.
by mcahoon718
3 Comments
That old fashioned stuff doesn’t bother me. I’m planning on reading this series eventually
Foundation series is really good except for the prequels. Almost Every prequel is bad but foundation series is even more so.
I re-read it recently and I was surprised by how obsessed with smoking Asimov seemed to be. Everyone is constantly smoking, mentions of ashtrays being given as gifts it atomic ashtrays in general. I know smoking was much more common back then but I’ve read a lot of older sci fi (I’m no spring chicken myself) and I don’t recall other authors bringing it up quite as often.