Peculiar stuff. It's striking to see Asimov steadily become a better writer over the course of the series, but the overall trilogy just isn't that good. Better off reading one of the trilogy's descendents, like Parker's Engineer trilogy or Dickinson's Traitor Baru Cormorant. ( )

This series solidified my love of classic sci-fi and Asimov's work, especially his robot stories. I read all these books over 25 years ago and they are still awesome. ( )

3½ stars. Sadly this BBC audiobook adaptation of Asimov's classic trilogy suffered from some sound quality issues (variable volume ranging from almost inaudible to too loud; annoying sound effects). It is also much abridged.

An acceptable way to recall the books but I wouldn't recommend it as a replacement for reading them (or listening to an unabridged audiobook). ( )

I read the splendid Everyman’s Library edition – a hardback with an excellent 15-page introduction by Michael Dirda that’s isn’t expensive nonetheless. That introduction guided my reading a bit, and I’ll get back to it a few times.

First, a warning: I’ll have to let down recurring readers expecting a long analysis like those of the Dune books or The Book of the New Sun. This post won’t be 5,000 or 10,000 words – only 2,300. I simply don’t have that much to add to all that has been written on this seminal work, considered a “watershed” in literary history by many. Dirda quotes SF editor Donald Wollheim: “Stories published before Foundation belong to the old line, the stories published published after belong to ‘modern’ science fiction.”

Before my actual reread of the trilogy, I thought this review might turn into a big examination about how Asimov deals with free will in the books, not dissimilar to my post on LOTR. It turns out that there just isn’t that much to discuss, but I’ll spend a few paragraphs on it nonetheless, as it is the crux of the series.

Did I think this trilogy has become way outdated, and did I enjoy my reread? To answer that and more, let’s get back to Dirda – three times.

(...)

Full analysis on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It ( )

Coming into this series, the bit of Asimov I had read was not terribly impressive, so my expectations were not very high. As a result, I was pleasantly surprised. It is easy to see how and why the strength of the ideas presented in this series have so powerfully informed all science fiction to follow. The quality of the prose is much higher than I expected, it is not overly flowery or descriptive, but still conveys a clear sense of place and is filled with sparkling dialog. The focus is not on character, but on ideas and concepts, as is common with fix-up SF which was originally written for magazine publication.

SYNOPSIS
Foundation (book 1) The Galactic Empire of the human race is in the early stages of collapse. Using a field of science called Psycho-history, which predicts group behaviors, Hari Seldon forsees the coming collapse, and the 30,000 years of chaos and anarchy that will follow, and establishes The Foundation at the outer rim of the galaxy to guide mankind through these dark times, thereby reducing the duration of the dark times to 1,000 years. In order to avoid influencing the actions of the humans who live during that time, the predicted Crisis events (known as Seldon Crises) are not revealed to the public until after they have occurred.

Foundation and Empire (book 2) introduces a character called The Mule, a mutant human who throws a wrench in the works. Because psycho-history cannot predict individual behavior, the actions of an individual have the potential to derail the Foundation's mission. This book has two main parts, so the character and story could be developed a bit more deeply than in the first book. This was my favorite book of the trilogy, particularly because of the ending, which powerfully reframes the story we just finished.

Second Foundation (book 3)focuses on the existence of the Second Foundation, which Seldon formed on the other end of the galaxy from the first foundation. Where everyone knew where the first Foundation was located, though, the location of Second Foundation remains secret. The first half of this book follows closely after the second half of book two, and once again this installment is basically two stories, in terms of cast and timeframe. The galactic war started by The Mule threatens the success of the First Foundation, leading various characters to seek out the Second Foundation, either to ensure Seldon's defeat or to strengthen his odds of success. One of the main characters is a teenage girl, which was unexpected in a classic 1950's SF title. While this book does not entirely wrap up the story begin in Foundation (which is why Asimov later expanded the series), I did find that it provided a satisfactory conclusion to the trilogy, and did not leave me hanging.

THOUGHTS
Asimov effectively creates a sense of scale for the Galactic Empire, using a relatively small cast of characters. Rather than using a sprawling tale of numerous characters and interweaving story threads, which almost invariable causes confusion and disconnect for the reader, he carefully selects the characters and locations used, to make things easier to follow without it feeling small like a TV movie. The story does jump a bit through time and place, especially in the first book, since the story spans centuries.

I was struck by the number of references to this series which pop up in Star Wars. The concept of a Galactic Empire, which is central to SW, originated in Foundation, of course, but also Coruscant is lifted directly from Trantor, the city-planet which is the seat of Galactic government. A number of character names are also pulled directly, including Han, Bail, Avakim (Anakin), and Korellians.

Overall, the scientific concepts on display here were excellent and intriguing, the quality of prose was above average, thanks to the second and third books the characters were stronger than I expected, and it was properly fun and enjoyable. I can understand why it won the Hugo for Best Series of All Time. ( )