So currently right now I'm going through another SciFi series again and this one from the golden age. And if you guessed right, it is Asimov's Foundation series.
So the first novel I've read of this series is a fix up like "I, Robot" but reads like it's a chronological history like Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles". The stories follow the creation of the titular Foundation by Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian (Psychohistory is kind of like soothsaying but through mathematical and scientific means which I find really interesting) after finding out that the Galactic Empire, after twelve thousand years of rule, is dying a slow death from corruption and entropy, and also of its growth.
The stories that make up "Foundation" (the first book) follows different characters as they, and the Foundation, face various crises in a world where everything reverts to a much more primitive state of living and wars initially and when the science and progress returns it seen and revered as a kind of magic (including techno priests). It feels to me like being in a Star Wars film (the Foundation series, particularly the original, were one of the inspirations for it) and yet also not as it is its own thing, and it's not really a bad thing.
There's a lot of intrigue and suspense that goes on in each of the stories along with ample amounts of action thrown in. There's a lot of text snippets from a fictional encyclopedia that features in the series known as the Encyclopedia Galactica, that provides some bits of information, which I think adds a nice touch!
In many ways, for me, the first book is pretty. Maybe slow in some places but still very good regardless, and I really like the second and third stories of it, now those are probably my greatest faves . As I continue on with the series, in this case now the original trilogy published in the 50s, I think that it might very likely get better. Plus there are further books in this series that Asimov published in later decades, and this includes two prequel books. Those I might want to check out someday and see how they compare. Pretty good start to this one so far, and hope to enjoy it even further!
by i-the-muso-1968
2 Comments
Robot novels: Good
Empire novels: Good
Foundation novels: Good
Foundation prequels: Good
Foundation sequels: Do not attempt, ruins everything that came before them
I enjoyed the foundation novels but as I went through books 2 and 3 I liked them less, because I think Asimov kind of ran out of ideas for what to do with “Hari Seldon predicted this!” and he plays with all the different variations of “he did!” or “he didnt” or “he did but only a little but but also saw that we would know enough to figure out the rest” or “he didn’t but he knew at this point we would have enough resources to solve some of our own problems”
Eventually it just became a weird circular philosophical musing that took up time in the character’s heads but didn’t do them any good for understanding their current predicament.