The Foundation Trilogy
by Isaac Asimov
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When Isaac Asimov learned that the World Science Fiction Convention would be giving a special Hugo Award in 1966 for "Best All Time Series," he believed that the category had been created specifically to honor J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Indeed, for a modern reader, it's surprising to learn that Asimov's Foundation Trilogy was once so highly revered in the canon of speculative fiction that it beat Tolkien's masterpiece for the prize. Such are the fortunes...more
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Read in January, 1963
recommends it for:
dan, robin, chris and kira
First read the series in magazines and so on as a teenager--15 or so. The first two, Foundation & Foundation and Empire, I barely remember; however, I remember that first read of Second Foundation as if it were yesterday. I recall my being impressed most by Asimov's character, the Mule, who manipulates minds. At first, he grew unassailably powerful but his mental abilities became as nothing when the Second Foundation touched him. Most clearly, I remember my view of the future spreading like ...more
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Read in July, 1983
A great premise and a good read, but I think Asimov makes a wrong turn half-way through the Trilogy. Here's the set up: it is many thousands of years in the future, humanity has colonized the universe, and for 12,000 years, the Galactic Empire has reigned. A man called Hari Seldon, however, develops the science of psychohistory, and with it comes to predict the fall of the Empire and the coming of 30,000 years of chaos. He establishes the Foundation, a colony on the edge of the Empire, in such a...more
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Read in February, 2008
I have to admit that I was only able to get through the first book of The Foundation Trilogy: Foundation.
This novel was not for me. It's obviously a highly revered, acclaimed novel in the science fiction genre - some say the BEST in the genre - and maybe it was too lofty a goal for my first sci-fi book.
On the plus side, I thought Asimov's ideas of what the future might be like were interesting: the study and application of psychohistory (using mathematics to predict how large numbers of ...more
This novel was not for me. It's obviously a highly revered, acclaimed novel in the science fiction genre - some say the BEST in the genre - and maybe it was too lofty a goal for my first sci-fi book.
On the plus side, I thought Asimov's ideas of what the future might be like were interesting: the study and application of psychohistory (using mathematics to predict how large numbers of ...more
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14 comments
The start of another fascinating series from the master of science fiction, Isaac Asimov tells the story of the distant future, when mankind has spread throughout the galaxy, and has established an empire for the rule and betterment of society. The empire has stood strong for long millenia, until one man, Harry Seldon, forsees its end. Using psychohistory--the science of predicting the future, Seldon sees that the empire is deteriorating, and will one day crumble, folled by 30,000 years of ana...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Dylan by:
Bob Larson
I wanted to read the three books Asimov wrote in his early twenties first. The most amazing thing to me is how the writing, even as it stretches imagination and creativity with almost shocking vastness, still reflects early 50's American culture in every nuance. The galaxy is populated from end to end with humans who ply themselves with alcohol and tobacco, push the boundaries of microfilm and nuclear technology, and are nearly unaware of computers. Women remain primarily homemakers throughout. ...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Fans of distant-future SciFi
This turned out to be a pretty good Asimov book, interesting characters and a very imaginative distant-future world.
I will say it's good that the trilogy was bound together, the indivudual books are a bit slim by themselves but just right as a 3-pack. Also, the forst 2 books tried to cram so many characters from so many timelines into so few pages that it got difficult to keep track of - I would just get to know 3 or 4 characters and understand their viewpoints, then the chapter would end and...more
I will say it's good that the trilogy was bound together, the indivudual books are a bit slim by themselves but just right as a 3-pack. Also, the forst 2 books tried to cram so many characters from so many timelines into so few pages that it got difficult to keep track of - I would just get to know 3 or 4 characters and understand their viewpoints, then the chapter would end and...more
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When I was in 6th grade, my dad joined one of those sci fi book clubs and got five books for a penny for joining. The ones he chose were a bound volume of Anne McCaffrey's first three Pern novels, the Chronicles of Amber in two hardbound volumes, and The Foundation Trilogy and Foundation's Edge. The latter was my first introduction to literary SF. Until that, my exposure to science fiction had been through television -- mainly Star Trek and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (it was all about Tweek...more
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Read in June, 2006
recommends it for:
Fans of Star Wars, Star Trek, Sci Fi or Roman History
I have to write about this trilogy as a whole instead of each book individually because I think it is imperative to read all three in succession to truly appreciate the depth of Asimov's tale. I had not read any Asimov books when I picked up 'Foundation' but was unable to put each book down until they were finished. The only way to preserve the accumulated knowledge of a dying empire rests in the foundation of a new colony on the outskirts of the empire devoted solely to mathematics and science....more
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So far, pretty good. Definitely reads like the serial publication it was. Makes it easy to put down and pick back up again. Of course, the entire plot is predicated on knowing how it is all to end. This is very popular nowadays on TV (prelude to show is someone's injury or death, than the drama flips back in time and leads us back up to the present where we find out if our favorite character lives on) but I think it was more unusual in the 50's-60's when Asimove wrote this, no? And rather t...more
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Read in December, 1982
An emanantly readable book in the science fiction genre. Of most Asimov's books, this one stands out as him at him best.
There are elements of this book which deal with behavioral science as regards group dynamics, and though the premise of being able to predict the future through this statistical means may not be realistic, I do think it holds relevance to some of the sadder elements of humanity - such as our propensity to repeat history, and likely our inability as a whole to change our pa...more
There are elements of this book which deal with behavioral science as regards group dynamics, and though the premise of being able to predict the future through this statistical means may not be realistic, I do think it holds relevance to some of the sadder elements of humanity - such as our propensity to repeat history, and likely our inability as a whole to change our pa...more
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You know, I like Asimov for a few reasons: He has some intriguing half-baked ideas, he's a smart guy who knows what he's talking about and he knows how to pace a story so that something new is always happening. Most importantly, though, I like reading Asimov because it is evident that the act of writing excites him.
He's thrilled with every word he types and his enthusiasm is catchy. I first realized this when I read the third part of the Foundation Trilogy, and Asimov began an entire ch...more
He's thrilled with every word he types and his enthusiasm is catchy. I first realized this when I read the third part of the Foundation Trilogy, and Asimov began an entire ch...more
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I love the way Asimov does Science Fiction. The book has interesting ideas and a sold plot that is easy to follow without having to learn a whole new culture or without having to learn a bunch of new jargon that the author makes up for the sake of just this one book.
Asimov tells the story in a way that’s easy to understand but also has some complexity to it without making you wade through a bunch of set up. He can get straight to the story. Even the things he has to make up like the name...more
Asimov tells the story in a way that’s easy to understand but also has some complexity to it without making you wade through a bunch of set up. He can get straight to the story. Even the things he has to make up like the name...more
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I have often felt that Asimov's great talent was at writing short stories. Perhaps that is why the Foundation Trilogy is so successful. The books are essentially collections of connected short stories, each with their own punchy endings that keep you turning pages late into the night. The use of Hari Seldon as a sort of father figure who allows his children to make their own mistakes, but still steps in to help them understand what went wrong, has particular resonance. It's so satisfying ear...more
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Read in July, 1999
recommends it for:
anyone with mind-numbing patience.
Ok, let's begin with the fact that I tackled this trilogy when I was 12. I'm sure that, were I to pick it up once more, my appreciation would grow exponentially... HOWEVER, as wonderful as Asimov is, he writes like an engineer. He's careful and methodical, and the plot that weaves through the Foundation series is unbelievably complex. If you've got the time, and you enjoy Sci-fi, go ahead and pick up Prelude and follow Hari's awesome adventure.
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I'm a huge Asimov fan, but this trilogy isn't my favorite of his. Parts of it I liked a great deal, but other parts really dragged. A few summers ago, I found an article that listed all of Asimov's "Foundation" books and his "Robot" books and his "Space Trilogy" and maybe a few more, and showed how eventually they all fit together into the same "universe". It even put them in chronological order, not as they were written, but as they occurred in that un...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Everyone
Wow! Outstanding, clever, witty, detailed, organized. Organized might sound like a weird praise, but you come away with a sense that this book didn't grow organically as it was written like many novels, but was deliberate, plotted years in advance of writing; that Asimov knew every single word he would write long before he ever began, that it could only ever end one way. In many ways I guess that reflects the story itself, but you'll need to read it to understand. I highly recommend this tri...more
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Read in January, 1964
recommended to erik by:
no onerecommends it for: young boys
I started the trilogy with "Mule" in a cheap paperback edition. This naturally caused me to look up the entire trilogy in which that novella was incorporated.
As Asimov admits in his essay referred to by the URL, Foundation is substantially inspired, as many other space operas of the fifties were, by Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. As such, it may be the foremost example of this subgenre of science fiction.
What interested and disappointed me most in the series w...more
As Asimov admits in his essay referred to by the URL, Foundation is substantially inspired, as many other space operas of the fifties were, by Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. As such, it may be the foremost example of this subgenre of science fiction.
What interested and disappointed me most in the series w...more
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Read in November, 2007
The story starts with a scientist predicting the imminent collapse of the galactic empire, which reminded me a lot of my father predicting something similar based on how poorly funded the pure sciences are. By creating a remote haven for scientists, our story's character predicts the coming dark age can be reduced to only a few hundred years. Asimov finds a cool mix of thought provoking ideas and simple story lines, in the same tradition that would result in Kirk musing at length on philosophy...more
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Read in January, 1989
Isaac Asimov is the same author who wrote, I Robot. The series talks of civilization and the "manifest destiny" of any great society. A very, very, interesting trilogy of books (I do not include the sequels).
People that know me now might find this extremely hard to believe but this series made me consider pacifism for a great while. An often repeated quote from Asimov in these books is "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." If you think about it, the quote ...more
People that know me now might find this extremely hard to believe but this series made me consider pacifism for a great while. An often repeated quote from Asimov in these books is "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." If you think about it, the quote ...more
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