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Foundation (Foundation Series, #2)
by Isaac Asimov

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29579.Foundation?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Foundation (Foundation Series, #2)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1168033540m/29579.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29579.Foundation?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Foundation</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16667.Isaac_Asimov">Isaac Asimov</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18124413?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars Isaac Asimov is responsible for one of my favorite quotes (though not from this book):
 
 "If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."
 
 And that ends up becoming one of my biggest problems with this book, that despite the implication of that quote, the entire premise of this book is based on solving problems through ignorance.
 
 People cannot be permitted to undertake the study of "psychohistory" because knowledge of it would alter the course of Hari Seldon's "planned" history, and could jeopardize its success. It's just so antithetical to what I would have expected Asimov to believe based on the above quote.
 
 Asimov's also not known for his characterization skills, and he earns that reputation in this book. This is a great story about the fall of an empire, and the attempt to expedite the recovery of civilization as the galaxy knows it; it's a great story about the perils of stagnation.
 
 But don't read it expecting deep, well developed, engaging characters. The book is a collection of five shorter stories covering different generations of people, but the protagonist in each is uncannily like most of the others: an extremely perceptive man, able to out maneuver political allies and seemingly the forces of history itself -- always at the final moment and in a way that is meant to surprise even the reader. He is almost a little too flawless.
 
 It is also always men, there is only one woman ever even depicted in the book, and she's a nagging daughter of a king and wife of another king who was married off for political reasons. The only other mention of women is in reference to doing household chores and their use of appliances for that purpose. Granted, this was published in 1951, gender roles were of course very different then, but I still found it striking how completely absent they were, as though it were an entire galaxy devoid of women.
 
 I enjoy the overarching story and the premise for it, that is all well constructed, but I'm not sure what it's done to earn itself the reputation as such a classic piece of sci-fi literature.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/277970?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

trygve's review
rating:

Isaac Asimov is responsible for one of my favorite quotes (though not from this book):

"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."

And that ends up becoming one of my biggest problems with this book, that despite the implication of that quote, the entire premise of this book is based on solving problems through ignorance.

People cannot be permitted to undertake the study of "psychohistory" because knowledge of it would alter the course of Hari Seldon's "planned" history, and could jeopardize its success. It's just so antithetical to what I would have expected Asimov to believe based on the above quote.

Asimov's also not known for his characterization skills, and he earns that reputation in this book. This is a great story about the fall of an empire, and the attempt to expedite the recovery of civilization as the galaxy knows it; it's a great story about the perils of stagnation.

But don't read i...more Isaac Asimov is responsible for one of my favorite quotes (though not from this book):

"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."

And that ends up becoming one of my biggest problems with this book, that despite the implication of that quote, the entire premise of this book is based on solving problems through ignorance.

People cannot be permitted to undertake the study of "psychohistory" because knowledge of it would alter the course of Hari Seldon's "planned" history, and could jeopardize its success. It's just so antithetical to what I would have expected Asimov to believe based on the above quote.

Asimov's also not known for his characterization skills, and he earns that reputation in this book. This is a great story about the fall of an empire, and the attempt to expedite the recovery of civilization as the galaxy knows it; it's a great story about the perils of stagnation.

But don't read it expecting deep, well developed, engaging characters. The book is a collection of five shorter stories covering different generations of people, but the protagonist in each is uncannily like most of the others: an extremely perceptive man, able to out maneuver political allies and seemingly the forces of history itself -- always at the final moment and in a way that is meant to surprise even the reader. He is almost a little too flawless.

It is also always men, there is only one woman ever even depicted in the book, and she's a nagging daughter of a king and wife of another king who was married off for political reasons. The only other mention of women is in reference to doing household chores and their use of appliances for that purpose. Granted, this was published in 1951, gender roles were of course very different then, but I still found it striking how completely absent they were, as though it were an entire galaxy devoid of women.

I enjoy the overarching story and the premise for it, that is all well constructed, but I'm not sure what it's done to earn itself the reputation as such a classic piece of sci-fi literature....less

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