bookshelves: currently-reading
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bookshelves: currently-reading
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Third in the Foundation Trilogy, but fourth chronologically counting Prelude.
Like several of the books, it contains two 'books' within it. The first deals with the continued threat of the Mule, who has conquered the First Foundation through his mutant powers of emotional mind control. The Mule continues the search for the Second Foundation, and knows that they have been tampering with the people he has Converted. The faithful Hans Pritcher (due to Conversion), who tried to murder the Mule leads the search, and the Mule pairs him with a bright 'Unconverted' youngster, secretly telling them they need to watch the other. The first part ends with the Mule believing he finds the Second Foundation...
The second part is the search for the Second Foundation by a few of the First Foundation. Son of Bayta Darrell (the woman who originally prevented the Mule from locating the Second foundation by killing Ebling Mis before he told), and his 14 year old daughter, Arkady, are key figures. First Foundationers know the threat of being controlled by Second Foundations similar to how it was with the Mule, and look to destroy the Second Foundation so that the Seldon plan can continue with them.
I really like the social logic that Asimov puts into the societies, and the delicate manner to which success is to be achieved. The question, 'am I doing this of my free will, or am I manipulated'...subsequently, 'Even though I want to, I won't do this because you think I will'...but 'Do you think I won't do this because I'll think that you'll think...wow, talk about paranoia...
The ending was very satisfactory, and loose ends were tied up well...now a ~twenty year break from writing the series for Asimov, but looking forward to Foundation's Edge because I liked the style of Prelude to Foundation which was written after the hiatus as well, and that Foudation's Edge won the Hugo Award. ]]>
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bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: to-read
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Three or four stars...I wish they had halves...does it matter? Well, I've had this book for many years but never read it. I bought it who knows when because it is part of the series of 'A Wrinkle in Time'. I still remember the wonder I had when I read 'Wrinkle', and plan to read it and the others of the series again some day.
'Waters' was enjoyable, and not dependent on the previous books to understand. The twins, Sandy and Dennys, are now 15, and were known to be doers and the pragmatists in the family of geniuses...always happy with their role. In their quest to satisfy their hunger/thirst they end up in their mother's lab, and mess around with one of their father's experiments in progress.
As it's winter in New England, they wish for somewhere warm and sparsely populated...they are transported somewhere in place and time...a desert land with midgets, dog-sized mammoths, manticores, seraphim and nephilim. Japheth saves them at first, his sister Yalith develops a special relationship with 'the Sand' and 'the Den', his father Noah, and beautiful (experienced) sister-in-law Tiglah also have their roles.
Nice story from Madelieine where believing in Unicorns always has a place in her world and ours. ]]>
Chronologically, this is the third in the series, and so far it dragged the most for me (at least the first 3/4 of the book). Part was because it was two parts, the first where a young, agressive general gets a chance to make his mark by attacking the Foundation at the periphery of the Galaxy (not more than legend to many of those in the Empire).
The Foundation survives and looks for the next Seldon crisis in the second part, confident that everything will work out since they have already passed four Seldon crises. Things go awry in the Seldon plan...Seldon appears and talks about the current crisis, but it does not consider a mutant called the MULE! Destruction of the Foundation seems imminent, as Elbis Mils (the smartest psychologist in the Foundation) flees from the Mule to search for the location of the Second Foundation, always mentioned and know, but only as legend. Mils attempts to retrace the steps of Hari Seldon before the Mule gets him and his friends Toran, his pretty wife, and the Mule's runaway jester, Magnifico.
As I said, this ended pretty well, so I will be continuing the series... ]]>