Foundation (Foundation, #1) in Overdue Podcast

Aug 30, 2013 Jason rated it liked it

Shelves: own

The beginning of the decent. The preservation of knowledge to fight ignorance. A review of human history wrapped in science fiction decoupage.

This is a study of macro-psychology, anthropology, politics, religion, statistical analysis, and so much more. An intelligently realized, massively scoped fiction that is also fun to read. Emotionally engaging?... meh, but intelligent and fun none the less. The best analogy I can think of is to compare reading this book to watching the process of a truly The beginning of the decent. The preservation of knowledge to fight ignorance. A review of human history wrapped in science fiction decoupage.

This is a study of macro-psychology, anthropology, politics, religion, statistical analysis, and so much more. An intelligently realized, massively scoped fiction that is also fun to read. Emotionally engaging?... meh, but intelligent and fun none the less. The best analogy I can think of is to compare reading this book to watching the process of a truly magnificent Rube Goldberg Machine doing it's thing - you are amazed by the ingenuity, forethought, and complexity of it all, but perhaps are not all that invested in the actual task it accomplishes (prove me wrong Asimov, make me care, I am committing to reading the first three).

I am going to resist going into the specifics in this case, because I know that I can not describe Psychohistory or delve into the brilliant underpinning themes and analysis without getting sucked into a black hole that will consume my soul at this keyboard - plus so many have done so, brilliantly, and I doubt I have anything to add to the plethora of information and debate that already exists.

Seldon, Hardin, and Mallow are the sequential protagonists of this book and they are fun and likeable, but in an uncomplicated way, they make hard choices and are all playing the long-game, but if there is one thing that irks me it tends to be flat characters. I crave depth and that is not what this book is about, there is not nearly enough time to do so when such an expanse of plot needs to be covered. I do wish there was a bit more of Ponyets, a somewhat minor protagonist who seemed to be clever and pragmatic, but unlike so many others not as interested in the intergalactic far-reaching future. This book in it's need to provide such a large scale and wide scope leaps through time from one crisis to the era of the next, leaving the two-dimensional characters from the prior generation behind.

A fun summer read that will make you think, if not feel. ...more

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Dec 21, 2016 Sarina M rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: a

My friend recommended me this book, and he said "it is the Roman Empire, in space", which made me imagine it would be a really fun read. I am a bit disappointed, as it reads slightly as a history book but it's not interesting like history because when reading history one can be like "wow that really happened". There is no character development as it jumps through decades at a time in order to cover centuries, thus i didn't stick with characters long enough to care about them.

At the same time it ...more

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