David Johnston
2018-07-27 19:16:51 UTC
The Foundation Trilogy is fascinating to me…but not so much for the
prose style or characterization which are merely serviceable. It’s
science fiction from the 50s after all. Rather it fascinates for the
scope and originality of the premise. This is Big Idea science fiction,
but not written by an author who is so enraptured by his Big Idea that
he fails to grasp that it has problems or to admit to them. That was one
of Asimov’s strengths as compared to many of his peers. Compare to
Starship Troopers where the author is more interested in making his
ideological point than he is in acknowledging any counterpoint, instead
simply declaring that <obvious problem> just doesn’t happen.
In short, I think the Foundation Trilogy is a worthwhile read but not
absolutely the best thing ever written for of all of it’s intriguing
originality. Not even the best thing Asimov ever wrote. For that look to
the Caves of Steel and Nightfall (the short story, not the superfluous
expansion). Asimov left the Trilogy on the shelf for a long time but
toward the end of his life he returned to it. Of those I thought
Foundation’s Edge was a pretty neat update and sequel. Anything after
that…sigh… Feeling compelled to tie absolutely every novel together into
one timeline didn’t work so well for me.
prose style or characterization which are merely serviceable. It’s
science fiction from the 50s after all. Rather it fascinates for the
scope and originality of the premise. This is Big Idea science fiction,
but not written by an author who is so enraptured by his Big Idea that
he fails to grasp that it has problems or to admit to them. That was one
of Asimov’s strengths as compared to many of his peers. Compare to
Starship Troopers where the author is more interested in making his
ideological point than he is in acknowledging any counterpoint, instead
simply declaring that <obvious problem> just doesn’t happen.
In short, I think the Foundation Trilogy is a worthwhile read but not
absolutely the best thing ever written for of all of it’s intriguing
originality. Not even the best thing Asimov ever wrote. For that look to
the Caves of Steel and Nightfall (the short story, not the superfluous
expansion). Asimov left the Trilogy on the shelf for a long time but
toward the end of his life he returned to it. Of those I thought
Foundation’s Edge was a pretty neat update and sequel. Anything after
that…sigh… Feeling compelled to tie absolutely every novel together into
one timeline didn’t work so well for me.