Foundation

Paperback, 272 pages

English language

Published Dec. 5, 2008 by Del Rey.

ISBN:
978-0-553-38257-0
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OCLC Number:
53896777

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4 stars (6 reviews)

Foundation is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is the first published in his Foundation Trilogy (later expanded into the Foundation series). Foundation is a cycle of five interrelated short stories, first published as a single book by Gnome Press in 1951. Collectively they tell the early story of the Foundation, an institute founded by psychohistorian Hari Seldon to preserve the best of galactic civilization after the collapse of the Galactic Empire.

63 editions

Review of 'Foundation' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

The Foundation series are some of my favorite books. They're definitely a product of their time (Asimov was clearly more comfortable with writing short stories for magazines than with writing novels, and his biases are obvious in the misogynistic treatment of the few women in the story) but their basic ideas hold up well.

I personally really enjoy the rather dry political tone, and both the lack of focus on character development and the long time-skips are fitting given the premise of the story (which posits a theory of "psychohistory" in which the overall trajectory of a large group is emphasized over the actions of individuals, and which can be used to predict and direct the future over long periods of time). The plot twists and reveals also never come out of nowhere, and sufficiently tie back to previous details to make each individual part feel neat and tidy.

reviewed Fundació by Isaac Asimov

El poder i el coneixement, jugant al gat i la rata, la humanitat en el seu joc habitual

5 stars

Una nova i preciosa edició d'un clàssic entre clàssics. Una saga escrita entre els anys 50s i 90s del segle 20 (no us perdeu especialment els 3 primers volums) que, com sempre feia Asimov, mentre ens explicava històries de tecnologia, robots i espai en el fons ens parlava del ser humà, com a individu, com a col·lectiu, de com ens relacionem, de com ens veiem com a individus i com ens projectem a la societat.

Another one of those "Why do people like this so much" books

3 stars

This time, I'm not gonna read the whole trilogy.

I'm baffled that I don't enjoy another one of those books that so many people hype. I like some of his other books, but maybe I just don't fancy his writing style.

This whole system of "Is it gonna work? IS IT REALLY GONNA WORK?!?!? Yes it worked" is just not my jam. There wasn't that much sci-fi in this one as well, it's just a very minor detail to it.

This whole books starts with a guy that invents a way to guess what will happen in the future and nobody else can do that somehow. It was something that was invented and not some magic device. How is it impossible for everyone else to figure this out? Why did everyone just fall back a thousand steps in technology? Why did nobody look much more into it the first time …

avatar for pearlbear@bookwyrm.social

rated it

3 stars

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