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Foundation (Publication Order) #5
Foundation and Earth
Golan Trevize, former Councilman of the First Foundation, has chosen the future, and it is Gaia. A superorganism, Gaia is a holistic planet with a common consciousness so intensely united that every dewdrop, every pebble, every being, can speak for all—and feel for all. It is a realm in which privacy is not only undesirable, it is incomprehensible.
But is it the right choice for the destiny of mankind? While Trevize feels it is, that is not enough. He must know.
Trevize believes the answer lies at the site of humanity's roots: fabled Earth . . . if it still exists. For no one is sure where the planet of Gaia's first settlers is to be found in the immense wilderness of the Galaxy. Nor can anyone explain why no record of Earth has been preserved, no mention of it made anywhere in Gaia's vast world-memory. It is an enigma Trevize is determined to resolve, and a quest he is determined to undertake, at any cost.
[ Original description here:
Горстка смельчаков пытается найти прародину человечества - Землю, чтобы получить разгадку тайн истории Галактики.
= A handful of brave souls trying to find humanity's ancestral home—the Earth, to get answers to the mysteries of the history of the Galaxy.]
But is it the right choice for the destiny of mankind? While Trevize feels it is, that is not enough. He must know.
Trevize believes the answer lies at the site of humanity's roots: fabled Earth . . . if it still exists. For no one is sure where the planet of Gaia's first settlers is to be found in the immense wilderness of the Galaxy. Nor can anyone explain why no record of Earth has been preserved, no mention of it made anywhere in Gaia's vast world-memory. It is an enigma Trevize is determined to resolve, and a quest he is determined to undertake, at any cost.
[ Original description here:
Горстка смельчаков пытается найти прародину человечества - Землю, чтобы получить разгадку тайн истории Галактики.
= A handful of brave souls trying to find humanity's ancestral home—the Earth, to get answers to the mysteries of the history of the Galaxy.]
499 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1986
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,468 books25.8k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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October 30, 2021
Foundation and Earth (Foundation #5), Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Earth is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series. It was published in 1986, four years after the first sequel to the Foundation trilogy, which is titled Foundation's Edge.
Several centuries after the events of Second Foundation, two citizens of the Foundation seek to find Earth, the legendary planet where humans are said to have originated. Even less is known about Earth than was the case in Foundation, when scholars still seem to know the location of 'Sol'. The story follows on from Foundation's Edge, but can be read as a complete work in itself. (It does, however, give away most of the mysteries around which Foundation's Edge is built.)
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه مارس سال1990میلادی
عنوان: بنیاد کهکشانی و زمین؛ نویسنده: آیزاک آسیموف؛ مترجم: پیمان اسماعیلیان خامنه؛ تهران، بنیاد مستضعفان و جانبازان، سال1374؛ در540ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای خیال انگیز علمی از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
سری «بنیاد»، عنوان مجموعه ای هفت جلدی، اثر «آیزاک آسیموف» است؛ که مشهورترین مجموعه ی علمی-تخیلی خوانده شده است؛ داستان این مجموعه، به ترتیب زمان انتشار، پیش نمیرود، بلکه «آسیموف»، نخست جلد سوم از مجموعه را با عنوان: «بنیاد»؛ سپس جلد چهارم را با عنوان «بنیاد و امپراطوری»؛ و پس آنگه جلد پنجم را با عنوان «بنیاد دوم»، نوشتند؛ و سپس با وقفه ای طولانی مدت، جلد ششم با عنوان «لبه بنیاد»؛ و سپس همین جلد هفتم را با عنوان «بنیاد و زمین» را به مجموعه ی خویش افزودند؛ پس از آن، باز هم با وقفه ای نسبتاً طولانی، جلد نخست مجموعه با عنوان: «سرآغاز بنیاد»؛ و در نهایت نیز اندکی پیش از درگذشت خویش، جلد دوم مجموعه را با عنوان «پیشبرد بنیاد»؛ بنگاشتند؛ ...؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 22/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 07/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Foundation and Earth is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series. It was published in 1986, four years after the first sequel to the Foundation trilogy, which is titled Foundation's Edge.
Several centuries after the events of Second Foundation, two citizens of the Foundation seek to find Earth, the legendary planet where humans are said to have originated. Even less is known about Earth than was the case in Foundation, when scholars still seem to know the location of 'Sol'. The story follows on from Foundation's Edge, but can be read as a complete work in itself. (It does, however, give away most of the mysteries around which Foundation's Edge is built.)
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه مارس سال1990میلادی
عنوان: بنیاد کهکشانی و زمین؛ نویسنده: آیزاک آسیموف؛ مترجم: پیمان اسماعیلیان خامنه؛ تهران، بنیاد مستضعفان و جانبازان، سال1374؛ در540ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای خیال انگیز علمی از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
سری «بنیاد»، عنوان مجموعه ای هفت جلدی، اثر «آیزاک آسیموف» است؛ که مشهورترین مجموعه ی علمی-تخیلی خوانده شده است؛ داستان این مجموعه، به ترتیب زمان انتشار، پیش نمیرود، بلکه «آسیموف»، نخست جلد سوم از مجموعه را با عنوان: «بنیاد»؛ سپس جلد چهارم را با عنوان «بنیاد و امپراطوری»؛ و پس آنگه جلد پنجم را با عنوان «بنیاد دوم»، نوشتند؛ و سپس با وقفه ای طولانی مدت، جلد ششم با عنوان «لبه بنیاد»؛ و سپس همین جلد هفتم را با عنوان «بنیاد و زمین» را به مجموعه ی خویش افزودند؛ پس از آن، باز هم با وقفه ای نسبتاً طولانی، جلد نخست مجموعه با عنوان: «سرآغاز بنیاد»؛ و در نهایت نیز اندکی پیش از درگذشت خویش، جلد دوم مجموعه را با عنوان «پیشبرد بنیاد»؛ بنگاشتند؛ ...؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 22/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 07/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
March 22, 2013
I loved the first 3 foundation novels. But this one, and to a lesser but still significant extent, the previous one, were awful.
Have you seen the first season of the tv show 24?
It follows various characters through 24 straight hours of an action packed day. Jack Bauer, the main character, is doing whatever the main plot of the season is, saving the president or whatever.
All the while, as filler, other things are happening. The worst of all are the ridiculous storylines following his daughter, which are shoehorned in just to fill time and to give roundabout excuses for why sometimes Jack has to do things that no rational person would ever do, if they didn't have a child in trouble.
At one point during one of the seasons, his daughter is hiking through the desert and gets caught in a bear trap and is being stalked by a mountain lion.
Well, that is pretty much exactly what this entire book is. Jack Bauer's daughter, caught in the desert, being stalked by a mountain lion. For no reason, except to be used as a plot device later.
BUT what makes this even WORSE, is that there IS no actual plot going on at the same time, and this book ENDS THE SERIES.
It's as if the whole 24 episodes of the series were of Jack's Daughter caught in a bear trap, while Jack is off doing something that suddenly we aren't being told anything about.
At the end of the last book, Asimov completely invalidates the hero of this series, which is psychohistory and The Plan, by mind controlling everyone involved. I was waiting, hoping, through this book that at some point, they would undo that damage and get back on track. But they didn't, they just made it worse.
Not only did they just decide to cancel the plan based on one man's claimed "rightness", they never even explore or explain or, god forbid, TEST this "rightness" at any point. Just for some reason that no one knows, this one guy is magically *right* about things. Even though he is actually wrong about other things all the time. At least the character has the good sense to be suspicious about this magical rightness, and goes on a search on a completely unrelated quest which he "rightly" knows will lead him to some answers. But it doesn't lead him to answers, it just leads him to the end of the story. And it takes 500 pages to do it, and the only upside is that by that point I was soo desperate for the book to be over, that I was more able to accept whatever ending he wanted to give me.
Oh, and another thing - NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK.
Read the previous 4 books. The plot will not have changed one iota from what it was at that point after you have read the 5th. The (completely unlikable) characters go on a quest to determine whether their decision should stay the same. And it does. Bingo bango. End of story.
I don't know what I'm saying anymore. This book sucks.
Have you seen the first season of the tv show 24?
It follows various characters through 24 straight hours of an action packed day. Jack Bauer, the main character, is doing whatever the main plot of the season is, saving the president or whatever.
All the while, as filler, other things are happening. The worst of all are the ridiculous storylines following his daughter, which are shoehorned in just to fill time and to give roundabout excuses for why sometimes Jack has to do things that no rational person would ever do, if they didn't have a child in trouble.
At one point during one of the seasons, his daughter is hiking through the desert and gets caught in a bear trap and is being stalked by a mountain lion.
Well, that is pretty much exactly what this entire book is. Jack Bauer's daughter, caught in the desert, being stalked by a mountain lion. For no reason, except to be used as a plot device later.
BUT what makes this even WORSE, is that there IS no actual plot going on at the same time, and this book ENDS THE SERIES.
It's as if the whole 24 episodes of the series were of Jack's Daughter caught in a bear trap, while Jack is off doing something that suddenly we aren't being told anything about.
At the end of the last book, Asimov completely invalidates the hero of this series, which is psychohistory and The Plan, by mind controlling everyone involved. I was waiting, hoping, through this book that at some point, they would undo that damage and get back on track. But they didn't, they just made it worse.
Not only did they just decide to cancel the plan based on one man's claimed "rightness", they never even explore or explain or, god forbid, TEST this "rightness" at any point. Just for some reason that no one knows, this one guy is magically *right* about things. Even though he is actually wrong about other things all the time. At least the character has the good sense to be suspicious about this magical rightness, and goes on a search on a completely unrelated quest which he "rightly" knows will lead him to some answers. But it doesn't lead him to answers, it just leads him to the end of the story. And it takes 500 pages to do it, and the only upside is that by that point I was soo desperate for the book to be over, that I was more able to accept whatever ending he wanted to give me.
Oh, and another thing - NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK.
Read the previous 4 books. The plot will not have changed one iota from what it was at that point after you have read the 5th. The (completely unlikable) characters go on a quest to determine whether their decision should stay the same. And it does. Bingo bango. End of story.
I don't know what I'm saying anymore. This book sucks.
September 24, 2021
Robot/Empire/Foundation. Book #14: Chronologically the seventh and last book in the Foundation series, published 34 years after the first Foundation book! Our protagonists from, and currently residing at the Foundation's Edge have one last adventure, they need to be absolute sure of the path they have chosen for humanity, and to determine this, they have to find the planet where it all began, the planet that every single record of has been destroyed, the planet that is more mythological than anything, they seek planet Earth!!
For this series to win the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series, you would expect a very good finale, and Isaac Asimov indeed does provide one as essentially the adventurers' search for Earth takes them back physically through the series itself! How's that so? Well not wanting to spoil it for you, I won't share details, but it's some pretty impressively coherent and detailed storytelling to finish the 35+ years Robots/Galactic Empire/Foundation reality with this book. What Asimov has done well throughout this series is try and foretell what the overriding priorities of a many thousands year old human race would be, and how they would seek to determine, and then achieve said priorities. Very much a 'science' science-fiction book and series, but also very much the top of the genre, possible never to be surpassed. 8 out of 12, because time itself has made some of the interactions between characters especially between male, female and/or the non-gendered seem a bit quaint and not fit in with the wider scope of the rest of the series, because of the age it was written.
For this series to win the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series, you would expect a very good finale, and Isaac Asimov indeed does provide one as essentially the adventurers' search for Earth takes them back physically through the series itself! How's that so? Well not wanting to spoil it for you, I won't share details, but it's some pretty impressively coherent and detailed storytelling to finish the 35+ years Robots/Galactic Empire/Foundation reality with this book. What Asimov has done well throughout this series is try and foretell what the overriding priorities of a many thousands year old human race would be, and how they would seek to determine, and then achieve said priorities. Very much a 'science' science-fiction book and series, but also very much the top of the genre, possible never to be surpassed. 8 out of 12, because time itself has made some of the interactions between characters especially between male, female and/or the non-gendered seem a bit quaint and not fit in with the wider scope of the rest of the series, because of the age it was written.
June 10, 2011
Ouch, what a disappointment. I had really enjoyed the plot and characters of "Foundation's Edge" and was looking forward to finishing up the series with this book. Most of the books in the series have their flaws, but are generally pretty entertaining. This final volume has a series of problems.
The plot: There is just enough plot here for a short story. The crew is searching for earth. Why? I forget, and Asimov doesn't remind us, opting instead for pages and pages of unpleasant bickering between the characters and inexplicably, lots of talk about sex. I am no Puritan, but I don't think sex appears at all in the other six books.
The characters: Golan Trevize, who was an intrepid and innovative explorer in "Edge", here is really unappealing. He is rude to his friend, nasty to Bliss, and downright cruel to a child called Follum. Pelorat is as arcane and boring as Asimov is as a writer in this book. Bliss says the same things over and over. They have no depth and only argue with each other through the long, long pages of the book.
The planets they visit: Is that all there is? Is that the best Asimov could come up with?
The repetition: Certain arguments and phrases are repeated over and over and over, and have nothing to do with the plot. For example: "Bliss did you control my/his mind?" "That child Follum is a pain" and "I am Bliss but I am also I/we/Gaia". We get it the first time, but Asimov repeats these same dialogues like a broken record.
The inane dialogue: In between the disappointing action scenes, which are few and far between, the characters speculate endlessly about unimportant things unrelated to the plot. It is hard to get through these passages without skimming. For example: Is a hermaphrodite a male or a female?
The Seldon Plan: It is hardly even mentioned.
The ending: Disappointed! I do recommend most of the other books, but this one was a long, boring slog to a very drab letdown of an ending.
The plot: There is just enough plot here for a short story. The crew is searching for earth. Why? I forget, and Asimov doesn't remind us, opting instead for pages and pages of unpleasant bickering between the characters and inexplicably, lots of talk about sex. I am no Puritan, but I don't think sex appears at all in the other six books.
The characters: Golan Trevize, who was an intrepid and innovative explorer in "Edge", here is really unappealing. He is rude to his friend, nasty to Bliss, and downright cruel to a child called Follum. Pelorat is as arcane and boring as Asimov is as a writer in this book. Bliss says the same things over and over. They have no depth and only argue with each other through the long, long pages of the book.
The planets they visit: Is that all there is? Is that the best Asimov could come up with?
The repetition: Certain arguments and phrases are repeated over and over and over, and have nothing to do with the plot. For example: "Bliss did you control my/his mind?" "That child Follum is a pain" and "I am Bliss but I am also I/we/Gaia". We get it the first time, but Asimov repeats these same dialogues like a broken record.
The inane dialogue: In between the disappointing action scenes, which are few and far between, the characters speculate endlessly about unimportant things unrelated to the plot. It is hard to get through these passages without skimming. For example: Is a hermaphrodite a male or a female?
The Seldon Plan: It is hardly even mentioned.
The ending: Disappointed! I do recommend most of the other books, but this one was a long, boring slog to a very drab letdown of an ending.
June 1, 2016
At the beginning of this year part of my vague reading plan was to reread the original Foundation Trilogy then move on to the subsequent unread Foundation books that Asimov wrote during the 80s, 30 years after the last book of the trilogy, Second Foundation. I never got around to reading these later volumes for reasons that I already explained in my review of Foundation's Edge. Anyway, to cut a dull anecdote short, 80s Foundation books are just as entertaining as the original trilogy from the 50s.
Foundation and Earth follows directly from Foundation's Edge, the previous volume. The central character is once again Golan Trevize, his elderly sidekick Janov Pelorat, and Bliss, the posthuman woman who is part of the planet Gaia’s hive mind. The basic story arc is very simple, Trevize made a decision at the end of Foundation's Edge that will affect all of humanity. According to Gaia he has a unique innate ability to make the correct decision based on incomplete data; an ability he neither understands or trust. He is therefore not happy to be responsible for making the most important decision in history without knowing why he made that decision. The only way he can think of to clarify or validate this decision for himself is to find Earth where he expects that he can find the explanation for his own monumental but mysterious decision.
The straightforward storyline tells of the three central characters’ adventures in their search for Earth on board the super advance “gravitic” (FTL speed capable) spaceship called the “Far Star”. However, why Trevize thinks he will find his answer on Earth is not clearly explained until the end of the book.
If you are familiar with the Foundation series the lack of aliens in this space opera should come as no surprise to you. However, Trevize and co. do encounter some very strange people on the human colony planets that they visit during their search mission. The difficult search for and eventual discovery of Earth’s location is quite well built up from the beginning of the book. Asimov has always loved the mystery genre and he revels in creating the mystique and mysteries of Earth which he has already hinted at in Foundation's Edge.
Foundation and Earth is not an action-packed narrative, however, apart from barely escaping from some fierce dogs there is no scene of battle or carnage to speak of. This book is packed to the gills with dialogues from which all the expositions are communicated. It is to Asimov’s credit that in spite of having far more dialogue than action the book is never boring. While not a great prose stylist there is an affable tone to his narrative that is quite charming and engaging; though the dialogues tend to be slightly stilted, quaint, polite and often rather formal. However, they are often amusing and charming. There is not a lot of depth to the characters who tend to be defined by their personal quirks but they are likable enough. However, Trevize tends to be a little anal retentive about certain things and the conversations the three main characters have together can be a little repetitious at times. Unlike his 50s books, there are some (very mild) sex scenes that seem a little awkward. There is no vulgarity in the writing but the word penis does make a surprise appearance which caused me to spill my coffee. Also notable is an unexpected cameo appearance of one of Asimov’s very best characters from his 50s books.
If I can glean one theme from this book it is that left to our own devices humanity will eventually come a cropper due to our natural disunity and selfishness. That said, in the Foundation universe humanity work well enough together to colonize the entire galaxy, but there are some obvious signs of decay.
Foundation and Earth is very readable and entertaining, it is not as tight or fast moving as the original Foundation books but it is also quite epic in scope in spite of focusing on just three main characters in a single linear plot line. This is the last sequel to the original trilogy that he wrote, but it is followed by two prequels, Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation which I intend to read next year. After these two, there are some Foundation books written by David Brin, Greg Bear etc. which I probably will not bother with.
Foundation and Earth follows directly from Foundation's Edge, the previous volume. The central character is once again Golan Trevize, his elderly sidekick Janov Pelorat, and Bliss, the posthuman woman who is part of the planet Gaia’s hive mind. The basic story arc is very simple, Trevize made a decision at the end of Foundation's Edge that will affect all of humanity. According to Gaia he has a unique innate ability to make the correct decision based on incomplete data; an ability he neither understands or trust. He is therefore not happy to be responsible for making the most important decision in history without knowing why he made that decision. The only way he can think of to clarify or validate this decision for himself is to find Earth where he expects that he can find the explanation for his own monumental but mysterious decision.
The straightforward storyline tells of the three central characters’ adventures in their search for Earth on board the super advance “gravitic” (FTL speed capable) spaceship called the “Far Star”. However, why Trevize thinks he will find his answer on Earth is not clearly explained until the end of the book.
If you are familiar with the Foundation series the lack of aliens in this space opera should come as no surprise to you. However, Trevize and co. do encounter some very strange people on the human colony planets that they visit during their search mission. The difficult search for and eventual discovery of Earth’s location is quite well built up from the beginning of the book. Asimov has always loved the mystery genre and he revels in creating the mystique and mysteries of Earth which he has already hinted at in Foundation's Edge.
Foundation and Earth is not an action-packed narrative, however, apart from barely escaping from some fierce dogs there is no scene of battle or carnage to speak of. This book is packed to the gills with dialogues from which all the expositions are communicated. It is to Asimov’s credit that in spite of having far more dialogue than action the book is never boring. While not a great prose stylist there is an affable tone to his narrative that is quite charming and engaging; though the dialogues tend to be slightly stilted, quaint, polite and often rather formal. However, they are often amusing and charming. There is not a lot of depth to the characters who tend to be defined by their personal quirks but they are likable enough. However, Trevize tends to be a little anal retentive about certain things and the conversations the three main characters have together can be a little repetitious at times. Unlike his 50s books, there are some (very mild) sex scenes that seem a little awkward. There is no vulgarity in the writing but the word penis does make a surprise appearance which caused me to spill my coffee. Also notable is an unexpected cameo appearance of one of Asimov’s very best characters from his 50s books.
If I can glean one theme from this book it is that left to our own devices humanity will eventually come a cropper due to our natural disunity and selfishness. That said, in the Foundation universe humanity work well enough together to colonize the entire galaxy, but there are some obvious signs of decay.
Foundation and Earth is very readable and entertaining, it is not as tight or fast moving as the original Foundation books but it is also quite epic in scope in spite of focusing on just three main characters in a single linear plot line. This is the last sequel to the original trilogy that he wrote, but it is followed by two prequels, Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation which I intend to read next year. After these two, there are some Foundation books written by David Brin, Greg Bear etc. which I probably will not bother with.
December 24, 2013
So, the weakest part of the Foundation series is that Asimov's draws his characters so thinly, they might as well be cartoons. Of course, when the story is spanning centuries and the main character is civilization itself, you don't mind so much.
Unfortunately, Foundation and Earth is the worst of all possible worlds. Instead of millenia, we get a month stuck on a spaceship with three people (if you call a planetary consciousness inhabiting the mind of a sorority girl a person, that is) who in theory are on a quest to find Earth, but seem more intent on boring each other (and us unfortunate readers trapped with them) to tears.
Asimov even comments on how tedious the colloquies we get every time the ship departs from or approaches a planet are, which is really 90% of the story.
When not seated in their upright positions with their seat belts firmly fastened, our heroes are either aggravating or running from bureaucrats, dogs, telekinetic trannies, space STD's or killer moss. Really, there are whole pages given over to the killer moss problem.
Weirdly, the idea of species entropy and decay seems like something right up Asimov's alley, but he seems bored, eschewing novelty for a chance to tour the locales of some of his earlier work like an aging rock band that only plays its faded greatest hits.
Finally, the thing about adding robots to the Foundation universe: I love robots, robots are cool, but robots don't add a single thing to these stories.
Overall, it was great reading the original Foundation trilogy and would recommend them as required for any self - respecting scifi fan. The two later stories, not so much. In fact, they ultimately tarnish all that came before it; a clear derivation of the Seldon Plan as it was intended.
Unfortunately, Foundation and Earth is the worst of all possible worlds. Instead of millenia, we get a month stuck on a spaceship with three people (if you call a planetary consciousness inhabiting the mind of a sorority girl a person, that is) who in theory are on a quest to find Earth, but seem more intent on boring each other (and us unfortunate readers trapped with them) to tears.
Asimov even comments on how tedious the colloquies we get every time the ship departs from or approaches a planet are, which is really 90% of the story.
When not seated in their upright positions with their seat belts firmly fastened, our heroes are either aggravating or running from bureaucrats, dogs, telekinetic trannies, space STD's or killer moss. Really, there are whole pages given over to the killer moss problem.
Weirdly, the idea of species entropy and decay seems like something right up Asimov's alley, but he seems bored, eschewing novelty for a chance to tour the locales of some of his earlier work like an aging rock band that only plays its faded greatest hits.
Finally, the thing about adding robots to the Foundation universe: I love robots, robots are cool, but robots don't add a single thing to these stories.
Overall, it was great reading the original Foundation trilogy and would recommend them as required for any self - respecting scifi fan. The two later stories, not so much. In fact, they ultimately tarnish all that came before it; a clear derivation of the Seldon Plan as it was intended.
December 12, 2022
Aquí termina mi viaje por el Universo de la Fundación. Ha sido un año y medio leyendo desde la saga de los Robots, pasando por la trilogía del Imperio Galáctico y terminando con la Saga de la Fundación. Y haciendo un balance general me quedo sin ninguna duda con el Asimov de los años 50.
Ese Asimov es el de la trilogía original de la Fundación que descubrí con 13 años y que ahora me sigue maravillando, el Asimov de Yo, Robot y el de las Bóvedas de Acero con Elijah Bayley y Daneel Olivaw. Creo que son las historias que cualquier amante de la CF recuerda y que no les pasa el tiempo por encima.
Sin embargo, el Asimov de los años 80 es otro muy distinto. Las tramas son repetitivas y los personajes antipáticos. Me sorprendió mucho que al leer sobre los orígenes de la Psicohistoria me cayera tan mal Hari Seldon cuando en la trilogía original fue uno de los personajes que me marcó durante años.
Pero no solo se queda en Seldon. En este último libro no hay un personajes que no sea antipático o me ponga nervioso. Y la trama se vuelve a repetir en cada capítulo.
En Fundación y Tierra vemos el broche final que pone Asimov a su obra haciendo el recorrido inverso que vimos antes: partiendo de una Fundación ya controlando el Imperio, los protagonistas se embarcan en una aventura para encontrar la mítica Tierra desaparecida. Y aquí Asimov se da un homenaje y vamos viendo todos los planetas que aparecen en sus otras novelas pero con una estructura repetitiva de: búsqueda del planeta, se encuentra el planeta, tenemos problemas y hay que huir.
El final hace guiños a personajes muy queridos y remonta un poco pero el regusto final que deja es que sigo echando de menos la sensación que tuve cuando leí por primera vez sobre la Psicohistoria, sobre Seldon y sobre la Fundación.
Ese Asimov es el de la trilogía original de la Fundación que descubrí con 13 años y que ahora me sigue maravillando, el Asimov de Yo, Robot y el de las Bóvedas de Acero con Elijah Bayley y Daneel Olivaw. Creo que son las historias que cualquier amante de la CF recuerda y que no les pasa el tiempo por encima.
Sin embargo, el Asimov de los años 80 es otro muy distinto. Las tramas son repetitivas y los personajes antipáticos. Me sorprendió mucho que al leer sobre los orígenes de la Psicohistoria me cayera tan mal Hari Seldon cuando en la trilogía original fue uno de los personajes que me marcó durante años.
Pero no solo se queda en Seldon. En este último libro no hay un personajes que no sea antipático o me ponga nervioso. Y la trama se vuelve a repetir en cada capítulo.
En Fundación y Tierra vemos el broche final que pone Asimov a su obra haciendo el recorrido inverso que vimos antes: partiendo de una Fundación ya controlando el Imperio, los protagonistas se embarcan en una aventura para encontrar la mítica Tierra desaparecida. Y aquí Asimov se da un homenaje y vamos viendo todos los planetas que aparecen en sus otras novelas pero con una estructura repetitiva de: búsqueda del planeta, se encuentra el planeta, tenemos problemas y hay que huir.
El final hace guiños a personajes muy queridos y remonta un poco pero el regusto final que deja es que sigo echando de menos la sensación que tuve cuando leí por primera vez sobre la Psicohistoria, sobre Seldon y sobre la Fundación.
April 3, 2009
The last of the Foundation books in order of sequence and the best book of the series. Reading about it online some people complain about the lack of an ending that satisfies questions brought up in the series but I think it ends splendidly. I also felt that we have a great conclusion to the question of why Earth and Gaia, the purpose of the Seldon plan and what the Robots were doing and why. I can't think of a better conclusion even 500 years before the end of the 1000 years "promised" us from the beginning. Gaia will continue to exert it's control until everything's unified and the galaxy will be able to hold itself against outside powers. What else can Asimov say? Some of the philosophy behind this one I've seen in other works, questions on the perception of the universe creates the universe and the idea that the galaxy seems to have been made for man are ones I very much enjoyed. If someone reads the entire series just to reach this point than it's a journey worth the effort.
July 25, 2024
„Човекът има съзнание и поведението му е достатъчно сложно, за да изглежда като плод на свободна воля.“
Възхитен съм от финала на „Фондация“! Според мен, грандиозната поредица е брилянтно написана и определено се нарежда сред най-великите литературни творби изобщо... Айзък Азимов е съчетал непреходна мъдрост и епична визия за бъдещето... Писателят несъмнено е отдал почит на значението на историческата наука за човечеството, представяйки по забележителен начин психоисторията в своите книги.
„Фондация и Земя“ е достойна последна част, която се явява продължение на „Острието на Фондацията“! Макар и сравнително предвидими, събитията в нея са изключително майсторски разказани...Тя е най-вече приключенска фантастика, тъй като не се фокусира върху двете Фондации и техните политики, а проследява страшно любопитно и стойностно космическо пътешествие на Тривайз, Пелорат и Блис в търсене на истината за Земята и смисъла на взетото решение в края на предната книга. Заедно страхотните персонажи посещават различни тайнствени планети, някои от които познати на читателите от други творби на големия Азимов, както и се забъркват в сложни премеждия...
„Няма разумна цивилизация без архиви.“
„Двамата с теб сме ексцентрици. Ние определено не сме типични примери за хората, които живеят на Терминус. Що се отнася до престъпниците, това е въпрос на дефиниция. И ако престъпниците са цената, която трябва да плащаме за въстаниците, еретиците и гениите, аз с удоволствие ще я плащам. Дори ще настоявам цената да бъде плащана.“
„В свободното общество безспорно съществува елемент на безпорядък, но това е цената, която човек плаща за възможността да въвежда новости и предизвиква промени. Общо взето, разумна цена.“
„— Използваш условно наклонение — каза най-сетне Лизалор. — Възможно било корабът да не ти е нужен повече… Това не ми върши работа.
— Бих могъл и да ви свалям звезди, но каква реална работа ще ви свършат? Фактът, че моите обещания са предпазливи и ограничени, би трябвало да ви подскаже, че са поне искрени.“
„Удивяваше се на причудливостта на древната традиция. Цели векове можеха да бъдат извикани на фокус или пък да отпаднат напълно. Цели цивилизации можеха да отминат в пълно забвение. И въпреки това от столетията, отскубнати от тези цивилизации, можеше да се появи някой и друг факт, който да бъде запомнен без никакво изкривяване — също както въпросните координати.
Преди време бе отбелязал това пред Пелорат и историкът веднага бе отвърнал, че именно заради него си струва да се занимаваш с изучаване на митове и легенди. „Въпросът е — бе казал Пелорат, — да откриеш или да прецениш кои точно конкретни компоненти на дадена легенда представят скритата под тях истина. То не е никак лесно и различните митолози най-вероятно ще изберат различни елементи — обикновено в зависимост от това, кои прилягат по-добре на техните тълкувания.“
„Само че аз слушам хиперпространствените съобщения между далечните светове и съм се научил да думам като вас, както и моите предци. Те са оставили описания на езика, но аз непрекъснато чувам нови слова и изрази, дето се променят с годините, сякаш вие, заселниците, можете да се застоите на някой свят, но не и на някоя дума.“
„— Казваш ми неща, които зная — рече Тривайз.
— Може би ги знаеш тъй добре, че вече не мислиш за тях?“
„Това ми е напълно ясно, аз просто обмислям разни идеи. В края на краищата, доколкото ни е известно, техника се е развила само веднъж — на Земята. Навсякъде другаде заселниците са я донесли със себе си. Не можеш да твърдиш, че „винаги“ се основава на нещо си, след като разполагаш само с един-единствен случай, от който да съдиш.“
„ — После — каза Геянката, — някои алфианци ще правят музика за нас по техния специален начинЗнаеш ли какво е музика?
Тя затананика най-добрата имитация на електронна хармония, на която бе способна. Лицето на Фалъм грейна.
— Имаш предвид… — последната дума бе изречена на солариански език и хлапето внезапно запя.
Очите на Блис се разшириха. Мелодията беше прекрасна, макар и някак необуздана, и учудващо богата на трели.
— Точно така — вметна Тривайз. — Музика.“
„— Значи все пак успя да го успокоиш, а, Блис?
— Не, никога не съм докосвала ума му.
— И още как — след като така безбожно погъделичка мъжката му суета.
— Съвсем косвено — усмихна се тя.
— И така да е, пак е нещо, Блис.“
„Един човек е конкретен обект и нанасяната му вреда може да бъде изчислена и преценена. Човечеството обаче е абстракция. Как да боравим с него?“
„Точно по същия начин, както много отдавна Данил с колегата си измислили четвъртия закон на роботиката, по-фундаментален от другите три, така и аз можах внезапно да видя трета базисна аксиома на психоисторията, по-фундаментална от другите две; толкова фундаментална, че никой даже не се е сетил да я спомене.“
Възхитен съм от финала на „Фондация“! Според мен, грандиозната поредица е брилянтно написана и определено се нарежда сред най-великите литературни творби изобщо... Айзък Азимов е съчетал непреходна мъдрост и епична визия за бъдещето... Писателят несъмнено е отдал почит на значението на историческата наука за човечеството, представяйки по забележителен начин психоисторията в своите книги.
„Фондация и Земя“ е достойна последна част, която се явява продължение на „Острието на Фондацията“! Макар и сравнително предвидими, събитията в нея са изключително майсторски разказани...Тя е най-вече приключенска фантастика, тъй като не се фокусира върху двете Фондации и техните политики, а проследява страшно любопитно и стойностно космическо пътешествие на Тривайз, Пелорат и Блис в търсене на истината за Земята и смисъла на взетото решение в края на предната книга. Заедно страхотните персонажи посещават различни тайнствени планети, някои от които познати на читателите от други творби на големия Азимов, както и се забъркват в сложни премеждия...
„Няма разумна цивилизация без архиви.“
„Двамата с теб сме ексцентрици. Ние определено не сме типични примери за хората, които живеят на Терминус. Що се отнася до престъпниците, това е въпрос на дефиниция. И ако престъпниците са цената, която трябва да плащаме за въстаниците, еретиците и гениите, аз с удоволствие ще я плащам. Дори ще настоявам цената да бъде плащана.“
„В свободното общество безспорно съществува елемент на безпорядък, но това е цената, която човек плаща за възможността да въвежда новости и предизвиква промени. Общо взето, разумна цена.“
„— Използваш условно наклонение — каза най-сетне Лизалор. — Възможно било корабът да не ти е нужен повече… Това не ми върши работа.
— Бих могъл и да ви свалям звезди, но каква реална работа ще ви свършат? Фактът, че моите обещания са предпазливи и ограничени, би трябвало да ви подскаже, че са поне искрени.“
„Удивяваше се на причудливостта на древната традиция. Цели векове можеха да бъдат извикани на фокус или пък да отпаднат напълно. Цели цивилизации можеха да отминат в пълно забвение. И въпреки това от столетията, отскубнати от тези цивилизации, можеше да се появи някой и друг факт, който да бъде запомнен без никакво изкривяване — също както въпросните координати.
Преди време бе отбелязал това пред Пелорат и историкът веднага бе отвърнал, че именно заради него си струва да се занимаваш с изучаване на митове и легенди. „Въпросът е — бе казал Пелорат, — да откриеш или да прецениш кои точно конкретни компоненти на дадена легенда представят скритата под тях истина. То не е никак лесно и различните митолози най-вероятно ще изберат различни елементи — обикновено в зависимост от това, кои прилягат по-добре на техните тълкувания.“
„Само че аз слушам хиперпространствените съобщения между далечните светове и съм се научил да думам като вас, както и моите предци. Те са оставили описания на езика, но аз непрекъснато чувам нови слова и изрази, дето се променят с годините, сякаш вие, заселниците, можете да се застоите на някой свят, но не и на някоя дума.“
„— Казваш ми неща, които зная — рече Тривайз.
— Може би ги знаеш тъй добре, че вече не мислиш за тях?“
„Това ми е напълно ясно, аз просто обмислям разни идеи. В края на краищата, доколкото ни е известно, техника се е развила само веднъж — на Земята. Навсякъде другаде заселниците са я донесли със себе си. Не можеш да твърдиш, че „винаги“ се основава на нещо си, след като разполагаш само с един-единствен случай, от който да съдиш.“
„ — После — каза Геянката, — някои алфианци ще правят музика за нас по техния специален начинЗнаеш ли какво е музика?
Тя затананика най-добрата имитация на електронна хармония, на която бе способна. Лицето на Фалъм грейна.
— Имаш предвид… — последната дума бе изречена на солариански език и хлапето внезапно запя.
Очите на Блис се разшириха. Мелодията беше прекрасна, макар и някак необуздана, и учудващо богата на трели.
— Точно така — вметна Тривайз. — Музика.“
„— Значи все пак успя да го успокоиш, а, Блис?
— Не, никога не съм докосвала ума му.
— И още как — след като така безбожно погъделичка мъжката му суета.
— Съвсем косвено — усмихна се тя.
— И така да е, пак е нещо, Блис.“
„Един човек е конкретен обект и нанасяната му вреда може да бъде изчислена и преценена. Човечеството обаче е абстракция. Как да боравим с него?“
„Точно по същия начин, както много отдавна Данил с колегата си измислили четвъртия закон на роботиката, по-фундаментален от другите три, така и аз можах внезапно да видя трета базисна аксиома на психоисторията, по-фундаментална от другите две; толкова фундаментална, че никой даже не се е сетил да я спомене.“
June 1, 2012
I'm about to read the prequels, but as of now, this is the worst of the 5 foundation books i've read. I'll start positive, and say I like the characters. Looking back at the first foundation book, when you may only have 50 pages with a set of characters, and that 50 pages would be almost entirely devoted to weaving a complex plot, it certainly is a huge improvement so spend basically 1000 pages with the same set of characters, almost forming a buddy-buddy situation in which I actually cared about the characters. Bliss was a good addition as well, because I felt she acted as great character foil for Golan when they argued. The arguments also did a good job of exploring the themes of individuality and unity.
Where this story was poor was the plot. I didn't like the fact that Foundation's Edge took the plot beyond the Seldon Plan, but at least in that book the two foundations were a large part of the story, and the epic showdown at the end was well set-up. Here, they set out to look for Earth (again) for poorly justified reasons. One could say Golan's opinion that he'd find what he wanted to find was an acceptable reason because he's always right, but personally I never bought into that idea that he has some magical talent to be right. Not to mention the fact that it was demonstrated to be wrong several times.
And the idea of searching for Earth isn't what bugged me. Originally, I found the concept of them stumbling upon our planet to be intriguing. But to me, the book was devoid of anything interesting. Certainly not enough to justify its 500 page length. I mean it draaaged. I've come to view the Foundation series as a slow one, but that never bothered me because I still found it enjoyable and intriguing. Here the story could progress for a long time without any discovery of interest being made, which may be the idea the characters were supposed to feel, but in other Foundation books it is what kept me hooked to reading them as the new information constantly unfolded.
The ending was fairly poor as well. Daneel Olivaw, I understand, is an important character in the greater Foundation universe, but still it just seemed so, lame. I mean compare it to a book like Foundation and Empire, when it was revealed Magnifico was the Mule, and Asimov did such a good job of justifying it and making sense of it by looking at many oddities in the story. Here, it was basically like "Yeah, those few things that went in you favour, I helped you". It concluded with Trevize siding with Galaxia, which was already decided in the previous book, making this story pretty much useless, except now we there's a freaky hermaphrodite child with transducer lobes who will now help steer the galaxy. I also wished for a lot more Earth, which maybe is unfeasible due to already established ideas in the Asimovian universe, but barely any discoveries were made which shed light on our world, which was disappointing.
Also, I criticize the end discovery of Golan. I liked how he tried to use a flaw in psycohistory to justify Galaxia, as this actually was relevant to the Foundation story. Unfortunately, the idea he came up with was the possible existence of aliens from other galaxies, something that wasn't hinted at or thought of until the last few pages. Bullshit. Overall, good characters, but they couldn't save this overlong book from being stale.
Where this story was poor was the plot. I didn't like the fact that Foundation's Edge took the plot beyond the Seldon Plan, but at least in that book the two foundations were a large part of the story, and the epic showdown at the end was well set-up. Here, they set out to look for Earth (again) for poorly justified reasons. One could say Golan's opinion that he'd find what he wanted to find was an acceptable reason because he's always right, but personally I never bought into that idea that he has some magical talent to be right. Not to mention the fact that it was demonstrated to be wrong several times.
And the idea of searching for Earth isn't what bugged me. Originally, I found the concept of them stumbling upon our planet to be intriguing. But to me, the book was devoid of anything interesting. Certainly not enough to justify its 500 page length. I mean it draaaged. I've come to view the Foundation series as a slow one, but that never bothered me because I still found it enjoyable and intriguing. Here the story could progress for a long time without any discovery of interest being made, which may be the idea the characters were supposed to feel, but in other Foundation books it is what kept me hooked to reading them as the new information constantly unfolded.
The ending was fairly poor as well. Daneel Olivaw, I understand, is an important character in the greater Foundation universe, but still it just seemed so, lame. I mean compare it to a book like Foundation and Empire, when it was revealed Magnifico was the Mule, and Asimov did such a good job of justifying it and making sense of it by looking at many oddities in the story. Here, it was basically like "Yeah, those few things that went in you favour, I helped you". It concluded with Trevize siding with Galaxia, which was already decided in the previous book, making this story pretty much useless, except now we there's a freaky hermaphrodite child with transducer lobes who will now help steer the galaxy. I also wished for a lot more Earth, which maybe is unfeasible due to already established ideas in the Asimovian universe, but barely any discoveries were made which shed light on our world, which was disappointing.
Also, I criticize the end discovery of Golan. I liked how he tried to use a flaw in psycohistory to justify Galaxia, as this actually was relevant to the Foundation story. Unfortunately, the idea he came up with was the possible existence of aliens from other galaxies, something that wasn't hinted at or thought of until the last few pages. Bullshit. Overall, good characters, but they couldn't save this overlong book from being stale.
November 19, 2021
This is the conclusion to the Foundation series and I'm happy to say that I liked this better than the pen-ultimate book!
Trevize is still on a romp through the universe with his historian friend and Bliss to find Earth. Therefore, we get quite a lot of planet hopping that results in a few dire situations.
Spoiler alert: they DO find Earth so we finally find out what happened to our ancestral home.
But it's about more than that. Trevize hopes that getting to Earth will tell him why he chose Galaxia over either Foundation because he can't explain it.
So what is better? A collective or individuality?
I'm of two minds about these additional books in the series.
On one hand, I definitely liked this later look at all the planets we already had seen at other points in this universe's history. And I certainly enjoyed the recurrance of one specific character.
On the other hand, especially that recurrance and what it meant for ALL the events in the entire series (even the original trilogy) ... meh, I'm not buying it. I mean, Yeah ... riiiiight. *
Moreover, I gotta say that while I am and have been (for a long time, actually) an Asimov fangirl, I never considered him the best SF author in history.
His writing style was always sparse and while that worked exceedingly well for the robot stories and still very well in his other books, it also meant that the vast majority of the worldbuilding falls to the readers themselves. I don't actually mind that, but there are other authors out there who created lush and vivacious universes that are therefore better in my opinion.
I often liken it to a strong skeleton (compared to the weak ones of many other SF stories) versus bones with actual meat on.
And here's the thing that bothers me about these retroactively added Foundation books: Asimov admitted in an interview that he only kept writing and bringing back Daneel for example (by connecting all his series) because the readers and therefore his publisher(s) demanded it. Me no likey - I prefer an author who simply makes his vision a reality. * The author never planned it out to be like this, I’m sure. He did it after being pressured and was good enough to kinda make it work but no more.
It’s not bad, simply because Asimov really was a good writer, but one can feel that this wasn’t his original intent (it’s retconning). It’s too problematic for me though I’m aware this is criticism on a very high level.
All in all, I'm happy I read the books (and all of them), not least because they definitely have an influence on the show, but while this was better than the previous installment and while Asimov is always very good, I shall only consider the original trilogy as the actual story. And I'm kinda glad it is over now. *lol* It was time to bring the series to an end.
Trevize is still on a romp through the universe with his historian friend and Bliss to find Earth. Therefore, we get quite a lot of planet hopping that results in a few dire situations.
Spoiler alert: they DO find Earth so we finally find out what happened to our ancestral home.
But it's about more than that. Trevize hopes that getting to Earth will tell him why he chose Galaxia over either Foundation because he can't explain it.
So what is better? A collective or individuality?
I'm of two minds about these additional books in the series.
On one hand, I definitely liked this later look at all the planets we already had seen at other points in this universe's history. And I certainly enjoyed the recurrance of one specific character.
On the other hand, especially that recurrance and what it meant for ALL the events in the entire series (even the original trilogy) ... meh, I'm not buying it. I mean, Yeah ... riiiiight. *
Moreover, I gotta say that while I am and have been (for a long time, actually) an Asimov fangirl, I never considered him the best SF author in history.
His writing style was always sparse and while that worked exceedingly well for the robot stories and still very well in his other books, it also meant that the vast majority of the worldbuilding falls to the readers themselves. I don't actually mind that, but there are other authors out there who created lush and vivacious universes that are therefore better in my opinion.
I often liken it to a strong skeleton (compared to the weak ones of many other SF stories) versus bones with actual meat on.
And here's the thing that bothers me about these retroactively added Foundation books: Asimov admitted in an interview that he only kept writing and bringing back Daneel for example (by connecting all his series) because the readers and therefore his publisher(s) demanded it. Me no likey - I prefer an author who simply makes his vision a reality. * The author never planned it out to be like this, I’m sure. He did it after being pressured and was good enough to kinda make it work but no more.
It’s not bad, simply because Asimov really was a good writer, but one can feel that this wasn’t his original intent (it’s retconning). It’s too problematic for me though I’m aware this is criticism on a very high level.
All in all, I'm happy I read the books (and all of them), not least because they definitely have an influence on the show, but while this was better than the previous installment and while Asimov is always very good, I shall only consider the original trilogy as the actual story. And I'm kinda glad it is over now. *lol* It was time to bring the series to an end.
August 2, 2023
Foundation and Earth was published in 1986, twenty years after the original trilogy was awarded a Hugo for being the all-time best science fiction series in the history of the field, as voted on by The World Science Fiction Convention members. It was popularly labeled as the fifth book in The Foundation Trilogy when it appeared, a joke I'm sure Asimov grew tired of quickly. The original three volumes were written in the 1940s, followed by Foundation's Edge in 1982. Asimov tied-in all of his Galactic Empire novels and his robot stories into a consistent future history tapestry, but still managed to tell a good standalone story. I'd say Foundation and Earth can be enjoyed without knowledge of any of the earlier books, though it picks up pretty much at the point Edge ends. Asimov was never renowned for lyrical prose or poetic descriptions, but I thought this one described the vastness or space and time quite memorably. It's a classic!
March 18, 2019
فکرمیکنم قبلا هم اشاره کرده باشم که این نویسنده در واقع نویسنده مورد علاقه منه و از بچگی همراهش بزرگشدم و مسیر زندگی من به نوعی با کتاب های این نویسنده در هم امیخته و بنابراین هنوز هم هرجتیی که بتونم و کتابهاش رو پیدا کنم که متاسفانه دیگه هم چاپ نمیشن میخرم و تا حالا هم ناامید نشدم و واقعا لذت بردم.
در مورد ترجمه هم باید بگم ترجمه کتاب خیلی خوب بود(کلا گاهی فکر می کنم قدیما مترجمین بهتر بودن یا شایدم انتشاراتیا هر چیبود اون موقعا به غلط املایی و تایپی و امثالهم بر نمیخوردیم)
اصولا شاید خیلیا کتابای علمی تحیلی رو دوس نداشته باشن ولی بنظر من مخصوصا کتابای مرتبط با فضای مثل این با توجه به رشته ی دانشگاهیم یجورایی بهم ایده و انگیزه و امید میدن!
این کتاب مثلا هیچ صحنه اکشن خاصی نداشت اما روند داستان و بحث های علمیش و احتمالاتی که پیش روی من گذاشت واقعا برام جالب بود! خود سفینه!
شخصیت ها رودوست داشتم...فضاسازی رودوست داشتم و مثلهمیشه غافلگیری انتهای داستان برام خیلی جذاب بود! هیچ کدوم از کاذهای این نویسنده تا حالا برای من تکراری و قابل پیش بینی نبودن و در پاقع جزو معدود نویسندهاییه که هربار منو شگفت زده میکنه!
واقعا کتاب عالی ای بود و به علاقمندان این سبکحتما توصیه میشه
در مورد ترجمه هم باید بگم ترجمه کتاب خیلی خوب بود(کلا گاهی فکر می کنم قدیما مترجمین بهتر بودن یا شایدم انتشاراتیا هر چیبود اون موقعا به غلط املایی و تایپی و امثالهم بر نمیخوردیم)
اصولا شاید خیلیا کتابای علمی تحیلی رو دوس نداشته باشن ولی بنظر من مخصوصا کتابای مرتبط با فضای مثل این با توجه به رشته ی دانشگاهیم یجورایی بهم ایده و انگیزه و امید میدن!
این کتاب مثلا هیچ صحنه اکشن خاصی نداشت اما روند داستان و بحث های علمیش و احتمالاتی که پیش روی من گذاشت واقعا برام جالب بود! خود سفینه!
شخصیت ها رودوست داشتم...فضاسازی رودوست داشتم و مثلهمیشه غافلگیری انتهای داستان برام خیلی جذاب بود! هیچ کدوم از کاذهای این نویسنده تا حالا برای من تکراری و قابل پیش بینی نبودن و در پاقع جزو معدود نویسندهاییه که هربار منو شگفت زده میکنه!
واقعا کتاب عالی ای بود و به علاقمندان این سبکحتما توصیه میشه
Read
February 10, 2019When I read Mostly Harmless I thought it had tied up a bunch of loose ends that on reflection were better off undone. Reading Foundation and Earth wasn't quite the same but what it does is tie together the Foundation series with the Bailey series.
If you've read the rest of those series you might well now scratch your head and wonder anybody would bother to do that. It's like the man who laid carpet in the bathroom and in the garage so it would be consistent with the rest of his home.
It doesn't diminish the original stories from the 50s like The Naked Sun or Foundation and Empire but it doesn't enhance them either. I suppose writing it kept Asimov off the streets and out of trouble, at least for a while - you know what these old people are like given half a chance.
Don't read this if you are new to Asimov and want to give him a go - try one of his works from the 50s instead.
If you've read the rest of those series you might well now scratch your head and wonder anybody would bother to do that. It's like the man who laid carpet in the bathroom and in the garage so it would be consistent with the rest of his home.
It doesn't diminish the original stories from the 50s like The Naked Sun or Foundation and Empire but it doesn't enhance them either. I suppose writing it kept Asimov off the streets and out of trouble, at least for a while - you know what these old people are like given half a chance.
Don't read this if you are new to Asimov and want to give him a go - try one of his works from the 50s instead.
July 11, 2017
I really enjoyed this book, and am in awe of the way that Asimov pulled all the threads together to link his Foundation, Empire and Robot novels. I have read many of his books and this works to about 99%, as in there are a few "temporal" anomalies in the gathering together of his novels, but so few and so minor, it doesn't really count.
Sadly with 500 years to go for the culmination of Seldon's plan or whatever will be replacing it (say no more), there are no books written by Asimov himself, or with the authorisation of his estate that continue the story. (If i'm wrong , please correct me as I would be very interested to read on).
That said I thoroughly enjoyed the book and may well re-read the prequels now and the Asimov authorised (Brin, Benford, Bear) 2nd trilogy.
Sadly with 500 years to go for the culmination of Seldon's plan or whatever will be replacing it (say no more), there are no books written by Asimov himself, or with the authorisation of his estate that continue the story. (If i'm wrong , please correct me as I would be very interested to read on).
That said I thoroughly enjoyed the book and may well re-read the prequels now and the Asimov authorised (Brin, Benford, Bear) 2nd trilogy.
June 2, 2019
Ovaj revju sadrzi spojlere he he ha ha :) Nego prvo da kazem da je roman Zaduzbina i Zemlja prirodan nastavak romana na Rubu Zaduzbine, prica se bukvalno nastavlja, samo je u svakom pogledu sem kraja manje kvalitetan. A sto se tice samog kraja i skretanja sa Seldonovog Plana moram biti iskren i reci da mislim da Seldonov Plan upste nije propao vec da je odigrao svoju ulogu na najbolji moguci nacin. I mada je mozda u jednom trenutku i predstavljao okosnicu plana Danila R. Olivava morao je ustuknuti pred idejom Galaktike i njene svrsishodnosti. Nulti zakon robotike je dobio svoju realnu potporu a covecanstvo jednu veliku nadu za eone koji dolaze. Zbog kraja, Asimovljeve humanosti i kvalitetna celokupnog serijala Roboti, Carstvo i Zaduzbina ovoj knjizi moram dati svih pet zvezdica.
November 20, 2014
Terribly disappointing end to an entertaining series.
Supposedly smart people acting as insufferable morons, spouting some of the clunkiest dialogue I've ever read. The endless exposition could be forgivable, but to add insult to injury I was bored throughout.
It is so bad that it lessens the series as a whole. I wish I'd never read it.
Supposedly smart people acting as insufferable morons, spouting some of the clunkiest dialogue I've ever read. The endless exposition could be forgivable, but to add insult to injury I was bored throughout.
It is so bad that it lessens the series as a whole. I wish I'd never read it.
November 5, 2023
Repetitive, slow and sexist.
I liked the final book in my favorite sci-fi series, Foundation, but it is undeniably the worst of the series due to its loathsome main character Trevize, overt sexism, slow pacing, repetitive themes and unsatisfying conclusion.
MAJOR SPOILIES AHEAD
What works for me in this book is the space faring adventure and the variety and originality of the planets that the main cast explores. This is a direct continuation of Foundation's Edge with the same cast of Trevize, Bliss and Pelorat. Trevize is in search of the mythical Earth and its origins of the galaxy for some reason never really explained. He just has to get there which made the entire McGuffin a contrivance of the author. That is forgivable. They find the original Spacer planets, the first wave of original space explorers from 20,000 years ago on Earth. Each planet is bad in its own way. Solaria is basically a massive right wing libertarian dream with only 1200 people on the entire planet who own enormous estates and live by themselves with their robots and wealth. One planet has been taken over entirely by packs of vicious dogs and the third planet is in ruins, taken over by a deadly moss. These planets are discovered over the very heavy handed dialogue between Bliss and Trevize about the vices and virtues of individualistic cultures (represented by the Foundation) and the communistic or utopian society represented by Bliss’ Gaia planet. I totally loved the deliberate philosophy that all these elements spark in the dialogue and text but wow is it heavy handed, repetitive and boring.
Asimov indulges in space travel, planetology and cosmology and I was on board for all of this. I loved the exploration pieces of this book and was delighted to see what each planet would turn up and its implications on the main thrust of the book. But it was just too slow and boring at parts. There are lots of relationship dynamics going on particularly between Bliss and Trevize and it got old real fast. Trevize is an extremely unlikable character which is a shame because he is the main character of this book and the previous. He is extremely sexist, misogynistic, irritating and also kind of stupid. He acts on really ill conceived plans threatening the lives of everyone. And then his behavior toward the hermaphroditic child from Solaria, Fallom, is morally repugnant. I’m not sure Asimov dislikes Trevize as much as the reader, which is an issue. The entire book suffers from the terrible character of Trevize.
At any rate, yes they find Earth and there are only half robot people living underneath Earth’s moon. Apparently the robot has plans about the galaxy but is dying and needs to merge with Fallom to live together and bring harmony or something to the galaxy. This ending was weird and unsatisfying because it was a forced merger of the two competing ideas of individualism and communism and it also relegated the non-binary hermaphroditic character as a threat to be assimilated and eliminated. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Also I’m shocked that Asimov just totally abandons the Seldon plan. So we get a very weird and unsatisfying ending. It’s disappointing that the final book isn’t a thousand years later to see how Seldon’s plan fared. That should have been the way that these books went.
At any rate, I’m happy I’ve re-read this series. Despite the last book's glaring flaws, I still enjoyed it and overall LOVE this series.
I liked the final book in my favorite sci-fi series, Foundation, but it is undeniably the worst of the series due to its loathsome main character Trevize, overt sexism, slow pacing, repetitive themes and unsatisfying conclusion.
MAJOR SPOILIES AHEAD
What works for me in this book is the space faring adventure and the variety and originality of the planets that the main cast explores. This is a direct continuation of Foundation's Edge with the same cast of Trevize, Bliss and Pelorat. Trevize is in search of the mythical Earth and its origins of the galaxy for some reason never really explained. He just has to get there which made the entire McGuffin a contrivance of the author. That is forgivable. They find the original Spacer planets, the first wave of original space explorers from 20,000 years ago on Earth. Each planet is bad in its own way. Solaria is basically a massive right wing libertarian dream with only 1200 people on the entire planet who own enormous estates and live by themselves with their robots and wealth. One planet has been taken over entirely by packs of vicious dogs and the third planet is in ruins, taken over by a deadly moss. These planets are discovered over the very heavy handed dialogue between Bliss and Trevize about the vices and virtues of individualistic cultures (represented by the Foundation) and the communistic or utopian society represented by Bliss’ Gaia planet. I totally loved the deliberate philosophy that all these elements spark in the dialogue and text but wow is it heavy handed, repetitive and boring.
Asimov indulges in space travel, planetology and cosmology and I was on board for all of this. I loved the exploration pieces of this book and was delighted to see what each planet would turn up and its implications on the main thrust of the book. But it was just too slow and boring at parts. There are lots of relationship dynamics going on particularly between Bliss and Trevize and it got old real fast. Trevize is an extremely unlikable character which is a shame because he is the main character of this book and the previous. He is extremely sexist, misogynistic, irritating and also kind of stupid. He acts on really ill conceived plans threatening the lives of everyone. And then his behavior toward the hermaphroditic child from Solaria, Fallom, is morally repugnant. I’m not sure Asimov dislikes Trevize as much as the reader, which is an issue. The entire book suffers from the terrible character of Trevize.
At any rate, yes they find Earth and there are only half robot people living underneath Earth’s moon. Apparently the robot has plans about the galaxy but is dying and needs to merge with Fallom to live together and bring harmony or something to the galaxy. This ending was weird and unsatisfying because it was a forced merger of the two competing ideas of individualism and communism and it also relegated the non-binary hermaphroditic character as a threat to be assimilated and eliminated. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Also I’m shocked that Asimov just totally abandons the Seldon plan. So we get a very weird and unsatisfying ending. It’s disappointing that the final book isn’t a thousand years later to see how Seldon’s plan fared. That should have been the way that these books went.
At any rate, I’m happy I’ve re-read this series. Despite the last book's glaring flaws, I still enjoyed it and overall LOVE this series.
September 26, 2024
Завершення циклу стало таким же захоплюючим як і початок.
Фундація не посунула Дюну, але впевнено стала поруч.
П'ять книг, які у формі космічних пригод розкривають багато питань існування людства, філософії та політики.
Звісно хтось може спробувати читати це як пригоди, але Фундація змусить ваш мозок працювати. І ви або кинете читати, або ваша свідомість перебудується.
В мене похитнулись деякі радикальні переконання щодо людства, які начебто ніщо не могло змінити.
І все ж Закони психоісторії чи Закони робототехніки?
Фундація не посунула Дюну, але впевнено стала поруч.
П'ять книг, які у формі космічних пригод розкривають багато питань існування людства, філософії та політики.
Звісно хтось може спробувати читати це як пригоди, але Фундація змусить ваш мозок працювати. І ви або кинете читати, або ваша свідомість перебудується.
В мене похитнулись деякі радикальні переконання щодо людства, які начебто ніщо не могло змінити.
І все ж Закони психоісторії чи Закони робототехніки?
June 3, 2014
When the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out, one of the reviewer complaints about how the film failed to acknowledge the difference between drudgery that adds unnecessary time and doesn't advance characters versus dialogue that was about character development and furthering the plot. The scene that epitomized this involved a minute-plus segment where the camera followed two minor characters in a rowboat as they made the entire trip to shore, adding nothing and extending running length.
Foundation and Earth is like one long scene in that rowboat. Sure it doesn't involve minor characters, but good god, the whole damn thing feels like a set of boring, repeated discussions on the same set of inane topics and questions that aren't actually interesting. I guess one shouldn't be surprised because the driving motivation behind one of the characters is that he made a decision at the end of the last book and now wants to figure out why he made that choice.
The result is constant scenes where main character one debates slightly less main character three for pages about the same thing discussed 20 pages prior. She then leaves and main character two comes in, says "my good chap" (seriously) and then picks up the same damn debate. It's like reading a bad freshman year essay on choice and free will in fan fiction form.
But wait, it gets worse! While I was slowly dropping my review from three to two stars, the book had one more set of tricks up its sleeve: a reveal in the last 50 pages that basically undercut most of the thinking behind the entire original trilogy plus the book that followed it. The addition cheapened the roughly 1,250 pages that came before it in a stupid exercise in universe connection that mirrored the dumbest decisions in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Add up the fact that this reveal basically mimicked the reveal at the end of the last book and you've got a feeling of going back to the same stupid well again and again.
Part of what I enjoyed about the first Foundation trilogy was its short story nature--things moved around, you never got all that attached to one character and what was at stake kept changing. The backbone of it was this question of inevitability and free will against a science that had tried to maneuver things so they had to work out a certain way. All of that's gone here. This isn't even really a Foundation book, but more an unnecessary series connector that adds nothing and subtracts a lot in the process via a plot that no one this side of Ronald D. Moore could possibly care for in the writer's room of Battlestar Galactica.
Asimov is rightly credited with being one of the masters/creators of hard science fiction. I wonder why no one credits him with establishing the awful scifi finale too?
Foundation and Earth is like one long scene in that rowboat. Sure it doesn't involve minor characters, but good god, the whole damn thing feels like a set of boring, repeated discussions on the same set of inane topics and questions that aren't actually interesting. I guess one shouldn't be surprised because the driving motivation behind one of the characters is that he made a decision at the end of the last book and now wants to figure out why he made that choice.
The result is constant scenes where main character one debates slightly less main character three for pages about the same thing discussed 20 pages prior. She then leaves and main character two comes in, says "my good chap" (seriously) and then picks up the same damn debate. It's like reading a bad freshman year essay on choice and free will in fan fiction form.
But wait, it gets worse! While I was slowly dropping my review from three to two stars, the book had one more set of tricks up its sleeve: a reveal in the last 50 pages that basically undercut most of the thinking behind the entire original trilogy plus the book that followed it. The addition cheapened the roughly 1,250 pages that came before it in a stupid exercise in universe connection that mirrored the dumbest decisions in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Add up the fact that this reveal basically mimicked the reveal at the end of the last book and you've got a feeling of going back to the same stupid well again and again.
Part of what I enjoyed about the first Foundation trilogy was its short story nature--things moved around, you never got all that attached to one character and what was at stake kept changing. The backbone of it was this question of inevitability and free will against a science that had tried to maneuver things so they had to work out a certain way. All of that's gone here. This isn't even really a Foundation book, but more an unnecessary series connector that adds nothing and subtracts a lot in the process via a plot that no one this side of Ronald D. Moore could possibly care for in the writer's room of Battlestar Galactica.
Asimov is rightly credited with being one of the masters/creators of hard science fiction. I wonder why no one credits him with establishing the awful scifi finale too?
January 13, 2020
The charm and the fault of Foundation and Earth is that it does a dismal job of concluding the Foundation series, one of the highest, if not the highest (it earned Asimov the 1966 special Best All-Time Series Hugo Award, winning against The Lord of the Rings and Heinlein's Future History) achievement of American Golden Age SF. The protagonist spends the whole book looking for an answer that concerns the future of the whole galaxy, but even when, in the end, he does find it, he remains troubled, uneasy, profoundly unsure in spite of his assurances to the contrary. This book has a way of foregrounding the moral dilemmas it deals with in a way that is compellingly cerebral and which might not easily win readers over, but which is also perfectly compatible with Asimov's well-documented affinity with the structure of analytical detective stories.
Personally, I deem this novel to be the perfect response to those who consider Asimov to be nothing more than a mindlessly optimistic technophile. He is not; and neither is he blinded by the reckless, patronizing faith in the supremacy of humanity which many ascribe to him, not in kind terms. On the contrary, Foundation and Earth expresses a radically different view of the universe, a much more cruel and hopeless one than the rosy vision that someone who knows Asimov's writings only superficially would attribute to him. His universe is the arena of a battle without end, where neither victory nor defeat is able to liberate the contestants. The one solid and inescapable fact that always holds true here is that life's struggle is to struggle for life. Do harm or be harmed, eat or be eaten. And I absolutely love that the Laws-bound robots are the one impossible exception to this all-encompassing rule. This definitely lends credit to my thesis that the robots are indeed the living core of Asimov's fiction.
*I wish to anticipate some of the comments my 5-star rating might receive by saying that I am well aware that Asimov is simply terrible at the characterization of female characters and even worse at dealing with them. I am even convinced that Susan Calvin is not an example to be taken into account in this sense because her characterization is more that of a robot than that of a woman. But although the female characters in Foundation and Earth are undoubtedly a real put-off, I found that that ultimately didn't influence perceptibly my reading of the philosophy at the root of the book and the series at large. I apologize in advance to those who may find my pragmatism in this matter offensive.
Personally, I deem this novel to be the perfect response to those who consider Asimov to be nothing more than a mindlessly optimistic technophile. He is not; and neither is he blinded by the reckless, patronizing faith in the supremacy of humanity which many ascribe to him, not in kind terms. On the contrary, Foundation and Earth expresses a radically different view of the universe, a much more cruel and hopeless one than the rosy vision that someone who knows Asimov's writings only superficially would attribute to him. His universe is the arena of a battle without end, where neither victory nor defeat is able to liberate the contestants. The one solid and inescapable fact that always holds true here is that life's struggle is to struggle for life. Do harm or be harmed, eat or be eaten. And I absolutely love that the Laws-bound robots are the one impossible exception to this all-encompassing rule. This definitely lends credit to my thesis that the robots are indeed the living core of Asimov's fiction.
*I wish to anticipate some of the comments my 5-star rating might receive by saying that I am well aware that Asimov is simply terrible at the characterization of female characters and even worse at dealing with them. I am even convinced that Susan Calvin is not an example to be taken into account in this sense because her characterization is more that of a robot than that of a woman. But although the female characters in Foundation and Earth are undoubtedly a real put-off, I found that that ultimately didn't influence perceptibly my reading of the philosophy at the root of the book and the series at large. I apologize in advance to those who may find my pragmatism in this matter offensive.
December 27, 2020
Το ταξίδι για την ανακάλυψη του πλανήτη Γη, έφτασε στο τέλος του! Στο τελευταίο βιβλίο η παρέα μας επισκέπτεται περισσότερους πλανήτες, έρχεται σε επαφή με νέες μορφές ζωής, ΑΛΛΑ αυτό δυστυχώς είναι ένα μικρό κομμάτι του βιβλίου (περίπου το 1/3). Το υπόλοιπο τμήμα, διαδραματίζεται σε μικρά δωμάτια και το διαστημόπλοιο όπου παίρνουν μέρος ΑΤΕΛΕΙΩΤΕΣ συζητήσεις μεταξύ της ομάδας. Κάπου κουράστηκα πάρα πολύ με τις συζητήσεις επί συζητήσεων...
January 20, 2021
3,5 - Anche questo settimo volume appartiene alla fase "moderna" di Asimov, e un po' si sente, perché qui l'autore comincia a discostarsi del tutto dal progetto di Seldon, quasi avesse sempre scherzato, tentando invece di riportarlo nell'alveo dei suoi Robot.
In effetti, se nella trilogia iniziale della Fondazione, non vi era sostanzialmente alcun accenno a Daneel e agli altri romanzi asimoviani, con questo si chiude del tutto il cerchio (negli stessi anni veniva aggiunto anche il famoso cappello introduttivo alla Fondazione, facendo vedere al lettore che Seldon e Daneel erano in realtà d'accordo o comunque in collaborazione sin dall'inizio).
Dunque alla figura di Golan Trevize, il consigliere della Fondazione già conosciuto nell'Orlo spetta il compito di portarci alla meta: è tutto un ritornare alle origini e ai vari rimandi, Aurora, Solaria, tutti nomi ben conosciuti.
Per un fan di Asimov dovrebbe essere l'apoteosi: tutto trova la giusta collocazione, tutto ha un senso; nel Preludio il grande leggendario Robot, amico degli umani, tentava di rallentare la caduta dell'Impero, e qui scopriamo che egli ha nel frattempo creato un piano bis, che poi è sempre stato il vero piano, e ha bisogno di poco tempo per il successo finale... manca poco, ma l'umanità ha un futuro radioso avanti a sé.
Ebbene, questo finale per me è sempre stato frustrante e non sono mai riuscita a farmene una ragione.
Mi pare quasi d'essere sempre stata presa in giro.
L'Impero, i grandi sindaci e mercanti della Prima Fondazione, i mentalisti ingegnosi della Seconda Fondazione (i loro sacrifici!), tutti quei secoli di intervallo, guerre, lotte, scoperte e ... ops, c'eravamo sbagliati, volevamo distrarvi...
Insomma, Asimov da un bel calcione a tutto e si concentra su un nuovo binario, come se lo avesse sempre avuto in mente dall'inizio.
A me pare un aggiustamento artificioso, un far salire Trevize su un treno in corsa, e infatti Golan è piuttosto scialbo rispetto a chi lo ha preceduto. Era l'ultimo eroe rimasto, gli hanno dato un nuovo copione riadattato (con tanto di spunti ecoambientali) e gli hanno messo in bocca le battute giuste.
E gli altri? La prenderanno bene la sua decisione nel resto della galassia?
Ecco, l'ultima frase dell'intera saga ("... che lo fissavano imperscrutabili") la trovo piuttosto inquietante.
In effetti, se nella trilogia iniziale della Fondazione, non vi era sostanzialmente alcun accenno a Daneel e agli altri romanzi asimoviani, con questo si chiude del tutto il cerchio (negli stessi anni veniva aggiunto anche il famoso cappello introduttivo alla Fondazione, facendo vedere al lettore che Seldon e Daneel erano in realtà d'accordo o comunque in collaborazione sin dall'inizio).
Dunque alla figura di Golan Trevize, il consigliere della Fondazione già conosciuto nell'Orlo spetta il compito di portarci alla meta: è tutto un ritornare alle origini e ai vari rimandi, Aurora, Solaria, tutti nomi ben conosciuti.
Per un fan di Asimov dovrebbe essere l'apoteosi: tutto trova la giusta collocazione, tutto ha un senso; nel Preludio il grande leggendario Robot, amico degli umani, tentava di rallentare la caduta dell'Impero, e qui scopriamo che egli ha nel frattempo creato un piano bis, che poi è sempre stato il vero piano, e ha bisogno di poco tempo per il successo finale... manca poco, ma l'umanità ha un futuro radioso avanti a sé.
Ebbene, questo finale per me è sempre stato frustrante e non sono mai riuscita a farmene una ragione.
Mi pare quasi d'essere sempre stata presa in giro.
L'Impero, i grandi sindaci e mercanti della Prima Fondazione, i mentalisti ingegnosi della Seconda Fondazione (i loro sacrifici!), tutti quei secoli di intervallo, guerre, lotte, scoperte e ... ops, c'eravamo sbagliati, volevamo distrarvi...
Insomma, Asimov da un bel calcione a tutto e si concentra su un nuovo binario, come se lo avesse sempre avuto in mente dall'inizio.
A me pare un aggiustamento artificioso, un far salire Trevize su un treno in corsa, e infatti Golan è piuttosto scialbo rispetto a chi lo ha preceduto. Era l'ultimo eroe rimasto, gli hanno dato un nuovo copione riadattato (con tanto di spunti ecoambientali) e gli hanno messo in bocca le battute giuste.
E gli altri? La prenderanno bene la sua decisione nel resto della galassia?
Ecco, l'ultima frase dell'intera saga ("... che lo fissavano imperscrutabili") la trovo piuttosto inquietante.
February 2, 2017
4.5 Stars
A good ending to the series. I really liked the extended story in Book 4-5 more than 1-3, although of course, it was built up on the latter. This book (book 5) deals with conflicting ideas of the extremes: that of oneness (groupism) and isolationism (individualism). Full of continuing mystery to the search for Planet Earth, the novel is complete adventure, as Asimov connects the series with his Robot series of titles.
Somehow, although I did not find the ending excellent, it did satisfy me at certain points, and was good enough. Loved the idea of Gaia, and a certain subtle layer of the storyline, pointing to our own planet as an organism, (possibly created by another set of beings), was indeed contemplative. Lots of dialogues within the framework of the story takes several topics into consideration, and is food for thought to the reader.
It was worth spending time reading the series till date. Now onto the first of the prequels sometime soon. :)
A good ending to the series. I really liked the extended story in Book 4-5 more than 1-3, although of course, it was built up on the latter. This book (book 5) deals with conflicting ideas of the extremes: that of oneness (groupism) and isolationism (individualism). Full of continuing mystery to the search for Planet Earth, the novel is complete adventure, as Asimov connects the series with his Robot series of titles.
Somehow, although I did not find the ending excellent, it did satisfy me at certain points, and was good enough. Loved the idea of Gaia, and a certain subtle layer of the storyline, pointing to our own planet as an organism, (possibly created by another set of beings), was indeed contemplative. Lots of dialogues within the framework of the story takes several topics into consideration, and is food for thought to the reader.
It was worth spending time reading the series till date. Now onto the first of the prequels sometime soon. :)
March 5, 2011
I won't even read the other reviews first (I know from real life what people think of this book compared to the others in Asimov's Foundation series), but it's the only Asimov on my "Favorites" list, and as such it sorta represents the whole Foundation series to me, and deserves to represent because it's proof that a writer can finish a series with no loose ends in a reasonable amount of time SO DAMNED WELL.
(The prequels, I'm not including in the Foundation series; they're optional, and I didn't enjoy them. So THIS book is the finale for me.)
The first three I read [and loved] [and re-read] when I was younger, the fourth gave me an uneasy feeling but left me wanting a conclusion, and this was a conclusion; a period —no, an exclamation point! — at the end of a fine series that needn't be (and wasn't) drawn out overly long. Thank you Asimov for showing 'em how it's done!
I suppose because there was so much time between the books being published (I wasn't born when the trilogy was published, and didn't know about Edge (#4) and Earth (#5) until years after I read the trilogy), I felt like I was ON that journey to find Earth. The excitement in this book for me was that there WAS a meaningful conclusion with all the answers I needed.
I've started losing faith in "series writers" (particular sci fi, but also hist. fiction, and these days mass market pulp fiction), but Asimov showed you could conclude a mystery well and end the series and leave 'em satisfied. I couldn't want more because there WAS no more. OVER. THE END! Thank you!
Was it simple, maybe even young adult fiction? Maybe. But Asimov FINISHED it. (I'm tempted to start zeroing out the stars of books I liked but are part of an unfinished series which may never be finished... glares at Robert Jordan's corpse.) Series Authors Everywhere: re-read Asimov's Foundation series and learn the value of ENDING a series, no matter how epic the scope. Use Foundation as a measuring stick.
(The prequels, I'm not including in the Foundation series; they're optional, and I didn't enjoy them. So THIS book is the finale for me.)
The first three I read [and loved] [and re-read] when I was younger, the fourth gave me an uneasy feeling but left me wanting a conclusion, and this was a conclusion; a period —no, an exclamation point! — at the end of a fine series that needn't be (and wasn't) drawn out overly long. Thank you Asimov for showing 'em how it's done!
I suppose because there was so much time between the books being published (I wasn't born when the trilogy was published, and didn't know about Edge (#4) and Earth (#5) until years after I read the trilogy), I felt like I was ON that journey to find Earth. The excitement in this book for me was that there WAS a meaningful conclusion with all the answers I needed.
I've started losing faith in "series writers" (particular sci fi, but also hist. fiction, and these days mass market pulp fiction), but Asimov showed you could conclude a mystery well and end the series and leave 'em satisfied. I couldn't want more because there WAS no more. OVER. THE END! Thank you!
Was it simple, maybe even young adult fiction? Maybe. But Asimov FINISHED it. (I'm tempted to start zeroing out the stars of books I liked but are part of an unfinished series which may never be finished... glares at Robert Jordan's corpse.) Series Authors Everywhere: re-read Asimov's Foundation series and learn the value of ENDING a series, no matter how epic the scope. Use Foundation as a measuring stick.
October 5, 2014
Asimov said in the beginning of this book that he never intended to write more foundation stories after the first 3 books. And you can tell he is just going through the motions of writing a story here.
I really liked the first 3 books, which are actually all short story collections about The Foundation. But the 4th and 5th books are one long story. Asimov just does not seem to be able to write long stories, he is not able to develop characters well enough to keep you interested in them once it gets to a point that they can't just be cardboard cut out stereotypes.
One thing I found funny in the story, that I'm only mentioning as I seriously almost laughed. Was that the main character could believe in people being able to mind control others, ESP and Telepathy. But he couldn't even tolerate for one second that idea that man my have a soul. LOL. It's was like, "All mind powers are real, but the idea that there may be a soul now that it ridiculous, even though the best explanation for all these powers would be a spiritual aspect of man."
One other thing I didn't like, is that the story felt like it was written to teach teenage boys about science, and every time the hero showed up on an inhabited planet a woman would want to have sex with him, another LOL part of the story.
To be honest I never could remember why the characters where questing all through the galaxy for Earth, which was in book 4, and I read book 4 a while back. And the story never interested me enough to look it up.
I really liked the first 3 books, which are actually all short story collections about The Foundation. But the 4th and 5th books are one long story. Asimov just does not seem to be able to write long stories, he is not able to develop characters well enough to keep you interested in them once it gets to a point that they can't just be cardboard cut out stereotypes.
One thing I found funny in the story, that I'm only mentioning as I seriously almost laughed. Was that the main character could believe in people being able to mind control others, ESP and Telepathy. But he couldn't even tolerate for one second that idea that man my have a soul. LOL. It's was like, "All mind powers are real, but the idea that there may be a soul now that it ridiculous, even though the best explanation for all these powers would be a spiritual aspect of man."
One other thing I didn't like, is that the story felt like it was written to teach teenage boys about science, and every time the hero showed up on an inhabited planet a woman would want to have sex with him, another LOL part of the story.
To be honest I never could remember why the characters where questing all through the galaxy for Earth, which was in book 4, and I read book 4 a while back. And the story never interested me enough to look it up.
November 20, 2021
Re-reading the Foundation series has been an interesting trip, with some really great ups and a few downs. But overall, I have to place the original Foundation trilogy in the brilliant category, with Prelude and Foundation and Earth in the above-average category, with Edge being fine and Forward trailing rather far behind. Alas. And I suppose it would be best to ignore the Second Foundation Trilogy that wasn't even penned by Asimov himself.
Here's the strange bit: Foundation and Earth is something of a rather huge departure from the spirit of the Foundation trilogy in that it recognizes many of its faults and proactively attempts to re-structure the course of Human History (as was seen in Edge).
Did I really fall in line with the whole Gaia argument? Well, sort of. It feels like a Deus Ex Machina and way too powerful without all the subtleties that would truly make up such a social structure, but even so, I do like the idea and have liked it by many other authors.
But apparently, even Asimov has his reservations and turns this novel into a rather happy, fun romp through the galaxy in an archeological adventure, diving down memory (and future history) lane, unraveling his own books all the way back to the Robots, the Spacer worlds, and, as the title suggests, Earth.
Every kind of human type gets a say in this adventure, commenting from their own unique viewpoints, as they unravel time. It was really fun and an easy read and it was extremely enjoyable when it comes to nostalgia.
And, honestly, since I read all these books in chronological order this last time, it actually FEELS like a great place to end the series, too.
The first time I read all these, it was by publication order, and that ended with Brin's sendoff of Hari Seldon. I really feel the similarities between F and E and Foundation's Triumph quite strongly, but between the two, I think F and E is the proper send-off.
Here's the strange bit: Foundation and Earth is something of a rather huge departure from the spirit of the Foundation trilogy in that it recognizes many of its faults and proactively attempts to re-structure the course of Human History (as was seen in Edge).
Did I really fall in line with the whole Gaia argument? Well, sort of. It feels like a Deus Ex Machina and way too powerful without all the subtleties that would truly make up such a social structure, but even so, I do like the idea and have liked it by many other authors.
But apparently, even Asimov has his reservations and turns this novel into a rather happy, fun romp through the galaxy in an archeological adventure, diving down memory (and future history) lane, unraveling his own books all the way back to the Robots, the Spacer worlds, and, as the title suggests, Earth.
Every kind of human type gets a say in this adventure, commenting from their own unique viewpoints, as they unravel time. It was really fun and an easy read and it was extremely enjoyable when it comes to nostalgia.
And, honestly, since I read all these books in chronological order this last time, it actually FEELS like a great place to end the series, too.
The first time I read all these, it was by publication order, and that ended with Brin's sendoff of Hari Seldon. I really feel the similarities between F and E and Foundation's Triumph quite strongly, but between the two, I think F and E is the proper send-off.
August 21, 2021
Brutal! Esto sigue siendo genial 💙 ir en busca de la tierra 🥰😍 que más fabuloso se puede poner? Me encanta todo lo que involucra este viaje de Pelorat, Trevize & y Bliss!! Me encantan ellos tres, en numerosas ovaciones me he preguntado como será la vida en el futuro y Asimov le ha dado vida a esa idea 💡 totalmente un genio! Tanto por aprender y tanta evidencia que dejar en esta tierra para que perdure a lo que sea que ocurra 🤗☝️vaya!!! Si….me impulsa a hacerlo sin preguntarme más
November 26, 2022
Maybe i'm a bit harsh with the two stars, because i've quite enjoyed reading this up until a point, when everything began to be repetitive, adding to the unsatisfying ending!
Like with the Robots series, Asimov returned to the Foundation universe 30 years later because of the fan and publishers pressure and while i believe the newer Robot books were decent and they made the connection to the Foundation series fairly well, i think, this one, which is the ending of both series is not done in a convincing way.
I can get past the sloppy and sometimes cheesy dialogues, or unconvincing characters, even though, because of the larger size of the novel they are more fleshed out, since Asimov's books were never about these, but I can't get over illogical things happening just because it's more convenient that way and while choosing that convenient way you basically negate the core idea that was at the base of the Foundation universe - psychohistory.
With the ending this beautiful concept is just flushed down the toilet, because of.... well... aliens, basically.
The ending felt somewhat like the Game of Thrones tv series season 8, except it wasn't rushed, but it dragged longer than necessary.
But, like I said, in the beginning, it still had some enjoyable pages, where the main focus was exploring the pros and cons of individuality over unity, with some very quotable introspections, but, even this began to be repetitive at some point.
All in all since you've gotten so far in the series, might as well read it and draw your own conclusions.
“Where is the world whose people don't prefer a comfortable, warm, and well-worn belief, however illogical, to the chilly winds of uncertainty?”
“Rules, established with reason and justice, can easily outlive their usefulness as circumstances change, yet can remain in force through inertia. It is then not only right, but useful, to break those rules as a way of advertising the fact that they have become useless—or even actually harmful.”
“A planet might deteriorate even if human beings existed upon it, if the society were itself abnormal and did not understand the importance of preserving the environment."
"Surely," said Pelorat, "such a society would quickly be destroyed. I don't think it would be possible for human beings to fail to understand the importance of retaining the very factors that are keeping them alive."
Bliss said, "I don't have your pleasant faith in human reason, Pel. It seems to me to be quite conceivable that when a planetary society consists of Isolates, local and even individual concerns might easily by allowed to overcome planetary concerns.”
Like with the Robots series, Asimov returned to the Foundation universe 30 years later because of the fan and publishers pressure and while i believe the newer Robot books were decent and they made the connection to the Foundation series fairly well, i think, this one, which is the ending of both series is not done in a convincing way.
I can get past the sloppy and sometimes cheesy dialogues, or unconvincing characters, even though, because of the larger size of the novel they are more fleshed out, since Asimov's books were never about these, but I can't get over illogical things happening just because it's more convenient that way and while choosing that convenient way you basically negate the core idea that was at the base of the Foundation universe - psychohistory.
With the ending this beautiful concept is just flushed down the toilet, because of.... well... aliens, basically.
The ending felt somewhat like the Game of Thrones tv series season 8, except it wasn't rushed, but it dragged longer than necessary.
But, like I said, in the beginning, it still had some enjoyable pages, where the main focus was exploring the pros and cons of individuality over unity, with some very quotable introspections, but, even this began to be repetitive at some point.
All in all since you've gotten so far in the series, might as well read it and draw your own conclusions.
“Where is the world whose people don't prefer a comfortable, warm, and well-worn belief, however illogical, to the chilly winds of uncertainty?”
“Rules, established with reason and justice, can easily outlive their usefulness as circumstances change, yet can remain in force through inertia. It is then not only right, but useful, to break those rules as a way of advertising the fact that they have become useless—or even actually harmful.”
“A planet might deteriorate even if human beings existed upon it, if the society were itself abnormal and did not understand the importance of preserving the environment."
"Surely," said Pelorat, "such a society would quickly be destroyed. I don't think it would be possible for human beings to fail to understand the importance of retaining the very factors that are keeping them alive."
Bliss said, "I don't have your pleasant faith in human reason, Pel. It seems to me to be quite conceivable that when a planetary society consists of Isolates, local and even individual concerns might easily by allowed to overcome planetary concerns.”
May 20, 2018
3.5 I love open endings but not all of them are good enough. The biggest problem of the book? Too repetitive and too much build up. Foundation and Earth is a cool sequel to the sequel and the idea behind it really hopefull but overall a bit disappointing. Anyways, Asimov will always be a good choice for scifi and I just can't stop reading him.
Asimov siempre tiene un toque que me atrapa en sus novelas, pero con esta entrega en la serie de Fundación si se me hizo difícil seguirle en muchas ocasiones, sobre todo en la primera mitad del libro. Demasiado repetitivo y con unos personajes secundarios sumamente irritantes. Lo bueno es que es sencillo conectar con el principal.
Le tengo mucha mas fe a sus novelas de Robots ya que es lo que mas llama mi atención desde que se mencionaron en esta serie, dejare las precuelas de lado un momento y me centrare en esa línea de argumento mejor.
Creo que el final de Fundación y Tierra aunque tarda en llegar es muy sencillo y lindo. Te hace recordar y le da un significado al argumento central muy sólido, definitivamente deja un buen sabor de boca pero por desgracia no opaca al desarrollo tan lento.
Aun así creo que tiene un buen mensaje de unidad e integridad humana para el beneficio general en lugar del individual, y eso es impresionante e importante de señalar para un mundo que cada vez es menos inclusivo.
Asimov siempre tiene un toque que me atrapa en sus novelas, pero con esta entrega en la serie de Fundación si se me hizo difícil seguirle en muchas ocasiones, sobre todo en la primera mitad del libro. Demasiado repetitivo y con unos personajes secundarios sumamente irritantes. Lo bueno es que es sencillo conectar con el principal.
Le tengo mucha mas fe a sus novelas de Robots ya que es lo que mas llama mi atención desde que se mencionaron en esta serie, dejare las precuelas de lado un momento y me centrare en esa línea de argumento mejor.
Creo que el final de Fundación y Tierra aunque tarda en llegar es muy sencillo y lindo. Te hace recordar y le da un significado al argumento central muy sólido, definitivamente deja un buen sabor de boca pero por desgracia no opaca al desarrollo tan lento.
Aun así creo que tiene un buen mensaje de unidad e integridad humana para el beneficio general en lugar del individual, y eso es impresionante e importante de señalar para un mundo que cada vez es menos inclusivo.
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