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Title: Foundation and Chaos : The Second Foundation Trilogy by Greg Bear ISBN: 0-06-105640-5 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.13 (46 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Hari Seldon and the Robots of Doom!
Comment: Though twice as good (or half as bad) as its predecessor in this misguided series of Foundation filler books, Greg Bear's installment continues the ruination of the Foundation franchise begun with Asimov's own bridging novels. Asimov's original Foundation books are tight little novels with twists and surprises. The linking stories -- designed to provide continuity between the robot, galactic empire, and Foundation books -- end up destroying the magic that existed when all of the original topics stood alone.
Asimov's not-so-great idea of unifying his disparate storylines is carried to further depths with this Second Foundation trilogy, at least so far. Brought to you by writers who are allegedly the best in the field, they would seem ideally suited to carrying Asimov's torch.
Unfortunately, Gregory Benford's first volume made a hash of it, introducing cyberspace and two extremely annoying characters in the form of simulated Joan of Arc and Voltaire intelligences. In this book, Greg Bear gets the credit for cleaning up some of the mess. Here he brings to the fore a couple of interesting characters in the forms of extremely powerful telepaths. They foreshadow an important character in one of Asimov's original novels, representing the Chaos that threatens Seldon's theories. One of these characters has interesting potential, along with the novel's subplots involving competing robot conspiracies and yet even more imperial palace intrigues. But the whole thing ends with a whimper, disappointing by the standards established by both Asimov and Bear in their own books.
Rating: 4
Summary: So you want to talk about ROBOTS? Fine, let's!
Comment: This is a hard hard book to review.
Firstly, I must congratulate the author who did a fantastic job after the 1st mess of a book to put the series back together again. The concise, clear style is much appreciated by this reader (despite what anyone may say about individuality and style, the readers here are the original fans of Asimov and therefore probably prefer the Good Doctor's style! ).
But more damage is done precisely because of this. Benford's work I can completely ignore because it is so far from it's foundations (sorry ;-)) that it's virtually unrecognisable. The same cannot be said about 'Foundation and Chaos'. It's an easily recognisable/acceptable episode in the Asimovian Galaxy.
Spoiler alert: I'm going to discuss plotting, characters and theme here.
Firstly, thank you Mr. Bear for getting rid of (or as much as you could) wormholes, memes, sims and most of the other unnecessary additions by Benford.
Secondly,why is everyone focusing so much on robots? This is the FOUNDATION series - a series originally about human resourcefulness and ability to triumph, remember? This is NOT THE ROBOT series. Just because the Good Doctor decided they take place in the same universe doesn't mean robots now fill every page of a FOUNDATION book. In the 3 foundation novels that robots were mentioned (F&Earth, Prelude and Forward), only 1 novel had a significant portion of the novel devoted to robots. In this new series we are presented with 2 (and mostly likely 3) novels packed full of robots.
Don't take me wrong - I like the robot series very much - probably more than I did the original Foundation series. I whooped with joy when Daneel appears in 'Foundation and Earth' and was glad to greet him like an old friend in all subsequent novels. But a Foundation novel filled with robotic characters, robotic underground wars, robotic betrayal and humans in pursuit of robots? Where's the Foundation in this novel?
Alright Killer Bs - if you want to play with robots, go head. But at least do it well. Alas, there is very little left of what feels like the original Asimov robots. The simple/virtuous humanity present in the Good Doctor's robots are practically gone and we are left with quibbling, controlling, assuming beings. I don't like any of them in this novel, including Daneel and I blame the authors for that. By turning Daneel into the God-like figure he now is, he has lost our sympathy and empathy. He is no longer gentle Daneel who has carried an immense weight alone for so long (F&Earth, Prelude). He is now omniscient, suffocating, cold and calculating. Why?
The Calvinian robots is a ludicrous idea - where have they been all these years? How did they leave the Spacer worlds? (Neither earth nor Settlers allowed robots) And what is the logic behind hurting a human (Seldon) to defeat another robot to promote the 3 Laws? To harm/change Seldon's mind is a violation of the 1st Law. To do this for future good is clearly the Zeroth Law working. What gives?
And finally... why Seldon? As a previous reader pointed out - we've had enough of Seldon. Asimov devoted 2 novels to him. We want to know what happened to Golan Trevise and the fate of the rest of the galaxy.
4 stars for bringing me a whole night of solid entertainment and for bringing back, if not in spirit, the Asimov universe.
Rating: 5
Summary: Asimov collections
Comment: Amazon should combine the books of a subject together so as to make ordering easier, in the same way you have combined lists. For eg. all of Robot books of Asimov in onr orderable quantity and the foundation series in another.
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Title: Forward the Foundation (Foundation Novels (Paperback)) by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0553565079 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1994 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Prelude to Foundation (Foundation Novels (Paperback)) by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0553278398 Publisher: Bantam Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Foundation's Edge (Foundation Novels (Paperback)) by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0553293389 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 November, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0586071105 Publisher: Harper Collins - UK Pub. Date: 1987 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Second Foundation (Foundation Novels (Paperback)) by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0553293362 Publisher: Spectra Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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