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Title: Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0-553-29338-9 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 November, 1991 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.04 (54 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Great followup
Comment: Ok - if one were to follow just the books we have had a Prequel to Foundation, then the series itself, and now this Sequel. But all the while, Asimov has been expanding and introducing many externals, principally robots and their story and making it coincide with the Foundation Series.
Again, Asimov has an advantage of writing 30+ years after the publication of the original stories. This has allowed further advances in technology and more time to flesh out the story. We are involved with two men - Golan Trvize, an rebel of sorts who is searching for the mysterious Second Foundation and Stor Gendeibel who is part of the Second Foundation. They are both interested in the ancient planet "Earth" and somewhere along the way they end up on Gaia, that was obviously settled long ago by humans.
Sorry, but the characters in here just do not excite. They are worse that Asimov's usually lackluster rendering and I just can't keep them in mind after the story has concluded. Also, the action toward the end gets confused as if Asimov suddenly had a change of heart or (more likely) he had an idea for a future book and had to incorporate some information here to make it work.
I was expecting something different, something more. Maybe next time.
Rating: 5
Summary: My personal favorite of the Foundation series
Comment: I've tried reading some of the newer SF authors and some of them, especially in the last several years, have turned out to be surprisingly excellent. Nevertheless I keep returning to the old masters with whom I grew up.
You know which three. Just so you know where I'm coming from: I've always been primarily a Heinlein fan and Asimov was a close second; although I've read Clarke I never really got into him too much. (Among SF writers since that time, my main loyalties have been to Spider Robinson and James Hogan, and among the _really_ recent ones I've been especially impressed by China Mieville, Richard Morgan, Neal Stephenson, and Robert Sawyer.)
Of the big three, Asimov undoubtedly had the highest literary output as measured in sheer wordage. I've been of the opinion for several years now that the only reason the Good Doctor stopped writing is that somebody went and told him he'd died. I have my own views about what parts of his output were of the highest quality, but there's little doubt that the Foundation series (not a "trilogy"; it was originally published as a series of short stories and novellas) is among his best known.
(He's also known, of course, for his famous robot stories. Long before the current generation of cyberwriters started screaming mouthlessly and crashing snowily, Asimov was writing compelling tales of mechanical intelligence on the presumption that such technology was on _our_ side. And like Heinlein -- and with just as little credit among modern writers -- he anticipated the recent explosion in information technology. For Heinlein, see especially _Friday_; for Asimov, drop by Trantor and visit the Galactic Library.)
He had secured his place in SF history fifty years before his death. But (again like Heinlein) he spent some of his later years tying up his better-known works into one big future-history package (including not only his Foundation stories but also his robot stories and his Galactic Empire novels). I think he did this more successfully than even Heinlein did.
This one -- _Foundation's Edge_ -- was his first return to the world of the Foundation stories after some thirty years. In it, he began to address a big fat problem he had left at the end of the original series of tales: how come the First Foundation bought so easily into the fabrication that the Second Foundation had really been defeated and dismantled, when in fact it hadn't?
Now, I have to say at once that purely _as_ a Foundation novel, this one probably isn't the most satisfying of the bunch. In fact both _Prelude to Foundation_ and _Forward the Foundation_, (excellent novels both, by the way) include _much_ more interesting Foundation-y stuff. But the very points that make this one weak as a Foundation novel also make it strong as an SF novel.
You see, it's hard to write really engaging novels about Hari Seldon's science of psychohistory, because the science itself is supposed to be statistical and to work only in the abstract with large masses of human beings. That fact means that a good psychohistory tale is bound to focus on broad historical forces at the expense of individual character development. Indeed, even in the original series of stories, Asimov had to introduce a radical departure from the Seldon Plan (via the Mule) in order to generate a really compelling human-interest tale.
This novel is probably among Asimov's best in terms of character development. That's one of the reasons I like it best as a novel; it's probably that I tend to empathize with the rebellious Golan Trevize (and to some extent with the equally mavericky Stor Gendibal) and to enjoy hopping around the galaxy with these guys nearly as much as with Lazarus Long.
Unfortunately that's also why it doesn't advance the ball much as far as Foundation history is concerned. _Prelude_ and _Forward_ are filled to the brim with scientific research, Imperial intrigue, and cool plot twists; this one is more of a character piece. It's not that nothing interesting or significant happens; far from it. It's just that the cool stuff mostly doesn't involve the outworking of the Seldon Plan.
At any rate, the Good Doctor was an expert at telling an engaging tale and keeping the reader involved until the very end. I, at least, have found this to be one of his most unputdownable (and the two Foundation prequels are darned close).
I didn't like _Foundation and Earth_ as well (and I'm not sure Asimov served the series terribly well by trying to tie in all the robot stuff), but I hope it returns to print so that I can buy a replacement copy.
Rating: 5
Summary: What a great followup
Comment: Isaac Asimov has had a lot of time to reenergize himself into another Foundation novel and this one is one of his best. For one thing, the whopping plot hole in "Second Foundation" is addressed (e.g. I never could accept The First Foundation so easily accepting the 'fake' destruction of the Second Foundation.). In this book, Asimov from the start confronts that error!
Foundations Edge starts off, without revealing too much, introducing a young Foundationer who sets out to discover the location of the Second Foundation and along the way gets introduced to the concept of Earth where all of humanity is supposively originated from. The Second Foundation of course is hot on the trail trying to discover who or what is really going on suspecting that this Foundationer is really more than he seems. What results is a bit of a "road picture plot" , but a very suspensful one. The conclusion is a terrific confrontation between the First Foundation, the Second Foundation, and a third force unlike anything we have encountered before in these books.
Along the way Asimov has lots of time to talk science advancement, race theory and of course logically realizes that his original idea had a flaw: The First Foundation is managed by the forces of the Second Foundation, but of course who keeps track of the Second Foundation? Asimov introduces the idea of checks and balances in a very brilliant way. There are plots within plots within plots and Asimov never slows the pace down and keeps the book going. I would call it one of my all time favorite reads. Sadly, I cannot say the same for the follow up "Foundation and Earth" which could have ended the series on a much higher note. As is, I like to think it ended with this book instead!
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Title: Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0553278398 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: October, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Foundation by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0553293354 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: November, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0586071105 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 1987 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0553293397 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: December, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov ISBN: 0553299492 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: April, 1994 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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