I got this book because it seemed like a cool edition of The Foundation Trilogy. I later discovered that it glows in the dark when I turned the lights off to go to sleep.
What slowed me down a lot with Dune were the many different, unfamiliar names. Once that clicked, the story started unfolding by itself and I could not stop myself reading. It’s been a long time since I first read the original books, but I think I finished all six of them in less than a month. I hope it clicks for you too!
Thoughts on the sequels? I absolutely beyond love the first. Read it maybe 5 times by now. This last time didn’t want to end the adventure, so finally gave the second one a try, and was pretty badly disappointed. The first does such a good job with meanings within meanings and subtlety in dialogue (along with everything else it does right), and the second just seemed to be trying too hard at those things and ultimately failing.
Yeah! The first sequel, Foundation’s Edge, was excellent! It was written with as much if not more depth as the original series. The second sequel, Foundation and Earth, however seemed like a pulp novel by comparison. The story was simplistic and the conclusion pretty disappointing, although it did bring up an interesting quandary about the future of the galaxy.
What are the titles of those books? I think there are six in the original series by Frank Herbert and there are many other books by his son Brian. I haven’t read all of those.
Oh I totally don’t remember. The first one is called Dune, I’m pretty sure about that, the second one like Speaker for The Dead or something? Really only ever been obsessed with the first one. The exposition of the world is soooooo gooooood
@BeigeAgenda I’ve only read Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear. it’s pretty good but it’s about events that are happening in parallel with the beginning of Foundation so the overall saga is incredibly complicated and multi-layered. Foundation and Chaos also references the laws of robotics which are not mentioned in the original trilogy.
@FuglyDuck @[email protected] The robot books featuring detective Elijah Bailey are all very good. The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire.
I couldn’t disagree more. The writing is absolute cringe.
For some reason I assumed Asimov would be a good writer, maybe because I read his “Last Question” short story a long time ago and thought it was brilliant.
But Foundation reads like it was written by a teenager. He’s obsessed with describing ghee whiz gadgets and doodads that I couldn’t care less about, the prose is plain and boring, and the themes and characters have not aged well. It feels like I’m watching the Jetsons, except it’s not at all quaint.
I was hoping to be able to look past all this and get lost in the epic scale of the story and universe he purportedly builds, but it just wasn’t there for me.
Sounds like you’re kinda more after something a little less hard? Asimov is very much the quintessential “this could’ve been an essay” hard sci-fi author (though I will say, imo The Mule is a great character)…but then again I’d argue most hard hard sci-fi is like that. It’s either an ethics or a speculative engineering/biology essay under the veneer of a story. It doesn’t matter much in a short story because you don’t have to set up anything beyond your core theme but stretching out into something more than 50 pages long can be a bit much for some people.
If you’re after something longform from him that’s not so…jargony, have you tried Caves of Steel? it’s his attempt at writing genre fiction and at least I think it’s pretty good. It’s a murder mystery set in his general universe (though way before the Empire and everything) and tries to tackle the more social aspects and themes behind robotics.
I loved all of Asimov’s books/stories, I’ve recommended to a number of friends but a few have had the same issues with the foundation books as above.
I thought the scale/short-story history jumping style of the foundation books was a really unique approach to storytelling. I thoroughly enjoyed the series.
@nikt @[email protected] I agree Foundation and its associates are not very well written. But the sequel Foundation’s Edge (1982) is brilliant. He’s a whole different writer. From the same period there are The Robots of Dawn (1983) and Robots and Empire (1985). I especially like the almost philosophical discussion, in Robots and Empire, between two robots about the meaning of Asimov’s great invention, the laws of robotics.
The Foundation trilogy is absolute peak science fiction and I should definitely re-read it.
I totally agree. This series, along with the original Dune novels, is the bedrock of my love for sci-fi.
Ive tried to get thru dune a few of times but it hasnt clicked for me yet, I’ll use your comment as a reminder that I need to give it another go :)
I was surprised how different Dune Messiah is from Dune, that made me stop after second chapter.
I finally got through the series using the audio books, I stopped with Chapterhouse Dune.
What slowed me down a lot with Dune were the many different, unfamiliar names. Once that clicked, the story started unfolding by itself and I could not stop myself reading. It’s been a long time since I first read the original books, but I think I finished all six of them in less than a month. I hope it clicks for you too!
Thoughts on the sequels? I absolutely beyond love the first. Read it maybe 5 times by now. This last time didn’t want to end the adventure, so finally gave the second one a try, and was pretty badly disappointed. The first does such a good job with meanings within meanings and subtlety in dialogue (along with everything else it does right), and the second just seemed to be trying too hard at those things and ultimately failing.
Yeah! The first sequel, Foundation’s Edge, was excellent! It was written with as much if not more depth as the original series. The second sequel, Foundation and Earth, however seemed like a pulp novel by comparison. The story was simplistic and the conclusion pretty disappointing, although it did bring up an interesting quandary about the future of the galaxy.
Lol I was talking about Dune though :)
What are the titles of those books? I think there are six in the original series by Frank Herbert and there are many other books by his son Brian. I haven’t read all of those.
Oh I totally don’t remember. The first one is called Dune, I’m pretty sure about that, the second one like Speaker for The Dead or something? Really only ever been obsessed with the first one. The exposition of the world is soooooo gooooood
start with the robot series. Get the full saga.
And don’t stop after the trilogy there’s seven foundation books in all.
Actually just read all of Asimov while you are at it.
I mean… I wasn’t going to
warn themtell them about that part…you know. get them hooked first, you know. then show them everything…
All!? didnt he pen a ridiculous number of books and is one of the few to get a book in every part of the Dewey decimal system?
@BeigeAgenda @FuglyDuck What about the three authorised Foundation books written by other authors since Asimov’s death?
I’m generally avoiding books written posthumously, there’s too many examples of mediocre to poor books being made to cash in on an author’s name.
Are they any good?
@BeigeAgenda I’ve only read Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear. it’s pretty good but it’s about events that are happening in parallel with the beginning of Foundation so the overall saga is incredibly complicated and multi-layered. Foundation and Chaos also references the laws of robotics which are not mentioned in the original trilogy.
@FuglyDuck @[email protected] The robot books featuring detective Elijah Bailey are all very good. The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire.
yes they are. (that’s, uh, why I recommended them?)
my favorite I, Robot short is “reason”. (“Good god! a Robot Descartes!”)
I couldn’t disagree more. The writing is absolute cringe.
For some reason I assumed Asimov would be a good writer, maybe because I read his “Last Question” short story a long time ago and thought it was brilliant.
But Foundation reads like it was written by a teenager. He’s obsessed with describing ghee whiz gadgets and doodads that I couldn’t care less about, the prose is plain and boring, and the themes and characters have not aged well. It feels like I’m watching the Jetsons, except it’s not at all quaint.
I was hoping to be able to look past all this and get lost in the epic scale of the story and universe he purportedly builds, but it just wasn’t there for me.
Sounds like you’re kinda more after something a little less hard? Asimov is very much the quintessential “this could’ve been an essay” hard sci-fi author (though I will say, imo The Mule is a great character)…but then again I’d argue most hard hard sci-fi is like that. It’s either an ethics or a speculative engineering/biology essay under the veneer of a story. It doesn’t matter much in a short story because you don’t have to set up anything beyond your core theme but stretching out into something more than 50 pages long can be a bit much for some people.
If you’re after something longform from him that’s not so…jargony, have you tried Caves of Steel? it’s his attempt at writing genre fiction and at least I think it’s pretty good. It’s a murder mystery set in his general universe (though way before the Empire and everything) and tries to tackle the more social aspects and themes behind robotics.
I loved all of Asimov’s books/stories, I’ve recommended to a number of friends but a few have had the same issues with the foundation books as above.
I thought the scale/short-story history jumping style of the foundation books was a really unique approach to storytelling. I thoroughly enjoyed the series.
@nikt @[email protected] I agree Foundation and its associates are not very well written. But the sequel Foundation’s Edge (1982) is brilliant. He’s a whole different writer. From the same period there are The Robots of Dawn (1983) and Robots and Empire (1985). I especially like the almost philosophical discussion, in Robots and Empire, between two robots about the meaning of Asimov’s great invention, the laws of robotics.
What sci-fi would you recommend?
I’m reading Hyperion right now. The writing is way better, at least.
Oh, interesting. That one has been on my want-to-read list for a bit now, glad to know it’s worth the read!
Agree completely. This and the culture series were my jam for a long time. Charles stross is also a banger. Sam Hughes too.