I first read and loved this trilogy as a young kid the best part of 50 years ago; I distinctly remember loving it and being hugely disappointed there weren’t any more books (it would be some years before Asimov wrote the prequels and sequels that are generally viewed much less highly). I don’t remember exactly what I loved about them back then just that I did love them, and now that I’m reading them again I find that I have almost no memory of any of the details, which is great because I get to enjoy them all over again. Although maybe not quite as much as I did back then; I’m a rather more cynical and possibly more discerning reader than I was in those early days and I do find myself wincing at the frankly rather naïve science that Asimov liberally drops in (his obsession with atomic ashtrays becomes very repetitive by the end of the book). Also I am less comfortable now with the format; the foundation trilogy was originally written purely as short stories for the Astounding magazine, only later were they pieced together into a trilogy of novels. In that respect Foundation and Empire fares rather better than the first book, Foundation, in that it is made up of only two rather longer stories. However it does present me with a problem writing this now; is the final twist of the second part, The Mule, really as predictable, almost from the beginning, as it seemed to me, resulting it its feeling rather drawn out, or were my vague memories sufficient to spoil it for me? I’m not totally sure but, sadly, I really do think it was the former – it really was very obvious all the way along.
Never mind though, Asimov’s writing is slick and never boring despite the fact that almost all the action actually takes place off stage. In Asimov’s own words when re-reading it himself “I read it with mounting uneasiness. I kept waiting for something to happen, and nothing ever did. All three volumes, all the nearly quarter of a million words, consisted of thoughts and of conversations. No action. No physical suspense.” And, in the words of a critic of the time, “Action and romance have little to do with the success of the trilogy - virtually all the action takes place offstage, and the romance is almost invisible - but the stories provide a detective-story fascination with the permutations and reversals of ideas.” Both of these observations are true but somehow don’t seem to matter. The whole premise is so brilliant that it keeps the reader eagerly turning the page to see how the Foundation will survive.
This book was definitely better for me than the first one possibly because it was more like two linked novellas than a collection of linked short stories (I’m not a great lover of shorts, preferring to get immersed in bigger stories). Still a great read but maybe not quite as riveting as my younger and more innocent self found it 50 years ago.
4/5 stars
Never mind though, Asimov’s writing is slick and never boring despite the fact that almost all the action actually takes place off stage. In Asimov’s own words when re-reading it himself “I read it with mounting uneasiness. I kept waiting for something to happen, and nothing ever did. All three volumes, all the nearly quarter of a million words, consisted of thoughts and of conversations. No action. No physical suspense.” And, in the words of a critic of the time, “Action and romance have little to do with the success of the trilogy - virtually all the action takes place offstage, and the romance is almost invisible - but the stories provide a detective-story fascination with the permutations and reversals of ideas.” Both of these observations are true but somehow don’t seem to matter. The whole premise is so brilliant that it keeps the reader eagerly turning the page to see how the Foundation will survive.
This book was definitely better for me than the first one possibly because it was more like two linked novellas than a collection of linked short stories (I’m not a great lover of shorts, preferring to get immersed in bigger stories). Still a great read but maybe not quite as riveting as my younger and more innocent self found it 50 years ago.
4/5 stars
