Foundation Book Review

I finally got around to reading Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. I knew about the series that had just come out, and of course I knew about the book. However, I didn’t know what it was about, so I was excited to figure that out. Let’s get into the review.

The first book in the Foundation series, which originally began as a trilogy, follows five interconnected sci-fi stories. Published by Gnome Press in 1951, the stories focuses on the Foundation, an institute created by Hari Seldon to preserve the remains of the galactic empire after its predicted eventual demise. Asimov wrote the five stories separately throughout the 1940s, which John W. Campbell published in Astounding Science Fiction. In 1966, the series won the Hugo Award.

Foundation as a book intrgued me. I vaguely knew about the basic premise, but I thought it was a straightforward novel. So when I started reading through the first story, got attached to the characters, and began to understand the world, I lost everything when the story jumped ahead. Of course, plot threads underly all the stories, and certain characters such as Hari Seldon appear throughout. But it took me a minute to adjust to things and recognize that the novel doesn’t focus on character arcs. It focuses on the Foundation’s arc. Based on the fall of the Roman Empire, the Foundation lurks in the background, rising and declining while the characters adhere to it. I really liked this concept. The Foundation felt like another character in a way, one that held startling implications for the future of the characters and the series alike.

I also managed to grow attached to certain characters, even if they appeared briefly. Mostly, I enjoyed Hari Seldon’s development. He appeared like a ghost, a prophetic figure that grew with the Foundation. His expressions of “psycho-history” also kept me engaged with the story, as I never knew what he would do. Asimov manages to create settings that introduce characters for brief periods of time while still getting you to care about what happens to said characters. Stories back then might have been action driven, but these stories hold up given the development of the characters throughout specifically.

I can’t wait to continue tackling my TBR! Looks like I might need to add some more Asimov to my list as well as Clarke. In the meantime, see you all later this week for another blog post! Happy reading!

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