Rating: 
Summary: A Great Book
Review: This is a great book but I recommend reading the rest of the Foundation Series first as even though this takes place before it, it was written after and was meant to be read after you read the other books.
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Summary: The life of Hari Seldon
Review: This novel begins eight years after Prelude to Foundation, and it is chronologically the second novel in the seven that Asimov wrote. I think this just might be the best novel Asimov wrote, and it happened to be completed just before his death. The novel consists of four parts, each separated by about ten years. This is really about Seldon, and the path his life takes. In the first part, many things are simliar to Prelude, the Empire is falling to pieces, an old friend from the Robot series is the person functionally running the empire, and psychohistory is still just a fledgling science. He and his wife, who is his protector (appointed by Daneel Olivaw), have adopted the young boy they encountered in Prelude. The events of this first part see the departure of Daneel, with Seldon being unexpectedly elevated to fill his position. Part two deals with Seldon's life as a political functionary, running the dying empire while trying to hammer out psychohistory so that he can save humanity. Again, a major character exits the scene, but not quite as one might expect. This results in Seldon exiting politics and focusing solely on his work in part three. Governmental authority has been assumed by the military, and psychohistory is finally able to make some predictions. Hari loses an old friend and his family uncovers a plot to kill someone, they think Hari is the target. While the plot twists a bit in this part are VERY well done, the end is really tragic. This time Hari lost the most important person in the galaxy to him. In part four, Hari is essentially all alone, with only his granddaughter remaining of all the friends and family he once had. His son and daughter-in-law each meet unfortunate fates, while the capital planet Trantor is now feeling the decay that the empire as a whole has felt for some time. Hari is forced to make some decisions that enable the second foundation to be created, though it also costs him someone dear. The ending is as one might expect, the death of the great one, as readers of the series would know. He manages to wrap things up in time, at least enough to set things on the track that psychohistory saw fit, and that the second foundation can steer. I really think this was a story of Asimov himself in many ways. It deals with a brilliant man, recognized as such during his own lifetime, who deals with the loss of his friends and family as he outlives them all. But still he works. And he dies while working. Asimov himself said that he identified with Seldon more than any of his other characters, and after chronicling the life and death of Seldon, Asimov himself died. He is already sorely missed.
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Summary: The Sequel to Prelude to Foundation
Review: This story is the continuation of Prelude and it fills the gap between Prelude and Foundation. It is a great piece of work--in fact one of Asimov's last before his death. This is one of those stories that sticks in your mind and stays there for years to come.
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Summary: The Sequel to Prelude to Foundation
Review: This story is the continuation of Prelude and it fills the gap between Prelude and Foundation. It is a great piece of work--in fact one of Asimov's last before his death. This is one of those stories that sticks in your mind and stays there for years to come.
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Summary: Asimov's final novel.
Review: This was Isaac Asimov's last novel; he died in April of 1992. This book, a part of Asimov's noted Foundation series, concerns events taking place between "Prelude to Foundation" (1988) and "Foundation" (1951) and helps pull together those two books. It consists of a series of four stories, each taking place at a different time in the life of the mathematician Hari Seldon. The first story ("Eto Demerzel") begins about eight years after the end of "Prelude to Foundation." Seldon's work on his mathematical theory of psychohistory is going slowly. He finds that he has to assist the First Minister of the Empire, Eto Demerzel, in defeating a populist demagogue. (A new Foundation trilogy was begun in 1997. "Foundation's Fear" by Gregory Benford takes place between the first and second stories in "Forward the Foundation." Greg Bear's "Foundation and Chaos" and David Brin's "Foundation's Triumph" also take place within the time frame of "Forward the Foundation") The second story, "Cleon I", takes place ten years later. Seldon is now First Minister of the Empire and he finds that he and his adopted son, Raych, must defeat the remnants of an opposition group and stop an assassination attempt. In the third story, "Dors Venabili", occurring about ten years later, Seldon and his wife, the historian Dors Venabili, must quelch the designs of a ruthless military junta that is governing the Empire as well as detect and stop someone within the psychohistory project from taking it over. In the last story ("Wanda Seldon"), about six years later, Seldon and his granddaughter Wanda must find a way to obtain funding to continue the research after Hari Seldon dies. He soon comes up with the idea of two, independent Foundations whose goal it is to return the Galaxy to his former glory after the upcoming millennia of dark ages. In addition to these four stories, there is a short Epilogue that takes place two years after the end of Part I of "Foundation" (1951). This series has had an enormous impact in the history of science fiction and all serious students of science fiction literature should be familiar with all of the books in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Asimov's final novel.
Review: This was Isaac Asimov's last novel; he died in April of 1992. This book, a part of Asimov's noted Foundation series, concerns events taking place between "Prelude to Foundation" (1988) and "Foundation" (1951) and helps pull together those two books. It consists of a series of four stories, each taking place at a different time in the life of the mathematician Hari Seldon. The first story ("Eto Demerzel") begins about eight years after the end of "Prelude to Foundation." Seldon's work on his mathematical theory of psychohistory is going slowly. He finds that he has to assist the First Minister of the Empire, Eto Demerzel, in defeating a populist demagogue. (A new Foundation trilogy was begun in 1997. "Foundation's Fear" by Gregory Benford takes place between the first and second stories in "Forward the Foundation." Greg Bear's "Foundation and Chaos" and David Brin's "Foundation's Triumph" also take place within the time frame of "Forward the Foundation") The second story, "Cleon I", takes place ten years later. Seldon is now First Minister of the Empire and he finds that he and his adopted son, Raych, must defeat the remnants of an opposition group and stop an assassination attempt. In the third story, "Dors Venabili", occurring about ten years later, Seldon and his wife, the historian Dors Venabili, must quelch the designs of a ruthless military junta that is governing the Empire as well as detect and stop someone within the psychohistory project from taking it over. In the last story ("Wanda Seldon"), about six years later, Seldon and his granddaughter Wanda must find a way to obtain funding to continue the research after Hari Seldon dies. He soon comes up with the idea of two, independent Foundations whose goal it is to return the Galaxy to his former glory after the upcoming millennia of dark ages. In addition to these four stories, there is a short Epilogue that takes place two years after the end of Part I of "Foundation" (1951). This series has had an enormous impact in the history of science fiction and all serious students of science fiction literature should be familiar with all of the books in the series.
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Summary: Robots do have souls. . .
Review: This was the best of the Foundation novels published after the original three. My reasons why- First of all, this books regains one of the best elements of the original Foundation Trilogy-gaps in time. I loved how in the original Foundation stories I would read about a character, finish that part of the book, and then see that character consistantly refered to as a political or social legend 50 or so years and one page later. This took some getting used to but was a very enjoyable aspect of the original Trilogy. Also, Hari Seldon is now a fully realized and great character instead of a vehicle for Asimov's imaginary science of Psychohistory. In Prelude to Foundation, Seldon did nothing to futher Psychohistory but trek around the planet Trantor and whine to anyone who wouldn't run from his bitching about how impossible it would be to develope psychohistory and all that...now he acts like the true mathematical badass that he is, actually working on psychohistory dilligently and in the end, perfecting it to create the Foundations. But the best part about the book was the ending...in which you find out that in Isaac's Universe, positronic robots have souls. It was the kind of ending I loved in the original trilogy, where the last setence or even the last couple of words would shatter your assumptions about the story or even Asimov's entire future history. An incredible novel, and a great return to form as a last farewell to the science fiction community. We shall never again equal Isaac Asimov's wit and wisdom in his approach to S
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Summary: This is the kind of story that defies the silver screen.....
Review: To the utter frustration of HOLLYWOOD,astory was created that surpasses the mongral mind. Mr. Asimov has interwoven a plot that is mind-alteringly brilliant. Don't be supprised if you end up reading this more than twice!
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Summary: A surprisingly good and moving book.
Review: Upon finishing the other six Foundation novels, I finally picked up "Forward the Foundation". I was amazed by the humanity of the book--it is rarely seen in any other Asimov piece. I enjoyed all of them, but the life of Hari Seldon is more intruiging to me than the deified hologram of Hari Seldon seen in later books. It is difficult to write a "non-spoiler" review of this book, but the characters are delightful and the galaxy is real. For anyone with an interest in these stories, Forward the Foundation is one that should most assuredly not be missed. Asimov's (and possibly ours) future universe comes to life in a whole new light
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story with high quality reading
Review: When I read the original three foundation tales, quite frankly, I was not overwhelmed with the quality of the stories. However, there was one point of the tales that had me fascinated. That was of course the psychohistory of Hari Seldon. This book is a prequel to the first of the three originals, although there is some overlap. It is a description of the life of Hari as he begins the detailed development of psychohistory.
As he had promised years before, Asimov uses this book to tie together his robot books starring R. Daneel Olivaw with the foundation series. Daneel appears in the book as a major political figure, but it is Hari who is the dominant character. The story is set on the imperial capital of Trantor, and Seldon is both a mathematics professor and the first minister to Emperor Cleon. Other major characters are Hari's devoted wife Dors, his adopted son Rache and his mentally gifted granddaughter Wanda.
The story is captivating, but like all audio books, the enjoyment is largely dependent on the quality of the reading. David Dukes is excellent in reading the text, his inflection and changes of tone make it easy to follow the dialog. He is very consistent in using the same tones for each of the characters throughout the reading. I listened to most of the book while driving, and there was no time when I was confused as to which character was speaking.
This is one of the best books on tape that I have listened too. The book is one of Asimov's best novels and the reading is outstanding.
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