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Summary: Greg Bear rocks us down again!
Review: My favorite aspect of Asimov's writing has always been his fine balance between plot and characterization. Bear has always been heavy on the plot and a little lighter on the characters and he matches Asimov's style in that aspect very well. I liked this novel much more than Foundation's Fear - there's a lot happening and there's also more hard-SF the way I like 'em. Very complex novel and lots of very interesting plot twists. Excellent detail of Trantor as well, more detail than has ever been revealed before. Get this book!
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Summary: True to the spirit and style of the original series
Review: Of the second Foundation trilogy books, I found this to be the most enjoyable. After the turgid first installment, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Bear's style of writing was much cleaner and clearer than Benford's, and the book as a whole had a really nice pace. It didn't hurt that the entire style of the book was very reminiscent of Asimov, which is of course a big part of why the original trilogy was as good as it was.
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Summary: I hope Bear writes more novels in the Foundation Universe.
Review: One of my favorite Foundation books is "Forward the Foundation". I did not think that Benford's novel added anything to the story between "Eto Demerzel" and "Cleon I" (I HATED the sims, memes, tiktoks, pans, and the characters did not seem right). "Foundation and Chaos" expanded on "Epilogue" and "The Psychohistorians". It has great characters and a great plot. I wish that Bear and Brin would have never mentioned the sims, and wormholes. I do not think that Brin's novel added much to the Foundation Universe. The plot was not as solid as Bear's and he tried to tie up the loose ends in a way that I do not think Asimov would have done. It seemed like it's main purpose was to tie up loose ends.
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Summary: Captures Asimov's style perfectly
Review: Significantly better than volume 1 of this trilogy. Benford has captured Asimov's style perfectly - if Benford's name wasn't on the cover, you'd think old Isaac was still alive. Don't miss this one!
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Summary: An excellent book .. almost as good as any of asimov's
Review: So, why did i give it only 4 stars? Because i felt cheated... The cover says it's a foundation novel ... but what u get is, almost completely, a robot story. But the story itself is told very skillfully. It almost never loses it's grip on you .. unlike foundation's fear. Supposedly, Asimov wrote the first short story of the Foundation novel after he wrote the other three short stories... But i always considered the first one as one of the very best. Bear mixes the material from that short story with his novel ... it's almost impossible to separate the two authors! He manages to successfully add to the Seldon story in a very beleivable manner. Only problem is, he could have easily converted all his robot characters into human and still got almost the same story... Robot underground, Robot tribes and Robot fight over a difference of opinion!!! Seems like 1920s chicago ..... only they are the good guys! Anyway, if u like asimov style of writing, Asimov robot stories, a foundation story, Daneel story and/or a Hari Seldon story , U will like this novel.... go ahead... buy it ...
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Summary: This one alone could save the Second Foundation trilogy
Review: The first book of the Second Foundation Trilogy was a dissapointment. I didn't like the main story, nor the characters. However, with this book Greg Bear has made a great contribution to saving the series from being a bad idea. At times, I felt I was reading old Isaac covering some lapses left in the original series. Though I still haven't read the latest addition to the saga, this one fits very well in the tradition. I didn't give it a 5 stars rating on account of the bad taste I still have for reading the first book.
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Summary: Bear's Foundation and Chaos
Review: The Foundation series of the late Isaac Asimov and its continuation by Brin and Bear is a work of Creative Geniuses, the modern analogue of the classic Shakespeare. Ethical and moral issues abound similar to the current debates about clones and automation. Psychological and social issues abound including the relationship between the living and the mechanical, between the material and the spiritual at a much more fundamental level than emerges from most science fiction movies. The great physicist Roger Penrose (see my reviews of his books - he is one of the world's greatest physicists) has written two volumes fairly recently on these types of issues. It is fascinating to ask, as this book does, what happens if the supposed laws of robotics, the assumptions "built in" to the computer, are violated. This is perhaps the most profound question of our times: what happens when you change a supposed axiom, as in non-Euclidean geometry (you get General Relativity). I still think that Bear and his colleagues will need to do more Foundation writing before they can match Asimov's level of genius, but so far they are doing very well indeed!
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Summary: Time to get back to basics
Review: The question implied by the "Second Foundation Trilogy" seems to be: can you dress up an old classic in the latest fashions? Or, as some might put it: "Can grandma go punk?" The readers' answers to date have been mixed. And well they might. For one thing, today's baroque style clashes with Asimov's conservatism. The continuators have in effect covered an ice sculpture with expressionist painting. And they seem to have missed some opportunities. How so? It's time to get back to basics. Asimov's strong points are plotting and motivation with relatively few characters. The continuators resort too often to belated characterizations that make Asimov's style seem careful in comparison. They also multiply characters unnecessarily -- take your pick -- which create crowds vying for attention. For another, Asimov's technology is conspicuously conservative. His robots, which are parodies of humanity, are his stock in trade. Hyperspatial travel and telepathy came a little later. Aside from standard s-f stage props like force fields, neuronic whips, blasters and atomic ashtrays -- not to mention a ridiculous doomsday gadget -- that's where he stopped. Even in "Foundation and Earth," Asimov uses essentially the same technology as in his very early novel "Pebble in the Sky." The continuators have piled on the technology, but to what end? Asimov's "Foundation" series is equally conservative in concept. Its premise was important in mid-century: what do individuals matter in the sweep of human history? His answer is likewise simple: individuals necessarily exist in a historical context, but individual action is crucial. The continuators have so far both clouded and expanded the question. For example, only a towering genius like Goethe or Schiller could use real people as fictional characters without unintentional parody. But once the virtual characters of Voltaire and Joan of Arc were introduced, why miss the opportunity to examine the values of skepticism and faith in the light of Asimov's basic question? Finally, Asimov respected his characters, particularly Hari Seldon. However, Seldon has taken a beating at the hands of the continuators. For example, it is a flat contradiction that he would be philosophically shaken by the ill-timed appearance of the Mule-like figure of Vara Liso. What is the Second Foundation for, anyway? At the very least it's a psychohistorical fire department. What Asimov did leave unfinished is Seldon's vague answer to Linge Chen's question: Why? Indeed, why establish the Foundations? And, further, how can he claim they are a good thing? Asimov implied that high living standards combined with enhanced empathy and even telepathy would make humanity better than his robots. He left the moral question open because he took it for granted. And that is what the continuators of today might have explored.
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Summary: Greag Bear Does Asimov Well
Review: The second book in the post-Asimov foundation series is by one of my favorite SF authors--Greg Bear. This book picks up after Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear, but does not come chronologically right after the end of that book. Rather, what has been done in this new series is that spots not filled out by Asimov are now filled in, so Benford's work takes place just as the main character, Hari Seldon, takes the post of First Ministership, while Bear's book takes place after that time and what we were left to think was the decline and death of Seldon (that impression made in Asimov's Forward Foundation.
Bear is really great at picking up a genre that is not his own (as I liked in his Star Trek and Star Wars novels). Foundation and Chaos is more like Asimov's style than Benford's, but Bear still manages to fill out some details not covered before, especially about political strive among the robots. The idea that the robots have differing opinions and political groups working against each other is really amazing. Loved it all.
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Summary: So you want to talk about ROBOTS? Fine, let's!
Review: This is a hard hard book to review.
Firstly, I must congratulate the author who did a fantastic job after the 1st mess of a book to put the series back together again. The concise, clear style is much appreciated by this reader (despite what anyone may say about individuality and style, the readers here are the original fans of Asimov and therefore probably prefer the Good Doctor's style! ). But more damage is done precisely because of this. Benford's work I can completely ignore because it is so far from it's foundations (sorry ;-)) that it's virtually unrecognisable. The same cannot be said about 'Foundation and Chaos'. It's an easily recognisable/acceptable episode in the Asimovian Galaxy. Spoiler alert: I'm going to discuss plotting, characters and theme here. Firstly, thank you Mr. Bear for getting rid of (or as much as you could) wormholes, memes, sims and most of the other unnecessary additions by Benford. Secondly,why is everyone focusing so much on robots? This is the FOUNDATION series - a series originally about human resourcefulness and ability to triumph, remember? This is NOT THE ROBOT series. Just because the Good Doctor decided they take place in the same universe doesn't mean robots now fill every page of a FOUNDATION book. In the 3 foundation novels that robots were mentioned (F&Earth, Prelude and Forward), only 1 novel had a significant portion of the novel devoted to robots. In this new series we are presented with 2 (and mostly likely 3) novels packed full of robots. Don't take me wrong - I like the robot series very much - probably more than I did the original Foundation series. I whooped with joy when Daneel appears in 'Foundation and Earth' and was glad to greet him like an old friend in all subsequent novels. But a Foundation novel filled with robotic characters, robotic underground wars, robotic betrayal and humans in pursuit of robots? Where's the Foundation in this novel? Alright Killer Bs - if you want to play with robots, go head. But at least do it well. Alas, there is very little left of what feels like the original Asimov robots. The simple/virtuous humanity present in the Good Doctor's robots are practically gone and we are left with quibbling, controlling, assuming beings. I don't like any of them in this novel, including Daneel and I blame the authors for that. By turning Daneel into the God-like figure he now is, he has lost our sympathy and empathy. He is no longer gentle Daneel who has carried an immense weight alone for so long (F&Earth, Prelude). He is now omniscient, suffocating, cold and calculating. Why? The Calvinian robots is a ludicrous idea - where have they been all these years? How did they leave the Spacer worlds? (Neither earth nor Settlers allowed robots) And what is the logic behind hurting a human (Seldon) to defeat another robot to promote the 3 Laws? To harm/change Seldon's mind is a violation of the 1st Law. To do this for future good is clearly the Zeroth Law working. What gives? And finally... why Seldon? As a previous reader pointed out - we've had enough of Seldon. Asimov devoted 2 novels to him. We want to know what happened to Golan Trevise and the fate of the rest of the galaxy. 4 stars for bringing me a whole night of solid entertainment and for bringing back, if not in spirit, the Asimov universe.
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