Rating: 
Summary: Misguided
Review: It's been many years since I read Asimov's original "Foundation" trilogy. As I remeber it, he takes the fall of Rome along with the ensuing dark ages and renaissance and gives it a futuristic and galactic spin. To make things interesting he adds Hari Seldon, psychohistory, and the Foundations. The sheer notion of a mathematical model that can accurately predict the future is nonsense. It's impossible to anticipate the appearance and impact of a Caesar or a Lincoln or a Hitler on the course of events. Nevertheless, psychohistory works in the original Foundation context. The original trilogy was a good read and is among the best sci fi around.Later in his life, Asimov wrote several books that linked characters and events from his robot books to the Foundation series. This was, at best, a rather questionable idea. It took the role of robots and expanded it to completely outrageous proportions. Now, we have the Second Foundation trilogy from Benford, Bear and Brin, and things have gotten totally out of control. Technological advances aside, imagine having a robot for a wife. I don't think so. Imagine computer simulations of historical personalities that escape and take on an intergalactic life of their own. I don't think so. In this vein, Brin's book goes much farther than the previous two. Once Asimov's revered genius, Brin puts Hari into the role of the ultimate pawn. Robots now dispute the fate of humanity without bothering to consider what humans might want, and then use Hari to carry out their plans. And Hari goes along, even when he realizes he's being manipulated. R. Daneel Olivaw is now the ultimate villain, ruthlessly doing whatever it takes to impose his "ultimate solution" on the universe. Genocide, the deliberate destruction of the Galactic Empire, suppression of human knowledge and creativity, it's all here. The destruction of a vast accumulation of human historical records are reminiscent of the book burning indulged in by Hitler's Nazis. R. Daneel thinks nothing of wiping the memory of anybody who threatens his grand scheme. It's all very "logical" in a sense, but totally unthinkable. One absurd scene features Dors, a "female" robot, and Lodovic, a "male" robot, heading off toward Trantor in a space vehicle together. They maintain their "human" sub-routines (out of habit. Can robots have habits? Silly.) and the writing clearly implies that "feelings" are at work here. They talk, rather than communicate via microwave. They simulate expressions and emotional responses though these are clearly not called for. There are no humans on board. One can only imagine a sequel in which we are treated to robot love-making, with a little mechanical sperm cell fertilizing a little metallic ovum, leading to the birth of a little robot infant. Ridiculous. This may be one robot's utopian dream, but it comes across as my worst nightmare. I won't tell you what happens at the end, but I will tell you what doesn't. Nobody smashes R. Daneel into a pile of little metal fragments. That, however, is exactly what should have happened. As it is, the book has lots of maneuvering, and every time the plot gets a new complication, it gets a new robotic sect as the cause, but there is little real action and the ending is completely unsatisfying. Brin ties up lots of loose ends, but he leaves lots of others. Open door for further sequels? I hope not! This story is a perversion of the original "Foundation" trilogy. The only reason I have given it two stars is because the writing is technically competent. It's clear from some of the other reviews here that some people liked this series in general, and Brin's finale in particular, but I didn't. I recommend that if you haven't read this already, don't.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Foundation Series Book
Review: Just finished reading Foundation's Triumph today. The original Foundation Trilogy by Asimov is one of my favorite "books" of all time! Isaac's other books in the overall series are also great. For the follow-up Second Foundation Trilogy (after Asimov died) by the Killer Bs, I was disappointed in the first of the three books by Greg Benford. The second by Greg Bear was good and now the third by David Brin is excellent! Brin adds several major threads to the galaxy of Hari Seldon and R. Daneel Olivaw, while maintaining Asimov's overall story line. The "TimeLine for the Robots and Foundation Universe" at the end of the book is also great, but don't read it before finishing the story.
Rating: 
Summary: A good wrap to a good project.
Review: I think Brin, Bear, and Benford did a very good job on these books (the second foundation trilogy). They took these ideas from Asimov and agreed to not take literary license with them but to merely bring them to life in the way Asimov would have if he had lived to write them. I think that Brin actually might even be a better writer per se than Asimov, but it was Asimov's storyline, not the way Brin wrote it that made it a great book. It answers many questions that Asimov never got around to answering but I think always meant to at some point because they were in the notes that the three B's used to write this series. Great job!
Rating:
Summary: Asimov would have been proud !!
Review: Back in 1942 Isaac Asimov started the foundations series - and the future took shape. In 1999 we got book number 10. The third in the second foundation Foundation trilogy. - and it is as great as ever ! Hugo and Nebula award winner David Brin seems to be the man to continue the saga ! -------- According to psychohistory a tiny colony of mathematicians and psychologists, the Foundation, should take over when the old empire crumples and dies. Unfortunately, pertubations will nudge the psychohistorical parameters - knocking the Seldon plan off course. For that purpose a shadowy elite of "demigods" is set up to protect the plan. And beyond all that yet another layer for the future of humanity. The plan set up by R. Daneel Olivaw. A plan that uses the other plans to buy time before this master plan can come into effect. In the Olivaw master plan humanity is changed into a GAIA like structure called the Galaxia superorganism - Every human soul in contact with every other one. All knowledge shared instantly. All misunderstandings erased. All unified into the vast unified web. But there are snakes in paradise : "..... that is the essential horror of the Zeroth law, serve abstract humnity while allowing trillions of real people to die...", said R. Lodovic. The real reason the empire is falling is because you, Daneel, wants to get rid of the Galactic bureaucracy. - the grey class. No small meddlers to interfere with Olivaw's masterplan that turns humanity into Galaxia. And in the end Brin even tells us what it all ends with. Simply, this book couldn't have been any better !
Rating:
Summary: A great read - but should be entitled Foundation Established
Review: This series has been an awesome read. How can you not like Hari Seldon??? This volume has a lot more intrigue in it, with a good continual rythum of action and adventure, to keep anyone turning its pages. I found it to be more in line with the first volume in this series, than the second (focused really on action and the like). Foundation's Triumph though may be an overstatement for when you read through the appendix about the future of the universe as forseen by the various authors that have contributed to it, one almost wonders if Foundation Established would be the better title. Hopefully, the Asimov estate will continue to let other authors, or even these three, take on another phase of the Foundation and see where it and R. Daneel Olivaw allow humanity to go? Worth the read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Salvage Operation
Review: I did not like "Foundation's Fear". Greg Bear and David Brin continue where Gregory Benford left off, but their novels were more salvage operations than anything else since Benford gave the entire "Second Foundation Trilogy" such a poor start. Having finally read all three novels, I am left with the impression that this was not a story of the emergence of the Second Galactic Empire as so many of us had hoped and wished for. Instead, we got a history of the Second Foundation's beginnings, and even that history is woefully inadequate. David Brin's novel is the best of the three. However, I agree that there is far too much "backstory" and very little is said about the psychohistorical momentum to build the Second Empire. Brin makes a noble attempt to cobble the disparate elements Benford introduced in the first novel and give his readers the satisfaction of knowing that a Second Empire has indeed emerged that was different from what both the Second Foundation and the people of Gaia envisioned. However, the "Killer B's" have done their readers a grave disservice by not completing the history of the Interregnum between the two Empires. David Brin compounds this sin by making oblique references to Golan Trevize and the role he is to play during this period as well as what was done by Mors Planch and Biron Maserd. Why did he do this? And is there any intention of the part of the Asimov estate to finally tie all these loose ends together? David Brin hints in his Afterword and Timeline that somebody else should continue the story. Well, I sincerely hope that somebody will, and that whoever takes up this gauntlet will be fearless enough to move forward and not be mired in the past as both Asimov himself and his "successors" were. What the heck? I might do it myself!
Rating:
Summary: What in the world is this!?
Review: Galaxy wide conspiracy by robots!? Robots falling in love!? People on Earth!? Earth is actually livable!? Chaos is a disease!? Galaxy wide amnesia also a disease!? And much more ridiculus ideas... This book is too much for one single book. Too much is packed together; some events are so absurd - I have no words. A lot of Asimov's ideas were broken. In Foundation and Earth, the Earth was uninhabitable and was a shining ball of radiation where even robots couldn't go. In Foundation's Triumph - half the book's events takes place on Earth. David Brin really got out of hand in this book. My suggestion would be to invent whole new Galaxy and take away all of Asimov's ideas. This book is not a continuation of Foundation, its, rather, whole separate novel based, or maybe cheated, on Foundation. While the book has somewhat boring beginning, it gets funnier as it reads on. Not too complicated and it has some quite nice descriptions. It is easy to grasp the idea. Whatever was the idea of David Brinn, it was lost on myriad of useless mysteries and endless plots. Read if you want, although it would be waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: What's the point?
Review: As a work of more "fantasy" than "science fiction", Brin's book is pretty good in it's own right, but as a "continuation" of the Foundation series, it's really pretty bad. Apart from sharing the characters (more or less) and the basic plot, it bears little resemblance to Asimov's books - little is left to the imagination, which Asimov must have realized was more effective than providing every last gory detail. Whereas Asimov's stories were sci fi with some social commentary/morality play aspects, this and the others in this series are the reverse. I cannot imagine why the books were authorized by Asimov's estate - other of course than for the royalties. I understand the urge to try to want more "Asimov stories," but all good things must come to an end, and I hope this is the last of this misguided series.
Rating:
Summary: A little better.
Review: I must say that I was not too impressed with this series in general. Basically what it did was take themes from Asimov's original series and blow them totally out of proportion. Though this book was the best read of the three (hence the three stars), I didn't like the story at all, or what it did to the classic characters. Olivaw basically becomes some sort of god/tyrant of the robots, and sees himself as some sort of misguided protector of humanity. Also too many new ideas were introduced into this universe with this series, which basically took old cool ideas and made them lame. The robots were originally cool, but making the three laws be their religion was lame. Hari's wife was cool. Having her hook up with another robot after her "death" was lame. The minus one law of robots was totally lame. You get the idea. And the new ideas in this series only weakened it. The memes, Voltaire, the pans, you name it. Anyway, I'd only reccommend this book for someone who is totally obsessed with the Foundation series and can't stop reading about it. Otherwise, your time could be better spent elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Good conclusion - but perhaps a little dark ...
Review: Well, the final end to the trilogy of the Second Foundation Trilogy and possibly to the original series as well. This book (along with the hints in "Foundation and Chaos") tells us what the ending of "Foundation and Earth" meant. This was a good note to end the series on, although with reservations for me. This novel posits an even larger conspiracy existing behind all of human history than any of other books in the series (including Asimov's) although it is easy to see the logical build-up. This was a pretty good ending to the whole series in terms of wrapping things up in a relatively neat little package that answered most of the questions, and certainly solidifying the end of "Foundation and Earth." Having said the above and having really liked this book, I do have to say that this series took a very interesting twist that was really brought to the fore in this book. Your feelings towards the "helpful" Daneel may change with this book, as they did for me. This book (combined with the other two in the New Foundation Trilogy) give a very dark vision of mankind's past and the actions of that past lead to a very dark, conformist future that, to me, is frightening in the extreme. To that end, it is my feelings that these books might be a little darker than Asimov would have preferred. (I am not an Asimov expert by any stretch but I think the love of robots that he displayed might have been taken too far in these books.) Granted, I think the actions of the robots were logical given their imperatives but I also think that this showed Daneel to be the ultimate villain of humanity. The path this book takes (and that was started in "Foundation and Chaos") is that the end makes it clear: in order to allow the human race to live, we have to take away that which makes them human. All in all: a good book, well plotted and paced, with excellent characters. The puzzles were enough to keep you reading and there are nice tie-in's with just about every book in the Asimov "Empire," "Robot," and "Foundation" novels. A worthy addition to the collection. Even though this was accepted by the Asimov estate and even though I think it was an excellent book in its own right, I still felt that this series led itself a little too much away from what I consider to be the Asimov thought process. Unfortunately I cannot explain that without giving key elements of the story away so I just have to leave it by saying that this book could only get four stars from me instead of the five I would have liked to give it for the excellent story. (I would have given it five stars if there was more of a narrative element that questioned the benefits between the different aspects of mankind's future that were proposed. If nothing else, however, this book made you think about those options - I just wish it would have explored them.)
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