Foundation and Earth

Rating:
Summary: A conclusion worthy of the series
Review: This certainly ranks as one of the best of the Foundation novels. Asimov's writing style is much more mature than in the first three, and refinitions can be seen even since "Foundation's Edge." Beginning with the seamless transition from it's predecessor, "Foundation and Earth" carries Trevize, Pelorat and Bliss across the galaxy, revealing more about Asimov's strange universe in one book than the previous four combined.

The characters are also much more thoroughly explored than in any other Foundation book. Though Asimov never quite got the hang of realistic dialogue (the characters often seem to be reciting pre-composed, rehearsed speeches), he does manage to build a good deal of tension between characters. He also takes the corrageous step of making Golan Trevize, no longer a victim, into a much less likeable person than he appeared to be in "Foundation's Edge."

Ammusingly, Asimov constantly pats himself on the back with references to his "Robot" and "Empire" novels, giving the series a sense of closure and eventually tying together a good portion of his novels -- nearly five decades worth of writing. Nice work, Isaac. We miss you.

Rating:
Summary: One of the foundations of the Foundation Series
Review: This is the last book (chronologically) in the Foundation Series, and with Prelude to Foundation, the earliest, the Foundation Series has two excellent bookends, or, perhaps, "foundations", to keep it in place.

F&E is a continuation of Foundation's Edge, and is the story of Trevize, Pelorat and Bliss/Gaia's quest to find Earth, in an attempt to determine why Trevize's choice for the future of mankind is the right one.

The book deviates substantially from the rest of the series, but generally in a positive way. Whereas Asimov has a habit of making his primary characters out of cardboard, presumably to avoid the people getting in the way of the ideas he wants to express, F&E fleshes out the characters with a certain amount of personality. Whereas the rest of the Foundation Series tends to concentrate on worlds which, after a while, all appear similar, the worlds of F&E are different, frightening, and yet serve Asimov's agendas well. F&E also ties together the Robot series universe with that of the Foundation series far more substantially than the other books in the Foundation Series attempted to, portraying the futures of the Spacer worlds that Robot fans will be familiar with.

I'm guessing that the differences are ultimately why this has gotten a lower average review than the others in the series - it's not classic Foundation Series material, and any one expecting a collecton of stories involving a renegade Foundation leader visiting various rebelling worlds and outwitting the dimwitted monarchs that rule over them with some sort of smartarsed politics is going to be sorely disappointed. Hari Seldon makes no appearance. I don't recall even seeing the term "Seldon Crisis" in this book.

If you genuinely want more of the same, you'll probably be disappointed by this book. If you've never read any of the series before, it's probably best to start at the beginning with the equally excellent Prelude to Foundation (or even the Robot series.) But if you're excited by Asimov's ability to paint new worlds, to visualise the future directions for humanity, you cannot afford to miss this. Foundation and Earth is the best yet.

Rating:
Summary: The "last" book in the series, and a fine one at that
Review: This is the last book, chronologically, in the Robot/Empire/Foundation universe, and it's a very fitting one. The story starts immediately (i.e. days) after the end of Foundation's Edge, so we start with the same three main characters - Trevize, the exiled Foundation councilman; Pelorat, the ancient historian looking for Earth; and Bliss, member of the superorganism Gaia. Since the problems of Trevize and Bliss were solved in Foundation's Edge, we are left to solve Pelorat's in this book - where and what is the planet where all humankind originated? Of course, we already know the answer, but there's a great deal of fun to be had in the journey.
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Thus, we set off on a search for Earth, and with only a few clues and hearsay, it's a long search. Along the way we visit a number of planets we're familiar with from other series - notably Solaria and Aurora, the two most prominent Spacer worlds in the Robot novels. We learn the fate of the Spacers (including the solution to the "hook" at the end of Robots and Empire - why the Solarians disappeared) and along the way Asimov springs a few additional surprises on us. The characters are interesting and much more enjoyable than the same characters in the previous book - I'm not sure why that is, since their personalities are perfectly consistent. The debates between Trevize representing individual freedom and Bliss representing the telepathically linked massmind of Gaia provides much of the philosophical backbone of the book. There is suffienct action and plot twists to keep you turning the pages right to the end of the book.
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It's curious that this book is so difficult to find, yet the books published on either side of it (Robots and Empire and Prelude to Foundation) are readily available. In addition, this book spent 15 weeks on the NY Times bestseller list! It's even hard to find used (it took me about 10 used bookstores in 3 different cities to find it, and every one of the ten had Foundation's Edge). Very odd. But, it was well worth the effort to find - it's one of the best Foundation books, certainly better than Foundation's Edge. There is a hook at the end of this novel too, but the good Dr. Asimov passed on before he could write another installment (and apparently, he did not have any idea what to do with it anyways).

Rating:
Summary: Still Worth the Read
Review: This, the fifth book, was probably the worst in the series, but was still worth the read, as far as I'm concerned. (I haven't read the two prequels yet.) The Foundation Series' setting and Asimov's style just seems to be right up my alley. I've liked everything I've read by him so far!

One of my favorite aspects of the original trilogy, was how it did a story in one generation, and then went to another story in another generation- A short story or novella for each Psycho-historical crisis. Now, as in Foundation's Edge, we are stuck with a straight forward novel-type book. A little disappointing, but as I said, I guess I just enjoy the Foundation SF setting, and this book was still very enjoyable for me.

I have no clue why this book is out-of-print... Did the publishers hate it? Or did they just not like the direction this plunged the series into? Did they want F&E's ending out of the way to make room for a new direction in the books by the "Killer B's" -written after Asimov's death? I didn't read those books yet either, and since they didn't get such hot reviews- I may not read them ever. Oh well.

If the low average rating here on Amazon has you wary, you can always try to get it from the library, so you won't waste your money on a potentially bad book. But if you enjoyed books 1 through 4, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat of a letdown
Review: Well, 6 months ago I started reading CAVES OF STEEL. I read all 4 robot novels, all 3 Empire novels and all 7 Foundation novels in order. 14 books in 6 months. Some were better than others.
As a whole, the Robot series was the best. I found the 3 Empire novels to be the most boring. And the Foundation novels were hit and miss. FOUNDATION AND EARTH is a perfect example of the series; exciting at times and then when you can sense a big climax, it is really, to be quite honest, a let down. I'm glad I read all the books, but I don't think they were really all that well written, Asimov has a curious and cold way of writing. Now onto Lord of the Rings......