Rating: 
Summary: Clever cyber pyrotechnics but little else
Review: Did you enjoy Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series? Remember Salvor Hardin, Hober Mallow and the rest, how they'd muddle through their Seldon crises, puffing cigars, quaffing brandy and quipping aphorisms as they calmly fed plenty of rope to the Foundation's adversaries? In the end, they didn't really do much of anything, but they did it in such a clever, genteel way that you just relaxed and enjoyed their company. And even if Asimov's later novels got a little questy and wordy, you didn't mind, right? Well, troops, fall in with full packs: the post-William Gibson era has dawned. Sergeant Benford is leading your platoon double time into the cyber jungles. You get new technology even if you don't need it, and new characters even when they're old ones. You climb through elevator shafts, swing through trees not like a monkey but as one, jet about the galaxy like a pinball and flee through cyberspace as "simulated personalites." Along with Marq and Sybyl (fresh recruits), Hari and Dors Seldon (veterans), and Voltaire and Joan of Arc (real old-timers), you know only that somebody or something is out to get you. All the while you wonder, along with Hari Seldon, just what the heck is going on anyway. And when you find out, it doesn't make much sense. In Asimov's "Trantor" novels, the younger Seldon emerges not as the Einstein-like character of the original Foundation series but as a kind of scholarly health and fitness nut. Benford makes him a kind of befuddled Bruce Willis trying desperately to understand his own theory of psychohistory by cramming on Discover magazine and the Wall Street Journal where the articles' jump pages are missing. Seldon's plan and the historical situation of the First Empire become thin and murky gruel indeed. Were you wondering what Voltaire and Joan of Arc are doing in the novel? Well you might: it may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but real people simply don't work in fiction outside their own historical context. An author can create characters that resemble historical persons or he can portray those persons, but he borrows the persons themselves at his peril. To be fair, Benford knows his Voltaire, and both Voltaire's and Joan's sheer force of personality, though borrowed, makes them arguably his most interesting characters. Unfortunately, they become quite silly. For one thing, Benford needn't have portrayed Voltaire as such a fop nor made him an apostle of Rousseau's natural religion. But what can't you do with computers these days? For another, Joan's historical charisma is too elusive; we know too little about her and almost too much about Voltaire. In any case, Benford borrows much too heavily from Voltaire's idea of her. And in the end what purpose do they serve here anyway? They provide a subplot that is occasionally entertaining but otherwise incoherent. Another French writer, Vercors, was right: true stories don't have an ending, whereas fictional ones do. Back to the drawing boards. Cigar and brandy, please. It's time to relax.
Rating: 
Summary: Foundation's Fear is this Asimov fan's biggest fear!
Review: One of the things that I have always enjoyed about the Foundation series is Mr. Asimov's easy writing style. Unfortunately, I found that reading Foundation's Fear was a laborious exercise. The author seems to struggle reconciling the scientific concepts initialized by Isaac Asimov with his own concepts of physics. The entire dialogue between Voltaire and Joan was particularly difficult to wade through, only to discover that this part of the story line had very little to do with the development of the rest of the book. I understand that some ideas had to be set up for the next two books, but I was frustrated by the sense that this book just didn't have a reason for being other than the commercial success guaranteed by the "Foundation" title. Given a choice between buying this book or rereading any of the original Foundation titles, this reviewer would recommend revisiting Mr. Asimov's authentic classics.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent novel with some irritating qualities.
Review: FOUNDATION'S FEAR is not Asimov, but as the author says in his afterword, "Variations on a theme by Asimov." As such, it is an excellent read. There are two subplots that Asimov's original editor would have probably told him to lose, and which would not not affected the main plot that much. However, they're interesting in their own right, as even Benford's preaching has some interest.
His wit, especially in the various sound bites, was a vast improvement on Asimov - the suggestion, for example, that if examinations are normed to mask a general decline, so should sports statistics be. I howled at that one!
The irritating parts of the book are, first of all, Hari Seldon's incredible rudeness and stupidity in dealing with Yugo Amaryl's warning that the Dahlites are about to explode. It's plain Benford has never been a member of a group that has trouble being listened to. Seldon is incredibly lucky Yugo didn't walk out muttering "Ah, another bloody Trantorite, wouldn't listen to a Dahlite if one told him the bloody house was on fire, well, just let the sucker burn, then."
Seldon's terror of the Sark Renaissance and the subsequent unraveling is depicted but not, to my mind, justified. He sounds like a GI-generation conservative confronted with the 60s, unaware that these movements come and go and fertilize the next round of civic virtue. He also has trouble seeing political opposition as anything but evil - and Dors Venabili is, alas, as trigger-happy as ever. Benford also has trouble writing strong women as anything but evil (the Academic Potentate) or subservient (Dors). He had to rewrite Joan of Arc out of recognition before he could deal with her, though he was plainly in love with Voltaire. I loved those two yuppies who revived the sims in order to make a buck; they were the most human of the lot.
In general, the book is worth reading. I'm looking forward to the next two.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes frustrating but fulfilling
Review: To use an analogy (not intended to offend the religious) - Benford has written the sci-fi equivalent of the Book of Mormon to append to Asimov's Bible-like series.
As Benford points out he has made no attempt to try to write in a similar vein to the Good Doctor,
which I found frustrating at times. In my humble opinion Asimov without lucidity is a bit like cereal without milk, nutritious but damn hard to swallow. I couldn't help feeling that Benford had been pondering over some concepts which interested him, and chose to use the Foundation universe as an avenue through which he could expound on his ideas, often leaving the reader wondering
whether he would ever get to the point, although when he does finally draw his conclusions they are eminently fulfilling.
To venture onto these hallowed stomping grounds must surely require an ego equal to Asimov's own (surely one of his most endearing qualities)
and Benford doesn't disappoint, setting himself into position to argue both sides of the eternal debate between rationalism and faith
with the skill of the most persuasive lecturer or evangelist.
When he finally reaches his worthwhile conclusion he leaves us wondering just what Brin and Bear will do with the semi-role reversals of Daneel and Seldon.
Really a tough book to read but worth it..
Rating:
Summary: Foundation's Fear nothing like Asimov's style, but good.
Review: Foundation's Fear begins with an attempt at Asimovian style but fortunately Benford abandons it early on. Nobody can pull off that kind of efficient, plain style like Asimov did. This is a very long novel in comparison to any of the Foundation books, with a sub plot that almost could have been a separate novel without depleting the wordage too much. I was dissappointed that he deviated unnecessarily from Asimov's Foundation universe in some aspects, like replacing hyperdrive with wormholes, and several other small things that I found when I reread 5 foundation books after reading this one. Still it is a very good novel. A Benford novel
Rating:
Summary: Benford goes great justice to this sci-fi institution
Review: I thought Benford did an admirable job of fitting
into the Foundation universe. The writing style seems Asmovian to the point that I don't think I
would have known a different author wrote it without reading the book cover. Other reviewers in this column have criticized the sim chapters as too removed from the plot, but I found it a pleasant diversion. While it took a few sections to get in to this subplot, I think any good science fiction book can withstand some new ideas thrown in with the traditional fare. The sim chapters get to the heart of the intellectual decay in the Empire. I am really looking forward to the next two books in the series, but I wonder if three different authors can weave an integrated trilogy and style without veering off to their style.
Rating:
Summary: Close to the Asimov Foundation tradition
Review: Written close enough to the Asimov style to satisfy any Asimov fan. I thought there was too much emphasis on the sims, not enough on Hari, but will reserve harsher judgement on that point until I read the next two volumes of this trilogy - perhaps the author was under the restriction of having to prepare the basis for the following books. I have enjoyed re-reading Asimov's stories - I'm not sure this is one I would eagerly re-read, because of the overemphasis on the sims - again, we'll see what develops in the rest of the trilogy. Best "quotable quote" in the book: "Know how you make God laugh? You tell him your plans."
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to believe Asimov was not author
Review: I have read most of I. Asimov books and the Foundation series is to me one of the best sci-fi series of all times. So when i saw this book i was in shock and angry. Still i have read previous work by G. Benford and liked it so i order the new book. Once i started i could not stop, read for hours and hours. As i read i felt the style and presence of I. Asimov on G. Benford writing. Benford gives life to the main character in the same way as asimov did. I could not tell that i was not reading an Asimov original. I am looking forward to the other two foundation stories, if they are of equal quality as G. Benford the Foundation Universe is in the right hands
Rating: 
Summary: I tried to do the Asimov Foundation justice.
Review: I appreciate all the comments & reviews. It was fun and frightening to tread into
Asimov's heartland, and I do respect the comments of those who raise an eyebrow at it. I'm gratified that it seems to have worked for many, as the book has been through 6 printings already. After FOUNDATION'S FEAR, one might try my TIMESCAPE (in pb).
Rating:
Summary: Impressive work. Fits into Asimov's universe comfortably.
Review:
Like other Asimov 'fanatics', I had initial fears
that this book would distort and caricature
Asimov's Foundation universe.
Fortunately, it does not. While not written in
Asimov's 'plain' style, the book does use the
background on Trantor, the galactic empire and
Hari Seldon's life that Asimov provided in
previous books and expands on them in a logical
way that is consistent. The breakdown of life
support systems on Trantor clearly leads to
what we already know.
Well...consistent expect in a few places. Benford
uses wormholes and space warps as primary means of
transport, not Asimov's hyperspace. Computers
(and computer simulations) are presented in
great detail (but are almost missing in Asimov's
Foundation books). The ending also jarred for
me since Seldon acts in a harsh manner that I
did not expect from his character.
On the whole, an excellent Benford book and one
that I won't have to shamelessly hide in a corner
as a 'bastard son' of the Foundation series...};-)
To Greg Bear and David Brin: make you Foundation
books as well written as this one!
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