Rating: 
Summary: Asimov's universe without Asimov's warmth
Review: Every five years or so, I treat myself to reading all seven of Isaac Asimov's Foundation books back-to-back, beginning with "Prelude" and continuing through the entire chronology, except that I like to read "Forward the Foundation" last. Having just finished my 2004 reading, I am not going to continue with the Second Trilogy books, nor do I think I will ever crack their covers again.
Though the books by Benford, Bear and Brin describe the Foundation universe with more color and texture than ever, the greater detail brings more disappointment than fascination. Hari Seldon and other characters we've come to know act much differently and often seem like strangers.
Most disappointing is the treatment of Dors Venabili, recharacterized with a misspelled name in Foundation's Fear. Her appearance in Foundation and Chaos tampers unforgivably with the happy ending Asimov gave us in the Epilogue of Forward the Foundation, his last novel in a long career. Given Asimov/Seldon's affection for this character, the parallels between Dors and Asimov's wife Janet, and between "Forward" and the latter years of Asimov's own life, this development alone was enough to ruin the entire second trilogy experience for me.
Taking over another writer or artist's franchise is never easy. Benford, Bear and Brin had supreme guts for trying and their books are not uninteresting. They do however, show us Asimov's universe without Asimov's warmth, and familiar characters as portrayed could be from any garden-variety science fiction book. Hari Seldon, Daneel Olivaw and the rest of the cast were special because of the way Asimov drew them and the voices he gave them. I will always prefer to conclude the Foundation series with one word: Dors!
Rating:
Summary: Foundation's Drear
Review: I disagree with those who criticize Benford for neither writing like Asimov nor adopting the now outmoded science underlying the great Foundation trilogy. Asimov himself developed a more polished style in later works, and, as a scientist, would doubtlessly approve the use of the most accurate technology. Such criticisms miss a more damning point -- that "Foundation's Fear" is a bad book by any standard. The book is bloated with pointless dialogue and description. The hamhanded plot telegraphs the "twists" so far in advance that their final arrival is cause for relief rather than surprise. The secondary characters are so paper thin that it's impossible to understand their motivations or to develop any sympathy for them. Benford does manage better with his main character. His exposition of Hari Seldon's character and of the development of psychohistory provide believable coverage for holes in Asimov's account. But Benford sacrifices some of the character's credibility by having Seldon engage in James Bondian heroics while avoiding a series of implausible assassination attempts. But worst of all are the scenes with the Voltaire and Joan of Arc artificial entities. Their actions and reactions to events around them are unrealistic, the development of their "characters" doesn't make sense, and and their philosophizing about artificial entities mostly rehashes points that have been made better by more skillful writers.I borrowed this book from the library, and am glad that I didn't waste $6.00 on it. I advise everyone else to either do the same or skip straight to the vastly superior Greg Bear book, which can be read independent of "Foundation's Fear." If you insist on owning the book, wait to find it for 50 cents at flea markets, where it should be appearing in abundance soon.
Rating:
Summary: Not Asimov, nor Foundation, nor good Benford, not good atall
Review: I don't like trashing honest efforts, and I guess this was an honest effort by Gregory Benford, but it fails inexorably. It's supposed to take off from PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION, and does include the two principals from that book, Hari & Dors, also Yugo who's much less interesting than he was in the first book. I especially wonder what happened to Raich who Hari & Dors seemed to be taking in as a son. It is much too heavily laden down with technical talk. There's precious little action on any level for much of the book. Therefore, reading it does become a bit of a chore, not the fun it was reading Asimov's stories. You'll probably want to read it as preparation for the other two books, so just be prepared not to be very excited by it.
Rating: 
Summary: Benford just uses his ideas and puts them on Asimov's Found.
Review: I had never come across a book that was literally a chore to read, until I got this book. Abysmal doesn't begin to describe it. Imagine the most foul, putrid, rancid, vile odor that can possibly come from the depths of a rat-infested sewer, and that is Chanel No. 5 compared to this book. I swear Benford's writing is so bad, he makes Stephen Baxter seem like a good author. I literally feel like a part of my life has been taken from me by reading this. Unfortunately, I willingly gave it away, which raises the question: Who is the greater fool? The fool who wrote the book? Or the fool who bought that fool's book?
The problem with Benford and some other sci-fi authors who take pride in getting the science right is that they forget the second word: fiction. Asimov was an exception. He not only got his science right, but he made the story enjoyable. That's a lesson that Benford would do well to learn and take to heart. This should not be a science textbook. First and foremost, it's a STORY!
Alongside the science, Benford seems to take pride in using as many big words as possible. Now don't get me wrong, a large vocabulary has its place. That being said, I am not of the opinion that the casual reader should have to have Foundation's Fear in one hand and a dictionary in the other to make sense of what Benford is trying to say. Note to Benford: Believe it or not, there are blue-collar people who like to read science fiction novels.
I was planning on purchasing Benford's Galactic Center series. But if this is the type of writing one can expect from Benford, I'll probably just skip it.
Rating:
Summary: This must be an alternate Foundation universe...
Review: I purchased a copy of Foundation's Fear, eagerly looking forward to reading more into the Foundation universe. Though I expected it to be different from Asimov's books to a certain degree, as this was inevitable, I didn't expect this.
I have to agree with many of the other reviewers when I say that this book just doesn't fit into the Foundation universe. Benford does state in the back of the book that he isn't trying to write a mock-Asimov, but a Benford Foundation novel, and is not attempting to write in Asimov's style. This is fine with me... to a point.
Not only did he write in a completely different style, he changed the very nature of the characters (not to mention the spelling of Dors' last name, at least in printing that I own...). Since this book is supposed to take place in between two novels already written by Asimov, this change in the characters is not fitting. Characters suddenly use a completely new vocabulary, and "speak" in an entirely different fashion. Ideas and technologies are presented as so commonplace, and even integral in this novel that were not present in Asimov's novels that surrounded the time period in the series. Asimov himself did this between books, where periods of time allow for technological change, but it doesn't work in the fashion that Benford inserts it into a period of time already described by Asimov.
On top of this character change, the very plot of the novel is really quite pointless. It delves into subplots that are rather absurd for the Foundation universe, made worse in that they serve no real purpose. To those of you who have not read it, I will tell you only that Joan of Arc and Voltaire make presenses in this book, and large portions of it, at that. It simply doesn't feel Foundation-esque, and doesn't provide any material that makes the Foundation puzzle feel more complete, despite it's events occuring in the Foundation universe.
If you can stand not reading every book with the word "Foundation" in the title, skip this one. Find a summary, and move on to Foundation & Chaos, which is much better and more in tune to the Foundation universe. You won't miss much.
Rating: 
Summary: Weird Social Commentaries
Review: I was disappointed in Benford's attempt at Foundation writing, which I found drab, banal, and at times, aimless. He's written much better books (e.g., Eater and Timescape). However, I'm submitting this review to voice my frustration with the antiquated social views Benford presents. I have enjoyed Asimov's Foundation books because they contained big ideas and grand plots. I liked Asimov's books despite his quaint views about society and people. After all, he's from another, older generation. But Benford is from our generation, and it annoyed me to come across his weird social views about "homosexuals" (e.g., paperback page 208) and male dominance over women as part of human nature (e.g., pages 244-45). It almost seemed like Trent Lott was writing science fiction. What we know about human society so far suggests (ok, arguably) the unlikelihood of Benford's social vision 15,000-plus years from now. But even more, Benford's, well, prejudiced, views undermines what makes science fiction great. And what makes science fiction great is that it expands what we can conceive. Now I realize that some readers will ascribe to Benford's "quaint" view of things. Fine. I just found it irritating and distracting. So much so that I probably will not buy another Benford book. (I probably will buy the other books in this Foundation trilogy, however, because I like Bear, and I really like Brin. Ah, well.)
Rating: 
Summary: Glad Gregory Benford is such as good author
Review: I was worried when I found out that somebody else was going to be writing about Asimov's storyline. He might try to change things, make them his own, and thereby wreck the story in the process. I am extremely glad it turned out the way it did. Benford took the story and wrote it the way I believe Asimov would have liked it to be written like. it turns out to be a fine story that is tru to the Foundation spirit.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the worst book ever written...
Review: I'm an avid reader. I swear I'll read anything...But this was too much even for me to handle!! I have never written a book review before, but I feel truly compelled to prevent others from spending money on this book. Asimov must be turning in his grave to know that the Foundation has been used as the backdrop for this lame excuse of a story. It seems to me that Benford wanted an outlet to show the world how much useless information he had accumulated throughout the years, and he just threw everything together into a long book. I'm sorry, but this book has no plot, no climax, NOTHING!!! It is just an endless string of character introspections that have little to do with Asimov's vision of the future. And what's up with the dialogues between Dors and R. Daneel??? Not one sentence is finished!!! They just keep interrupting each other. And then there's the "sims" -- Joan of Arc and Voltaire - Huh?? What??? How does this all tie in with the pans?? (I haven't finished reading the book, and don't know if I ever will, but I truly hope there's some sort of connection here.) Lastly, the book contains too many inconsistencies with respect to the original series. If you're an Asimov fan, as I am, I advice you to stick to the original...otherwise, prepare to be very disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: The sequel is never as good...but this one comes close.
Review: I've read a LOT of Asimov, not just Sci-Fi, but nearly everything he's written. Since "Foundation's Fear" I've tried to read more of Benford's works as well. While I did not enjoy this work as much as the Robot series or the Empire series, this is at least a decent start to what could be a interesting sequel. My view is this, if you like the idea of Foundation or Asimov's original concept of it, this is an excellent book to add to your library. R. Daneel Olivaw was always my favorite character, since the early days in "Stars Like Dust" or "Naked Sun," and I was really glad to have him back. It seemed that Asimov's vision left a lot to be asked, very large holes could be seen even by mere mortals like myself. I found that while the writting style was a little too conversational for my tastes, it did fill a nice gap in the Foundation history. It focused on a certain time instead of leaping millenia into the future. I only hope the 2nd and 3rd books are as good.
Rating:
Summary: A Richer Foundation From Benford
Review: Most everyone agrees that Asimov's early writing was great fun, but I came to appreciate his later work on the foundation novels, especially Forward the Foundation, which I think is his best. Asimov moved beyond simply repeating earlier writing and brought a level of maturity, reflection, and even pessimism to these books. Contributing to an existing universe is not easy, and as readers we feel most comfortable with repeats of existing variables in slightly new variations. If that is what you want, take a look at the Robot books, Caliban, Chimera, or Aurora, where the context and writing style is comfortably familiar. Benford's Foundation's Fear strikes off in a different direction, which at first I found difficult, but then greatly appreciated. Yes, the story does seem quite different, the inclusion of the Sims is strange, and yes Seldon is a different person. But the alternative is a stale repeat, ala Star Trek, where after reading 50 books you come away with nothing that you didn't already see in TOS. Flushing out just how Seldon came to power as First Minister is very interesting, and the political instability of the Empire, only referenced previously, is here flushed out in full detail. I also appreciate that Benford has written this book for those who really have already the whole series of Foundation books. Foundation's Fear does not start out by keeping secrets and fitting into the series neatly, but simply starts out from where we all left off; it is like Benford is saying, Okay, we read all that, we know all about the Foundation and Seldon, now let's move on. The Foundation is a richer place after finishing Benford's book, just keep an open mind and stick to it.
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