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.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Plain Bad
Review: Other reviewers have more than amply pointed out that this book utterly lacks Asimov's style, and the familiar characters have changed (brief examples: despite numerous attacks, not one mention of Seldon's twisting; only one line regarding Seldon's adopted son Ryach; and most upsetting, the utter lack of connection and sympathy we feel for Daneel, who has become a weary -- and wearying -- collection of stock phrases and contradictions). Most awful is that this book suffers from lack of a good editor. Hundreds of pages of the dialog between the computer simulated characters Joan of Arc and Voltair should have been cut, and that's just a start. The book is filled with future techno babble which is neither engaging or germain to the story. In short, don't read this expecting to be re-engaged in Seldon's world. And if your time is limited, don't bother reading it at all.
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