Rating: 
Summary: "Foundation and Earth" lacks solid foundation
Review: This was the last and easily the weakest of the books in the "Foundation" series that eventually included the "Robot" and "Empire" books as well. While I am a great admirer of Asimov's work and contributions to the genre, I was left wanting with this chapter.The book picks up where "Foundation's Edge" (one of the best books in the series) left off. One man had just decided all of humanity spanning every inhabited world in the galaxy (and there are several million at this point) should follow one course of evolution and wonders why he made that choice. He decides that he can only find his answer if he finds the mythical "Earth," the planet where humanity supposedly originated. This is a shaky premise at best. Along the way we discover what happened to various "Spacer" worlds form the earlier books "The Caves of Steel" and the like. The few interesting moments take place on one such world call! ed "Solaria" where the population is kept under draconian control and robots serve the needs of the inhabitants. "Foundation and Earth" feels like a cheap tour of landmarks where you learn nothing more than you have wasted your time. There are some moments that shine as pure Asimov, but not many. This book was not worthy to close such a groundbreaking and entertaining series as thi
Rating: 
Summary: Ties Up the Foundation Story Nicely
Review: My introduction to Isaac Asimov was to read the first 5 Foundation novels. This one seemed to tie up all loose ends (unlike to culmination of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series). All through the book I was anxious for the return to Earth, to see what really had transpired. Various characters throughout the series had said things like "why would you want to go there, everyone knows it's radioactive?" Well I for one refused to believe it. I loved the way that the one behind everything to do with the Foundation was not Hari Seldon as we thought but none other than Daneel. The reasons for all that he did were fascinating. My only regret is that Mr. Asimov decided to work on unnecessary pre-quels to the Foundation story rather than start a new series that takes place after this book. Perhaps some of the brilliant scifi writers that have been successful capturing Mar. Asimov's style in other Foundation and Robot spin-offs, may be able to complete the task.
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: Very very good. The bad thing is..it says "The End"
Review: I've read all of his robot-empire-foundation books, So i thought. If you have ever noticed, Foundation and Earth never appears in any list on the inside front cover of his books until he decided to clear this timeline mess up.(People were confused over if the three series were related or not, They are.) He creates a offical listin the first three pages of Prelude Foundation. At the end I see Foundation and earth. I read it and find it ok but disapointing. No time jumps, boring charcters, and on top of that, they can't even land on Earth! It is more of an ending to the robot series. There is a surfacing of a dear friend at the end. The best part about this book is, you learn more about the current state of all of the planets in the robot novels, Soloria, Aroura, etc. It is a great adenture book, not a foundation book. There are few references to the foundation. Trevice even says he doesn't even like Hari seldon. (gasp! Overall this book is readable, but very different that his other foundation books. I also suggest:
Prelude to Foundation **** 1/2 (Out of Five)
Forward the Foundation ***
Foundation ******
Foundation and Empire **** 1/2
Second Foundation *****
Foundation's Edge***
....And any other Isaac Asimov book. Enjoy!!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant end to the series
Review: I think this is the only Foundation book not in print anymore, and I have no idea why. Not only is this the most important one in the series in the way that it provides a sort of conclusion to everything, it's just a great book. I liked Trevize in Foundation's Edge and we see more to his character here, which is great. We also see more of that fun planet Gaia. I found the arguments between Bliss and Trevize particularly amusing and what was interesting was that Trevize won just about all of them. Give me the Seldon Plan anyday.
The search for Earth took up some much of the book, but when we finally get there it's almost anti-climatic (though any readers of Robots and Empire will know what they find long before the characters do). Fortunately Asimov doesn't allow us to dwell on that by springing the top surprise of the novel on us (which I won't say because I don't want to tip any readers off beforehand).
In the process he clarifies and adds to his histories and weaves the Robot, Empire, and Foundation sagas even closer together. What more can one ask in a novel, especially from Asimov?
Oh, and I heard about the error, but I didn't see anything that seemed wrong. If anybody knows what it is, the curiousity is killing me and I don't have the patience (or the time) to reread the book more carefully. E-mail if you know!
Rating:
Summary: The Master of Science-Fiction High Tech!
Review: Only Isaac Asimov could've comprehensively created a futuristic set of books dealing with humanity thousands of years from where we currently stand. These books are among the greatest books in science-fiction, along with other such books by both Old Masters and Cyberpunk Authors: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "Starship Troopers", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Childhood's End", "Snow Crash", "Cryptonomicon", "Cyber Hunter" and so forth.
Rating:
Summary: Gives a reasonably good end to the series
Review: I have to start by saying, read Asimov's "End of Eternity". It is by far his best SF work and may be the best SF novel I've ever read. I think a lot of the reviews have been unduly harsh on Foundation and Earth. I thought this book was engaging and had a pretty good end that has me excited to go read the robot and empire novels. Also, while the book really gave an end to the series in a meaningful way, it did leave open a possible future story that the Asimov estate could allow someone to write.
Rating:
Summary: The End?...say not so...
Review: It is hard to believe, but the Asimov story, which he was writing and expanding for his entire life, a story that spanned mulitple series of books, multiple decades in real time, and multiple millenia in the story's time, is now over. The best part about it is that he actually gave his life's work a decent ending, which is probably why he didn't touch it for his last remaining years as he made books to fill in gaps in other places instead of continuing the story forward. I counldn't have asked for a better way to end it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: Oh Gods this book is amazing. The last one (Foundation's Edge), was pretty good, but this one is just amazing! The characters, the visual descriptions, the plot was just fantastic! Besides Foundation's Edge, the rest of the series was just horrid. I read the rest of them AFTER reading this book and there is no comparison. An excellent way to end a hellish series. Didn't like what happened to Earth though. But then again, almost everyone outside of StarTrek has a negative view about Earth's future.
Rating:
Summary: Going downhill
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the Foundation Series and many novels in the accompanying Robot saga. But the sequels to the series do not - or cannot - measure up to the original. Maybe the story has been done and it is increasingly difficult to introduce new material. For the Series itself, the Mule and the location of the Second Foundation were welcome diversions. Then there is the entire drama of the robots and their universe. But at some point you have to say, "enough is enough". The same boring characters that were in the previous work are back and boring as ever. I can put up with the lack of character development if there is a simultaneous introduction of new ideas but that is not the case here. Their journeys are boring, their findings are boring, the writing is boring. I started skipping pages to find something "interesting". At times the writing is almost like that done by machines - as if word after word were mechanically produced on a "need to be" basis. Wish I could say something more positive but I can't.
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