Forward the Foundation

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: Asimov, in his final book of the classic foundation trilogy, never fails to provide though-provoking reading. In this novel,wea learn of the late life in the infamous Hari Seldon and the people he knew best. The book details his most intimiate times with his closest friends and damily members. Forward Foundation is written in a different style than the other books: it covers many more years, from Seldon's fourties to his death. Forward foundation is the kind of novel that makes one think about all the thing important to him or herself. We learn about the Second Foundation, the reasoning behind it and how it was founded. Faces from previous novels appear in this one as well. The robots from Foundation and Earth and Robots and empire are present. All in all, a wonderful read and the crowning achievment of Asimov's work.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I would like to start by saying that I am a big Asimov fan, and that this is the only novel I have ever read of his which would earn anything under four stars. "Forward the Foundation" takes place about 10 years after "Prelude to Foundation" (which was one of my favorites by the way,) and continues to feature Hari Seldon as he develops his psychohistory. While all the other Robot and Foundation novels offered some unforseen twist or new emphasis, this book did nothing of the kind. The first two stories were fun and interesting and promised to make this at least a four star book, but it was all downhill from there. I grew so board with the reiterated speculations about "lemonade death," that it took me a week to read that one section. Although the epilouge provided a somewhat satisfying (if somewhat predictable) ending, for the most part the entire second half of this book is extremely boring. Another unsatisfying aspect of this book, is that Asimov never even answers all the questions raised at the beginning when the emperor is killed. He asks how could psychohistory ever acount for such random events as that? and then never answers at the end. although you should definitly read this book if you've read the others in the series, you may be disappointed, as I was.

Rating:
Summary: The Sequel to Prelude to Foundation
Review: This story is the continuation of Prelude and it fills the gap between Prelude and Foundation. It is a great piece of work--in fact one of Asimov's last before his death. This is one of those stories that sticks in your mind and stays there for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Forward the Foundation-Filling in the Gaps
Review: Isaac Asimov is, in my opinion, the greatest modern science fiction writer. His crowning achievement, the Foundation series, is widely aknowledged to be one of the greatest Sci-Fi series of all time. The series, Prelude to F-, Foundation, F- and Empire, Second F-, F-'s Edge, and finally Forward the Foundation, is the consummate of some 40 years of intermittent "dabbling" in the series. For this reason, there are, as can be expected, some continuity problems with the plot line. However, Asimov's skill as a storyteller through the characters is unparalleled in the genre. He is able to weave from words great characters such as Salvor Hardin, Hober Mallow, Lethan Devers, Bayta and Arkady Darrell, Stor Gendibal, Sura Novi...chracters as human as they are fictional. His greatest character, however, is Hari Seldon. Forward the Foundation represents Hari Seldon. It continuies the job of tying together all of Asimov's major novels begun in Foundation's Edge, and gives a sense of resolution, while only describing events that occur 500 years prior to those in Foundation's Edge. This book is not without flaws...though for it's insight into one of the greatest fictional characters of all time, I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: The life of Hari Seldon
Review: This novel begins eight years after Prelude to Foundation, and it is chronologically the second novel in the seven that Asimov wrote. I think this just might be the best novel Asimov wrote, and it happened to be completed just before his death.

The novel consists of four parts, each separated by about ten years. This is really about Seldon, and the path his life takes. In the first part, many things are simliar to Prelude, the Empire is falling to pieces, an old friend from the Robot series is the person functionally running the empire, and psychohistory is still just a fledgling science. He and his wife, who is his protector (appointed by Daneel Olivaw), have adopted the young boy they encountered in Prelude. The events of this first part see the departure of Daneel, with Seldon being unexpectedly elevated to fill his position.

Part two deals with Seldon's life as a political functionary, running the dying empire while trying to hammer out psychohistory so that he can save humanity. Again, a major character exits the scene, but not quite as one might expect. This results in Seldon exiting politics and focusing solely on his work in part three. Governmental authority has been assumed by the military, and psychohistory is finally able to make some predictions. Hari loses an old friend and his family uncovers a plot to kill someone, they think Hari is the target. While the plot twists a bit in this part are VERY well done, the end is really tragic. This time Hari lost the most important person in the galaxy to him.

In part four, Hari is essentially all alone, with only his granddaughter remaining of all the friends and family he once had. His son and daughter-in-law each meet unfortunate fates, while the capital planet Trantor is now feeling the decay that the empire as a whole has felt for some time. Hari is forced to make some decisions that enable the second foundation to be created, though it also costs him someone dear.

The ending is as one might expect, the death of the great one, as readers of the series would know. He manages to wrap things up in time, at least enough to set things on the track that psychohistory saw fit, and that the second foundation can steer.

I really think this was a story of Asimov himself in many ways. It deals with a brilliant man, recognized as such during his own lifetime, who deals with the loss of his friends and family as he outlives them all. But still he works. And he dies while working. Asimov himself said that he identified with Seldon more than any of his other characters, and after chronicling the life and death of Seldon, Asimov himself died. He is already sorely missed.

Rating:
Summary: OK book, but still a must read for fans of the series
Review: Forward the Foundation is the second book in the Foundation series, but the last book to be written by Asimov. The setting for Forward the Foundation predates that of Foundation as Asimov reveals more about the life of Hari Seldon, his family and those who help him with his psychohistory work.

I first became acquainted with the Foundation series when I read Foundation. Since that time, I have hungrily read the other books of the series with Forward the Foundation being the last of the books to be read. I like the Foundation series due to the problems that the characters face and the clever and seemingly easy ways in which the Foundation avoids destruction. However, I feel that Forward the Foundation just is not up to par with the other Foundation books. The writing is disjointed almost as if Asimov would pick up the manuscript after being absent from it for a while and start to write again. He starts chapters by introducing information that the reader already knows from other chapters as if it is new. Furthermore, some of what is written seems to contradict things that happen in some of the other books. The contradictions are small, but noticeable.

In all, I think that Forward the Foundation is a descent book which helps to fill in the time period before the Foundation was established. I would not say that I have found it an essential read to enjoy the Foundation series. However, as a fan of the Foundation, I would have read it nonetheless. Just be prepared for a book which is not as good as the other books in the series.

Rating:
Summary: A fitting close to the Foundation series
Review: It's a prequel, of course, but in realtime it was the last book written in the series.

Strictly _as_ a Foundation book, I don't think this one is quite as strong as its immediate predecessor, _Prelude to Foundation_. It's good, all right -- but it's not very tightly unified, the writing is sloppy in places, and it introduces a few things that seem to contradict the original series at certain points.

What really makes this four-vignettes-plus-an-epilogue volume so engaging is that in it, Hari Seldon has clearly become a literary alter ego for Asimov himself. And Asimov was well aware as he wrote it that he hadn't long to live.

And _that_ suggests that in writing about Dors Venabili, Wanda Seldon, and psychohistory, Asimov was "really" _also_ writing about his wife Janet Jeppson Asimov, his daughter Robyn, and his own literary oeuvre. So completely aside from its value as an SF novel (or, really, a story collection), it's also of great interest for the light it sheds on Asimov himself.

Asimov is generally credited with three autobiographies: _In Memory Yet Green_, _In Joy Still Felt_, and _I. Asimov_ -- the last being my personal favorite because it's the most introspective and revealing of Asimov's character. (Excerpts from all three, plus some further surprising revelations that you've probably heard about by now, are included in Janet Jeppson Asimov's _It's Been a Good Life_.)

But there's a case to be made that he wrote a fourth volume of autobiography, and that this is it. At the very least, this work of ostensible fiction is almost as revealing of Asimov's character and end-of-life concerns as any of his nonfictional autobiographies.

For that alone, it will be of interest to every Asimov fan. May the Good Doctor rest in peace.

Rating:
Summary: The tie in.
Review: Foward The Foundation finishes of the loose ends Isaac Asimov needed to do before he died. In it we are prepared for Hari Seldon's final plunge into the Trilogy and it's sequels. As it is, this book should always be treated as a continuation of Prelude To Foundation.

Essential reading.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent story with high quality reading
Review: When I read the original three foundation tales, quite frankly, I was not overwhelmed with the quality of the stories. However, there was one point of the tales that had me fascinated. That was of course the psychohistory of Hari Seldon. This book is a prequel to the first of the three originals, although there is some overlap. It is a description of the life of Hari as he begins the detailed development of psychohistory.
As he had promised years before, Asimov uses this book to tie together his robot books starring R. Daneel Olivaw with the foundation series. Daneel appears in the book as a major political figure, but it is Hari who is the dominant character. The story is set on the imperial capital of Trantor, and Seldon is both a mathematics professor and the first minister to Emperor Cleon. Other major characters are Hari's devoted wife Dors, his adopted son Rache and his mentally gifted granddaughter Wanda.
The story is captivating, but like all audio books, the enjoyment is largely dependent on the quality of the reading. David Dukes is excellent in reading the text, his inflection and changes of tone make it easy to follow the dialog. He is very consistent in using the same tones for each of the characters throughout the reading. I listened to most of the book while driving, and there was no time when I was confused as to which character was speaking.
This is one of the best books on tape that I have listened too. The book is one of Asimov's best novels and the reading is outstanding.

Rating:
Summary: I hope his stories live on as long as Seldons ingenius plan
Review: I've been an Asimov fan since I was 14 years old and he has alot to answer for in all the school work I avoided to escape to his worlds, whether by reading about them or day dreaming about them. However I admit I did not expect much of this book, when I saw it on the shelf for the first time I was highly dubious that it could be anything other than an attempt to make money and milk the success of his foundation series. Surely there could be nothing more to say? How wrong I was.

I will not go into plot details but I truly believe that this is Asimov's master work, it goes beyond his usual solid sci-fi style to create a scope that reminds the reader how precious and awe inspiring a life can be. For Asimov it marks the culmination of a life time of writing and I have heard it was finished only weeks before his death. I am certainly guilty of comparing Hari and Asimov all through this book, but with or without comparisons, the emotions it draws out truly are a wonder. Unintentionally it seems, in Forward the Foundation, Asimov has written a beautiful tribute to his own life. This is not suprising since he always found it irrisistable to share his opinion on everything, not least on himself. And all I can say is thankyou Asimov, wherever you may be or not be.