Dirda quotes SF editor Donald Wollheim: “Stories published before Foundation belong to the old line, the stories published published after belong to ‘modern’ science fiction.”īefore my actual reread, I thought this post might turn into a big examination about how Asimov deals with free will in the books, not dissimilar to my post on LOTR. I simply don’t have that much to add to all that has been written on this seminal work, considered a “watershed” in literary history by many. That introduction guided my reading a bit, and I’ll get back to it a few times.įirst, a warning: I’ll have to let down recurring readers expecting a long analysis like those of the Dune books or The Book of the New Sun.

I read the splendid Everyman’s Library edition – a hardback with an excellent 15-page introduction by Michael Dirda that’s isn’t expensive nonetheless.

Only the very first chapter, “The Psychohistorians”, was written for the publication of the first book itself. At first I wanted to do one book at a time, but when I finished Foundation, it was obvious that these books are better reviewed as a whole, as they are a sole collection of short stories and novellas first published in Astounding Science-Fiction, from 1942 to 1950, under the auspices of editor John W. I read some more of Isaac Asimov too: I, Robot (1950), Caves of Steel (1954), The End of Eternity (1955), The Gods Themselves (1972), and the godawful Foundation prequels – Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1993).Īnd now, after my rereads of the entire Dune series, and Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun, the time felt right to reread and review Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation. It became one of my favorite series, even liking book 4 and 5 from 1982 and ’86 most – back then because of their scientific-mystical all-is-one slant. So I dove into its canon, and the Foundation series became the first thing I read after I gobbled up Iain M. Some Culture novels by Banks followed, and I became enamored with science fiction as genre. About 14 years ago a friend recommended me Anathem by Neil Stephenson, and I’ve been back at reading fiction since. For about a decade I didn’t read any fiction.

Foundation by isaac asimov 1951