Ah, Isaac Asimov. A god, some would say, in the sci-fi genre. I picked up this book at the urging of a friend, trusting in its reputation.
At first I found Foundation unusual to read, it covers large swathes of time at once. However, Asimov does this extremely well. He gives us little anchors of information or characters that we can recognize, so we can figure out where we are in the time line without him having to come out and say it.
Much of the book is dialogue, which is something I have not encountered before. Most of the story and characterization is carried in the dialogue rather than through plain description. Asimov doesn't tell you what the characters are thinking, he *shows* you what they're thinking as they explain it to other characters. This rather prevents us from growing too close to the characters, but that is rather the point because the time line goes so fast.
Foundation was an unusual novel, but I can see why it is still a classic. It may be a little dry for some, but I enjoyed it.

This series sets the standard for excellence. This demonstrates a master of the craft of writing. Asimov was brilliant and when he turned that intellect to writing, he created amazing works, none better than this.

The foundation is setup to secretly monitor mankind through its darkest hours. It reminded me a little of Orwell's 1984. In placing humans away from the central government on a planet with few resources. They are forced to develop quickly. This is a novel more about political machinations than about action. The contradictions in human nature are here to analyze. The characters use guile, spirit, & cunning to survive. Some 80% of the book is dialogue & the character development is a bit shallow. Nonetheless, Mr. Asimov portrays the future in poignant & diverse ways. The predicted conflict makes the story of galactic history entertaining, especially since this was written in 1951. Some 7 years before Sputnik was launched. The author deserves praise for his imagination that was well ahead of his time.

Though "Foundation" was later tied to many other novels and stories that Isaac Asimov wrote, many of us considered this story to be the first of the Foundation Trilogy. We meet Hari Seldon and learn of the beginning of psychohistory. Hari has predicted, using psychohistory, that the 12,000 year old galactic empire is facing eminent collapse. Hari determined through this calculations that the collapse of the empire will lead to 30,000 years of chaos before a second empire forms. Hari also determined that by taking certain actions that the 30,000 years of chaos could be shortened to 1,000 years.

Considering that this novel is only 256 pages long it covers a lot of ground. The novel begins on the ultra-urbanized planet Trantor and then heads to the edge of the galaxy. We watch the empire collapse and then the struggles of the Foundation as they attempt to re-start civilization. We also watch as the Foundation changes from a religious organization to a scientific one.

This novel is the best of the first three Foundation books. Part of the reason may be that these stories were originally short stories. Also, Asimov was not trying to form a single cohesive story lasting 1,000 years; at this time he was just trying to launch an idea. I sometimes think it is easier to launch an epic adventure than it is to evolve the epic over hundreds or thousands of pages. Certainly Asimov's launch in this book was grand and is one of the best classic science fiction novels.

The next two books in this series are "Foundation and Empire" and "Second Foundation."

Enjoy!

It's my third read of this book. First two I read about ten years ago, when my English hasn't been that matured, so after reading the book in original, I immediately found a copy in my native language. Now I decided to read the whole saga and of course started from the very beginning.
Just as addictive as before. And with fair certainty I can say that this is the saga that has inspired George Lucas or whoever he took his ideas from. And yet it all started with "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"...