Foundation and Empire
Ratings514
Average rating4
The book started off a bit slow but the ending was amazing! I also understand what others meant when they said they could see the grander history of the Foundation play out in the background of the shorter stories; this was something I didn't really see in the first book, but the longer stories worked well for me here.
Mucho mejor libro que el primero. Hay muchas partes muy lentas que hacen un poco difícil su lectura en algunos momentos, pero al final es disfrutable. Aquí es menos complicado seguir los nombres e historias de los personajes y la historia se centra en una época concreta y una situación específica que entiendo que dará pie al siguiente libro en donde tendremos un desenlace a la trama completa.
First: William Hope is a brilliant narrator for this audiobook version. His classical US accent lines really well with the, well, classical US characters in the book.
Asimov published Foundation and Empire in 1952, 7 years after the end of World War 2. Earth at the time had about two dozen computers, one per each major country. That is, electronic computers - and they weren't even called that yet. A "computer" at the time still meant a human who performs calculations in an office, often with the use of a mechanical calculator device - the world still employed hundreds of thousands of them.
This is significant for the book. Once you realise it is chronologically much closer to the XIX century than to today, you can better appreciate how imaginative it truly is. But you can also much more easily understand why everything feels so feudal (including the progressive Foundation). If Asimov didn't include Bayta, a woman from the Foundation, as one of the main characters, the book might have aged much worse.
I enjoyed this novel a lot more than Foundation, though I concede that it was necessary set-up. I will say, however, The General was kind of disappointing, and would have maybe done better as an inclusion in book one. The Mule was fantastic, however. The character work was his best, the concept of the Mule being the only disruption to the Foundation was very interesting, and the twist caught me completely off-guard and was well-earned.
Foundation and Empire was a bit disappointing. Riose was cool but the protagonists in that story were mid. I didn't really like the Mule storyline either, I thought it was going to be a big plot twist that the Mule was Daneel gone rogue and used his mental powers to conquer the galaxy for the benefit of humanity: the zeroth law. I also didn't particularly care for Bayta and Toran though their relationship was cute and reveals how important love can be in stories, it can teach us a lot about a character in some ways. I also found the book a bit samey and nothing too original from the original Foundation. The biggest twist is that Seldon could be wrong if his assumptions were wrong so it was a great scene of him talking about the wrong Seldon Crisis. I felt the Mule/Magnifico reveal a bit amateurish and nothing compared to the Giskard reveal which was more subtle. Hopefully the next book is better.
I enjoyed this one quite a bit especially towards the latter half and onto the end of the book. This book felt like it had a lot more direction or “substance” than the first book in my opinion.
The sequel does not disappoint. The book was originally published in a periodical, which makes this collection of stories feel completely consistent with the first book.
Age range: 16+
No mature content, but there are complex philosophical themes throughout that would be incomprehensible to most younger readers.
After the disappointment that The Foundation was, I am happy to share that my enthusiasm for the series is renewed. It's nowhere close to what it was when I was done with Forward The Foundation but I am not complaining.
Here's hoping the next one cements the second foundation of my ardour.
La segunda entrega tiene cosas que me han gustado más y que echaba en falta en la primera. Tiene una cierta continuidad en el tiempo, a diferencia de ‘Fundación' donde los saltos temporales eran algo habitual y obligaban a volver a familiarizarse con personajes y lugares nuevos cada cierto tiempo. Aquí los principales son siempre los mismos con lo cual, aunque cambie el contexto y aparezcan personajes nuevos momentáneamente, vuelves a ellos. Hay unos auténticos protagonistas. En este sentido, me ha gustado más, ya que se siente como una novela completa en vez de un conjunto de historias cortas (aunque para ser justos, tengo entendido que así fue pensada Fundación). He de reconocer que si bien el misterio acerca de la identidad de El Mulo era algo predecible, la forma en que se revela me ha sorprendido ligeramente. Es decir, la aparición de cierto personaje por primera vez, me permitió lanzar mi apuesta rápidamente. Sin embargo, con la sucesión de los eventos, iba descartando esa idea por momentos. Incluso cerca del final, llegué a descartarla del todo. Pero los dos últimos capítulos me agradaron realmente por la forma en que todo sale a la luz. Algo que sigue sin gustarme es la baja presencia de personajes femeninos, y que siendo Bayta casi la única de relevancia, esta caiga en el tópico de mujer cándida, cuidadora y totalmente dependiente de su esposo. Solo en algunos momentos se vislumbra algo de carácter genuino y autonomía. Como con el anterior libro, se nota que es una historia de su época en este sentido.
Si a Fundación le di 3 estrellas sobre 5, a este le daria 3,5. Pero Goodreads no permite dar pedias puntuaciones, así que se queda en 3.
I'm really feeling bad for rating the Foundation novels so low, but while I absolutely loved Asimov's Robot series, I'm realizing I just don't care for books heavy on politics; of which his Empire and Foundation books definitely are.
3.25 stars
It's weird. I think this is a “better” novel than the first, though it is not as “interesting” or impactful as the original Foundation novel, hence the lower rating. I appreciate how Asimov, in this book breaks the formula of his previous book a bit. It doesn't cover as much time, it's not as many small stories, but a few larger chunks of narrative. So rather than feeling like a short story collection, it feels more like a proper novel.
In this book, we continue the history of the Foundation–the eponymous organization created in the first book as a haven for human knowledge in anticipation of the Galactic Empire's imminent collapse.
The first book saw the Foundation come out victorious over several enemies due to the careful planning of the mathematician-prophet Hari Seldon, who anticipated a series of what became known as “Seldon Crises” based on the natural profession of nations. In this book–again, following historical precedence–we see what happens after the Foundation becomes the de facto Empire, having conquered those competing interests in volume 1 to find themselves now looking very much like Empire they hated.
We see another few Seldon Crises and how the Foundation and its leader navigate them according to Seldon Providence. How these stories play out are always fun and fascinating with interesting twists and reveals along the way.
But the real meat of the book follows the introduction of a person who could not have been factored into Seldon's original formulae that anticipated humanity's history. And so, “the plan” get thrown off course. Or does it? Previous entries maintained a sense that all that was happening was according to the “plan”. But not here. For the first time in the series, our humans encounter real and genuine uncertainty, and a fascinating exploration of free will and providence.
These are heady ideas, told in beautiful prose, even if a little opaque sometimes. I do feel like–to a greater degree than in the first book–each story takes quite a while before you get your bearings. I can appreciate Asimov's “show, don't tell” commitment and dropping us in res media, but he really just starts each story off without us having much of a clue of the who/what/when of the story and trusting us to figure it out.
Again, I respect it. And I admittedly could have been a slower, more attentive reader to have a better sense. But still, as an experience, I regularly lost track of names, events, and plot lines and just barrelled on through trusting I'd get back on track eventually. And I did. But it could be a frustrating process.
Asimov's “Foundation and Empire” is a worthy follow-up to the original. It changes and switches the formula enough that it is fresh, and it slows down the pace so we can sit with some characters for quite a bit of time, and even has more action. I look forward to the installments to come.
Eigentlich zwei Geschichten. “Der General” war ganz nett aber mehr auch nicht. Hatte thematisch besser in Buch 1 gepasst. Die zweite, “Das Maultier” war umso besser uns bin gespannt wohin es sich entwickelt.
If you read Foundation and liked it, well, yeah, read this! Be patient though, read it to the end. It's definitely worth it.
Agora sim achei uma ficção científica que eu gostei bastante, já quero ler o resto da trilogia.
The beginning was a bit boring, but it definitely turned around once the Mule stepped onto the playing field!
The first book showed us how uncannily accurate Hari Seldon psycho-historic predictions (calculations?) of human development are, and this one shows an example when an unpredicted variable enters the equation.
I absolutely loved Bayta! Considering these were the sexist 1950s, and the horrendous gender norms permeated even the pages of this book (Bayta would cook for the men, some character was surprised of her “striding among them [the men] like an equal”), she was still a fantastic female character. She had an active role, took part in discussions with men, made important choices.
I look forward to the last book of the trilogy and I might even read the later sequels, too, although I keep hearing they aren't as good as the first three books.
Aunque es una saga que carece completamente de acción, no deja de ser disfrutable. Me ha sorprendido mucho el final de esta segunda parte.
I found Foundation #2 to just be “ok,” and a slog to get through. There are a lot of time and space jumps between chapters that make it difficult to follow along. However, there's a great twist at the end!
A pretty solid follow-up to the first in the series. I thought the middle part of the book was a bit slow and unengaging and I found myself putting it down a lot because I just was not interested in what was going on. However, it built up to a much more interesting twist and I enjoyed the setup for future books.
Il faudra un jour que je relise et que j'écrive une critique plus complète de ce grand classique de la science-fiction, un roman et une saga que j'avais lu avec énormément de plaisir quand j'étais plus jeune.