Book Review: Foundation (Isaac Asimov)

If you know sci-fi, chances are good that you would have at least heard of Asimov's Foundation series; it is one of the man's most celebrated works.  The first, original book in the series dives headlong into the distant future of our galaxy, which is turned into a sprawling space-faring empire.  The novel presents the interesting premise that the Empire is collapsing, and it's up to a group of scientists to lay down the foundation of a new era on a couple of backwater planets.  Upon doing so, the Foundation encounters one crisis after another, the resolutions of which will shape the way the future inevitably unfolds.

To be fair, the book has a very interesting premise, and it's the politics and social themes that make it worthwhile.  The story borrows much from historical references, such as the fall of the Roman Empire, to illustrate that social ruin can occur at any era.  The problems of the Galactic Empire in Foundation are pretty simple - the Empire simply spread itself too thin and was too centralized.  The Foundation provided a solution for long-term sustainment, not with the benefit of rich resources, but with the creation of a new religion that ultimately wins over the population and helps the Foundation resolve each new crisis.  Thus, the book provides interesting themes worth exploring, regarding the relationship between society, religion, and science.

Unfortunately, despite having a great setup and interesting content, I found the book's emphasis on politics to be extremely dry.  The book covers hundreds of years of events, so characters tend to come and go without receiving much development or investment.  There is no pathological or emotional anchor involved with the story to make me care for the events, outside of the social aspects.

I have no complaints about the writing; Asimov's prose is to-the-point and has decent dialogue.  This book doesn't have much description for the settings, which can make it a little harder to visualize, but it does paint a few fantastic planetscapes.  I personally would have appreciated more exposition with the events, since the story seems to jump ahead with little indication of what's exactly going on; you have to read the dialogue to get the gist of things.

Foundation is a book worth reading, so long as you don't mind a story that's politically-dense.  As a highly-tutted sci-fi classic, sci-fi fans should give it a try.

3/5 (Experience:  Poor | Story:  Pretty Good | Book:  Pretty Good)