Manasa's Reviews > Foundation

Boy, what a letdown this was. I'd been meaning to read this series for a long time now, and had decided to take the scenic route here, save the best for the last. From the excellent short story collection to the Robot novels to this, the first of the celebrated Foundation trilogy, my experience (admittedly separated by years and conditioned by other reading in between) has decidedly been the opposite.

The world-building did not quite draw me in, and the various theories of world domination felt frustratingly un-nuanced. The science of psychohistory was the only satisfyingly developed idea. Without cover of the usual highs, the tacky writing really stood out, with one-dimensional characters recapping history lessons for each other, as a way to update the reader.

Very likely this was a case of too-high expectations, so hopefully the rest of the series will get better.