Isaac Asimov: Prelude to Foundation

Hi

Prelude to Foundation is the first prelude in the Foundation Series even though Isaac Asimov wrote it after Foundation.
I got this book from Bol and it has 493 pages.

 “It is 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who'd see him fall, those whom he'd destroy if only he could read the future.
Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire... the man who holds the key to the future -- an apocalyptic power to be known forever after as the Foundation.”

                * SPOILERS *

I enjoyed this novel very much.

I loved the history in the novel. As it is set in our far, far future, we are the past of the novel. And it’s fun to read about Hari’s search for the foundation of The Empire.
I also liked the idea of the inevitable return of everything that already has happened before.
Decay is a slow process and it isn’t noticed as such until it has been going on for quite some time. There’s never a specific date it started.
The different societies are truly magnificent and imaginative. I always love that in SFF. I love the daily life, the details and the cultures.

The prose is easy to read and not really beautiful or of high quality. But it is thrilling and engaging so it definitely works.
The story is fast-paced, full of action and very exciting.
But the characters are rather shallow.

The amount of worlds is a bit over the top; 25 million worlds is mind-boggling and hard to grasp for the reader. Also, for being so far in the future, not much has changed.

The twist at the end was partly expected and partly a real twist so I liked that too. And it was a great idea to have a robot live through all the millennia. The decay of The Empire becomes very realistic that way because if someone should know about it, it’s this robot. 

The Aurora and Earth side story is amazing and very interesting. I liked this a lot because it makes it real, it makes it a possibility for us. It’s intriguing too because there are no records of this part of their history. That certainly must have a dark reason.

I enjoyed it a lot and I would definitely recommend this to you.

Happy reading!
Helena

A bit of reading in between cleaning the new house and packing everything we own.