Forward the Foundation

By: Isaac Asimov

Narrated by: Larry McKeever

Here, from a grand master of science fiction, is the long-awaited final novel of the greatest science-fiction series ever told. Completed just before his death, Forward the Foundation is the crowning achievement of a great writer’s life, a stirring testament to the creative genius of Isaac Asimov.

As Hari Seldon struggles to perfect his revolutionary theory of psychohistory and ensure a place for humanity among the stars, the great Galactic Empire totters on the brink of apocalyptic collapse. Caught in the maelstrom are Seldon and all he holds dear, pawns in the struggle for dominance. Whoever can control Seldon will control psychohistory - and with it the future of the galaxy.

Among those seeking to turn psychohistory into the greatest weapon known to man are a populist political demagogue, the weak-willed Emperor Cleon I, and a ruthless militaristic general. In his last act of service to humankind, Hari Seldon must somehow save his life’s work from their grasp as he searches for its true heirs - a search that begins with his own granddaughter and the dream of a new Foundation.

Listen to all of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, including (in chronological order):

Prelude to FoundationForward the FoundationFoundationFoundation and Empire Second FoundationFoundation's EdgeFoundation and Earth

©1993 Nightfall, Inc (P)2011 Random House Audio

Not a McKeever fan

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If presented by McKeever, no. If re-recorded by a new artist, most likely yes.

Asimov's galaxy view is fun and interesting and the Foundation and Empire aspects are worthy of inspection. 25,000,000 inhabited worlds, 40,000,000,000 folks on ONE PLANET. It's all kind of out there and fun. And after the fact, I think that the Foundation and Empire of the 40s/50s series really benefited from the prequels and postludes.

If you are a fan then you are going to be interested in the formation/creation of Psychohistory.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dors. She's cute, tough and a 'bot. What more could you want. :-)

Would you be willing to try another one of Larry McKeever???s performances?

No. I would not recommend this book as narrated by Larry McKeever. I listen to audio books on my iPhone using the Audible App. In order to even begin to listen to this book, I had to bump up the spoken speed to 1.5x normal. Mr. McKeever speaks SO SLOWLY. I'm not some speed freak, I'm seriously stating that the speed of oration is abominably slow. I haven't sampled the audio and done this experiment but I believe it might be possible to see EVERY WORD SPOKEN as a discrete element in the wave form of the audio file.

Problem two. There is almost NO DRAMATIZATION. Oh the pitch of the voice might rise a bit to denote a question. Some other minor embellishments may be added. But basically this reading sound like an excellent computer text to speech reading of the book. In fact, no kidding, I actually started to think that when I was perhaps 30 minutes into the book. But, you can tell it's a human. and the copyright blurb somewhere dates the recording to the 1990s.

I'm thinking that perhaps back then books were more often than not read flat with no artistry. I'd call a modern reader an actor/artist more than a reader. Many of them speak in different voices for the different main characters. It can be a very impressive thing when done right and once heard that way, the really flat recitations of the text in books becomes substantially more boring than it probably was when that type of presentation was the norm.

So, I listened to the entire book regardless of all this negative criticism. Why? Because I was stuck in the foundation heptalogy and wanted to know... how did Seldon create Psychohistory. I suffered through it and if you are into this series of books so can you. It isn't totally unlistenable, just significantly so.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

WAY TOO LONG for that.

Worst narration EVER

This is bad. How could you even go to market with this lack of quality in the narration. If this guy is reading any of the future books I’m out.

Good and bad

The collection of stories hearkens to asimov's best. The reader is horrible. Truly a mix of great content and dismal performance.

Bad narration.

Not the best book in series in terms of the story, but if you want to read the whole series it is necessary. The narrator is absolutely terrible and completely takes away from overall book enjoyment. Needs to be re-recorded ASAP.

Narration was actually pretty lifelike

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Lots of complaints about the narration, but it actually sounded fairly close to a human narrator - in a few years once the technology advances we might not be able to tell the difference!

Magnificent Ending

I have read and re-read the original three Foundation books over some 40 years. Author Asimov captured my imagination in college and I have read nearly all of his works ever since. His works are very readable and are wonderful tales.

not enough to make it...

If you must have all the answers and obsessed with how the robot series connects... yet this is possibly the weakest offering from the writer I have encountered.

Solid conclusion to a very engaging series.

My first adult science fiction novels were the foundation trilogy and I feel as though this novel wrapped up the series for me. Several of the themes in this novel resonated deeply and made me think of many of the choices I have made in my life. I felt as though Scott Brick was a better narrator for the series than Larry Mckeever but I do not feel that hurt the novel for me at all.

Not totally convinced it was really Asimov ...

Started reading Asimov when I was a kid, back in the 1940s was always a big fan... maybe he was losing it a little when this was written, but seems like a shadow of much of his other work and doesn't add much of anything to the Foundation series ... wanna go back and read some of the earlier stuff ... 'course, could just be me, tho' :-) ... didn't really know this one actually was around

Robotic reader

I am working my way through Asimov's "Foundation" series. You would think that a robotic reader might be good for an Asimov novel, but not in this case. I recommend increasing the reading speed to improve the story delivery.