Foundation

The Foundation Trilogy, Book 1

By: Isaac Asimov

Narrated by: William Hope

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST ALL-TIME SERIES

The Foundation series is Isaac Asimov’s iconic masterpiece. Unfolding against the backdrop of a crumbling Galactic Empire, the story of Hari Seldon’s two Foundations is a lasting testament to an extraordinary imagination, one that shaped science fiction as we know it today.

The Galactic Empire has prospered for twelve thousand years. Nobody suspects that the heart of the thriving Empire is rotten, until psychohistorian Hari Seldon uses his new science to foresee its terrible fate.

Exiled to the desolate planet Terminus, Seldon establishes a colony of the greatest minds in the Empire, a Foundation which holds the key to changing the fate of the galaxy.

However, the death throes of the Empire breed hostile new enemies, and the young Foundation’s fate will be threatened first.

©2019 Isaac Asimov (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"One of the most staggering achievements in modern SF." (The Times)

"Isaac Asimov was one of the great explainers of the age...It will never be known how many practising scientists today, in how many countries, owe their initial inspiration to a book, article, or short story by Isaac Asimov." (Carl Sagan)

"Asimov displayed one of the most dynamic imaginations in science fiction." (Daily Telegraph)

Classic!

What are you waiting for? Read it immediately, just to fill in the gap in your knowledge of classics.

Seminal work but didn’t age all that well

The work is scientifically prophetic and a true masterpiece.

From a zeitgeist / social relevance point of view I found it disappointing since it seems naively optimistic about science, oversimplifying the characters in a strictly patriarchal way that doesn’t seem to allow for even of the fraction of societal change we’ve seen in the 70 years since it was written, let alone centuries.
Women scarcely feature in this story and when they do they are portrayed in the most infantile and stereotypic ways imaginable.

The narration is also disappointing, with the main characters having rather annoying intonations.

great story

a good foundation for the up coming movie. Building of the characters and story line.

Great book, performance a little hard to follow

The book is great, the performance is ok despite in some parts it screams or use an extreme accent that is hard to follow

Skipped content

Good story and performance, but really jarring when paragraps are skipped mid sentence. For the great deal of the book this isn't a problem, but for a few places in the first chapter and one or two in kater chapters. That alone takes you out of the story and keeps eating away at you as you listen.

Just to stress the point that the actual voice acting wasn't bad.

Awesome

Impressive story and excellent reader.
The reader makes the characters’ voices quite distinct, which is really beneficial for a story with long dialogues.

The narrator of this book is superb!

The narrator is performing so well, the dialogues are hilarious and performed so well, I am sure Asimov intended to make it as it is presented here. Great work!

Boring

I loved the tv show, but found the book confusing and boring. It is a DNF for me. Maybe I’ll try to finish it again at some point.

Well read classic science fiction

Someone complained about partial loss of sentences, but citations from the "Galactic Encyclopedia" are actually truncated in the original text also and ends abruptly in the middle of sentences with a series of dots.... These quotations are meant only as glimpses, but when read aloud they certainly give the impression of having been cut by accident. Perhaps the reader should have said "end of quotation" or something like that. I too became annoyed and had to look it up in the first edition! As for lack of "character development", that complaint is true enough, but in my opinion it is rather an asset, not a drawback in stories of this kind. Asimov is certainly a somewhat overrated writer, but he is much more readable than some highly praised but dry and academic writers like Ursula le Guin. Carefully planned and thought out "caracter development" can sometimes be a drag. In short, I like the Foundation trilogy very much but it should perhaps be read as a delicious "period piece".

A sweeping opera read immersively

William Hope voiced the characters convincingly and uniquely. Their attitudes, hopes and dreams were brought to life and the epic tale given flesh. I thoroughly enjoyed Asimov's vision of the inner workings of imperial death and rebirth.