Review: Foundation (by Isaac Asimov)

The first book of the Foundation saga is simply called "Foundation".

It is in a time far far away from now. The exact time is unsaid, but it is easily over 100,000 years into the future. The tale of Hari Seldon and his Psycho-Historians, people who base their mass calculations of the future's events on mathematics, creating the Seldon Plan. A plan supposedly, planning the future of a thousand years, and its events between. According to their calculations, and planning, at the end of all of it, a Second Foundation. The latter parts of the book are about the Foundation spreading its roots, setting up the "foundation" of its beginning, its experiences, and the four main worlds surrounding it. The story also sets up the beginning of their exploration of the systems just outside their own.

Isaac Asimov is unsurpassed in science fiction stories, he plays with words as if they are his puppets, he, a puppeteer. He is a master of writing, and this series is his pièce de résistance. 

It seems like Asimov's writing here also sets the "foundation" for modern science fiction writing; many writers today start their stories with what is known (or science fact) and then adding on what could be (science fiction) in order to make their premises believable. After reading so much about Psychohistory as a "science", it almost seems like a real subject that one could take up in university.

I first read this series when I was younger, maybe just in Grade 3. I thought it was cool then but it was only when I read it again just recently that I realized how much I did not really understand in my first reading. I think I might read this again when I get older.

Recommended Age: 13+

Book Rating: Exceptional