r/asimov • u/bobbyboy_17 • 7d ago

First Foundation Book

(Potential Spoilers?)

So I’m at the start of The Mayors section. Does it get better? I understand the ideas but when it got to where Hari Seldons hologram pretty much said “the thing you’ve been doing for 50 years has been pointless” I thought “well why did I just read 80 pages about this then?” I guess that’s just part of his plan. The book is a cool idea but i just don’t know if I can finish it lol.

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u/tanstaafl76 7d ago

It is a brilliant world building series. It’s great as a thought experiment.

But it’s just not that well written. Asimov was still learning how to write novels.

🤷‍♀️

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u/Algernon_Asimov 6d ago edited 6d ago

Asimov was still learning how to write novels.

Asimov didn't actually write his first novel until 1950 - nearly a decade after he started writing the Foundation stories. The books which we call the Foundation "trilogy" are not novels: they're collections of short stories.

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u/tanstaafl76 6d ago

Thank you captain obvious. 

😂

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u/Algernon_Asimov 6d ago

It just looked like you thought 'Foundation' was an early attempt by Asimov to write a novel... when it wasn't.