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A review by bit101
Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov
4.0
I'm not a huge scifi fan, but I can appreciate some now and then. I've read a bit of Asimov over the years, but it seemed like getting through the Foundation series was something I should do at some point. It's a seven book series, which started with "Foundation", then four sequels, then a couple of prequels, "Prelude to Foundation" and "Forward the Foundation". So chronologically, these two are the beginning of the story, though they were written decades later. Actually, there are a ton of other novels and short stories in the same universe as Foundation, so even Prelude is not the beginning, but for this particular arc it is.
A decent enough story. Nothing really amazing. It actually reminds me a bit of the Hitchhiker series. The main character, Hari Seldon, is the hero, but as we start, he is just an unwitting, unknown mathematician who gives a talk at a conference that winds him up in all kinds of trouble, being chased by multiple government agencies, fleeing from sector to sector of the planet, getting into deeper and deeper trouble each time. Everyone is after his new science, "Psychohistory", which can supposedly predict the future. But it was just a concept to Hari, and one he didn't even believe in himself.
There are also numerous side discussions about politics and sociology, history and war, and a bit of chaos theory, that are all pretty interesting and insightful. By itself, this book probably would not mean much. But as a prelude, it got me hooked enough to continue on with the series.
A decent enough story. Nothing really amazing. It actually reminds me a bit of the Hitchhiker series. The main character, Hari Seldon, is the hero, but as we start, he is just an unwitting, unknown mathematician who gives a talk at a conference that winds him up in all kinds of trouble, being chased by multiple government agencies, fleeing from sector to sector of the planet, getting into deeper and deeper trouble each time. Everyone is after his new science, "Psychohistory", which can supposedly predict the future. But it was just a concept to Hari, and one he didn't even believe in himself.
There are also numerous side discussions about politics and sociology, history and war, and a bit of chaos theory, that are all pretty interesting and insightful. By itself, this book probably would not mean much. But as a prelude, it got me hooked enough to continue on with the series.