The later Foundation novels. Are they any good?

[Ilash]

What the thread title says. For those who don't know, Asimov returned to the Foundation universe after thirty or so years with a sequel (Foundation's Edge) and two prequels (Forward Foundation and Foundation adn Earth). I'm particularly interested in picking up Foundation's Edge because though I read the original trilogy a while ago, I do remember really enjoying it - the latter two novels especially - and it's been a while since I read a "hard" science fiction novel so I thought I'd give a new novel in an old favourite series a try.

Has anyone read Foundation's Edge and the prequel books? Are they worth a read?

[Roquefort Raider]

What the thread title says. For those who don't know, Asimov returned to the Foundation universe after thirty or so years with a sequel (Foundation's Edge) and two prequels (Forward Foundation and Foundation adn Earth). I'm particularly interested in picking up Foundation's Edge because though I read the original trilogy a while ago, I do remember really enjoying it - the latter two novels especially - and it's been a while since I read a "hard" science fiction novel so I thought I'd give a new novel in an old favourite series a try.

Has anyone read Foundation's Edge and the prequel books? Are they worth a read?

Foundation and Earth is actually a sequel to Foundation's Edge. I liked them well enough, although they are more cerebral than the original trilogy and lose some of their golden-age immediacy in the storytelling. The ending of Foundation and Earth is very surprising if you haven't read the latter Asimov novels.

The prequels are Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation, both competent novels. They suffer from the expected strains on continuity that accompany all such attempts, however. Also, rather than "fate of an empire" type of stories, they're more like "the life and times of Hari Seldon".

In his latter years, Asimov wrote a few novels that connected his "Robots" "Caverns of steel" and "Foundation" stories, as well as a few stand-alones like Pebble in the sky. "Robots of Dawn" is one of these.

Asimov's attempt was not necessary as far as I'm concerned, but the novels written for the occasion are certainly worth reading.

The only thing I would not truly recommend are the Foundation prequels of the three Bs: since they're not written by Asimov, they read like competent fan-fiction.

[Karl J. Barnes]

I stopped with Foundation's Edge. I felt that the Foundation series had gone as far as it could. I tried reading the later novel, Foundation and Earth, the one where R. Daniel Ovilaw is still around. Eventhough I love R. Daniel, I just couldn't get into the novel and I dropped it.

[Lee Kaye]

I enjoyed them, because he knitted a lot of his work together in the books, but I read them when I was much younger, 16/17 and loved them at the time. Going back, some of his stuff seems a little 2d nowadays.

[Expletive Deleted]

At one time, Asimov's idea of weaving all his franchises together into one mostly coherent story appealed to me. It really doesn't, anymore.

The two Hari Seldon books are decent enough on their own, but the rest . . . eh.

[Slam_Bradley]

I don't think Asimov wrote anything worth reading after Robots of Dawn.

And I'm a pretty big Asimov fan.

[Ilash]

Well, thanks for all the info and opinions. Just out of curiosity, does anyone have any recommendations for scifi novels that are similar to the Foundation books in that they have that same sense of "golden-age immediacy" and simply really invloving, unexpected story lines?

[sabel4]

I'd reccomend Foundation's Triumph by David Brin. It may be officially sanctioned fanfiction published in book form, but it's rather good, and you don't have to have read the other two books in the Second Foundation Trilogy to get it (knowledge of Foundation and Earth is pretty vital though.) Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Chaos? They suck. However, edge pretty much picks apart the entire concept of Daneel Olivaw guiding the human race in an interesting fashion, including the ethics of what he has done, as well as the whole "Gaia" thing.

Foundation's Edge: 4/10 - Passages blatantly copied from his work in "Time Gate".
Foundation and Chaos 5/10.
Foundation's Triumph - 8/10.

[Karl J. Barnes]

I don't think Asimov wrote anything worth reading after Robots of Dawn.

And I'm a pretty big Asimov fan.

Pretty much agree with this assessment, even his short stories and Magazine were starting to come off as trite and bland. I mean, the man that wrote Caves of Steel and Pebble In The Sky you could see that he was running on fumes.

[a. non]

Donald Kingsbury's Psychohistorical Crisis was, i think, superior to the second trilogy. It didn't take place in the Foundation timeline, but was an homage to it, taking place during the Second Empire. It had similar events and characters, but had different names: a Seldon-like character was called the Founder; Cloun-the-Stubborn (Mule) conquored the Fellowship (Foundation); etc. Also, this book explained the mathematical principles of psychohistory more than Asimov ever did.

[Roquefort Raider]

Well, thanks for all the info and opinions. Just out of curiosity, does anyone have any recommendations for scifi novels that are similar to the Foundation books in that they have that same sense of "golden-age immediacy" and simply really invloving, unexpected story lines?

"A fire upon the deep" by Vernor Vinge would certainly qualify, methinks.