Carter

I thought I’d enjoy a full-length novel from Asimov more than his collections, and I was right. It was well-paced, it kept me intrigued, it felt like quintessential space opera in Asimov’s voice, and it had a solid conclusion that also invited another novel and mystery, almost reminiscent of Herbert’s. Trevize and Pelorat were delightful. And while this is called Foundation, it was really a connecting novel to Asmimov’s other works.

In this (chronologically) final Foundation novel, Asimov ties together with a stroke the story of telepathic Robots, Daneel, and the origin of Gaia, and the demonstrates the almost-fatal flaw in the Seldon Plan. Having planned out none of this, I think that the book does a solid job at closing the universe and making all fit almost as it if was intentional. I do wish we got more of a conclusive ending to Golan and Janov’s stories.

Another improvement on the Foundation series, a book very similar to the previous one, but having improved on its pattern. The first story, Search by the Mule, was again the shorter but it concluded the Mule’s story well and set up the intrigue of the Second Foundation. The second part was similar to ‘The Mule’ in that it had strong characters, was quicker-paced, and had a good twist which was even foreshadowed in the previous book.

I’m certainly considering Phlebas. There was a lot of action in this book, and though some of it got densely descriptive and confusing, it was still intense. Banks bends the third-person limited perspective in really interesting ways and starts breaking the rules of his prose to create tension or mystery in a very cool way. Story was very intentionally bleak, done well. Feels like I would need to read it again to truly appreciate it, but I think Horza is a fascinating and complex character.

Another very solid space opera, though this one is both more palatable and less uniquely impressive than Consider Phlebas. I liked the themes of passion and obsession, but felt they could have been played better or perhaps louder. The game of Azad itself was very interesting and the descriptions of play were cool. The twist of Gurgeh’s purpose was not very surprising, but Flere-Imsaho’s true nature was indeed. I love Banks’ politics.