Carter

I think that this book just wasn't for me. I've never really been a huge fan of dystopia, or YA dystopia for that matter, and Parable of the Sower didn't do much to make it stand out from the others. I did like the ideas of Earthseed and the effects of religion that were discussed, but that's pretty much the majority of what the book had going for it. It started fairly slow, the plot wasn't too interesting, and the romance was creepy.

Banks writes with a specific sophistication that oft leaves me wondering whether it is my fault or his that I do not fully understand his characters. I thought the reveal of the Chair and Chairmaker was insane, and the reveal that Cheri was instead Elethiomel was confusing. I don't think I ever fully understood our protagonist's motivations, and the end only sort of helped. Despite this, I think the novel's themes still were clear and powerful.

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.

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.

It was very fast-paced, fun action, but I can’t help but feel that it could have been more. Blue Team and Johnson are always fun but John was the only character with a real arc, and even that wasn’t much. The coolest original character, Tel ‘Szatulai, got the Zuka treatment except basically off-screen, and Nizat’s only arc was watching Survey get capped. Petora was only a lens into the innies for like thirty pages.

Miraculously, unbelievably, this novel manages to connect the stories of Halo 4, 5, and Infinite in so poignant and enthralling a fashion that I can’t help but feel amazed. It did start somewhat slow, and there was a lot of reiteration of the Didact’s story, but I think this allows for it to truly stand alone and be a jumping in point for fans of just the games. And god was that ending beautiful. Also clears up some ambiguity from Bear.

This final Foundation book brought the series full-circle in both chronology and style, for it was a series of four short stories chronicling the last decades of Hari Seldon’s life and the completion of his goal to develop psychohistory as a practical science. It concluded his story as set up in Prelude very nicely, and provided context to the original trilogy. This story, more than Prelude, shows the strength of Seldon’s character.

I don’t really know that this book is necessary. Yes, the plot twist that Hummin and Demerzel were both Daneel was pretty cool, yes it was cool getting to know Hari, and yes Hari and Dors’ relationship was nice but… most to the plot truly did not matter. The different Trantorian sectors were cool, but all they did was allow Hari to realize something that wasn’t truly that profound, and we didn’t really learn anything new.

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.

Asimov really brought it back with this one. Robots and Empire had the thoughtful, logic-puzzle complexities of I, Robot that I felt were somewhat missing from the Lije Baley books. I loved Daneel and Giskard as protagonists having to work around their robotic nature in order to save humanity. I liked the Foundation callbacks, I liked Amadiro's scheme, and I found the debate around the Zeroth Law very compelling. A great conclusion.

You can tell that this book was written after Foundation. Similar to Foundation’s Edge, the book is tied much more clearly to the greater Foundation universe, and although it continues the Earth/Spacer political struggle, it also acts as a sort of origin story of psychohistory, and confirms some details of the story of Gaia. I do feel that Giskard’s mind-reading wasn’t as satisfyingly foreshadowed as previous twists.

I really liked the choice of exploring the other side of the spectrum of the post-robot human culture. It was fascinating and made a good hook for a murder mystery. I see now that, similar to Foundation, these are sociological novels and the robots are only a background/driving element. I enjoyed Lije’s arc of learning to embrace the possibilities of space, though I wish it was more clear that he still loved his wife.

A good, old-fashioned detective novel combined with Asimov’s sci-fi world building and with a background of a galaxy colonized by robots. As a murder mystery, it does well. It was tense and hard to put down—and the conclusion of the mystery and aligning of the clues was incredible. As a Robot novel, the robots were more a background device than a focus, and even Daneel just observed, used logic, and was feared—maybe that’s the point.

Quite similar to Foundation in that Asimov sets up a sort of logic puzzle/scenario, and then tests its limits and capabilities in several short stories. I, Robot had a stronger throughline that Foundation which I enjoyed, and it felt more traditional sci-fi whereas the earlier Foundation stories were more generally political stories.

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.

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 enjoyed this novel a lot more than Foundation, though I concede that it was necessary set-up. I will say, however, The General was kind of disappointing, and would have maybe done better as an inclusion in book one. The Mule was fantastic, however. The character work was his best, the concept of the Mule being the only disruption to the Foundation was very interesting, and the twist caught me completely off-guard and was well-earned.

After finishing with Dune, Asimov’s Foundation reads remarkably fast. The pacing of the book is fast and unique, for it is essentially 5 different short stories connected by chronology and setting. The story and concept are interesting by themselves, but they sort of betray the stakes of the plot. I hope that this novel serves as mostly an introduction to the concept of the series, otherwise the books will be very repetitive.

I felt a lot better about the pacing of this book compared to Heretics. I also think the ending was handled better, and the plans within plans felt more solid and follow-able than in Heretics. Although Herbert planned for a seventh and final book, I think this ending of several important characters and ideas going out in their own Scattering is very poignant, and it works. This also may be the fastest I read a Dune novel.

Another book with a very different feel from the first trilogy. I enjoyed the characters and intrigue in the first half of the book as the plan began to take shape and was set into motion, but I preferred the second half as the Honored Matres made their move and it became a race for all the pieces to fall into place. I was a little disappointed or confused at the reveal of the plan at the end, and am wondering if Chapterhouse will help.

Unlike anything else. Definitely a shift in style and tone from the previous trilogy. So much philosophy and thought bundled into Leto’s dialogue, worthy of several reads to fully understand. The way that Herbert managed to demonstrate the proof of the Golden Path’ necessity slowly throughout the plot rather than just outright say it is incredible. And the plot was just as intriguing as the others.

Another great advancement of the story of the Atreides and Arrakis. While Messiah had a different feel to it, this book was a return to form and matched the complexity, intrigue, and mystery of the first novel incredibly well. I think I liked this one even more than the first. Leto and Ghani’s story was super interesting and just as tragic as Paul’s, Alia made an amazing villain and Abomination was very well done.

A very interesting addendum to Dune and completion of Paul’s story. While it had a narrower scope in both story and theme, it explored them both quite in depth. Paul’s character becomes even more complex and tragic, forcing questions of morality, fate, and the purpose of religion and government. The novel continues to expand the world of Dune and sets the stage for the next cast of characters.