Here’s a representative sample from a single page:Īfter a while, this started to grate on me. He has a great aversion to said, and when he must resort to it, he never fails to pair it with an adverb. This is particularly egregious in the way he tags dialog. Like, someone did not restrain his access to the adverb vault. I see in my review of the first book I observed that it was mostly dialogue, and maybe that’s why it escaped the criticism I’m going to level here. Set some time after the first book, these stories tell, respectively, of the Galactic Empire’s last strike against the nascent Foundation, and of the rise of an eponymous mutant whose very existence throws off Hari Seldon’s precious psychohistorical predictions for the Foundation’s ascendance and safeguarding of the galaxy. Whereas the original book was a collection of short stories that, together, formed a larger plot, Foundation and Empire collects two novellas, “The General” and “The Mule”. Strap in for a fun ride (or, if you are an Asimov diehard fan, maybe just … close this tab), because I am going to pick this thing apart. My key takeaway from this reread? Isaac Asimov is actually a crap writer.

I was 23 when I reread the first book, and now I’m nearly 29! I feel like an entirely different person from 23-year-old Kara, let alone whatever delicate age I was when I first read this book.

Eventually I broke down and bought it new, only to discover I could have kept going with the series anyway…. For some reason, I had it in my head that Second Foundation, the one book I was missing, was the second book in the series (I wonder why) I was waiting and waiting to find a battered, old copy of it at my used bookstore and never did. I’ve had Foundation and Empire, and most of the other books, sitting in a pile in my old bedroom for a long time. Whoaaaaa, it has been five years since I reread Foundation! I didn’t realize how long it had been.

Asimov foundation and empire