Combined Review: Prelude and Forward

I'm combining my next two reviews in one post. Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation were the last two Foundation novels written by Asimov. They were intended to fill in the huge gap in chronology between the Galatic Empire novels and the original Foundation novels. Personally, I think this was a mistake.

First, I really felt that two of the plot devices in these novels, one minor and one pretty major, were kind of hackneyed (more detail in the spoilers section below). Second, it was just too obvious that the novels were trying to be a bridge and explain later concepts and events. Those explanations, I think, were simply not necessary. The Foundation novels certainly stood on their own, recipients of countless accolades, without these two pre-quels. Even after the robot novels created a bit an open-ended story as to the ultimate fate of Daneel Olivaw, I don't think there was a huge need to retcon the story line. A little ambiguity and uncertainty is OK in a story of this magnitude.

SPOILERS FOLLOW:

OK, it was just obvious from nearly the beginning of Prelude that Dors was a robot. This was really just laziness on the part of Asimov, I think. She became a crutch upon which he relied to save Hari at various points. Rather than use a deus ex machina, the (famously) atheist Asimov relied simply on the machina itself.

More disturbing, though, was the recurrence of the mind-reading trope. Really? I know Asimov was at the end of his career and life, but to recycle this theme again as a means to effect the creation of the near-magic technology of psychohistory was, again, lazy.

All in all, I'm not that thrilled with the writing in these books so far. I'm interested to see how I feel about the core novels that come next.

Pebble in the Sky review

It's been well over a month since I completed my reading of Pebble in the Sky, but I've waited to write this review until I also finished the next book on my reading list, Across Realtime by Vernor Vinge. What? Not part of the Foundation universe? Let me explain.

First, I was feeling a need for a break after seven Asimov novels. Second, my Kindle was poached by my wife to read The Hunger Games trilogy. And third, I've really liked the two other Vinge novels I've read and I had Across Realtime laying around and wanted to read it!

I thought it would be interesting to see how I viewed Asimov (who I've long considered a favorite author) after reading Vinge. Sorry to say, Isaac, but at the very least the older novels don't really stand up compared to Vinge's work from the mid-1990s. I don't know if it's just the difference in plausible technologies based on the authors' respective experience (Asimov assumes that thousands of years in the future people will get their daily newspaper on microfilm, for crying out loud), or Vinge's more radical and imaginative concepts, or just better writing. I'm not dissuaded from continuing this effort, but I'm also not quite as excited when I started it, either.

On the other hand, the next two novels in line are the newest in terms of when they were written. I hope Asimov was not too 'gimicky' in trying to slot them into the overall flow. Again, reading these in 'chronological' order is an experiment, so I'll have to soldier on. You can thank me later.

The Currents of Space; The Stars, Like Dust

I'm a bit behind, so I've combined my reviews of The Currents of Space and The Stars, Like Dust. These are two of the three original "Galactic Empire" novels, written early in Asimov's career. This was noticeable after reading two newer works. The characters in these novels were largely two-dimensional and somewhat stereotypical, similar to those in the first two Lije Baley novels. Even more telling as to Asimov's relative inexperience as he wrote these is his down-right primitive take on romance included Stars. Still, I don't fault him these limitations, and the plotting and story are certainly up to quality; these are not difficult books to read. Still, there are some amateurish touches, such as the proliferation of exclamation points and question marks in the chapter titles.

One interesting item that jumped at me from Stars was the object referred to as the 'visisonor.' Without giving away its nature or minor role in the plot, I will say that it reminded me of an object that plays a much more central role in a later Foundation novel. If my memory of that is accurate, there is more than a passing similarity between the two, and it would seem that Asimov borrowed from himself.

I also had a start of recognition when Trantor was mentioned for the first time in
Currents. It got me thinking that it was odd that Tyrann was the dominant world in Stars (which I read after Currents), rather than Trantor. If Trantor was ascendent in Currents, wouldn't it be so in Stars?. I expected that it came after Currents based on the recommended reading order I posted earlier. After some more digging, I found a source that places these in reverse order from Asimov's, or at least, Asimov's according to the Wikipedia page I referenced. I don't have much to go on besides the mention of Trantor, but I do think that this other source has it right.

I've already started on Pebble in the Sky, Asimov's first published novel. It seems to hinge on a time-worn plot device: time-travel. Should be interesting!