I am currently re-reading the Foundation series. The notes on the other books are found below, the links will be updated as I go through the books:

Finally went through the final book of the cycle. That little project of mine took me much more time than I thought it would and thought I took a few tangents along the way (and much more books I started but haven’t finished or won’t be featured here), it is nice to finally close it now.

So, what about this final book of the Foundation serie? It starts pretty much where Prelude to Foundation ended but is, to me, much, much better. Overall, it is less heavy handed in its project to link the Robots and Foundation cycles as well as in the way it ties the later elements and characters of the original trilogy. It also comes back to the original format of the books, with 4 parts corresponding to related stories but with variable interval of times between them. You could say that would lead to less room for the characters to flourish and get some meat around their characters and back stories but most of them are actually shared across several of the stories so I didn’t find it an issue.

Taking up after Seldon finally made it to his university and finally getting his hands into Psychohistory, it then goes several crisis that each provide a piece toward the overall project completion. To me, this is the most Asimov-like book of the additional books. More diplomatic or bureaucratic kind of stories and resolution. The kind of story arcs that were common in the original trilogy. This is what I had in mind when reading Arkady Martine’s A memory called Empire and thinking this was like a modern Asimov story.

Forward being the last book Asimov had written, it also reflects a lot on Asimov himself. He never hid the fact that he saw himself in Seldon and a lot of his traits transpire in Seldon character, according to people who know Asimov and Foundation must better than me. In this book, both Asimov and Seldon are old, a bit discouraged, trying to understand what will remain of their life’s work once they are gone (and NO Apple, Seldon is not a self-centered, selfish asshole only looking for self preservation).

It also emphasises a lot on loss. It being either a reflection of the state of the Empire or the numerous people and connection around Seldon who leave or die along the way. It might be mostly focused around the last part of the book and this is why, me having just finished it in a rush this morning, it takes such a huge part in my overall impression of the book.

I mentioned that the characters in this book were less paper-thin than in previous books and that is overall true. Except for Wanda, Seldon’s granddaughter. I would have expect more for a character which has a full arc of the book to herself and is presented as such a huge element for the future of Psychohistory. But I got tired. Worse, I got sick of the number of times “beautiful” was pretty much the only qualificatif that was attached to her. She is a mathematician, the highiest cast of Seldon’s organisation as described in one of the arc. This is barely mentioned. Seldon meets a man and calls him immediately doctor. No one ever calls Wanda Doctor. Or Mrs Seldon. Or whatever… Not surprising overall knowing Asimov problematic behaviours with women. So bad it deserved its own personal section on his Wikipedia page…

Anyway. That was a nice deep dive into one of the SciFi series I loved as a teenager. Now to more recent (and better?) books.