Book Review: Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Azimov
This is the fourth novel in Isaac Azimov’s galaxy-spanning epic Foundation series. It tells the story of Golan Trevize, a councilman who seeks out the mysterious ‘Second Foundation’ 500 years into the great Selden Plan meant to restore order to the galaxy. This review will include mild spoilers. Azimov is a brilliant and imaginative writer who knows how to create incredible sci-fi worlds. Unfortunately he sometimes struggles to understand the difference between an interesting concept and an interesting story.
This is the core problem with Foundation’s Edge. You get 400 pages of suspenseful story-telling ultimately ruined by the ending. It is almost the same as the game Mass Effect 3. Just tell the protagonist to press one of three buttons. What’s more we find that basically all of the characters have been manipulated or mind-controlled all along and even the ending involves erasing memories and false realities. All of the interesting ideas and tense conflicts from the first three novels might as well not have happened. The reason why all of this mind-control and manipulation occurs is a genuinely interesting concept. It just makes for a bad story because good stories need strong characters making choices with free will. I just can’t recommend this book. Read the original trilogy and stop there.
Grade: C
