Amazing, simply amazing. For readers who are not familiar with Asimov, this book may seem a bit long. However, "Prelude to Foundation" is great for science-fiction/"galatical" fans. Two thumbs up!!

This prequel for the "Foundation Series" is the story of Hari Seldon, the creator of psychohistory, the science that allows him to predict actions and development of the Galactic Empire. Seldon and colleague Dors Venabili have to escape the minions of the Galactic Emperor and sometimes the novel is really more of an adventure story than SF. Only towards the end one of Asimov's recurrent themes appears: robots and their relationship to humans. Good read! ( )

This is the first book I've read by Asimov, no particular reason why I started picking up this particular series. I'm familiar with I, Robot and the robot laws he devised but after reading this novel I'm finding Asimov to be much more interesting of a read on a different human pyschological/political bent. This particular book was written well after the first Foundation which I just recently started reading. It's interesting to see how much easier it is to build upon our own hind-sighted creations when we've had time to think about our lot over time. Based on what I've read with Preludes, it seems Asimov creates a universe that was totally representative of the times he wrote in. I expect more of the same as I continue the series. ( )

Written well after the original Foundation novels, Prelude to Foundation is one of two prequels. The book ties in nicely with Robots and Empire, as well as the other robot novels.

Its a good book too, with its 460ish pages only taking a few days to read (I think I knocked it over in about four days). The story is sufficiently engaging that I kept looking up and discovering that I had read another 100 pages. There are also a couple of twists in the book (I count three in fact), only two of which I had figured out before the characters.

A good book. Probably better than Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire, and definitely better than Allen's Caliban trilogy (Caliban, Inferno, and Utopia).

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asi... ( )

Despite being the "first" book of the Foundation era, this is one of the last books written in the series. It probably wasn't worth the effort. In context - the original Foundation trilogy was a masterful piece of science fiction writing when it was produced: innovative, interesting, and thought-provoking. Then, late in his life, Asimov decided to expand on the Foundation trilogy, and in the process, mash it together with his Robot books. The result was not pretty.

The basic plot line follows Hari Seldon, the man who developed psychohistory. It begins just as Seldon gives a speech about the potential science of psychohistory, which he has only worked out the preliminary foundations of. The Emperor Cleon I is interested, and interviews Seldon, but becomes convinced that psychohistory is nothing more than a theoretical toy. Seldon is then contacted by a journalist named Chetter Huminn who convinces him that Cleon's first minister (and the true power in the government) is after Seldon, and Seldon has to hide. Most of the book details Seldon's travels about Trantor with his bodyguard (and later wife), a woman named Dors, as he both tries to work out the fundamentals of psychohistory and evade the first minister. Along the way he finds and adopts a boy named Raych, and collaborates with another scientist named Yugo.

In the end, it turns out that Huminn is actually the first minister, and is also actually the robot R. Daneel Olivaw who has been benevolently guiding humanity for thousands of years. The whole of Seldon's time on the run was orchestrated by Olivaw so he could work out psychohistory to the point where it would be a useful science. There are some explanations as to why Olivaw thought it necessary to engage in the charade, but they only make him seem more omniscient than before, and sink the series to further depths of silliness. Asimov's writing saves the book from the ridiculously convoluted plot, but that doesn't make the book any better than average. And for a book tied to both the excellent Foundation trilogy, and the original Robot books, average is a disappointment. ( )