Foundation and Empire

-
I finished Foundation and Empire by Issac Asimov today.  Unlike the first book, this one only had 2 stories in it.  The first deals with a character we heard about at the end of Foundation and is from the perspective of the Empire.  The second deals with a new threat to the Foundation: a mutant so powerful he may derail the Plan.  I'm very glad there was a heroine finally.  I did not like the time gaps though.  There would be a chapter where the characters were leaving a planet, then the next chapter they had been on the new planet 6 months.  Because of this jumping about, there were several infodumps which weren't exactly the best part.  Asimov did a very good job of showing the atmosphere of fear and dread and apprehension.  overall, i would say a 5.  on to the Second Foundation!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yet Another Best of the Year Post

-
I am a little shocked that we've gotten to "end of the year post" time already.  I know everybody says this but this year really has passed quickly it seems, at least the fall has.  

As always, these are things that were new to ME this year, not necessarily published or released this year.  And not just 10 of things!

Books: 
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan BradleyThree Parts Dead by Max GladstoneThe Death of Bees by Lisa O'DonnellFive Days at Memorial by Sheri FinkMy Real Children by Jo WaltonLife After Life by Kate AtkinsonThe Lucifer Box series by Mark GatissThe Silkworm by Robert GalbraithPale Fire by Vladimir NabokovHard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki MurakamiKindred by Octavia ButlerThe Bone Clocks by David MitchellNight Film by Marissa PessiFever Pitch by Nick Hornby
Graphic Novels:
March, Book 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate PowellSaga, Volume 3 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona StaplesSex Criminals Volume 1: One Weird Trick by Mat…
Read more

Fahrenheit 451

-
Sometimes I really want to smack myself. In the head, relatively hard, to leave bruises. Usually it happens when I either realize something that I should have figured out long before or when I read something and I am upset about what I've been missing.

That happened last night when I finished Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. How could I get through 20 years of serious reading life and not have read this? How did I manage to go through the last few years without such a relevant, modern book in my mental arsenal? I want to grab everyone I know and make them read it. I don't want to rehash the plot as I think most people know the gist of it but what got me isn't the fact that it was about censorship, it is really about people participating in their own slavery. The long speeches by Montag's boss and his friend Faber really crystalize how a people could be led to become robots. How Bradbury predicted the mass media culture and faux-news environment in 1953 is beyond me. …
Read more

Henry IV Part 1

-
I listened to Henry IV Part 1 by William Shakespeare over this past weekend. a 3 cd set goes by pretty quickly on a 90 mile each way trip. I'm glad i picked this one up.

Henry IV Part 1 is a history play. It has one of the best comedic characters ever written: Sir John Falstaff. I'm not sure how he got the Sir as he seems to be more a brigand. Henry, called Harry or Hal, is the heir apparent to King Henry IV. He is something of a prodigal son; he parties and drinks and carouses with unsavory characters. Falstaff appears to be his best friend. King Henry's former friends and confidante's have rebelled against him for various reasons, led by the Earl of Northumberland and his son Henry Percy, also called Harry or Hotspur. King Henry calls his men to fight: Prince Hal swears to redeem himself by earning glory in combat; Falstaff does his best to take care of himself.


The production was fantastic. I immediately added Part 2 onto my library request list. You don…
Read more