Earlier this year I had been reading a lot of non-fiction and felt a need to balance out my reading with some fiction. I had noted in my list of books to read Asimov’s Foundation, and downloaded it for my Kindle. Very quickly I was consumed by the world created in this story: a rich and fascinating vision of a possible future history of mankind. After reading through the first book, I looked online and found that Asimov had connected up three different series of books: the Robot series, the Galactic Empire series, and the Foundation series.
Having read the first of the original Foundation Trilogy, I continued my way through the trilogy, then through the sequels, then the prequels. Afterwards, I began with I, Robot and moved through the Robot series and ended with the Galactic Empire series. I think if I were to do it all over again, I would start from the Robot Series and go chronologically through the Foundation series.
I loved the I, Robot short stories and the criminal/mystery character of the Robot series. The short stories were very thought provoking; I enjoyed the small twists and turns that came up as the ethical and moral issues of robots/technology and culture were explored. The books that featured R. Daneel Olivaw and Elijah Bailey were exciting and fun, and I found myself very much attached to the characters by the end.
Of the fifteen books, I found the Galactic Empire to be the least compelling (though, still enjoyable reads). They had less cohesion, being separate and mostly unrelated stories, and I felt the stories were a bit more predictable or not quite as polished.
Of the Foundation Series, I found the original trilogy to be extremely solid. I enjoyed how the events unfolded and the vision of a galactic empire in decay and new Foundation rising developed. I found the prequels exploring Hari Seldon to be fun but perhaps not as tightly written, and I thought the sequels were good, though I felt a bit disappointed with the ending in the final book. (Somehow, it felt like it didn’t quite answer the questions it raised.)
Overall, it was interesting that Asimov spent time to connect these series together. I think he was mostly successful in doing so, and imagine I will spend time to read through all of the books at some later point in my life. I do think a lot the ideas he explored are as relevant today as when he wrote them, and would gladly recommend these books to others. In the end, they were a joy to read and inspired many thoughts.