Foundation by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was talking to a friend about science fiction recently; he was waxing poetic about the good old days when a science fiction novel was 150 pages jam packed with ideas, and with none of the bloat of recent offerings in the genre.*
I am quite certain that my friend adored The Foundation novels because honestly there's hardly a character or other description to be found.
I'm not really complaining; I liked Foundation quite a lot, but it's kind of like reading the bible. It's not really a traditional narrative so much as an opportunity for Asimov to lay out his opinions about religion, science, economics, and technology and he's going to construct and ubermensch to cleverly tell you all about it and suddenly everything is right with the world again.
It's fun, it really is. It has some delightfully pithy** quotes like "For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works..." (That whole chapter is great, actually.) But everything is so easy. Near the end, I was really hoping for some Lannisters to show up*** and get in the way with their selfish ambition and politicking.
Don't get me wrong, I would be happy to live in the world that Asimov describes, but I think maybe those fatter science fiction titles with their nuanced characters and intricate relationships are a bit more real.
* And no, he's not that much older than me, but yes, I am trying to make his rant sound like "*sigh* the kids these days with their well defined characters and a complicated interpersonal relationships."
** And dishearteningly relevant
*** Or, you know, a SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER****!!!!!
**** Yes, I know the Commdor's wife makes an appearance near the end, but she really doesn't count. At some point, I got so sick of this particularly brutal imbalance that I just started imagining some of the characters as female.
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