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Originally Posted by Fried Egg  Connavar of Rigante
It sounds like you have some quite firm opinions about and ending you haven't even read yet. I suppose that when I read Foundation and Earth, I had the advantage of not having read other people's opinions on it.
As for the ending being weak and leaving unanswered questions...well, I can't say to much because I don't want to spoil it for you when you eventually get around to finishing it but I can say that it goes a long way to tying together the foundation and robot series. It actually resolves some questions left open at the end of "Robots and Empire". And as I understand it, he had every intention of writing more books in the series to continue after "Foundation and Earth" so it wasn't supposed to be fully concluded.
"Second Foundation" actually left the question as to whether the Seldon plan would eventually suceed wide open. This question is actually resolved in "Foundation and Earth".
I think that "Edge" and "Earth" reflected a change in Asimov in that he had grown bored with the original notion of the Foundation and wanted to explore the idea that something else could be a more effective mechanism for securing mankind's future. One of the fascinating things about "Earth" is running debate between Golan Trevize and Blissenobiarella regarding the importance of individual freedom vs. the common good.
"Forward the Foundation" carries straight on from "Prelude" and is also about Hari Seldon. |
Its not the ending might leave question unanswered that bothers me. I wrote about that just cause it bothers me that it points to Asimov not being clear on what planned with the two books.
Its cause of the Gaia thing and the hole story of Edge and Foundation and Earth that i lost interest and not even bothered to finish it.
I couldnt careless how the ending is,my problem is i lost interest before that. While i devoured every page of the old Foundation series.
The change in Asimov wasnt for good IMO. Which is why i wish he never wrote the last two books.
I should finish it but i dont like that i dont really care anymore its morejust to finish the thing.
Golan Trevize and Blissenobiarella debating about the importance of individual freedom vs. the common good was interesting but not near enough to build stories on. I enjoyed the characters and their ideas but there werent much of a story specially not what you wanted to see in a foundation book.