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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780553293388
ISBN number: 0553293389
Label: Spectra
Manufacturer: Spectra
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 480
Printing Date: November 01, 1991
Publishing house: Spectra
Release Date: October 01, 1991
Sale Popularity Level: 16420
Studio: Spectra
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Product Description:
At last, the costly and bitter war between the two Foundations had come to an end. The scientists of the First Foundation had proved victorious; and now they retum to Hari Seldon's long-established plan to build a new Empire that the Second Foundation is not destroyed after all-and that its still-defiant survivors are preparing their revenge. Now the two exiled citizens of the Foundation-a renegade Councilman and the doddering historian-set out in search of the mythical planet Earth. . .and proof that the Second Foundation still exists. Meanwhile someone-or something-outside of both Foundations sees to be orchestrating events to suit its own ominous purpose. Soon representatives of both the First and Second Foundations will find themselves racing toward a mysterious world called Gaia and a final shocking destiny at the very end of the universe!
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Rated by buyers 
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After finishing the initial Foundation trilogy about a year ago, I took a break. (I am a collector and had bought every book in the Foundation series all at once) I was completely satisfied with the way the trilogy concluded. I did not feel the story could move forward with any continuity. I was wrong, and the series was enhanced. The new characters introduced in the book are fantastic, and the story is great. Foundation's Edge is packed to the brim with philosophy that will knock your socks off and boggle your mind. This book is another 5 star member of the Foundation Series. Pay no attention to any negative reviews, they just don't get it.
Rated by buyers 
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Promising update to the Foundation series written 20 years later gets bogged down about 2/3 of the way through in interminable and virtually unreadable psycho-ecological babble. By focusing on a single historical period, Asimov showed up to that point that he could at least manage a moderate level of plot interest. But from the midpoint on this is one of the worst things I've ever read from an author with a well-known reputation.
My suggestion is to skip the whole series. Having soldiered this far, I will finish the last book in the series. Your best bet: don't even start.
Rated by buyers -
Isaac Asimov continues the Foundation Story in this 4th installment of the series, published around 30 years after the original trilogy.
In "Foundation's Edge," Asimov does a very good job of continuing and expanding the Foundation story without missing a beat, despite the amount of time between this book and the very first 3 books. The novel's style is somewhat more in depth from the original series; this is to be expected, considering this novel was published in the 1980s, whereas the original trilogy was published 50 years ago in "pulp" monthly magazine format. Foundation's Edge is also close to 500 pages, by comparison the entire original trilogy, combined, wasn't much more than that.
The book follows members of both the 1st and 2nd Foundations who believe that some force in the Galaxy, other than either of the Foundations, is at work controlling the so-called "Seldon Plan" and causing it to proceed a little too perfectly... But are the protaganists correct in their suspicions? And if someone else is controlling the plan, who or what are they, and what are their ultimate intentions? Not knowing if the mysterious third party means good or ill for the Foundations (and the Galaxy, in general), the lead characters must discover the truth or else risk the end of both Foundations, as well as Hari Seldon's vision for a new empire.
This was a very enjoyable book and flowed well from cover to cover. As with many of Asimov's novels, this sci-fi reads like a mystery in which characters are missing major pieces of the puzzle, but must seek to uncover the truth. (Warning - mild spoiler in subsequent 2 sentences) The ending may be considered a little disappointing by some in that it basically winds up heading the galaxy in a completely different direction than the original trilogy. It's always a bit disappointing when an author basically contradicts what readers believed from reading previous books in a series.
I consider Asimov one of the premier "golden age" sci-fi authors. Generally, his earlier works were better than his later ones - the "essential Asimov" in my opinion (not counting short stories) is the original "Foundation trilogy", the 1st and 2nd "Robot" novels ("Caves of Steel" & "The Naked Sun"), and two other stand-alone novels ("The End of Eternity" and "The Gods, Themselves"). Some of his later works could arguably be considered if not poor writing at least less inspired storytelling (such as the foundation prequels and later foundation novels) from the perspective that rather than writing something original he takes his very good stories from the "golden age" and tacks on additional twists to those series or tries to bring the robot/foundation series all-together into one grander-scale story - but what is the point?
However, all in all, I strongly recommend the entire foundation series through book 5 be read (Book 5 is "Foundation & Earth"), and in the order published, I might add...! To a lesser extent I also recommend the prequel "Forward the Foundation." (The only one of the series written by Asimov himself, I never read was "Prelude to Foundation, which is the very first prequel published - prior to "Forward..." and according to other reviews is similar in quality to "Forward..."). Overall, the original foundation trilogy is a must-read - and one could stop there, but I would give all of the foundation books at least 4 stars - Asimov was a very fine writer and his novels always flowed well and not sure I ever read anything by him I considered poor.
Rated by buyers -
Of the Foundation novels thus far in the series, this is the very first to dedicate the whole book to a single story line - one that continues in the subsequent book. As always, Asimov is masterful with the mystery aspects of the story, and how the characters figure things out in a Sherlock/Watson manner.
Asimov kind of lost some points with me by making Gaia the central aspect, that hippie treehugger world-is-alive idea that's nowadays extreme cliche, but I cut him slack given that he wrote this over 25 years ago.
Looking forward to the subsequent book in the series!
Rated by buyers 
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More than the Foundations?
There may be an as yet undiscovered third leg in the struggle for control, and this leads to a couple of the characters involved searching for Earth.
Not sure there is any real reason to read this if you have read the original Foundation books, but if you are more of a fan you will likely enjoy it, with all the psychohistory, prediction and mind games.
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