Discount Price: $7.99
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780553587579
ISBN number: 0553587579
Label: Spectra
Manufacturer: Spectra
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 528
Printing Date: August 31, 2004
Publishing house: Spectra
Release Date: August 31, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 42464
Studio: Spectra
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The fifth novel in Asimov's popular Foundation series opens with second thoughts. Councilman Golan Trevize is wondering if he was right to choose a collective mind as the best possible future for humanity over the anarchy of contentious individuals, nations and planets. To test his conclusion, he decides he must know the past and goes in search of legendary Earth, all references to which have been erased from galactic libraries. The societies encountered along the way become arguing points in a book-long colloquy about man's fate, conducted by Trevize and traveling companion Bliss, who is part of the very first world/mind, Gaia.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Another good book in the series, Foundation and Earth tells the story from the moment Foundation's Edge left off, detailing Trevize's quest to find the origin of mankind.
This book, though enjoyable, was more of a Gulliver's Travels type of format as we hop from world to world meeting variations on human settlement. There is less of the mystery/intertwining plot intrigues I enjoyed in earlier Foundation books.
Rated by buyers 
-
Anyone who hasn't read about Hari Seldon and Psychohistory needs to. Though it's a fictional science in the book, I wouldn't be suprised if someone wasn't studying it today. Asimov's writing is compelling ... not to full of sci-fi babble and that makes it pretty timeless. Many older books have language that makes me laugh and constantly irritates me.
Rated by buyers -
I was disappointed in this book, which is chronologically the last of the Foundation series.
The characters act out of character. You have your heroes and your heroine, and in the very first half of the book, they're very righteous, debating about morality, and act strongly with conviction. But in the second half of the book, a small event happens and then you get a bunch of whiny wimpy characters. It was really annoying, and if it was anyone but Asimov, a reader would say that he inserted this small event just to build up to another sequel.
He could have removed this event and it wouldn't have changed the overall theme of the book. This book just left a bad taste in my mouth -- I was exasperated that our so-called heroes whom we initially rooted for and loved became so stupid.
Rated by buyers -
I can't believe people would comment negatively about this book as it is a work of art! Have some creativity, vision and pure imagination in your lives.
Rated by buyers -
This book by Isaac Asimov is fascinating in two ways--first, it is the last of the Foundation series; second, it is another link between two of the greatest series in science fiction, the Foundation series and the Robot series. As always with Asimov, there are the irritating things--his characters get talky, plot sometimes breaks down, and there is a certain discursive quality to his writing that does not always serve movement of the story well. However, by this point in his career, Asimov was capable at developing characters (and it shows here) and had otherwise grown greatly as an author. And, as ever, he was capable of developing big picture, galaxy-wide concepts that challenge the reader to think about things in a new way.
The work begins with Golan Trevize having already made his fateful decision to impel the galaxy to move toward a major superorganism to be called Galaxia, with its model the planet-wide Gaia superorganism. In that, he turned his back on the vision of either the Foundation or the Second Foundation being the model, with Hari Seldon's vision being transcended by another. In that sense, this really is not a Foundation novel (maybe an anti-Foundation work?).
However, he is troubled about his decision and wants to understand better his decision, be sure that it is the right one. So, he begins what might be called an Odyssey, along with his friend Pelorat and his friend, Bliss, a part of Gaia. That sets up an almost Socratic dialogue among the three as they move from planet to plant, trying to find answers--including the location of the mythical home planet of humanity, Earth. The discussions sometimes slow the forward movement of the novel, but they do elaborate the various views of where humanity and the galaxy ought to go.
After revisiting some places that will be familiar to readers of the Robot series, the trio finally arrives on Earth, by then a dead planet. And they meet an old friend of every Asimov fan in a way that produces an upbeat ending and a resolution as to where humanity will go, with that character promising to be a guiding hand, working behind the scenes, to help produce that future.
Find other books like this one:
