Io9 has a couple blokes discussing the Foundation series, and it makes for interesting reading.
I haven’t read the books since I was a kid, but they are still very fresh in my mind, it was interesting to read these guys take on them, as they explore a lot of ideas and characters. Just in case anyone is interested!
warning: full of spoilers.
Did you read Foundation and Earth? Because for me that was a bitch to find and then suddenly it was everywhere. Book stores sold every other book but were unable to order that one in, the library system had 1, which got lost after I read it at 7. And you may or may not know, a 7 year old is not going to be able to properly evaluate a book that far above his critical thinking level.
Yes, I am lucky that I have read all of them, plus the Robot series.
However, I didn’t really like Foundation and earth. I didn’t find it as engaging as the earlier books, and just finished it out of a sense of personal obligation to get to the end of the story.
Yeah, I didn’t understand why Asimov decided to link those two series in such a direct way.
Wow, reading this really brings back memories. I too haven’t read these since I was a kid, but this is really jogging my memory.
My exact same reaction. Salvor Hardin man, what a character :)
For some reason, the entry for Second foundation doesn’t load. It’s the only one of their discussions that I haven’t read and the one I wanted to read the most, a bit infuriating.
Maybe he was a bit tired with the whole thing? I don’t know but it could be he had a lot of fan and editorial pressure to link his most popular series that way.
It really didn’t do much for me, and when I finished foundation and earth I was kinda happy the whole thing was over and done with.
Then, of course, came the prequels, and those I actually dislike.
No info yet about how it will be distributed, but Apple just ordered an adaptation of Foundation.
Hugely skeptical. I mean, Foundation would be a tough series to film for anyone … it’s not exactly a story that lends itself to the visual, even though it has a few “action sequences” and such along the way, it’s clear that any story based on this will diverge hugely from the source material and fill in the gaps (Asimov was a great “ideas” writer, but his characterization, dialogue, tends to be spare). I’d worry even if this was in the hands of experienced showrunners/writers with an impecabble track record. Goyer’s track record is not impressive.
It would be cool if they did this as a 1950’s period piece. Reading it today it kind of seems like Mad Men with interstellar travel.
I’m good at reading 1950s scifi. I can remember when I read it as a kid. Like the Lensman series, full of sexism and vacuum tubes. But to actually watch it? That would take some special work.