Prelude to Foundation - Isaac Asimov

⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Tim)

As the title suggests, this book comes before Asimov's Foundation, but was written after, and honestly contains such a large spoiler I find it strange that it was done this way. I wonder how many people thought, I should read Asimov, picked up the book that sounded like the most natural starting point, and proceeded to ruin the ultimate reveal of the entire series. Or rather, read about a moment that was revealed in the actual conclusion, and know about it the entire time.

Anyways, this book is about Hari Seldon's creation of the science that he ultimately uses to form the Foundation. It played out like a typical Asimov book, so I liked it, but the last 50 pages were where all the magic happened, and like Nemesis I thought it could have been better as a short story.

Seldon is arguably the most important character in all of Asimov's work, so reading from his perspective, and not just about him, for the first time was really cool. Really adds some personality to a character that is basically a messiah in all the other books.

Next up is Forward the Foundation, the sequel to this prequel, and the final book Asimov wrote.