Foundation (Foundation, #1)

by Isaac Asimov

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Based on FOUNDATION, I think that Asimov is grotesquely overrated. Not only did he have a history of sexual harassment at conventions and general sexism in his books (they women have no autonomy, and that's the nicest way I can put it), but the book is just... boring. Really, really, really boring. If FOUNDATION were published today, it wouldn't get any attention.

The writing style is dry and condescending. The characters are flat, the plot goes nowhere. While some of the intellectual concepts early on were interesting, the ideas were so played out by the start of the next section that I no longer cared. The way Asimov wrote this in 85% dialogue serves better for a short story format, but even then, FOUNDATION just felt like a few loosely tied together essays which followed the same format of explaining why the reader and the audience within the novel was wrong and the speaker is the smartest person in the room.

It was exhausting. It was just exhausting.

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