'Second Foundation' by Isaac Asimov
'Second Foundation' by Isaac Asimov

A solid finale to the Foundation series (well, at least the original trilogy).

The good

  • The characters are much better, as this book has only two parts, with a consistent set of characters in each part, so they are able to develop much more.

  • More clever strategy and tactics, deductions, secrecy, plot twists, etc.

  • Another story at the same grand, galaxy-spanning scale as the previous ones.

The not so good

  • There’s an episode of Rick and Morty called “One Crew over the Crewcoo’s Morty,” that is a fantastic parody of “heist” movies. They make fun of the idea that everything is a heist-within-a-double-cross-within-a-plot-twist-within-another-heist-etc. At every crazy unpredictable twist, some character snarkily says, “that was my plan the entire time!” At times, that’s what the Second Foundation book felt like to me. The characters in it are just too damn clever, and the ending in particular, is so many layers of trickery, that it got a bit ridiculous. It still worked, for the most part, but all I could picture was the characters standing there and saying, “that was my plan the entire time!”

Rating: 4 stars