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I'm finally watching the Foundation series on AppleTV. I'm really enjoying it. Although I suck at reading fiction its making me want to read the books. However the CW is that the series is not much like the books. So I wonder how much I'd actually enjoy them. #Foundation #scifi #fiction #IsaacAsimov
#scifi #Foundation #fiction #IsaacAsimov
in reply to Hank G ☑️

szescstopni
szescstopni
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I've read Foundation a couple of time as a kid and it was a very important book for me. I wonder whether it survived the test of time.
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Joyce Donahue
Joyce Donahue
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I loved the books. You can do the seven in the Foundation series... but it'e even more fun to start with I, Robot and the (short) robot novels, where you meet the mysterious main robot mastermind from the main series. I, Robot is nothing like the movie, by the way.
in reply to Joyce Donahue

Hank G ☑️
Hank G ☑️
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I saw this list of preferred order of reading by chronology of the books. I didn't realize they were *that* related though. http://kaedrin.com/fun/asimov/aguide.html
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Dr_Bombay
Dr_Bombay
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it's not like the books, but the bones are there. I read the books again when i heard this show was coming, and it was worth reading them, but Asimov is from his time. i'm enjoying the show for it's rethinking of some things and characters, and also just the general extrapolation stuff. it's all good sci-fi to me, and the actors and production on this show are knocking it out of the park.
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Andrew Howe
Andrew Howe
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The books are quite different: especially looking at the direction season 2 of the TV show is going in… But they are very good and worth a read, I would say! At least the original trilogy; I haven't read the later books. The books are able to fast-forward through decades and centuries of Imperial decline and link together different time periods in interesting ways with an ever-changing cast of characters, in a way that the TV show simply cannot do (I guess the TV show needs to retain its core cast of actors!)
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Joyce Donahue
Joyce Donahue
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Well, when he wrote the Robot novels, he hadn't yet developed the "psychohistory" thing that underpins Foundation, but yes, he was bulding that world. And originally, Foundation was only a trilogy, but the other novels grew out of it. Note the dates of publication.
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Kenny Chaffin
Kenny Chaffin
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The Foundation Series was (is?) at the top of my SF list for decades now!
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Joyce Donahue
Joyce Donahue
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I, Robot is a fun place to start. It's like a Dashiel Hammet noir mystery.
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Joyce Donahue
Joyce Donahue
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@Kenny Chaffin I still have my paperbacks from the early 70's. They're a bit crispy. 😜
@Kenny Chaffin
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Damon L. Wakes
Damon L. Wakes
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I found the opening of Foundation alone to be pretty interesting, so if you give it a go and that's as far as you manage then it may still be time well spent. (I didn't get any further myself.)
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Whitmad
Whitmad
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Content warning: Spoiler

in reply to Hank G ☑️

ptrourke
ptrourke
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They are dramatically different. The emperors are background characters, we see nothing about the Second Foundation until the third book, and the Seldon who appears after the first story is just a recording, no interaction. That said, very many elements of the television show are elaborations on things from the books. Asimov eventually tied three series together, and the writers of the series are mixing and matching elements and focusing on fewer characters and a more direct narrative.
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Joanna Snark 🌻
Joanna Snark 🌻
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I read the books when I was 12. A lot of the action in the books takes place off page, and it almost reads like a history a la Fire and Blood. There are basically no women except for characters wives until the later novels. I think the TV adaptation has done an excellent job. BTW, Asimov’s daughter Robyn is one of the producers.
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Chris Withers
Chris Withers
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you probably wouldn’t. Asimov was a great ideas man, but couldn’t write dialogue to save himself.
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Tiago Hackbarth
Tiago Hackbarth
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it's very likely that you won't enjoy the books.

The books where notable in introducing many ideas in Science Fiction, and made an enormous impacts in the genre. But as a work of fiction it's very dry and lacks action. It was said impossible to adapt to their screen because it would be called "two persons talking and smoking: the movie".

Conter intuitively, the work that you could enjoy reading if you liked the series is the rival work of Foundation: Dune, from Frank Herbert.

in reply to Tiago Hackbarth

Hank G ☑️
Hank G ☑️
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I read the first Dune book in college and liked it. I had intentions of reading more but never did.
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Joyce Donahue
Joyce Donahue
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@Brad Koehn ☑️ I have learned, over the course of a number of adaptaions, to let go and just enjoy inhabiting the world of the author's imagination. as long as there is enough of the original narrative to hang it on.
@Brad Koehn ☑️
in reply to Hank G ☑️

Kevin O'Brien (he/him)
Kevin O'Brien (he/him)
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I've read the Foundation books many times. I love Asimov. But his stuff is about ideas, with scarcely any action.
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