Forward the Foundation

By: Isaac Asimov

Narrated by: Larry McKeever

The second of two prequel novels in Isaac Asimov’s classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation series

THE EPIC SAGA THAT INSPIRED THE APPLE TV+ SERIES FOUNDATION

As Hari Seldon struggles to perfect his revolutionary theory of psychohistory and ensure a place for humanity among the stars, the great Galactic Empire totters on the brink of apocalyptic collapse. Caught in the maelstrom are Seldon and all he holds dear, pawns in the struggle for dominance. Whoever can control Seldon will control psychohistory—and with it the future of the Galaxy.

Among those seeking to turn psychohistory into the greatest weapon known to man are a populist political demagogue, the weak-willed Emperor Cleon I, and a ruthless militaristic general. In his last act of service to humankind, Hari Seldon must somehow save his life’s work from their grasp as he searches for its true heirs—a search that begins with his own granddaughter and the dream of a new Foundation.

Not a McKeever fan

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If presented by McKeever, no. If re-recorded by a new artist, most likely yes.

Asimov's galaxy view is fun and interesting and the Foundation and Empire aspects are worthy of inspection. 25,000,000 inhabited worlds, 40,000,000,000 folks on ONE PLANET. It's all kind of out there and fun. And after the fact, I think that the Foundation and Empire of the 40s/50s series really benefited from the prequels and postludes.

If you are a fan then you are going to be interested in the formation/creation of Psychohistory.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dors. She's cute, tough and a 'bot. What more could you want. :-)

Would you be willing to try another one of Larry McKeever???s performances?

No. I would not recommend this book as narrated by Larry McKeever. I listen to audio books on my iPhone using the Audible App. In order to even begin to listen to this book, I had to bump up the spoken speed to 1.5x normal. Mr. McKeever speaks SO SLOWLY. I'm not some speed freak, I'm seriously stating that the speed of oration is abominably slow. I haven't sampled the audio and done this experiment but I believe it might be possible to see EVERY WORD SPOKEN as a discrete element in the wave form of the audio file.

Problem two. There is almost NO DRAMATIZATION. Oh the pitch of the voice might rise a bit to denote a question. Some other minor embellishments may be added. But basically this reading sound like an excellent computer text to speech reading of the book. In fact, no kidding, I actually started to think that when I was perhaps 30 minutes into the book. But, you can tell it's a human. and the copyright blurb somewhere dates the recording to the 1990s.

I'm thinking that perhaps back then books were more often than not read flat with no artistry. I'd call a modern reader an actor/artist more than a reader. Many of them speak in different voices for the different main characters. It can be a very impressive thing when done right and once heard that way, the really flat recitations of the text in books becomes substantially more boring than it probably was when that type of presentation was the norm.

So, I listened to the entire book regardless of all this negative criticism. Why? Because I was stuck in the foundation heptalogy and wanted to know... how did Seldon create Psychohistory. I suffered through it and if you are into this series of books so can you. It isn't totally unlistenable, just significantly so.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

WAY TOO LONG for that.

Worst narration EVER

This is bad. How could you even go to market with this lack of quality in the narration. If this guy is reading any of the future books I’m out.

Good and bad

The collection of stories hearkens to asimov's best. The reader is horrible. Truly a mix of great content and dismal performance.

Bad narration.

Not the best book in series in terms of the story, but if you want to read the whole series it is necessary. The narrator is absolutely terrible and completely takes away from overall book enjoyment. Needs to be re-recorded ASAP.

not enough to make it...

If you must have all the answers and obsessed with how the robot series connects... yet this is possibly the weakest offering from the writer I have encountered.