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.

A great disappointment

This is one of Asimov's Foundation Novels...written after the original three Foundation Novels. The story itself is good...filling in pieces between Prelude to Foundation and the original Foundation Novels.

The narration, on the other hand is awful...one of the worst I've heard during my eight years on Audible...If I were the narrater I'd be ashamed of this performance. It's terrible. Lack of feeling...monotonal...choppy...feh!

Amazing story, narrator should had taken vacation

Loved it, hated performance of narrator
.. ... more than twenty words for feedback??? padding padding padding padding padding

Loved the back-story, Hated the narration!

I've already done all the other Foundation, Empire and Robot books withe the exception of Foundation and Earth... After hearing this narrator, I may never listen to the last one!

Spoiler: The narrator was the robot

Listening to Larry McKeever, I can't help but wonder how anyone thought in good conscious that his performance should be released to the public. Never have I heard a more monotone and robotic reading of a book by professional voice actor. It's as if he was asked to record a single word at a time and then they stitched together the words in the order they appear in the book. In all fairness, this isn't Asimov's best work. The writing and dialog is fairly pedestrian, repetitive, and lacks nuance. That's not necessarily a terrible thing, as it makes it more accessible to a wider audience. However, McKeever's reading only magnifies the writing's shortcomings and adds zero entertainment value, emersion, nor emotion to the listening experience.

Hooked on the series

The book seemed a bit like it was written for time series publication in magazines, going from one event after the other creating a sort of peak and trough effect for the listener, but a lot of background information is laid out in the book that I hope will add to the experience of the rest of the books.
The narrator was easy to listen to and I would recommend him.
Although I liked the first chronological book in the series (Prelude to Foundation) better, I enjoyed this story and can't wait to get in to the rest of the books.