Pun Salad

I have very fond memories of joining the Science Fiction Book Club as a greasy geeky teenager, paying ten cents (plus shipping and handling) for a fat hardcover titled The Foundation Trilogy by the great Isaac Asimov. That book had pretty shoddy binding and is now lost forever, but the memories remain. I recently decided to read the Good Doctor's SF novels in order, and it was time for this one.

It holds up pretty well. It isn't "really" a novel, but five short stories exploring the founding and early history of the Foundation, ostensibly designed by psychohistorian Hari Seldon to shorten the age of barbarism following the fall of the Galactic Empire from 30 millennia to one. Asimov advances the plot mainly via conversations between characters; very little "action." For an easily-distracted reader like me, it's kind of surprising this works as well as it does.

The main difference: suspension of disbelief is quite a bit tougher when you're in your 50's.