Foundation's Fear (Foundation Trilogy) (ISBN 0061056383)

Amazon.com Review:
This is the first installment of The Second Foundation Trilogy, based on Isaac Asimov's famous Foundation series. Acclaimed hard science fiction writers Gregory Benford, David Brin, and Greg Bear will each produce a work for the trilogy. Benford kicks off exploring the beginnings of the Foundation itself and its creator, Hari Seldon. Seldon is working on a project to ease the inevitable collapse of the universe-spanning Empire and the Dark Ages that will ensue. But the current emperor has other plans, like appointing Seldon first minister and thus thrusting him into a world of political intrigues and assassination attempts that ultimately will bring him up against future history's greatest threat.

Why is Benford an author?:
After mangling the sequel to Arthur C. Clarke's great novel "Against the Fall of Night" Benford is back to ruin yet another great science fiction classic, this time by writing what is supposed to be a sequel to Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. As is usual for Benford, this is a nearly unreadable mess. In the two sequels to this Benford novel, Greg Bear and David Brin do a respectable job trying to repair the damage that Benford does to the "Foundation" universe, while still maintaining some semblance of continuity with Benford's nonsensical mishmash. But it plainly would have been better if Benford had simply not participated in this project at all. Not recommended.

Asimov's Saga Takes a Detour:
Having just finished Foundation's Fear, I feel compelled to write about this book. The Asimov characters of Hari Seldon and Dors Venabilli, so well fleshed-out in "Prelude to Foundation" and "Forward the Foundation", are hardly recognizable here. Gregory Bears seems to have forgotten that Hari is a Twister, as evidenced by the awkward scene where knife-wielding assassins chase Harry around a palace. And the pall cast by the uncharacteristic murders Seldon orchestrates at the end of the book is hardly overcome by his ascension to First Minister. Even Cleon I goes from Emperor to the High Council's chump. The only character that seems true to his original representation is R. Daneel Olivaw. Worse than characterizations in this book is the clunky introduction of the Sims, Voltaire and Joan of Arc, into the series. The two stories of the Sims and Psychohistory do not mesh well, and it seems a great departure from Asimov's vision and style. All in all, the book is an okay read but please do not expect to see the same characters you have grown to know and love in Asimov's original stories.

Unfortunate:
All the books in the "Second Foundation Trilogy" are terrible and leave me not wanting to finish any of them. Found myself skimming pages instead.

Disappointed:
I can't even write a proper review since I quit reading around page 250. I participate in critique groups and Benford breaks RULE NUMBER 1. Show, don't tell. He 'tells' so much here that I felt like I was reading a text book on a subject I didn't know anything about. I finally just gave up. I have the second book in the Trilogy (Greg Bear's). I'll certainly give it a shot. I think, by past experience, that David Brin's part will hold my attention better.

Different!:
Having read complete this book, made me appreciate this fantastic novel. Gregory Benford does not attempt to write an Asimov book, instead he contributes with his very particular style and scientific knowledge. After reading this novel, adjectives like surreal & schizophrenic came to my mind; like in that passage when Voltaire and Joan of Arc discuss simultaneously Faith and Reason, even the text is split into two columns! The ruminations of Hari Seldon about the parallels of human and pan behavior made me evoke two books I read in college: Desmond Morris's The Naked Ape and Carl Sagan's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. And that whole episode when Hari and Dors are immersed in the pans resulted to me more anxious than when Hari gets lots upperside in Prelude to Foundation. The story is based on the Flight of the Prelude to the Foundation novel, with Hari and Dors hopping here and there all over the Galaxy, and at the end Hari executes a deed characteristic of The Godfather: 'Don Seldoni' , and apparently betrays R. Daneel Olivaw, or Did he? Some points I consider contradictory with Asimov's writings: Benford writes of a system of wormholes, contrary to the hyperships of the Foundation novels, and this is important, we "read" in the Encyclopedia Galactica that Hari Seldon never met robots; here Bendford introduces the tiktoks as a kind of low-intelligence machines, but then logically they are discarded at the end of the story. Also, Asimov early in his writing career decided to ignore the almighty, god-like aliens and in this novel Benford writes of a god-like alien Artificial Intelligence. My first contact with the Foundation novels was via Prelude to the Foundation and Forward the Foundation, thus my favorite characters are Hari Seldon and Dors Venabili and, I was glad to read of them again; surely they are one of Science-Fiction greatest couples. I consider that this book could result difficult to read to the thick or to those used to Star Wars-like novels (the other 'B', Greg Bear has written at least one Star Wars novel), and I believe that when it was published in 1997 a lot of people must have considered it a sacrilege, therefore all those negative and undeserved bad reviews; after all few writers are on a par with Asimov; however it's a good read.