Foundation's Friends

Some of the Foundation 'extension' books have been less than satisfying... this series of short stories placed in the Foundation universe is different. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Each story is an interesting and a wonderful addition to Asimov's work. Orson Scott Card's contribution is especially good and contributes much to the Foundation story.

I enjoyed this book. I am a fan of the Foundation series of books, and I enjoy anything relating to them. These were pretty good.

This is a mostly very enjoyable collection of stories, most of which are set in Isaac Asimov's Universes and within the confines of those universes. Particularly memorable are the Foundation stories: Foundations's Conscience, Trantor Falls, and The Originist (my favorite). Its very entertaining to read stories with the Good Doctor's characters, but in another writer's voice. These stories fit perfectly into the spaces left between the ornate blocks used by the Good Doctor to construct his worlds. The mysteries and robot stories are not bad either. The worst, IMHO, is Maureen Birnbaum After Dark. The story is set in the Nightfall world and has a great concept behind it, but is so tediously written that I didn't have enough patience to get to the end. Overall, the positives of the collection greatly outweigh the negatives. This book was meant to be a 50th anniversary tribute, but now it reads more like a posthumous tribute. The personal essays by those close to him are emotional and touching to read. Made me see, once again, how much influence the Good Doctor had, and will continue to have, on his readers.

Once you have sampled every piece of fiction written by the Grandmaster, fan fiction is the "fix" of last resort ;-) Having said that, I recall being quite amused by this quirky collection of Asimovian stories. They stand on their own as being good science fiction. To make an analogy, I would compare this collection to the Star Wars: Tales series of comic books in the context of new fiction in relation to the canon.

Most of the stories in this collection are not to the caliber of the good Doctor, however the Orson Scott Card is fantastic, well worth the price of the book