Parents' Guide to

Foundation

By Mary Eisenhart, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Hugely influential classic mostly for sci-fi fans.

Foundation Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Community Reviews

age 15+

Based on 4 parent reviews

age 11+
Sci-fi classic has complicated ideas, but is a great book everyone should read.

This title has:

Educational value
1 person found this helpful.
age 18+

This title has:

Educational value
Great messages
Great role models
1 person found this helpful.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4 ):
Kids say (2 ):

While there's enough interesting conversation to evoke a spacefaring My Dinner with Andre, many young readers may find Foundation long on talk, but short on action and intriguing characters.

Science fiction is the turf of big ideas; Asimov, with a genius IQ and a broad range of interests, had more big ideas than most, many of them on display here: Is it possible to predict and/or manipulate the future? What about free will? What's the relationship of science, religion, politics, and money? Who's really in control here? Who should be? The downside is that characters, many of whom appear only briefly, are almost exclusively defined by their wise sayings and long speeches, and don't so much develop as tenaciously hold their positions as events unfold.

Hugely influential, the Foundation Trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation) received science fiction's Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series in 1966, the only year the award's ever been presented.

Book Details

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