Foundation's Triumph by David Brin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm of two minds on this book as well. If I were to only judge it within the framework of the Foundation series that Asimov wrote, it would probably drive me nuts. But judging it based on the fundamentals that Benford and Bear wrote about in the Second Foundation Trilogy books, with all the simulated minds, the many robots, their factions, and the hint that Chaos really would be a character, itself, then this book is actually rather interesting.

It still doesn't do it for me in Asimov's universe, despite the inclusion of Hari Seldon, Dors, and a very, very old robot. If it had been an original novel written for its own sake, released from the constraints of ALL other works, then I honestly think it would have been pretty great.

A point in its favor: massive galactic empire being overwhelmed by waves of telepathic machines destroying organics. This kind of thing always gives me a thrill. Of course, the theme is fairly common, but the real joy comes from the way it is developed. And Brin has a cool style.

But constrained as this is, this got somewhat hard to get through, hurting my enjoyment of Asimov's originals while making me annoyed because I almost always enjoyed Brin's work.

Hence, conflicted.

Even so, there were a number of cool bits, so it wasn't a complete wash.

Would I recommend Foundation fans to read this secondary trilogy? Nah. Not really. Not unless you REALLY want a dilution of great psychohistorian ideas and Robots.


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