geo (10/17/82)
I saw the fourth novel in Issac Asimov's Foundation series in the bookstore recently, and I just finished reading it. I am disappointed. I am afraid that he is not nearly as good a [fiction] writer as I remembered. Throughout the book I kept being reminded of something Jerry Pournelle said in an interview when he was asked about 'The Golden Age of Science Fiction'. He said, "The golden age of science fiction is whenever you were 13 years old." Contrary to a prediction published on the net some months ago, the novel at 365 pages was not appreciably longer than the previous three novels. Asimov wrote the first three foundation novels over 20 years ago. He had been quoted as saying he would never write another as it would be too difficult to introduce the readers to the background from the previous novels. Does anyone know why he changed his mind?