Not the best pic. I wouldda at least tried to “frame” it better or get a better angle without such a busy background. But it’s an interesting sculpture. And better than the COVID Mohawk pic I also got. Or any of the pics I took today, which is a big fat ZERO!

One of my recent book goals (or whatever), was to re-read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation “trilogy” along with its sequels and prequels. Seven books in total. I didn’t think I had read the sequels before but it turned out I did because I remembered the ending. The prequels were new to me.

I started at the beginning with the first book in the original trilogy (Foundation) and it took me a while to get, I dunno, re-acclimated, maybe? I used The Google and found that quite a lot of the original trilogy was written as short stories in the EARLY 1940s. With that knowledge, I plunged ahead and began encountering little bits and pieces of memories. Hari Seldon, Bayta, Arkady, Trantor, Terminus. And more.

I greatly enjoyed this trip through my own time musheen as well as Isaac Asimov’s. Along the way, I read all kinds of criticism, mostly about his sequels. I have to admit I understood the flaws and as I was re-reading, I wondered (as amateur critics claimed) if his publishers had pushed him to write the sequels so he came up with some “crazy” stuff. I dunno. I enjoyed the sequels way back when and I enjoyed them this time around.

The prequels were about Hari Seldon’s life and I thought they were pretty solid.

All that said, this stuff is what I think of as “classic” sci-fi. Were the characters multi-dimensional? Naw. But who cares? Asimov clearly had an amazing array of creative ideas in his head and so what if his stories weren’t perfectly thought out. I’m thinking that he had SO many ideas that he couldn’t figure out how to fit them all into books before he died.

I’m gonna take a little break but at some point, I may dive into his robut robot stuff.

I’m reading an almost crazier book now, Echo Wife. I’m enjoying the book but every time the phrase “exact same” comes up, I get a grinding noise in my head. Isn’t that what editors are for?

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