ŷ������

The book alone, I probably would have rated 3 stars out of 5, but I just noticed I rated 3 stars also the first two books in the trilogy, which baffles me because when I think of the Foundation trilogy, I do not think 3 stars. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to up the average rating of the series with this last chapter.

“Every human being lived behind an impenetrable wall of choking mist within which no other but he existed.��

What I loved about this particular instalment, and a thing that is quite evident more or less in all Asimov books, is that the solution of its plot is so layered, the reader gets lost in its endless folds. Second Foundation comprises more than one episode like its two predecessors, two in the case at hand, and in each of these halfway through the story the narrator starts offering us different explanations, preferably through the perspective of one of the characters, and this successfully contributes to creating an escalation of tension that masterfully resolves into the achievement of the last solution, necessarily the correct one. It's an extremely simple scheme, and yet an infallible one—at least in hands as capable as Asimov's.

As always, I could continue with various attempts at clarifying why I love this author, but I've written dozens of reviews/comments about him that you can find in a minute by browsing my shelves, so I won't repeat myself. (Though I would love to: my love for Asimov is a marvelous excuse for me to become repetitively verbose.)

And speaking of the devil--aka my tendency to repeat myself--of course I recommend the Foundation trilogy; in fact, to be precise, I recommend Asimov's whole bibliography in spite of not having read it all myself. That's how much I love him.