Match Book
The Foundation Trilogy
Isaac Asimov
1953 · 679 pages · Science fiction
How it reads
The Foundation Trilogy is science fiction (space opera, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in the future, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are power and politics and survival. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It opens a series. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 679 pages it's a real commitment. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something adventurous
- you want something to chew on
- you're drawn to stories about power and politics
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or melancholy
- you want something you can finish this weekend
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- future
- Mood / feeling
- adventurous
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- long
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- classic
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- first in a series
- Themes
- power and politics, survival
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
HyperionDan SimmonsShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, space opera
Foundation's EdgeIsaac AsimovShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, space opera- Red MarsKim Stanley RobinsonShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Cloud AtlasDavid MitchellShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Consider PhlebasIain M. BanksShares: science fiction, adventurous mood, space opera, set in multiple locations
2001: A Space OdysseyArthur C. ClarkeShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, space opera, moderate pace
Appears in
Find a copy
Reviews on Goodreads ↗Match Book earns a commission on purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, Match Book earns from qualifying purchases.