Book Review: Foundation and Empire

Man, I don't think I even had a LiveJournal account when I read Isaac Asimov's first Foundation book. I didn't like it much at the time, because (1) there were no major female characters, (2) several of the names distracted me with awkwardness, (3) it seemed to vindicate building a religion on known lies and tricking people into following it, and (4) it made one man look way too brilliant -- or blessed with luck by his creator. Nevertheless, after enjoying Asimov's robot stories, I thought I'd have another go at this series.

( Cut for length )

Now I've started John Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. Considering how miserable the focal characters are at the start and how much grit is promised for later, it's pretty enjoyable so far.