Ok, once more it's not Asimov style, but this got closer to the mark than the previous installments in The Second Foundation Trilogy. The Good Doctor had a way of telling a good story without need for terribly thorough character development; in his stories the focus was on the story, not in the characters. And since the stories was always ingenious enough to hold your attention almost by themselves, they worked beautifully.
I got the feeling that Brin did something very similar with this book. Hari Seldon, yes, he's there, palpable, aging flesh and blood, and you have a chance to go into his mind once again. He's the character in the book, pretty much. There are several others, it's true, but you won't be offered very much about them. Except maybe for good old R. Daneel Olivaw, Dors Venabili and R. Ludovic Trema.
Since this book is a wrapper, it takes upon itself the task of weaving together threads started in other books in the same universe by Asimov, Benford, Bear and McBride-Allen. You get to read about Daneel's motivations to instigate the creation of Psychohistory and his new plans for manking. You get to read about how sociological stability and order came to be in the history of mankind, a chaos plagued system. It's well worked out and has quite a few interesting surprises. I must say that I wasn't really blown away by the story, but I'm very happy to have read it because, for once, someone picked up Asimov's legacy and did a great job. It was certainly the most Asimovian book I've read which was not written by the Doctor himself, and that was a true pleasure.
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