I'd been looking forward to reading this series for ages. After finishing half of this book, I had two HUGE issues-

1. There are no women! I went ahead and researched, and the whole series has barely a couple of female characters. Come on, it's a book thousand of years in the future, spanning across an entire galaxy with probably dozens of characters, and Asimov couldn't write a few female characters? Forget writing female protagonists, he couldn't even IMAGINE women in the whole galactic political spectrum, like not even doing mundane things around. I have heard and read all kinds of arguments from the fandom. He was a nerd, didn't have women in his life, it was the 40s, etc., etc. and I have a refutation for each of those arguments. It's okay to admire his work and admit he was flawed in this matter at the same time. When he got older, Asimov himself admitted that he did a mistake there.

2. All his main characters, Seldon, Hardin, Mallow, Sutt are like clones. If you interchange their names in the story, you couldn't figure out the difference. They all seemed the same.

Having SAID THAT...It's one of the finest plots I've ever read! I would have given this book a five star if I wasn't so bothered with the first point. Nowhere can I find a better, most perfect exemplum of religion than in Foundation. Definiely continuing with the series.