The biggest positive point I have in favour of the book is that the goal never overshadows the quest. What with the premise (they are searching for a galactic “Bible” after all), I was expecting a religious book, which would have put me right off (as it did with The Third Secret). But I was pleasantly surprised to see that religious rhetoric is kept to a minimum in the book, and it comes up only when absolutely necessary. I mean, for most of the time you can replace the word “bible” with any book, and that wouldn't take away anything from the story, which scores high in my book.
The second good thing is the basic premise of the book. I mean, if I ruthlessly cut to the core, the whole Foundation series is a quest for an ancient thing (a planet in that case) which has an almost religious status in the lore. So, the theme has a lot of potential to be made into a big series, and it is helped a lot by the author's style of writing.
But it may be that I was hoping for a big series, and that I found the first part of the book a bit rushed. I mean, the part till the crew gets to Exandra sounded like kind of a summary to me, though the action slows down to a more normal pace when the colonisation of Exandra begins later. But then, that's about the only negative point in the book.
All in all, don't look at this book if you are looking for a missionary story or a religious one. But if you are looking for a nice, interesting sci-fi novel, do get your hands on it.
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