The Foundation stars Agent Valentine, a conflicted man who works for The Foundation, a mysterious group dedicated to averting the disastrous and very real prophecies of Nostradamus. Valentine is tired and wants out. He has been promised by his superiors a free release after one last mission. This secret organization uses prophetic enhancement teams, psychics, to unravel Nostradamus’ prophecies. They have uncovered a plot to poison New York City’s water supply. Agent Valentine takes his new partner and a team of Foundation soldiers to upstate New York.

The Foundation number three picks up the mission started in book two. Valentine and his new to the agency partner, Agent Thomas, are searching a cabin of the suspected terrorists when two SUVs approach. The agents barely escape. Next, they rendezvous with their team to brief everyone on the situation. Here is where the story gets really bogged down. The writer spend ten pages and what seems like 100,000 words using the briefing to recap the story from book two. I wonder if this was for the benefit of readers who may have not read the first two books. For those of us who did, it makes plowing through this story arduous. And another problem I had with these pages was the tone of the situation. The characters seem too flippant. They are joking at a time when I imagine professionals would be…well, professional. The only part of this that advances the story is some foreshadowing as the new agent contends that something about all of the intel doesn’t seem right.

After the word-fest that is the briefing in the woods, we finally get some action (ha ha…he said “get some action”). Foundation teams stationed at various other possible targets around the U.S. move into position. When no attack transpires, Agent Valentine contacts his supervisor assuming they are a victim of bad intelligence. That’s when all hell breaks loose. The other teams around the country come under attack simultaneously. Valentine and his men are caught be surprise and are totally wiped out…all except Valentine. As the book ends, Valentine is armed but alone…left to face six masked and heavily armed men approaching his position.

My overall impression of The Foundation #3 is disappointment. I really liked the first two books and was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, the great concept, character development, and plot are just missing. I also started to notice the inconsistency of the art. The very first panel of the story looks like it was drawn by me and that’s not good. Throughout the book, the main character looks like Tom Cruise, Harvey Keitel, an Indian chief, a pirate, and various others. It’s not to say that the art is worse in this particular book. I think I just noticed it more because the story was less compelling.

After achieving an enthusiastic 4 out of 5 rating for the first two books, there is suddenly a crack in The Foundation (Oh, come on! I had to use the obvious joke).

RATING: 2.5 out of 5