Foundation and Earth (Foundation) (Hardcover)

by Isaac Asimov (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The fifth novel in Asimov's popular Foundation series opens with second thoughts. Councilman Golan Trevize is wondering if he was right to choose a collective mind as the best possible future for humanity over the anarchy of contentious individuals, nations and planets. To test his conclusion, he decides he must know the past and goes in search of legendary Earth, all references to which have been erased from galactic libraries. The societies encountered along the way become arguing points in a book-long colloquy about man's fate, conducted by Trevize and traveling companion Bliss, who is part of the first world/mind, Gaia. Springing from the same impulse that has fed his myriad nonfiction work, the novel's debate is enlivened by Asimov's fervid curiosity and his restless urge to explain everything, right down to the human passions that have largely vanished from his fiction. In fact, the characters, the tie-ins to Asimov's Robot series and the search's revelations suffer from the impersonal neatness that has handicapped Asimov's other fiction. He has, however, found an ingenious way around his clumsiness with novelistic narrative by employing a formal fairy tale structure in which the different worlds represent tasks or gifts or wishes, their fair aspect hiding a deadly surprise. As a result, this rather lightweight addendum to the series breathes in a way his heavier, more substantial books seldom do. Paperback rights to Ballantine/Del Rey; BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
The fifth novel in Asimov's popular Foundation series opens with second thoughts. Councilman Golan Trevize is wondering if he was right to choose a collective mind as the best possible future for humanity over the anarchy of contentious individuals, nations and planets. To test his conclusion, he decides he must know the past and goes in search of legendary Earth, all references to which have been erased from galactic libraries. The societies encountered along the way become arguing points in a book-long colloquy about man's fate, conducted by Trevize and traveling companion Bliss, who is part of the first world/mind, Gaia. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (September 3, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385233124
• ISBN-13: 978-0385233125
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #665,889 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 7 in The Foundation Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the foundations of the Foundation Series, January 13, 2002

By	Paul E. Harrison (Stuart, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Foundation and Earth (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the last book (chronologically) in the Foundation Series, and with Prelude to Foundation, the earliest, the Foundation Series has two excellent bookends, or, perhaps, "foundations", to keep it in place.

F&E is a continuation of Foundation's Edge, and is the story of Trevize, Pelorat and Bliss/Gaia's quest to find Earth, in an attempt to determine why Trevize's choice for the future of mankind is the right one.

The book deviates substantially from the rest of the series, but generally in a positive way. Whereas Asimov has a habit of making his primary characters out of cardboard, presumably to avoid the people getting in the way of the ideas he wants to express, F&E fleshes out the characters with a certain amount of personality. Whereas the rest of the Foundation Series tends to concentrate on worlds which, after a while, all appear similar, the worlds of F&E are different, frightening, and yet serve Asimov's agendas well. F&E also ties together the Robot series universe with that of the Foundation series far more substantially than the other books in the Foundation Series attempted to, portraying the futures of the Spacer worlds that Robot fans will be familiar with.

I'm guessing that the differences are ultimately why this has gotten a lower average review than the others in the series - it's not classic Foundation Series material, and any one expecting a collecton of stories involving a renegade Foundation leader visiting various rebelling worlds and outwitting the dimwitted monarchs that rule over them with some sort of smartarsed politics is going to be sorely disappointed. Hari Seldon makes no appearance. I don't recall even seeing the term "Seldon Crisis" in this book.

If you genuinely want more of the same, you'll probably be disappointed by this book. If you've never read any of the series before, it's probably best to start at the beginning with the equally excellent Prelude to Foundation (or even the Robot series.) But if you're excited by Asimov's ability to paint new worlds, to visualise the future directions for humanity, you cannot afford to miss this. Foundation and Earth is the best yet.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The series comes full-circle, April 27, 2002

By	G. Swift "97jedi" (Southwestern Missouri) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Foundation and Earth (Mass Market Paperback)

As the last chronological addition to the Foundation series before he died, Isaac Asimov gave SF readers a gem. The story begins immediately after the ending of Foundation's Edge, when Golan Trevize decided the fate of humanity that all should eventually form a single superorganism called Galaxia, enlarging the present superorganism called Gaia. The main characters are Trevize; Bliss, a part of Gaia; and Pelorat, a scholar. The drive of the story is a continuation of the previous book, in that Trevize seeks Earth, mainly to determine why all records of it have been expunged. Additionally, Trevize is allowing his previous decision to hinge upon the end result of their odyssey across the Milky Way - if he wants, he can reverse his choice and Galaxia will NOT go forward, and humans will remain the independent interactors we are today.

There are few clues remaining to direct them, and they first visit a planet the readers saw in Robots and Empire, though it was under a different name. The path of the three is constantly accompanied by debates between Trevize and Bliss about the nature of life and whether a superorganism is the best option. Based on the obstacles and encounters they meet, the end decision is relatively predictable.

In this novel, we see two of the spacer worlds, one which was the first, Aurora, and one which was the last, Soloria. First stop among the spacer worlds is Aurora, which gives a grim picture of what happens to a terraformed planet once the humans have gone extinct. Their trip to Solaria solves a riddle from R&E as to what happened to the Solarians. Again, not the most pleasant evolution of an advanced society. The implications of this visit really affect Trevize's decision. Their next stop is a nearly completely dead world, but one that gives them a clue to Earth.

After a brief stop at Alpha Centauri, they finally locate the home system of humanity, but Earth is as readers of the series would expect from R&E and from the Empire series: Earth is a completely uninhabitable radioactive wasteland. The actual endpoint of their voyage is a nice surprise, in my opinion, but not nearly so much as who we meet at the end, a dear old friend. This meeting wraps up many issues, and Trevize makes his final decision regarding the fate of mankind.

This book is excellent, though not quite a "Foundation" book in my opinion, as we never really deal with that government, save in very tertiary ways. Like most of Asimov's novels, the story is the main thing, but there is some good character development. And if you couldn't guess from the rest of this review, it was really nice to re-visit so many once-familiar places and to meet some old friends. I hope you enjoy it, too.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant end to the series, September 28, 1997

By	Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I think this is the only Foundation book not in print anymore, and I have no idea why. Not only is this the most important one in the series in the way that it provides a sort of conclusion to everything, it's just a great book.

I liked Trevize in Foundation's Edge and we see more to his character here, which is great. We also see more of that fun planet Gaia. I found the arguments between Bliss and Trevize particularly amusing and what was interesting was that Trevize won just about all of them. Give me the Seldon Plan anyday.

The search for Earth took up some much of the book, but when we finally get there it's almost anti-climatic (though any readers of Robots and Empire will know what they find long before the characters do). Fortunately Asimov doesn't allow us to dwell on that by springing the top surprise of the novel on us (which I won't say because I don't want to tip any readers off beforehand).

In the process he clarifies and adds to his histories and weaves the Robot, Empire, and Foundation sagas even closer together. What more can one ask in a novel, especially from Asimov?

Oh, and I heard about the error, but I didn't see anything that seemed wrong. If anybody knows what it is, the curiousity is killing me and I don't have the patience (or the time) to reread the book more carefully. E-mail if you know!