Customer Reviews

The Foundation Trilogy

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

August 1, 1941, Isaac Asimov sat down with his editor and mentor John W. Campbell, who gave him a life-changing commission: draft a future history of the fall of a galactic empire and the rise of a new one. This history would be told in a series of short stories, novellas, and serialized novels. Head spinning, the 21-year-old author went home and wrote the first installment, "Foundation," which soon became the title of the whole series. Over the following decade, despite stints as a wartime civilian naval chemist, a postwar draftee, a job-hunting academic, and finally a full-time biochemistry professor at Boston University, Asimov managed to churn out about a quarter of a million words about the remarkable Foundation - four longish short stories, two novellas, and two short novels, all serialized by the faithful Campbell in the pages of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine.

Serendipitously, these several works fit nicely within the framework of a three-volume set, not just in length, but in continuity. A reader picking up the second or third volume for their first taste of the Foundation will not miss out for excitement and satisfaction, and will lose little suspense by reading back to previous volumes they missed. And yet, there is a unique perspective one gains by reading the story from start to finish, afforded by the excellent notion of releasing the Foundation Trilogy in one volume. It is not just that we see a complex and ingenious future history come to life in a steady progression of mounting suspense and ever more amazing resolutions. It is moreover that we witness the evolution of an author from promise to mastery. In the opening chapters of the first volume, Asimov writes with optimistic energy - there are few examples this fine of flying by the seat of one's pants as an author. True, there are pulpish touches in the earliest pages, with characters "snarling" and "muttering," or having their dialog overfinessed by adverbs. But these serve more as roadsigns as to where Asimov is starting on his 250,000-word journey. Readers will discover over the course of the first volume a rapidly progressing sense of subtlety that uses dramatics as distraction rather than fulfillment, slyly playing a guessing game where the unstoppable logic of each resolution is far from obvious.

For unstoppable logic is what this series is all about, ultimately. Asimov proposes fictionally that a science, called "psychohistory," will eventually evolve in which statistics can be applied to populations in order to accurately predict the future. In a framing prelude which starts the trilogy, a master psychohistorian named Hari Seldon projects that the thriving Galactic Empire will fall in 500 years, and be followed by thirty millennia of barbarism before the rise of a Second Empire. But by taking action, he hopes to limit that interim period of barbarism to a mere 1,000 years. He manipulates the Empire's bureaucrats into establishing two Foundations at opposite ends of the Galaxy for the purposes of scientific research. From that point on, each following story is set 30 to 50 years apart as the Empire slowly loses its grip and decays, and the fledgling First Foundation slowly establishes economic and cultural ties with its neighbors, eventually enveloping them into a growing alliance. Perversely, the Foundation has no idea how it is succeeding - it was created by Seldon, who has worked out that through natural growth and a series of predicted crises, the Foundation would follow a plan that could not be beaten. The Foundation doesn't need to know how and why - indeed, it cannot know, for to know would be to interfere with the carefully planned sets of outcomes.

In the first volume, "Foundation," it is the slowly tattering remnants of the Empire that are the enemy of the Seldon Plan. As the periphery of the galaxy breaks away from the Empire to form petty kingdoms, the inherent feudalism threatens the very survival of the tiny Foundation. Somehow Asimov breaks each deadlock, usually in the most unexpected way. The stories which illustrate this are all relatively short and fast-paced thought-puzzles, something that Asimov as a scientist and mystery buff excelled at creating. Regardless, a picture develops in the reader's mind of a culture of self-reliant merchants, inventors, and cowboy diplomats who "never let morals prevent them from doing what is right." Underlying it all is the Seldon Plan - though you can't believe each segment of history will be resolved, Asimov not only surprises you but also makes it seem inevitable in retrospect.

In the second volume, "Foundation And Empire," the focus of conflict shifts. The first half relates what happens when the burgeoning Foundation finally confronts the surviving core of the Empire, which is still militarily very strong. The casual confidence of the Foundationers that the Seldon Plan will eventually rescue them, even if they don't understand it, is eventually validated by their victory, this time easily foreseen by the reader. Asimov's enemy is now the Plan itself, a predictive fault that will ensure that every story will end successfully no matter what the challenge. The way out of this creative bind is something Campbell suggested: destroy the Seldon Plan by introducing a rogue element. Enter the Mule, who dominates the second half of the book, a mutant who has the power to reach into men's minds and permanently alter their allegiances. The Mule tricks his way into the Foundation and brings the whole self-assured house of cards tumbling to the ground.

How does Asimov get the Foundation back on track? The answers are in the third and final volume, "Second Foundation," the story of the search for the other Foundation which Seldon established. The newly crowned Mule sees this Second Foundation as the only remaining threat to his overlordship of the entire Galaxy. Yet no one seems to know exactly where it is and what it was established to accomplish. As the search commences, it is slowly revealed that the mysterious Second Foundation may not only be the only force that can stop the Mule, but also the only thing that can restore the Seldon Plan. The plot has all of the trademark twists and turns of Asimov, but what is of even greater interest is the quality of the writing. Asimov sets scenes, draws characters, and explains the plot with a minimum of wasted words and a maximum of effect. He gets you on the side of his characters, even when they are on the wrong track. And the seat-of-the-pants technique has been thoroughly superseded by a masterful sense of craft and structure. It is like hearing a Mozart Symphony or visiting the Louvre. You always know where you are, and are yet surprised and gratified by what is to come. The final resolution makes these books stand on their own and brings the story of the Seldon Plan to a triumphant close, regardless of the many fine sequels, prequels, and inter-related novels Asimov wrote to tie all of his fiction together into one grand history.

The Foundation Trilogy won a Hugo Award for best science fiction/fantasy series of all time, beating out many worthy competitors including Lord Of The Rings. It is the germ of many great works of fiction and film - just about every Galactic Empire story to follow owes something to TFT, especially Star Wars in its oddly sibilant names, roguish intergalactic traders, and completely built-over capital city planet. Though imitators often inform a germinal work and can even be annoyingly distracting, Asimov's personality, quick wit, and abundance of ideas blot out the flattering creative tributes. This is simply one of the best works of popular fiction of all time, and stands with the greats like Verne, Wells, Stoker, and Conan Doyle, not to mention being a touchstone for the entire genre of Science Fiction.

This is an amazing trilogy and everyone should read it. Mainly for this reason, everyone has taken Lord of the Rings and DUNE and told those stories over and over again a thousand different ways. For some reason, even though these books are 40 years old, they are still fresh. They are different, and they are great.

Don't read books 4-6 though. They are not original. The author himself admitted he tried to write three books, but his publisher pushed him to write more. Let it stop where Asimov himself tried to stop. You'll thank yourself for it later.

I read this trilogy for the first time when I was 10-11 years old. It held my attention quite well (so good even a kid can't put it down). My favorite part is about the Mule. He's not your ordinary, everyday villian...a man to be feared and pittied at the same time. I thought of this trilogy when I first saw Star Wars, especially with regard to the size of the Empirical warships. The idea of psyco-history is pretty much a straightforward application of quantum mechanics theory to human psychology: the individual's actions are impossible to fully predict, but large populations follow trends that are predictable via probabilistic models. He also depicts advancements in technology as being represented by miniaturization: truly prophetic (look at microprocessors). He also showed a realistic grasp of politics in a scene where an empirical official visits the foundation at the edge of the galaxy (1st book). Asimov was a true man of genius.

I will first say I may be a little prejudiced in my review since I am a die-hard Asimov fan, but I cant see why anyone would not be after reading this book (which is actually three books in one). The intricacy the storyline is almost undiscernable until the end when it, quite frankly, blows your mind. This is first book of his I have read that wasn't robot-centric and I was thoroughly pleased until the pages left were getting thin, in which case I knew the days of entertainment I had received were coming to an end. Buy it. Read it. Love it.

Great series this is truly worthy of the title greatest science fiction series of all time.

Gentle Readers, this work was written when Asimov was young, and ine one of his most creative spurts. Asimov illustrates how order might be brought to the chaos of social behavior...and how things might go wrong. Asimov's writing style is that of the Reasonable Man...something I've always tried to emulate. The Galactic Empire studied in the trilogy is the basis for the Empire in "Star Wars".

This book contains the first three "Foundation" novels: "Foundation," "Foundation and Empire," and, "Second Foundation." Honestly, I was not a huge fan of the first foundation; but, I appreciate the scope of text. This is a great way to have all the original foundation novels in one. The only problem with this collection, and every collection, is the fact that it is a little bit cumbersome since it is rather large. Below are the reviews I posted about the individual books.


FOUNDATION (**)
Superman sydrome and weak characterization

I can understand why this book is considered one of the best science fiction books ever written, especially considering the time period it was written in. It has a very interesting concept of destination and cause and effect (although it is weak in execution and very weak in explanation). For these reasons and other I should only give this book a one star, but instead I gave it two and I will explain why later.

There is almost zero character development in this book. The extremely short chapters jump thirty years to eighty years and more between chapters. Almost every "book" within this book has a new set of characters with only a few references of the "heroes" from the previous "books." At times, this makes for very confusing reading because I had no idea who the new people were in the successive chapters.

As mentioned in the title, this book suffers greatly from the Superman sydrome. By this I mean that you know the outcome before the events have unfolded. Superman can't be beat (except for by Doomsday in the comics but he comes back anyway) and therefor when watching the movies you know he wins. So there just has to be more elaborate plans and more complex ways of defeating him but he still will win. The same is true with the foundation. Harry Seldon, the prophet who esentially created the foundation, knew what was going to happen because he could see the future. Every "book" in "Foundation" will ultimately see the Foundation as the victor, so there just must be more complex problems arising, but of course the Foundation will ultimately prevail. And in this book, the problems are not really that complex, just different social economies arising to counter the previously established social economy that prevailed in the previous "book." I can only imagine that in the later books the problems will get ridiculously complex - maybe even too complex for enjoyment.

Because this book has almost zero characterization and is very predictable I would give this book one star, but instead I gave it two. The reason for this is because I have read the backs of the other books in the Foundation series and other reviews of them and I am interested in the storyline. I want to read about the Mule in Foundation and Empire, and I want to read about Earth in Foundations Edge. If not for that this book would recieve a one star rating from me and I would also never recommend this book or ever pick it up again.

It may be a classic, but it's not that great. It's not great at all.

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FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE (***)
Better than "Foundation" by ten-fold but....

That's not saying much since I thought that "Foundation" was pretty poor.
"Foundation and Empire" was pretty good, but still lacked in certain
areas - mainly character development and also the first third of the
book had a very weak story line. The whole battle with the Empire by
the Foundation was very very weak, I cannot stress that enough. Maybe I
was just hoping for an epic battle between the renegade Foundation and
the dying Empire. Nothing really happened to spur the victory of the
Foundation, there wasn't even really a battle. But I guess that might
be the point that Asimov was making since Seldon predicted the choices
and decisions of the Emperor about the passion that the characters had
for the battle. It wasn't even a battle between the Empire, it was some
mission designed and orchestrated by some general in the navy that
thought it would be a good idea to take over the Foundation.

This book also lacked in strong characterizations, but not as much as
the first "Foundation" by a long shot. The last two thirds of the book
stick with the same characters the whole time. It also enters a
powerful mutant, the Mule. I won't give much away about the Mule and
his plans because I don't want to spoil the book but it sets up for the
sequel, "Second Foundation." Once again the idea of the Mule is a good
idea but is somewhat poorly executed until the ened when everything is
explained about the effects the Mule has on the Foundation and the
people in the main storyline.

Get ready for "Second Foundation" because it will probably be the best
of the first trilogy. This book is worth reading and if "Second
Foundation" is better than this book then I will recommend the
"Foundation Series" to anybody who can persist in their reading and
doesn't mind a long slow beginning.

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SECOND FOUNDATION (****)
Decent, and better writing than the previous "Foundation's"

"Second Foundation" is the third book in the "Foundation Novels," and is pretty good. It is a nice conclusion to the original trilogy. One big problem, however, is the fact that the writing style is so much different than the first book. It is almost like another author wrote this book. This is not such a bad thing, except it just has a totally different feel to it from the rest of the series thus far. I like my multi-book series's to have a continuity of voice and prose that make it just seem like one big novel, broken up into little pieces.

The problem lies in the characters (or lack there of) between the books. "Foundation" had so many more characters and each of them was in the book for a very short amount of time. Then, in "Foundation and Empire," there are fewer characters, and each is in for a little more time - not much, but a little. Then in "Second Foundation," the characters are in the book for... [wait for it...] the WHOLE BOOK! It's a good book, just drasically different from the previous books in the terms of writing style. It seems that each book in the series has grown by a factor of ten as being a well written story.

Hopefully if this continues, then "Foundation's Edge" will be a blowout, except I think I recall saying that in my "Foundation and Empire" review. All in all, good book, but definately not the best.

The Foundation Trilogy is a moderately boring book about Hari Seldon's plan to form a second empire. In the days of the first empire, Hari Seldon used the science of psychohistory, which he invented, to predict the end of the empire. Once he did this, he predicted how long it would take after that until the start of a second empire. He realized that he could make changes that would make those dark times much shorter. To do this, he put together a group of scientists. He said their job was to make an encyclopedia. These scientists were named the foundation and sent to a planet far away from the empire's influence. The science of psychohistory was based on the actions of groups of people though. That way, single people or events were not accounted for. The people of this foundation soon found that they were not really supposed to make an encyclopedia, in fact, they were just supposed to take over the galaxy through means other than force. They did this quite easily because after a while they were the only ones left in a galaxy full of barbarism who still had nuclear power. While the rest of the galaxy was in the dark ages, they used religion, wealth, and technology to start gaining control of planets and systems one at a time. Everything went according to plan, until there was a mutant. He was not accounted for in the plan. There was still hope, though. Though it was not confirmed, there were rumors of a second foundation, who still knew the long-gone science of psychohistory. It was their job to keep the foundation on track.
The Foundation Trilogy quite boring. I would only recommend it to someone who really likes science fiction books and has a lot of time on their hands. The general idea of the book is actually quite interesting, but the book itself just keeps dragging on and on. At first, when I looked at the book, it didn't look or sound very exciting, it actually sounded quite boring. This turned out to be true as I read the book, too. I think that in writing this book Isaac Asimov was trying to entertain only a certain group of people. I think the theme of this book is to stick by what you believe in. That is what the people of the first foundation did with Seldon's plan. They believed in that plan right until the very end. The book can be compared to Star Wars in some ways. They both could be at any time in a far away place and they both have large groups of people trying to destroy an empire. This book can also be compared to our present-day world. The foundation takes control through wealth, religion, and technology. This is very similar to how people or groups get power in our world today. Overall I think this book gets a C+, for being average, but not great.