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Foundation

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The Foundation trilogy (three first books) and the Foundation series (all seven) are often regarded as the greatest set of Science Fiction literature ever produced. The Foundation series won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. Isaac Asimov was among the world's best authors, an accomplished scientist, and he was also a genius with an IQ above 170, and it shows in the intelligently concocted but complex plots and narrative. There are already 331 reviews for this Science Fiction novel, however, I still believe I have something unqiue to contribute which is stated in my last paragraph.

This book and the rest in the series take place far in the future (allegedly 50,000 years) at a time when people live throughout the Galaxy. A mathematician Hari Seldon has developed a new branch of mathematics known as psychohistory. Using the law of mass action, it can roughly predict the future on a large scale. Hari Seldon predicts the demise of the Galactic Empire and creates a plan to save the knowledge of the human race in a huge encyclopedia and also to shorten the barbaric period expected to follow the demise from 30,000 years to 1,000 years. A select people are chosen to write the Encyclopedia and to unknowingly carry out the plan to re-create the Galactic Empire. What unfolds in this book and in the books that follow is the future history of the demise and re-emergence of a Galactic Empire, written as a series of adventures, in a similar fashion to the Star Wars series.

Even though this is arguably the greatest set of Science Fiction novels ever written, I do not recommend it to those who are only mildly interested in Science Fiction. Character development is not the focus of these novels and the large amount of technical/scientific details, schemes and plots can become both confusing and heavy for the unitiated Science Fiction reader. If you read this one you will feel the need to read the others which may take a long time. If you are new to Science Fiction start with something lighter and when you are hooked you can continue with this series. Also, in my opinion the second and third books were better than the first.

[The quotation is from Salvor Hardin, Mayor of Terminus.]

Let's say it's around 1940 or so; you're studying chemistry in grad school but your true love is history; you've read Edward Gibbon's _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, but writing a historical novel set in the _past_ would require just too much research; you get the bright idea of writing a historical tale set in the _future_, about the decline and fall of a _Galactic_ Empire, and you suggest as much to John W. Campbell, Jr.

Campbell's response: he gets excited and suggests that you introduce some pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo about "psychohistory". Do you:

(a) drop the idea and write something else?
(b) write the story just as Campbell describes it?
(c) use a little imagination, make Campbell's idea a bit more intellectually presentable, and crank out, not just a single story, but a Hugo-award-winning series?

If you picked (c), congratulations; you're Isaac Asimov.

The Hugo didn't come until 1965, when the Foundation series won for best all-time series (defeating even Tolkien's _Lord of the Rings_ books). By then Asimov had long ago tired of the series; you can tell by the first part of the third book. (But the _second_ part of the third book is probably the best part of the original three volumes.)

And heck, even in order to keep it going _that_ long, he had to introduce a radical departure from the Seldon Plan, in which the Mule initiates not just another Seldon Crisis but a new element altogether, one that wasn't accounted for in the Plan. (And in even later installments, it becomes pretty clear that Asimov isn't exactly thrilled by either the Plan or the Empire it's supposed to bring about.)

But in the first volume, all of it is still fresh. Here we meet Hari Seldon for the first time, get slightly acquainted with his mathematical science of psychohistory, and learn what he's done to keep the decline of the Galactic Empire from leading humanity into 30,000 years of barbarism. He can't avert the decline, but he's got a way to reduce the period of barbarism to a mere millennium.

He's set up two Foundations at opposite ends of the galaxy. And he's carefully set the ball rolling so that every so often there will be some sort of sociopolitical crisis, to which there's only one possible resolution. All the Foundation has to do is wait until the crisis narrows everything down to just one option, and then figure out what the heck that option _is_ . . .

Well, I think you can see that the pattern leaves some room for the exercise of intelligence, but not a lot for individual initiative. No wonder Asimov let the Plan start going awry; the story might have lasted a thousand years, but the dramatic possibilities wouldn't.

Anyway, it's a great, great series. This is where it begins in realtime, although the later novel _Prelude to Foundation_ is "first" according to the chronology of the Foundation universe. (And the Empire novels -- _Pebble in the Sky_, _The Stars, Like Dust_, and _The Currents of Space_ -- take place even earlier. So do most of the robot stories.)

If you haven't read it yet and you think you might be an SF fan, you'll want to get around to it pretty soon. Start here, and enjoy.

The Foundation Trilogy is my favorite sci-fi book series, and also my favorite work by asimov. The first book in the series, Foundation, is concerned primarily with two concepts. The first is the concept that history repeats itself over and over again, and that just as great empires fell in the past, the same problems will in the future aflict empires once they become too big. And naturally after the fall of a great empire, chaos ensues. The other concept this book describes is the theory that science and mathematics are capable of predicting the trends in complex systems such as large groups of people.

I am going to be honest. This book was revolutionary for its time, and a great many famous sci-fi writers were inspired after reading this book. I know that I personally could never look at world governments the same way after reading this book. It truly opens your eyes to tendancy of people to make the same mistakes over and over again, repeating the same patterns on a large scale. And not only is this book easy to read and greatly thought-provoking, it is also great fun. It uses Asimov's trademark style. Little violence, even less sex, but a great plot and lots of cool technology. If you take science fiction at all seriously, you owe it to your self to give this book a read.

Foundation (1951) is the first SF novel in the Foundation series. Although originally a series of novelettes published separately in Astounding, it was later combined into this novel.

"The Psychohistorians" (1950) was created as an introduction to the series with the publication of the Gnome press novel. It describes the political maneuvering by Hari Seldon to establish the Foundation on Terminus.

"The Encyclopedists" (1942) relates the first of the "Seldon Crises" when the Foundation is caught between the retreating empire and the growing Anacreon kingdom.

"The Mayors" (1942) tells of the second crisis when Wienis, the Prince Regent of Anacreon, decides to take over the Foundation.

"The Traders" (1944) depicts the third crisis after Askone arrests a Foundation agent trying to spread the Scientism religion.

"The Merchant Princes" (1944) recounts the fourth crisis when a Foundation trader discovers a market for his advanced technology devices.

Although the empire portrayed within this novel was actually based on the Roman empire, technology itself became a major force in the story. Thus, slavery was not a problem in this empire until it began to decline and lose its technology. This decline also allowed the Foundation to spread its influence through advanced technology.

When these stories were written, computers were only laboratory toys. Thus, the original Foundation series didn't incorporate computers as such. These stories seem strangely old-fashioned without household, business and embedded computers. Nonetheless, the author did foretell the use of electronic hand calculators.

The author did include computers in the robot stories written during this timeframe, but they were massive devices used in the factories to design and manufacture robots. The emphasis was upon positronic brains -- something like neural nets -- rather than true computers. Maybe our industry just hasn't yet caught up to his technological projections.

This novel is one of the most famous works of science fiction. While it describes future sciences far beyond current capabilities, it still inculcated a sense of the methodology underlying real science and technology. While the author went on to become a major writer of science fiction, he also became one of the best elucidators of popular science in the world.

Still, this tale contains all the flaws of Campbellian science fiction. The major characters are always male. The dialogue is somewhat stilted and old-fashioned. In addition, the story contains more ideas than action. Of course, this tale is also outdated because of all the imitations and stimulations resulting from it.

Highly recommended for Asimov fans and for anyone else who wants to read classic works of science fiction.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This is a gerat book to read. I read it first from all the other books in the series, and now I own all the books. That is really a great start. If you are just begining to read the series, here's somehting to help you know the order- 1) PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION 2) FORWARD THE FOUNDATION 3) FOUNDATION 4) FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE 5) SECOND FOUNDATION 6) FOUNDATION'S EDGE 7) FOUNDATION AND EARTH (it's out of print) ALL of these books are available at a great price here on Amazon.com, even Foundation and Earth. read the whole series if you're a big sci-fi fan, like I am!

OK, I admit it. I am totally incapable of writing an unbiased, objective review of this book, just as I am unable to say unbiased, objective things about my first girl friend. This was the first SF novel that I read (actually, I bought it for a friend and then read it before I gave it to him -- the beginning of a life-long nasty habit) when I was 14.

The scope of the story is breathtaking, the pace is good -- especially for Asimov who tended to be pretty wordy -- and the details engaging. Asimov wrote this as a series of connected stories for "Astounding" magazine, and this shows in the oddly repeated facts that allowed the 'zine readers to follow the plot even when they missed earlier stories. It also adds a certain pulpy flavor to the text, which I think works well. SF about grand civilizations that are galactic in scope doesn't need to -- and probably shouldn't -- sound like Great Fiction. I think the gritty, quick style of Asimov's pulp writing works well.

One of my favorite things about the whole "Foundation" series (you need to real all three of the originals, by the way, the newer ones are optional) is the way they presaged certain now-routine SF conventions. The most notable, of course, is the globe-encovering city/planet of Trantor, most recently replicated by George Lucas in "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace." (The less said about SW:TPM the better...)

You can also see in my signature above that Asimov has had other influences on me. Salvor Hardin was a character in this novel: a trader and an agent of the First Foundation.

Asimov had an active and brilliant imagination - truly, a scientist writing fiction. This series is science fiction on a grand scale. When you keep in mind that this story originated in 1951, it is easy to see how much Star Trek, Star Wars and yes even Heinlein's & Clarke's later works borrowed from these ideas.

Anyway, Asimov at his best was a creator; he had amazing ideas of the universe, how it worked, and how to structure stories that manipulated the readers expectations.

The Foundation series is like a spider web that continues to become more intricate and complex with each chapter. The intricacy of the plotting is amazing, although honestly it's not self-evident in the first few stories of the first novel, given that they were published independantly, as serialized short stories told one at a time.

Only with the second book did this change.

The basic premise: The rise and fall of the roman empire, told on a galactic scale from a historian living in the 2nd empire a thousand years later.

The setup: One man creates a science, called Psychohistory, a fictional precursor to Chaos Math (a real statistical science today). This psychohistorian, Hari Seldon, predicted that the vast Galactic Empire is about to crumble, dropping humanity back into the dark ages. This dark ages was due to last 30,000 years (I believe), and while it is too late to prevent this horrible breakdown of society, Seldon believes he can use this new math to shorten the time period between empires.

To do so, he establishes two "Foundations" made up of scientists, one at the outer edge of the galaxy, and the other at "Star's End". In advance, Seldon plots out the future (using the math of psychohistory), and sets in motion a series of "domino" events. The Foundation faces crises and problems, forcing change in both strategy and focus for the next several hundred years. But Asmimov continues to modulate the story throughout each of the books, and building upon the previously-understood structure.

In fact, once you think you've read enough permutations on the same idea, Asimov starts tearing the structure down, introducing variables into the story that further complicate matters.

A caveat about the most often-touted complaint about Asimov: His writing style (or lack thereof):

In 1951, when these stories were first published, Asimov was not a great writer - as in, a writer of literature. His descriptions, characterizations and storytelling technique all left a lot to be desired. His technique got better with the passing years, such that any of his fiction written after 1970 or so reads easily.

But that is not the point, here. Asimov didn't create great characters (save for his robot stories) - he came up with mind-bending ideas and subsequent permutations.

The litmus test of whether or not Asimov is for you: Read 'The Last Question'. It's a 12-page short story. Not brilliantly written, but a fantastic story with amazing ideas contained inside. When you get to the last sentence of it, you will probably be blown away. If you are, Foundation is for you.

Read them - and commit to all of them, because they get better as they go, generally speaking. The first three were written in 1950 - 53. But the fans demanded that he someday continue the story, so he continued with a fourth book in 1983, and the last in 1986. Some complain that the last book is overlong - and I agree - but the last sentence of the last book is...amazing.

The books:

Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation (contains the best story - Search By The Mule)
Foundation's Edge (best overall book)
Foundation and Earth

Afterward, Asimov went back and wrote prequel novels (Prelude to Foundation, Foundation's End) taking place prior to and concurrently with events from the first book. He later admitted that he wrote prequels because the main story had gotten so complicated, he felt he'd taken the story as far as it could go.

The prequels aren't too bad, but they are completely non-essential.

This is the first published volume (which was originally published as four short stories in "Astounding Science Fiction" magazine, 1942-1944, with an introductory section written in 1949) of Asimov's famous trilogy, which affected many later works. This trilogy, which won a special Hugo Award in 1966 for the best science fiction series of all time, was later expanded into further volumes by Asimov (in fact, two prequels are Asimov's "Prelude to Foundation" and "Forward the Foundation"; after Asimov's death in 1992, other authors [for example, Gregory Benford's "Foundation's Fear," Greg Bear's "Foundation and Chaos," and David Brin's "Foundation's Triumph"] have contributed to the series [note that there are now five novels that serve as prequels to Asimov's first published Foundation book!]) . In these stories, spacecraft travel over large distances via "jumps." The ships spend most of their time in a form of hyperspace, each jump being aimed at a certain target star. The central character, Hari Seldon, is a psychohistorian. Psychohistory is the mathematics dealing with the reactions of very large masses of mankind to social and economic stimuli (and the recent advances in chaos theory in advanced mathematics lends credibility to Asimov's psychohistory). His calculations predicts an end to the Galactic Empire (an empire remarkably similar to the Roman Empire on Earth). Two Foundations are set up to ease mankind through the dark area predicted (or else, the dark period will last 30000 years) and, after a thousand years, will join together to form a second Empire. Although Asimov's early writing style leaves much to be desired (recall this was all put together in his early 20s during World War II when he worked for the U. S. Navy and when he was finishing his graduate work at Columbia Univ.), it is still fun reading; I enjoy every time I reread it. It is particularly enjoyable in the context of the other volumes. This first published volume has five parts. In "The Psychohistorians," an introductory tale (which begins about 46 years after the events described in "Prelude to Foundation" and thirteen years after the events described in the last story of "Forward the Foundation"), Dr. Hari Seldon and a young colleague are arrested on the planet Trantor (the governing center of the Galactic Empire) and tried for treason. Seldon's group are to be exiled to the planet Terminus on the galactic rim where they will form a scientific refuge. Seldon also plans to set up another group somewhere else. We later learn, in Part III, that this other group (the Second Foundation) is located at a place known as Star's End at the other end of the galaxy. In "The Encyclopedists," taking place about fifty years later, a large number of members of the original Foundation are on the planet Terminus and are compiling a massive encyclopedia to prepare for the upcoming dark age. But, why were no psychobiologists and only one psychologist present among the original colonists? The remaining three parts continue the development of the Foundation on Terminus.

Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" was not conceived as the beginning of series of novels. It was not conceived as a novel. It was not even conceived entirely by Isaac Asimov.

Beginning in the late 1930s and for decades thereafter, the editor of the most prestigious and far more important, the best-paying monthly publication in science fiction was John W. Campbell of Astounding Science Fiction (now known as Analog.)

Before taking over the editorship of the magazine, Campbell had been a popular hack writer of unabashed, wild-eyed space opera. A typical Campbell plot involved a couple of young American go-getters who whomp up a superduper space cruiser in their garage, set out on a test flight around Saturn, find themselves hurled into another dimension by a short circuit, and stumble on a planet inhabited by humans who are at war with some interplanetary Nasties who display unusually bad table manners. They forge an alliance with the good humans against the bad Nasties which, a few hundred pages later, inevitably leads to the utter annihilation of the world of the Nasties, not to mention the Nasties themselves and every vestige of their million year-old civilization and culture. By the literary standards of pulp magazine science fiction in 1936, this was pretty sophisticated stuff.

When Campbell took over the reins of the magazine in 1938, he raised his sights. In short order he dumped the old stable of writers whose collective knowledge of science could have been stuffed into a peanut shell with room to spare and began cultivating new ones. A. E. van Vogt specialized in social science mumbo-jumbo that actually sounded like it meant something. L. Sprague deCamp had a sense of humor. Robert Heinlein possessed a literary spark that might be carefully fanned into a flame. And Isaac Asimov was a college kid from Brooklyn who wrote stories to stretch out the limited income generated by his father's candy store.

All these and many others were overawed by the wondrous fact that the godlike JWC deigned to accept their humble stories--after he mercilessly picked apart their flaws and demanded re-writes, pronto!

Those were the heroic days of magazine publishing. Editors in general and Campbell in particular did not wait for undisciplined and slothful writers to hatch ideas. No, JWC would call in his disciples and hand out plot lines and devices to be made into short stories, novelets and serialized novels. To van Vogt he tossed the idea of a totalitarian society whose tyranny was leavened by weapons shops that sold guns which could only be used in self defense. From deCamp, citing Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," he demanded to know what would happen if a contemporary American were hurled back from Mussolini's Italy to post-imperial Rome. Of Heinlein he demanded a series of stories that would collectively outline the history of the next few hundred years. For Asimov he reserved a far larger patch of history. What, he queried, would happen when a galaxy-spanning empire finally decayed and began to fall?

Asimov pondered. Then, in his own words, "With a little bit of cribbin' / From the works of Edward Gibbon / And that Greek Thucydides," Asimov took the Roman Empire of the Fifth Century and cast it into the stars as the expiring Empire of Trantor. From Eighteenth Century France he took the Encyclopedists and renamed them the Foundation. Finally he spiced up his literary gumbo with blather about "psychohistory," a mathematically-based fortune telling system which yielded valid results when the human population achieved the vast numbers only attainable in a galaxy-spanning civilization.

Campbell bought the first story. The fans--at the time, a demographic aged 12-25 and virtually all-male--loved it. Campbell ordered more stories. The Trantorian Empire fell, but slowly and reluctantly. The fans loved it. The Empire blazed up under the last great imperial general, Bel Riose. (Gibbon's Belisarius, get it?) The fans loved it. A Napoleon-like conqueror appeared to muddy up the predictions of the psychohistorians. The fans loved it. Darkness and barbarism followed the collapse of civilization across the Milky Way. And the fans loved it. On and on it went, to book, to trilogy, beyond--even to new books written by other hands long after the passing of Campbell and Asimov.

The fans still love it.

Foundation is not a novel, but a series of stories which had been published separately. The entire trilogy was written in nine stories which were completed in the period between 1941 and 1951. Asimov notes himself in the foreword that part of what he intended with the fourth book _Foundation's Edge_ was to have a chance to write an actual Foundation novel.

I actually like the effect that the story-based approach gives, particularly considering that Foundation is meant to be covering the fall of galactic empire and the rise of a new power. Having chapters based on discrete periods, I think the reader gets a better sense of the sheer time involved in politics than any 9000 -page space opera could ever achieve.

One of the things I like about Foundation and its subsequent other parts is that it isn't an action-packed adventure. There isn't high romance. It isn't really about individual heartache and success, although the role of the individual is important. It's a meditative look at both politics and the future, and a darned sharp one at that.

An excellent read, even worth the time for people who don't think that they like science fiction.