Customer Reviews

Prelude To Foundation (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Foundation Novels)

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This novel has a subtle beginning. I would take a little to time reading the beginning to absorb Asimov's setting and style here. The science of psychohistory that laid out the Foundation had to start somewhere, and this is where it starts and with Hari Seldon. So there's a lot written of Seldon's early life and a lot about different sections of the Galactic Empire capital planet of Trantor. Seldon is not represented as some sort of superman, but if you've read other books in the Foundation series, as someone to admire, and is seen as a person outside of just psychohistory. Sort of like seeing the famous photograph of Albert Einstein riding a bicycle. And as others in the Empire see the potential power of psychohistory, even before Seldon does, thus begins the race to harness that power. The joy, and the point, in reading this novel is in the knowing the eventual power of psychohistory and thus how it develops. Seldon has to be persuaded to progress his theory of psychohistory by the other interesting characters in the novel. Can you imagine, early in the 20th century, having to go "come on Albert, will you at least *try* to develop the theory of General Relativity".

There are two type of readers that would be potentially interested in reading this book for the first time: those that have read the traditional Foundation series and are wondering if they should continue here with this prequel, and those that haven't read the originals and are wondering if they should start here. For the former, sure with the understanding that Asimov's style will be different 40 years after he wrote the novellas of the original series, and for the former, no, I would start with Asimov's original Foundation trilogy. His original series is almost essential 40's/50's science fiction, and if one doesn't like that series, one is not going to care about the characters and events in Prelude To Foundation.

From the Author's Note and adding Forward The Foundation which was written afterwards (I may have left out a book or two), there are 15 books (a quint-decology?) in Asimov's universe. They are:
1. The Complete Robot (includes every story of I, Robot)
2. The Caves of Steel
3. The Naked Sun
4. The Robots of Dawn
5. Robots and Empire
6. The Currents of Space
7. The Stars, Like Dust--
8. Pebble in the Sky
9. Prelude to Foundation
10. Forward the Foundation
11. Foundation
12. Foundation and Empire
13. Second Foundation
14. Foundation's Edge
15. Foundation and Earth

Books 1 to 5 are Asimov's Robot series, books 6-8 his Empire series, and books 9 to 15 his complete Foundation series. They were initially separate series, but he used books 5, 9, and 10 to encompass them all into one series.

In 1988, Asimov published a prequel to his famous Foundation series. He also uses this book to continue to tie in other novels that he had already written, most notably all of the robot stories, particularly involving R. Daneel Olivaw and Lije Baley, as well as "Pebble in the Sky" (1950) (in fact, in such a larger scheme, "Prelude to Foundation" follows "Pebble in the Sky" and precedes "Forward the Foundation" (1993)). In this novel, he finally uses Hari Seldon as a main character. A young assistant professor of mathematics, Hari Seldon, travels to the planet Trantor (the governing planet of the galactic empire) to present a paper at a convention on a new field he has begun referred to as psychohistory. In his paper, Seldon suggests that it might be theoretically possible to develop mathematical equations and techniques of analyses to predict, with strong statistical analysis, future events of human history on a broad scale (in which the discipline only is applicable to extremely large numbers of people). Asimov provides some hints that this field might use chaos theory as well, although he never uses that term. Seldon also believes that, while theoretically possible, it isn't practical. There are those, however, who believe that the galactic empire is collapsing and hope to use a developed psychohistory theory to help direct human society. Seldon finds himself running from the Emperor's agents and hiding in various different enclaves throughout the planet Trantor, and thus learning more and more about Trantor (those reviewers who criticize this trek are obviously missing its importance in the greater scheme of the series). He is attempting to find a smaller model of galactic populations that would allow him the ability to develop his theory. There are legends that tens of thousands of years ago, man had lived on only one planet: Earth. He is hoping to find some historical evidence for Earth and, in so doing, he discovers some surprising facts and events. I am probably unusual in that I enjoyed this book the most in the series. Perhaps its because I also live in an academic environment and see many similarities to Hari's problems. Asimov was obviously drawing on his own experiences.

This is the first Foundation-novel I read. After finishing it, I immediately went to the bookstore to buy 10 other Asimovs, which should say enough.. . . The galaxy sketched by Asimov is so colorfull and realistic, one is driven to read the entire book at once. Each department of Trantor has its own characteristics, just like each culture on our tiny 'Aurora'. The problems created by these differences are parallel to 'ours' as well. As I recognised the Big Galactic Problems Asimov adresses in this book in our modern society, I was curious to see the development of the special solution Hari Seldon tried to find for them. You can recognise the scientist in Asimov, when Hari Seldon is asking himself questions about the development of his psychohistory. I was very curious about the answers lined out in the following novels. Furthermore, I was fascinated with the idea of our Earth transformed into a mere legend, and the unexplainable 'Easterns' and 'Westerns' spread into the vast galaxy. Last but not least, the plot was very surprising. Asimov tricked me into some wrong ideas the entire novel. I am reading 'Foundation and Empire' now, and I'm still totally obsessed with it, so I recommend this series to everyone who likes SF-novels as well as social sciences.

Like the old friend who doesn't know when to quit the party, this sequel has overstayed its welcome. Producing one-sequel-too-many seems to be an occupational hazard that strikes many writers of popular fiction, but it especially afflicts authors of science fiction. Herbert should have stopped after his first Dune novel. Clarke should never have added any further digits to 2001. And Asimov, who created what is arguably the best trilogy in the genre, should never have produced the dish-watery addendums that have made up each of the sequels to the three masterful originals.

The original Foundation trilogy worked in part because it struck the right balance between exposition and mystique. As the founder of psychohistory (one of the most inventive creative achievements in the SF genre), Hari Seldon may have been no more than a man, but Asimov wisely invested him with an almost mythical allure. This mystique was derived by maintaining a certain distance between the reader and the character, a remoteness that was necessary to sustaining the enormity of the books' setting. In making Seldon a larger than life figure, Asimov produced an archetype: a personification of knowledge; a symbol of intellectual potency; a prophet for the totality of human history. It is unwise to flesh such a figure out too fully. By limiting our knowledge, Asimov frees our imaginations to impart an element of majesty to the archetype that a more detailed exposition would only have destroyed.

In this book, and in each of the subsequent sequels, Asimov makes the mistake of demystifying Seldon. In so doing, he demystifies the universe that he so painstakingly created. We can no longer lose ourselves in the vast historical sweep of a galactic empire. Instead, our attention is diverted from the large drama of its collapse to the small drama of one man's struggle. In losing the mystique, we also lose the wonder.

To be sure, in the hands of a literary genius, stories setting off the life of a single individual against a backdrop of immense historical forces can be very compelling. But Asimov is no Hugo or Tolstoy. As a writer, his strengths are not to be found in his characterizations, his finesse, or in his facility with high drama. Like all great science fiction writers, Asimov's primary strength is his imagination. A galactic empire; a planet-straddling galactic capital; human behaviour reducible to mathematical laws; mental manipulation of emotions; the delicate balance of the human mind; the empathic relationship between the individual and the group; these are the themes that show him in the best light. When he sticks to them, as he does in the original trilogy, he invents a future that is overwhelming in its texture and its scope. When he departs from them, as he does here, the shallowness of his characters doom us to a disappointing stroll through the merely mediocre.

Although it may be helpful to read the Foundation Trilogy and perhaps Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth before this prelude-and Forward the Foundation-this is an excellent read in whatever order you read it. The series is fantastic, and this prelude-which chornicles how Hari Seldon was introduced to psychohistory and the principal, early developments he made during the period of The Flight. It also introduces many of the important characters that later play a greater part in Forward the Foundation. The novel is very suspenseful indeed, and is notably fast-paced, which is a pleasant surprise from Asimov. There is a lot to look forward to, including several glimpses at the Galactic Empire while it still had the appearence of grandness, robots and the search for information about Earth, and two interesting surprises in the end, which involve a reunion with an old friend, if you have read another series by Asimov. This book is definitely as good as, if not better than, the three novels of the Foundation Triolgy. Read it!

If you read Foundation and left wondering more about Hari Seldon, the man, as I did then this is a great book. If you hope that this book will provide some deep insight into psychohistory this is not the book to read. If you have never read the Foundation series before, this would be a fine book to start with. However I think it is a little lacking in the level of richness and detailed plot that the other books have. It is however still a fun book to read.

Isaac Asimov was an author whose work exerted a seminal influence on modern SF. I read much of his work, including the original Foundation trilogy, when I was in high school and have recently begun to reread it. "Prelude to Foundation" was one that I had missed. Since it dealt with the events leading up to those of the original trilogy-namely Hari Seldon's development of psychohistory, I decided to read it first. I wish I hadn't.

"Prelude to Foundation " begins as a very naïve Hari Seldon, fresh from presenting a paper on the theoretical possiblity of psychohistory, is summoned to a meeting with the Emperor. The Emperor, and his top henchman would like to use psychohistory as a means to hold onto power. Soon afterwards, Hari is set upon by thugs and rescued, almost in deus-ex-machina fashion, by Chetter Hummin, a journalist with contacts. Hummin warns Hari of his Danger and arranges his flight from the Emperor's surveillance. The rest of the book follows Hari's progress through the various cultural enclaves of Trantor, as he tries to gather information to make psychohistory a reality and flees the Emperor's clutches. Through all of this, Hari is protected by Dors Venabili, a historian to whom Hummin has given the job of guarding the young mathematician.


"Prelude to Foundation" is one of Asimov's later works, written several decades after the publication of the original Foundation trilogy. The original trilogy was conceptually daring, with its exploration of the idea of scientifically predicting future events. Characterization, never Asimov's strong suit, didn't matter as much as the plot, since the novels were really shorter pieces linked together by a frame story. The novels were carried by the intellectual and philosophical premises underlying them. Unfortunately, "Prelude to Foundation" has most of the weaknesses and few of the strengths of Asimov's best work. The characters are wooden and, at times, stilted. Some of the different districts of Trantor through which Hari and Dors travel are potentially interesting, but there is little depth to them. Asimov's narration is too sketchy to permit adequate development of their intricacies. Although the book is supposed to depict the beginnings of pyschohistory, there's a shallowness to this as well. Hari makes some major discoveries about galactic history, but at times he makes them as a result of logical leaps that stretch believability.

"Prelude to Foundation" connects the dots between several of Asimov's earlier series and fills in details about Hari Seldon's background, but it's pedestrian SF by an author who was capable of better.

After I finished reading Foundation and Earth and realized the future of humanity and the galaxy, I was VERY intersted to read about Hari Seldon and how psychohistory played a roll in Daneel's dated plans for humanity.

Asimov, once again, did not fail in painting a very different picture of the human, Hari Seldon. I was very used to hearing him refered to has a wise, wonderful, intelligent, caring old man. But the reality is, he was horribly normal in his personality, something I found fascinating.

I also find interesting how the people of the Foundation only really acknowledge Seldon for psychohistory, whereas, the reality was that there were hundreds of people who worked on it, and on top of that, most of the progressive breakthoughs in making psychohistory a reality were not done by Seldon himself, but by someone who history choose to forget.

It is also interesting to see the fall of the Empire before Seldon and how quickly things fell apart.

To fully understand Foundation, you must really understand the character of Hari Seldon, and thus, you must read this book. Enjoy!

Prelude to Foundation is chronologically the first novel in Asimov's Foundation series. Hari Seldon has just introduced his theory of psychohistory to the public on Trantor and is now sought after for his potential to one day mathematically predict the future. In this book we learn much about the Imperial home planet of Trantor and the time period of the beginning of the Empire's decline. I haven't yet read the rest of the Foundation series but I'm looking forward to it, the more so after this enjoyable start.

Since Prelude was written many years after the original Foundation trilogy, Asimov chose to tie in a few plot elements from the four-book Robot series and the old Empire trilogy. In fact, a major character from the Robot series also shows up here in a marvelous twist at the end of the book! Having recently read both the Robot and Empire series, I feel that Asimov did a wonderful job considering that something like 20,000 years have passed since the time setting of the Robot series. I highly recommend reading the Robot novels before you start Prelude.

Prelude describes "The Flight" period of Seldon's life during which he was hiding from the Emperor Cleon I to prevent psychohistory from falling into the wrong hands (or so he thinks). This book is quite difficult to put down and the 400+ pages flew by for me in less than two weeks, which is unusual given how much time I usually devote to sci-fi. The ending has a couple great surprises in store for you, just make sure you don't peek!

Having enjoyed the original Foundation trilogy and the two follow-up books, I was reluctant about Asimov's telling of Hari Seldon's life. It didn't really seem interestin to me, and if it was interesting, I was leery of peeking at the magic behind the curtain, as it were.

What I found instead was an excellent character study. I've read elsewhere that the character of Seldon is in many ways autobiographical of Asimov himself, and that's not hard to believe. Seldon often comes across in the novel as Asimov himself does - driven and humorously self-effacing. In this way, Seldon himself is perhaps the most clearly fleshed out of all the characters Asimov has written about. When combined with the surprising (at least to me) plot points of Hari's life, you're left with a whole new spin on the series itself.

In short, strongly recommended.