Foundation's Triumph (Second Foundation Trilogy) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "As for me... I am finished..." (more)
Key Phrases: psychohistorical equations, chaos outbreaks, positronic robots, Mors Planch, Horis Antic, Zeroth Law (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Isaac Asimov's 1951-53 Foundation trilogy is a rough-hewn classic of far future SF, honored with a unique 1965 Hugo for Best All-Time Series. It begins with "psychohistorian" Hari Seldon mapping the best possible course for humanity's next millennium, after the fall of the doomed Galactic Empire. Late in life Asimov revisited the series and awkwardly linked it with his popular robot stories--introducing vast conspiracy theories to explain the Empire's total lack of visible robots.

Asimov's estate authorized three SF notables to fill out Seldon's life in the Second Foundation Trilogy, which David Brin here wraps up after Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear and Greg Bear's Foundation and Chaos. Chaos is the new keyword, because chaos theory seemingly makes nonsense of psychohistorical prediction. Whole planetary populations can lapse into chaotic rebellion despite secret mind-controlling agencies behind the scenes. So Seldon makes his last interstellar journey, harried, lectured, and even kidnapped by the warring factions of robots and not-quite-robots that have long manipulated humanity. The robots' dilemma:

"We are loyal, and yet far more competent than our masters. For their own sake, we have kept them ignorant, because we know too well what destructive paths they follow, whenever they grow too aware."

Brin does his best with Asimov's overcrowded legacy, skillfully steering Seldon to an insight about the much-foretold future that satisfies both the old man and the reader, with a spark of human free will and constructive chaos shining through the grayness of predestination. Asimov would have approved. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

With the permission of the estate of Isaac Asimov, Gregory Benford (Foundations Fear), Greg Bear (Foundation and Chaos) and Brin, collectively billed as the Killer Bs, took on the Second Foundation Trilogy. Unhappily, Brins preachy, gelatinous conclusion deserves another Bfor Boring. Having followed the adventures of the galactic Foundation founder, Hari Seldon, in previous volumes, Asimov aficionados here find Seldon retired, aged, infirm and on the brink of death. Then a chance encounter with a low-level bureaucrat stimulates Seldon into creaky action against chaos, a mental disease afflicting all humanity. Seldon travels fitfully through an upside-down universe 20,000 years into mankinds future, when humans have become impotent, amnesiac creator-gods. Their creations, Asimovs positronic robots led by the enigmatic R. Daneel Olivaw, really control the universe. Brin (The Postman, etc.) resurrects many characters from the five previous Foundation volumes, but their lack of vitality makes these featureless humans as bland as robots. And he divulges these characters secrets in laborious sociological theorizing little better than a thin stream of platitudes. After so much recycling of Asimovs original, the wear and tear is showing, badly, but enough loose plot ends dangle to suggest that yet more sequels may be coming, someday.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Harper Prism; 1st edition (April 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061052418
• ISBN-13: 978-0061052415
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #945,242 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Killer B Foundation book, December 19, 1999

By	David N. Reiss (Haymarket, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First, I believe that the Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov are one of the best novel series in all of modern SF.

Second, I liked the later Foundation novels by Asimov almost as much as I liked the orginal three novels.

Third, I didn't like Gregory Benford's first novel expanding into Foundation terrotory. I did like Greg Bears second novel of this newer Foundation series. And I like this treatment by Brin the best of the new series of Foundation material.

Now... It really isn't the good Doctor's writing style. But then, the Good Doctor had that styleless style that never gets in the way of the Story. But, Brin has one of the better writing styles in modern SF/F. Which makes this very much worth reading. It is pretty much required that you have read both Benford's and Bear's books in the series first. But then, that is why it is called a "series".

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No worse than any of Asimov's later Foundation books, February 18, 2000

By	Scott Holder (Bonnots Mill Missouri) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Not as good as Bear's effort in this series but light years ahead of Benford's attrocious book, Brin actually does too neat a job trying to tie everything together. At the same time, he deliberately throws out a few loose ends on the outside chance someone wants to use them later on in the series.

What really makes this book not so good is the fact that the reader must engage in a huge amount of "willing sense of disbelief" when it comes to an 80 year old scientist trapsing around the galaxy one last time. And there are simply too many pat plot devices to get around this plain fact. Plus, we're now expected to believe that mankind's 12K years of lassitude was once again brought about by massive behind the scenes efforts of robots.

At the same time, Brin does an excellent job of exploring the entire "robot sect" theory--that in itself makes the book a worthwhile read.

Like many of the other reviewers, I hope that we've now explored Hari Seldon's life for the absolute last time. The whole Foundation Universe would have been better off with less detail about Seldon's "adventures" and more work on other interesting aspects of the story.

Is this book worth purchasing? Not in hard copy it isn't. Go to your library. If you want all the Foundation/Robot books on one shelf, wait for the paperback version.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not necessary., September 10, 1999

By A Customer

I am surprised that others think that Brin's book is better than Bear's book. Is this because it is the most recent or because it attempts to answer so many questions ? Benford's book did not add anything useful to the Foundation story (I HATE the pans, sims, memes, wormholes, etc). Bear's book expanded on the "Epilogue" of "Forward the Foundation" (which I assume that Asimov intended to do). I think that the plot and the characters are best in "Foundation and Chaos".

"Foundation's Triumph" spends a lot of time referencing things from other Foundation books and attempting to add insight into things that we already know. The main plot is that the Daneel robots want Hari to give the robots permission to destroy the ships that were used to teraform the planets 20,000 year ago, and the anti-Daneel robots (and cyborgs) want Hari to go 500 years in the future to judge the things that Daneel plans to do. It ties in "I, Robot", "Caliban", "Pebble in the Sky", "Blind Alley", and many of the other Foundation books.

Unfortunately, the pans, sims, and wormholes are also in the story, although not as heavily as in "Foundation's Fear". But, unfortunately it does introduce cyborgs, and fountain-of-youth-machines.

The story makes Daneel sound like a god. He created the Empire, and the class structure. He used genetic engineering to make Hari a genius and to introduce mentalic people. He developed persuasion satellites and brain fever to keep humans from creating robots and to fight the chaos plague. A wave of robot terraforming ships secretly prepared the planets for the colonists (and may have killed other life in process). Daneel setup the pan immersion assassination attempt (Foundation's Fear) to test Hari for the roll of First Minister. Daneel plans to find (or rather create genetically) a human 500 years in the future who is always right to judge Gaia 500 year before "Foundation's Edge".

The biggest thing that I could not swallow is that chaos is a virus developed by Earth. It also says that the Empire death can be stopped, but it needs to occur so that the bureaucracy dies. What ?

I do like the fact that the book indirectly states that Gaia does not take over in it pure form since the Encyclopedia Galactica quotes are from 1054 F.E. and Hari and Daneel agree that there will be no need for the Encyclopedia if Galaxia occurs in it's pure form.

It leaves room for a future book when two characters go to the future via the time warp on Earth.

The book introduces some interesting ideas, and the plot has a lot of twists and turns. But, overall I do not think that it is as good as Bear or Asimov (Of course it is better than Benford). Only Bear captured the spirit of Asimov in my opinion.