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Prelude to Foundation (Foundation Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Isaac Asimov (Author)
Key Phrases: galactic empire, imperial sector, neuronic whip, Raindrop Forty Three, Sunmaster Fourteen, Mistress Tisalver (more...)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (117 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
To Emperor Cleon I, the science of psychohistory seems to offer the opportunity to predict and direct the course of his Galactic Empire. To Hari Seldon, discoverer of the still theoretical science, it becomes a nightmare as the young historian becomes the most wanted man in the colonized universe. An intricately twisted plot, uncomplicated but amiable characters, and an abundance of leisurely explication mark Asimov's latest addition to his classic Foundation novels. While familiarity with earlier titles is not necessary, series followers will particularly enjoy this prequel. Recommended.JC
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
For the first time Asimov chronicles the life of Hari Seldon, the man who laid the framework for the universe that came to be known as the Foundation. The long-awaited overture to the greatest science fiction series of all time. "Asimov's storytelling skills have never been keener."--Denver Post. HC: Doubleday.

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Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Spectra; First Edition edition (March 1, 1989)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553278398
ISBN-13: 978-0553278392
Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (117 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,303 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#16 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( A ) > Asimov, Isaac
#49 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Series

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This is item 1 in The Foundation Series.

Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
galactic empire, imperial sector, neuronic whip, gravi bus, credit tile, psy chohistory, thigh story, psychohis tory, white kirtle

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Raindrop Forty Three, Sunmaster Fourteen, Mistress Tisalver, Mother Rittah, Hari Seldon, Mycelium Seventy Two, Master Seldon, Mistress Venabili, Chetter Hummin, High Elder, Raindrop Forty Five, Dors Venabili, Mayor of Wye, Tribesman Seldon, Streeling University, Eto Demerzel, Tribesman Hummin, Sergeant Thalus, Decennial Convention, Lost World, Tribeswoman Venabili, Madam Mayor, The Flight, Wye Sector, Lisung Randa

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

21 books cite this book:

Isaac Asimov: A Life of the Grand Master of Science Fiction by Michael White on 6 pages
I.Asimov: A Memoir by Isaac Asimov on 4 pages
It's Been a Good Life by Isaac Asimov on page 249, and Back Matter
The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution by Paul Levinson on page 142, and Back Matter
Mathematically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations by C.C. Gaither on page 179, and Back Matter

See all 21 books citing this book

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	67% buy the item featured on this page: Prelude to Foundation (Foundation Novels) 4.4 out of 5 stars (117) $7.99
	12% buy Foundation (Foundation Novels) 4.4 out of 5 stars (360) $7.99
	8% buy Foundation and Empire (Foundation Novels) 4.5 out of 5 stars (91) $7.99
	8% buy Second Foundation (Foundation Novels) 4.6 out of 5 stars (72) $7.99

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Customer Reviews

117 Reviews

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
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Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (117 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Fall of the Empire... and the Start of the Foundation, 3-1/2 stars, 403 Pages, Publ 1988, May 31, 2006

By	Antinomian (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

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.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The beginning book of the famous Foundation series., June 26, 1999

By	R. D. Allison (dallison@biochem.med.ufl.edu) (Gainesville, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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.

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating starting point, May 22, 2000

By	Kiki De Boeck (Belgium) - See all my reviews

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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Are Asimov fans that undiscerning? This novel is simplistic with many rough stereotypes - ATTN SPOILERS
To start, I want to say that I am a big fan of the Foundation Trilogy. I read it while I was growing up, and it had a major influence on me: the concept of Psychohistory, and... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Seth Rosenberg

4.0 out of 5 stars We get to see how it all started in more detail
Ah, Hari Seldon and Psycohistory! If it were only so. Or not. Predicting my next thought, let alone the next moment or the acts of individuals and a society. Oh, yes. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Nova137

5.0 out of 5 stars Asimov's greatest
This book was written 25 years after the others in the series, and Asimov's writing skills had obviously matured and improved. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Sigsby K. Rusk

3.0 out of 5 stars Finish to Foundation
First in fictional order of the Foundation series, it is actually the last book written in chronological order. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Todd Stockslager

4.0 out of 5 stars Tying Asimov's works together
This prequel to Asimov's classic Foundation trilogy, written almost thirty years after the original stories, is almost as long as the original three books combined. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Andrew W. Johns

4.0 out of 5 stars God Revealed
"Prelude to Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

Prof. Asimov has a knack for telling a good story. Read more

Published 15 months ago by David Brockert

1.0 out of 5 stars Overrated
I wanted a good Sci-Fi book or fantasy book. I remember the Xanth series, John Carter of Mars books, but this was rediculously dull. Read more

Published 17 months ago by James P. Kroeger

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
My book scale goes like this: 1-poor, 2-fair, 3-excellent. A 3. I read this in high school & now, couple years later, I'm back into it. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Daren Dacanay

3.0 out of 5 stars Great but not Brilliant
For me, Asimov is the master of science fiction, but the early Asimov tends to deliver better on this than the later one. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Bakermum

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic
It's hard to say anything new about the foundation series. I had always heard good things about it, and finally got around to picking it up. Read more

Published 20 months ago by ostawookiee

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