Isaac Asimov’s “Prelude to Foundation”, the first prequel to the author’s classic “Foundation Trilogy”, is a modest but enjoyable science-fiction novel, showing the humble beginnings of Hari Seldon, the legendary scientist of the original trilogy. The novel will probably resonate more if you’re already familiar with the trilogy, as you’ll likely get more of a kick out of the young, slightly vain, slightly scatterbrained Seldon seen here if you’re well versed on his later accomplishments and eventual revered status.

But there are some compelling ideas here for both Foundation newcomers and longtime fans of the original books, often presented in fun ways. In particular, the novel examines the idea of personal cluelessness about one’s genius, and how it sometimes takes others to fill a person in about one's own potential. Here, Hari is presented as someone who thinks he’s just a modest mathematician, with maybe a few creative ideas worthy of writing an esoteric paper on, but nothing more. But once Hari delivers his paper at a conference, the most powerful six or seven forces in the universal hierarchy immediately wrestle and compete with each other to grab up Hari and his ideas first, recognizing their potential to shape the future. And even then Hari is slow to say, “Hmmmm, maybe I’ve got something here.”

“Prelude to Foundation” is pretty much a chase novel set in a fascinating, far flung future, with a nice level of attention given over to the ways people live and interact, and other humanitarian concerns. Dr.Asimov also uses “Prelude to Foundation” to tie some of his other famous books into the continuity of the Foundation books, specifically novels in his “Empire” and “Robot” series. At this point, that move neither overly complicates nor greatly improves the Foundation series, though it does add a bit of interesting texture, so it’ll be fascinating to see where things go in the other Foundation prequel/sequels.

If you’re interested, here are the seven books in the Foundation series, presented in chronological order of the events they depict: “Prelude to Foundation” (the first prequel to the original trilogy), “Forward the Foundation” (second prequel to the original trilogy); “Foundation” (book one of the original trilogy); “Foundation and Empire” (book two of the original trilogy); “Second Foundation” (book three of the original trilogy); “Foundation’s Edge” (first sequel to the original trilogy); and “Foundation and Earth” (second and final sequel to the original trilogy).

Finally, you should know that HBO is now developing the Foundation books as an ongoing television series, hence my renewed interest in the original trilogy (which I once read way back when) and the prequels/sequels (which are new to me). Personally, I think it’ll be fun to shoot through all seven books prior to the premiere of the show.

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.

That the foundation series is one that has lasted a long, long time is something that has been my personal experience. I first read it in 1953 and have been an ardent follower of Asimov ever since. There is a depth of spirit that flows through all his science fiction that has inspired me and many others through all the many years. I would recommend this series to anyone looking for fun, inspiration, hard science fiction and just plain good reading and adventure. I would rate these books as five plus plus stars!

Before writing this short review, I must say that for me the Foundation series will always be the Foundation trilogy--the three original novels. In these the later novels by Asimov, he attempted to connect his Trantor, including the Foundation series, to his robots series, which originally included two novels and several short stories. In my opinion, that was a clumsy attempt, not worthy of Asimov. That being said, Prelude to Foundation is the best of those later novels. I have just reread it, and found it a worthwhile read, although not in the league of the original Foundation trilogy.

Many years ago I owned all of the Foundation series hardcopy books. I've moved so many times and had flooding, that I don't have any left. I had bought some from iTunes for viewing on my iPad Mini, iPod Touch 4G, and my iPhone, but the lighting is horrendous (I am on the computer all day and night for work). I was very happy that Amazon carries most of the Foundation series in the Kindle store and bought this for my new Kindle Paperwhite. I'm already 40% into the book. It's like revisiting an old, and very dear friend.