Book Review - Foundation

And now, I end Sci-Fi Month… On June 8^th. Maybe saving a 300-page novel for last wasn’t a good idea. It’s especially a problem when that novel isn’t one you can just breeze through. To the three (or four) of y’all out there, I’m sorry. Things are fine. I just had other stuff getting in the way and reading a novel got put on the backburner. Luckily, I’ve gotten to the end and can finally talk about some Asimov. It was either this or A Scanner Darkly and something tells me that Dick’s novel about drug use would have been a bit depressing.

I don’t remember when I first heard about Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. It was probably when I read I, Robot. I know SFDebris has talked about it as well, so it could have been there too. I’m not so sure. I do know that it’s been one series that’s been on the backburner of novels I’ve acquired over the years. I have a couple of other Foundation books at the house. Now that I’ve read this, maybe I’ll finally get to those.

Foundation as a whole was released in 1951. Before that, four of the five stories were released in Astounding Science Fiction throughout the 1940’s. Asimov essentially wanted to do a story about a declining Galactic Empire. It was supposed to mirror the fall of the Roman Empire. Each story looks at events that occurred before and during the Empire’s fall. It centers on the Foundation, a group led by Hari Seldon in order to preserve the best of what the Empire was.

Foundation

Writer: Isaac Asimov

BRIEF BLURB: This chronicles the events of the Foundation, a institute created to preserve the best of the galaxy as the Galactic Empire falls.

SYNOPSIS

Each story is split up into five parts and look at the Foundation during the duration of the collapse. By the way, I’m keeping this real short:

The Psychohistorians

This part centers on Hari Seldon, the creator of the Foundation. He’s a famous scientist that’s created a new field called psychohistory. He basically uses it to predict future events through science and psychology. Seldon figures out that the Galactic Empire, an empire that’s lasted for 12,000 years, is on the verge of collapse. He tells the Empire’s Committee that after it collapses in 500 years, the galaxy will enter a 30,000 year dark age. In order to cut that Dark Age down to about 1,000 years, Seldon wants to create the Encyclopedia Galactica and store all human knowledge within it.

The Committee, who’s pretty skeptical of this, lets Seldon do this… somewhere else. They don’t want his theories to cause trouble, so they come up with another option. They exile him and his eventual followers to Terminus, a planet that’s on the other side of the Galaxy. Knowing that this could happen, Seldon accepts the terms and the team is off to Terminus.

The Encyclopedists

This takes place in Terminus’s capitol 50 years after the Foundation was founded (F.E.). The colony is devoted to creating and maintaining the Encyclopedia. This story centers on Salvor Hardin, the mayor of Terminus City. While Hardin’s the city’s first mayor, he’s pretty much a figurehead. The actual power is in the hands of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. He’s worried that the planet (which is low on mineral resources) could be exploited by former Empire prefects called “the Four Kingdoms.” Hardin wants to have more power in handling the situation, but the Board resists this.

He and his adviser, Yohan Lee, devise a plan to remove the board from power. They use the unveiling of Hari Seldon’s time vault to pull their plan. When Hardin and the Board enter the vault, they’re greeted by a recording of Seldon. He tells them that the construction of the Encyclopedia was pretty much a distraction.  The true goal of the Foundation is to be the beginning of a Second Galactic Empire. The recording leads the Board to give Hardin full power to deal with their neighbors

The Mayors

This story takes place 30 years after Hardin’s victory against the Board of Trustees. Now, the Foundation is sharing its knowledge of nuclear power with the Four Kingdoms through an artificial religion called Scientism. Since the Four Kingdoms’ knowledge on science is low, they see technology as something divine and the Foundation plays on that. Hardin’s still mayor but he has internal and external threats to deal with. The internal threat is the Actionist party, a movement that’s not a fan of Hardin’s decisions. The external threat is the kingdom of Anacreon. Their leader wants to launch a military assault on Terminus. Hardin has to use the new system that he’s created in order to deal with both.

The Traders

This story is supposed to take place 55 years (I don’t remember if it actually says when it takes place) after the threat from Anacreon. Since then, the Foundation has started to use traders in order to exchange technology in other systems. It centers on a trader named Linmar Ponyets as he’s sent to save another trader, Eskel Gorov. Gorov, a Master Trader, got into trouble with the Askone who treat the Foundation’s technology as evil. He’s slated to be put to death if nothing’s done. Ponyets uses his wits and some of his own technology (a device that can turn iron into gold) in order to get Gorov out of prison.

The Merchant Princes

This takes place 20 years after the last story.  It centers on Hober Mallow, a Master Trader who’s sent to see what’s going on with the Republic of Korell. A few Foundation ships have gone missing and he has to figure out if the Korellians are behind it. While he’s on his mission, he ends up getting involved in an incident involving a Foundation missionary. He also finds out that there is more going on with Korell and the Foundation itself when he gets accused of murder. Luckily, he uses his wits and the things he’s learned from the Foundation to get past his obstacles. The guy even gets involved with a war between the Foundation and Korell.

OPINION

So, what do I think of the winner of a Hugo Award? I thought this was quite nice. While I can’t throw it on my personal favorite list of sci-fi novels yet, it’s definitely one that could go on there. While I haven’t read too many of Asimov’s stories, I can say that these all read well. Even when the story isn’t all that great, the dialogue is good and the characters have life in them. I might have ran into a couple of dull moments here and there, but that was only the exception.

Each story was pretty interesting. They all touched a variety of topics like politics, commerce, religion, and expansion. If anything, the novel is about those ideas and not much else. It definitely delves into the political structures since we’re really only exposed to boards, mayors, scientists, activists, leaders of kingdoms, and all that sort. This is not an action-oriented thing. Heck, one wonders why Roland Emmerich was asked to direct an adaptation at one point. By the way, that never happened.

My favorite ones involved Salvor Hardin. That was one crafty dude. Seeing what he had to do in order to keep Terminus safe and Seldon’s dream alive was pretty interesting. The story involving trading with Askone was also an interesting one. Instead of a big, political struggle, it was just a mission that involved saving a man’s life. The rest of the stories were also pretty good. The idea of what could go into the fall of an empire is an interesting one. It gets spelled out in the first story and we hear about what happens afterwards.

If I do have one nitpick, this thing is almost absent on women. Only one shows up for a couple of pages.

I really don’t have anything bad to say about the book as a whole. I will say that there can be some dull moments here and there. As I said before, a lot of this novel is political in nature. Also add the fact that this is taking place in a futuristic empire. While most things are familiar, I got a little perplexed at a couple of stuff. This ends up leading some places in the stories to be a little dull. Also, a lot of the characters can be a bit one-note and forgettable. Other than that and some small nitpicks (where’s the women?), this was a good read.

In the end, I think I’m gonna look for the rest of this trilogy. In other words, this was pretty good. If you haven’t read it, do so. Well, I can finally say that Sci-fi Month is over. While I didn’t get to a few things, I was at least able to touch on some important stuff. At least there’s next year. Well, I’m outta here. Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.