Fundacion

Rating:
Summary: Isaac Asimov lays the foundation for a great SF series
Review: According to the entry from the "Encyclopedia Galactica" (116th Edition published in 1020 F.E. by the Encyclopedia Galactica Publishing Co., Terminus), Hari Seldon is the father of psychohistory, transforming the field from a set of vague axioms into a profound statistical science. However, it has always seemed to me that Isaac Asimov's creation simply did for the future what historian Arnold Toynbee did for the past. It was Toynbee who popularized, if not originated, the idea that history has cycles, an inevitable process of rise and fall that is evidence by every historical society from the ancient Summerians to the Soviet Union. Of course, Asimov does more than simply extend Toynbee's lessons about the past into the future, for while historians wait with great patience for the past to unfold itself, scientists have a pragmatism that aspires to much greater efficiency.

Consequently, Asimov begins "Foundation," the first book in what was once one of the pivotal trilogies in science fiction but has now become a crossover of epic proportions with all of the Foundation/Robot/Empire novels written by Asimov (and others), deals with the end of the Galactic Empire. For 12,000 years it had ruled supreme, but now Hari Seldon can see the writing on the wall. After the Empire falls will come a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that would last 30,000 years (I think the proportions are roughly the same for the periods of the Roman Empire and Europe's own dark age). Under the guise of preserving the accumulated knowledge of the Empire, Seldom receives permission to establish the Foundation, a sanctuary for the best minds in the Empire on the edge of the galaxy. However, his true purpose is to shorten the interregnum.

"Foundation" then continues in a series of separate but connected parts, each taking place long after Hari Seldon has died and each representing what becomes known as a "Seldon Crisis," a pivotal moment in which a choice needs to be made at a fork in the road: the right choice and humanity takes one of Seldon's predicted shortcuts. Four such episodes are presented in "Foundation," dealing with the Encyclopedeists, the Mayors, the Traders and the Merchant Princes. However, as you work your way through the original "Foundation" trilogy, continuing the story in "Foundation and Empire" and "Second Foundation," do not expect the pattern of predictability to be maintained. After all, that would be predictable, and while Asimov was interested in logic (evidence by his Robot stories), that has little to do with predictability.

Isaac Asimov remains one of the giants of what we can now refer to as "early" science fiction, and the "Foundation" trilogy, like his Robot stories, are required reading for anyone interested in the origins and growth of the field. Eventually Asimov got around to writing both a prequel ("Prelude to Foundation") and a couple of sequels ("Foundation's Edge" and "Forward the Foundation") to his original trilogy, and while you can read them in this "correct" chronological order, I would still argue for reading them in the order Asimov originally wrote them. This is not so much because what happens in the prequel is clearly informed by what happens in the "later" books, but because I think the trilogy loses something from a full-formed Hari Seldon. In "Foundation" he is a major figure, but a minor character. At least get through the original trilogy before you pay attention to he man behind the curtain.