Asimov's Foundation Series

Constantinople

Banned
How many of you out there have read Foundation and it's various sequels, prequels and related works?

I've read whole whole damn thing (Robots, Empire and everything) several times and despite its flaws and some of its dated-ness, I just love it. I was reminded of it recently and wanted to get a discussion going here.

I also just discovered Psychohistorical Crisis and am in the middle of reading it. Does anyone know of any other good Foundation-universe novels (or fanfics) out there, that are worth reading?

Here's a picture of The Mule on Trantor.

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BeardedHoplite

I had the whole thing in one book, and proceeded to lose it as soon as I was deep enough to get hooked.

Thankfully I picked up Barnes and Noble's "bibleesque" edition of the trilogy. Just waiting for finals to be over before I devour it
 

Thanksforallthefish

I loved it. I read the trilogy (did not bother with the new books) The only thing that bothered me is that the world felt somewhat... dry for some reason. I mean, compared to Citizen of The Galaxy for example (one of my favorite old-time sci-fi books) there were plenty of descriptions about the settings and places... yet in Foundation there were few, excepting Trantor. You never could imagine exactly were you stood.

Yet, even with that minor complain, it is one of the best pieces of fiction I've ever have the pleasure to read.
 

Upton_Sinclair

Love it. Read the whole Foundation series (including the prequels), The Stars, Like Dust, I, Robot, The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and I'm currently reading The Robots of Dawn. One of my favorite universes of all time.
 

Constantinople

Banned
Thanksforallthefish said:
I loved it. I read the trilogy (did not bother with the new books) The only thing that bothered me is that the world felt somewhat... dry for some reason. I mean, compared to Citizen of The Galaxy for example (one of my favorite old-time sci-fi books) there were plenty of descriptions about the settings and places... yet in Foundation there were few, excepting Trantor. You never could imagine exactly were you stood.

Yet, even with that minor complain, it is one of the best pieces of fiction I've ever have the pleasure to read.
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Understandable. I guess it's a bit of a trade off, really. The books contain some huge, sweeping visions of the future, with a lot of really amazing ideas. The trade off is that it's a bit 1940s and a bit Planet of Hats.


It's actually worth reading the two newer prequels and the two newer sequels, with all their problems. The best part about them is that for what they lack in sweeping vision, they make up for with neat descriptions of the galaxy and the its many cultures. Additionally, Prelude to Foundation really digs deep into the complexity of Trantor. Don't write them off!
 

Constantinople

Banned
Upton_Sinclair said:
Love it. Read the whole Foundation series (including the prequels), The Stars, Like Dust, I, Robot, The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and I'm currently reading The Robots of Dawn. One of my favorite universes of all time.
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It's really an incredible series right? I think the "no aliens" (mostly) side of it is really kind of cool. Unusual that's for sure. The mid century (but still advanced) vision of the future is a cool POV too.

Make sure you read Robots and Empire! People miss that one a lot since it's been out of print (occasionally)


Anyone have a favorite book?

I have trouble deciding between Second Foundation and Foundation and Empire.
 

Lateknight

Banned
I read the original trilogy I sort of liked it but it was really dated. What found interesting is how it sort of set the stage for later space operas.
 

Constantinople

Banned
Lateknight said:
I read the original trilogy I sort of liked it but it was really dated. What found interesting is how it sort of set the stage for later space operas.
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It can suffer from age related Your Milage May Vary-ness, so I get that. It's cool you can see how influential and important they are even if you think they're dated. I don't see why this isn't a more widespread thing....
 
Lord Insane

Lord Insane

Constantinople said:
Any speculation on what comes after Foundation and Earth? The implications were pretty odd.
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Well, we know that the Encyclopedia Galactica sees publication at least up to 1020, so at the very least no non-human (or posthuman to the point of no longer being human for the purposes of psychohistory) threat have destroyed human civilization by that point. I personally suspect that there was some form of disturbance from the Solarian direction at some point, analogous (if one will) to a theoretical Asimov-written sequel, but that it ultimately was resolved in favour of the Seldon Plan continuing (I do not expect Gaia to abandon their support of the Plan, as with only a few tweaks in the hyperplan a Second Galactic Empire would likely be a better ground for Galaxia than a more disparate galaxy - especially since the Second Foundation are candidates for being integrated significantly earlier than other groups, due to beginning to approach the mental fusion thing on their own).
 
BgKnight

BgKnight

The foundation was the first Sci-Fi book I ever read, we had a very old copy translated to Bulgarian illegal and passed it through the family, so read it at a very early age, just when printing was starting in Bulgaria.

It was amazing and I fell in love with Sci-Fi, since Robots were already translated, I read that aftewords and then I went through Empire and my mind was blown.
 

chornedsnorkack

It is a classical and interesting setting. And analysis reveals plenty of absurdities.
Incidentally, the map here is highly absurd.

Where should I start with analysis?

The planet, Terminus, by itself cannot support a mechanized civilization. It lacks metals. You know that. It hasn't a trace of iron, copper, or aluminum in the surface rocks
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Iron happens to be essential for nearly all living organisms, and certainly all plants. How did they grow anything on Terminus?
 

zoomar

I read the three original novels in the Foundation series as a teenager and later read a couple of additional volumes written by Asimov. It is one of the great works of American science fiction. However, except as a story of intrigue, intellectual discovery, cultural development, and rediscovery with long time depth it hasn't aged too well for those people who like aliens (there aren't any to speak of in the whole galaxy), computers (they don't seem to be very important if people are still compiling a written Encyclopedia Galactica), diversity (are there any really major female characters?) future technological details (not discussed), action scenes (hardly any), and technical plausibility (really, a galaxy wide empire last for thousands of years?). It's very much about scholars doing scholarly detective work as a Romanesque Empire collapses.
 

KotoR45

For me, there are some really great revolutionary and existential messages. It uses the synthesis of various sciences and historical studies as the main driving force of the Foundation(s), but it stays away from the trans-humanist view that such a synthesis would lead to perfection. The caveat to it all is that 1) bad things inevitably will happen, all you can do is attempt to mitigate their effects and 2) none of Seldon's predictions are touted as law, they are, by his own admissions, the most likely of probabilities, and probabilities can change. God I love Asimov haha.
 

Dave Howery

I have the trilogy in a SFBC '3-in-1' special volume, and one sequel ("Foundations' Edge"). It's an excellent set of stories, although it doesn't seem to be as widely known as other scifi classics...
 

KotoR45

zoomar said:
I read the three original novels in the Foundation series as a teenager and later read a couple of additional volumes written by Asimov. It is one of the great works of American science fiction. However, except as a story of intrigue, intellectual discovery, cultural development, and rediscovery with long time depth it hasn't aged too well for those people who like aliens (there aren't any to speak of in the whole galaxy), computers (they don't seem to be very important if people are still compiling a written Encyclopedia Galactica), diversity (are there any really major female characters?) future technological details (not discussed), action scenes (hardly any), and technical plausibility (really, a galaxy wide empire last for thousands of years?). It's very much about scholars doing scholarly detective work as a Romanesque Empire collapses.
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Well, you have a story of intrigue, intellectual discovery, cultural development, and rediscovery, there is enough there for it to stay fresh in its intention. Its a story of the future only via the realization that the future will be like the past with some certain variables changed. It doesn't pretend to make predictions about specific features of the future, but rather presents a historical setting (the dark ages) in a futuristic light. Additionally, this isn't just a "neat-o" retelling of history, but a hypothetical enactment of a possible future following from the past that Asimov is drawing from.
 

zoomar

KotoR45 said:
Well, you have a story of intrigue, intellectual discovery, cultural development, and rediscovery, there is enough there for it to stay fresh in its intention. Its a story of the future only via the realization that the future will be like the past with some certain variables changed. It doesn't pretend to make predictions about specific features of the future, but rather presents a historical setting (the dark ages) in a futuristic light. Additionally, this isn't just a "neat-o" retelling of history, but a hypothetical enactment of a possible future following from the past that Asimov is drawing from.
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I agree with your analysis completely. This 65-year old codger loves the Foundation series for what it is and has read it repeatedly. I just noted that for many modern and younger readers it may come off as too dated and lacking scientific currency for them to grasp its broader greatness.
 

KotoR45

zoomar said:
I agree with your analysis completely. This 65-year old codger loves the Foundation series for what it is and has read it repeatedly. I just noted that for many modern and younger readers it may come off as too dated and lacking scientific currency for them to grasp its broader greatness.
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Well sir, it may please you to know that I am what you would consider a younger reader, and the Foundation books are pretty much my favorite science fiction books for all time
 
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