Foundation Series Review
If you’re a fan of science-fiction you might have heard of Isaac Asimov. He’s more prolifically known for the Robot Series, which consists of countless short stories about the Three Laws of Robotics and its consequences. But he wrote another series called The Foundation Series.
The basis of the Foundation Series is the discoveries of Hari Seldon who develops psycho-history, the mathematics of the prediction of human society as a whole and his prediction of the downfall of The Empire, a galaxy wide organization and his efforts on creating The Second Empire.
The book series consists of 7 books.
- Foundation
- Foundation and Empire
- Second Foundation
- Foundation’s Edge
- Foundation and Earth
- Prelude to Foundation
- Forward to Foundation
Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation
The first three books are the first three written by Asimov and consist mostly of short stories of the efforts and intriguing ideas of Psycho-History. This is where Asimov shines, he takes a concept or a series of rules and he exposes and expresses all the strange ways that it could be exploited, misinterpreted, and formed. The Foundation is formed as a project for an encyclopedia but is truly meant to be the start of a new empire. Throughout the series the people of the Foundation face threats, rogue barbaric worlds, conquerors and they deal with them through multiple means, religious, trade, and event military might. I would highly recommend Foundation and Foundation & Empire as any sci-fi and especially history person would read.
Second Foundation is where things get a little strange as it goes further into the Second Foundation, which consists of telepaths who are trying to ensure the right path of the Seldon Plan to the Second Empire. The books are good but I feel the mental trickery of the entire series is lacking, I did enjoy the books as a long who-dun-it type of series though.
Foundations’ Edge & Foundation and Earth
Ok, this is where psycho-history goes away and it becomes about characters. I love the series for the characters and it’s exploration into the inner workings of the Second Foundation, I even enjoy the series but the core concept the book and the plot is based on is… lacking. I feel it’s too unreasonable and too unexplainable. Even the later book’s concepts are weak.
I think the reason for this lacking work is because
- This is Asimov’s longest work, he mostly wrote short stories and this book is almost three times as long as any previous book
- He was forced to write it at the behest of his publishers
- He wrote it almost 30 years AFTER the foundation trilogy