When was asimov foundation published

On a reread, however, I see that Asimov knew what he was doing — and not just because another book and a half of Seldon Crises would have gotten very stale. The Mule is a mutant whose ability to control others' emotions lets him conquer the Foundation and threaten the whole Seldon Plan.

To contain the menace, the Second Foundation — a hidden group of psychohistorians, the secret keepers of the Plan — must emerge from hiding. So far, this sounds like any of a hundred tales of the struggle between good and evil.

But Foundation isn't that kind of series. The problem, you see, isn't how to defeat the Mule and ensure the triumph of truth, justice, and the Foundation way. It is, instead, to get the Plan back on track — and that requires making sure that nobody understands the Plan! So the Mule who, as I said, isn't an entirely unsympathetic character must be defeated, but the defeat must be subtle — no dramatic space battles, no victory parade, in fact no obvious defeat at all. Characteristically for the whole series, the accomplishment of the Mule's quiet defeat itself depends crucially on his not understanding the need for subtlety: he must believe that the Second Foundation is planning the very kind of shoot-em-up denouement that it must in fact avoid.

Even so, the Second Foundation has shown a bit of its hand — so the final episode concerns the confrontation between the First and Second Foundations, a confrontation that the Second Foundation must win by appearing to lose. For the restoration of the Seldon Plan requires the cultivation of a proper state of ignorance; the First Foundation must unlearn its dangerous knowledge of the Second Foundation's influence, and this can only be achieved through the Second Foundation's apparent destruction.

Oh, and the surprise in the very last line of the whole series still brings a smile to my face. Are there flaws in the Foundation novels? Of course there are. The characters are, by and large, two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. There's also a notable lack of physical description of the characters or, well, anything.

As I said, Tolstoy this isn't. A nerdier gripe — indeed, a very, very nerdy gripe — is that, in imposing his historical templates on the galactic civilisation, Asimov clearly had a problem with scale. Tazenda, in Second Foundation, is supposed to be a more or less barbarian kingdom, a flyspeck polity that only rules 20 planets. Um, 20 planets? Then there's Trantor, the world completely covered in metal because its 75m square miles of land surface area must bear 40 billion people. Do the math, and you realize that Trantor as described has only half the population density of New Jersey, which wasn't covered in metal the last time I looked out my window.

But these are, as I said, nerdy concerns. After all, the Foundation novels aren't really about the galaxy, or even about space travel. They're about the true final frontier — understanding ourselves, and the societies we make. A non-nerdy concern — or anyway, a less nerdy concern — would be this: Now that I'm a social scientist myself, or at least as close to being one as we manage to get in these early days of human civilisation, what do I think of Asimov's belief that we can, indeed, conquer that final frontier — that we can develop a social science that gives its acolytes a unique ability to understand and perhaps shape human destiny?

Well, on good days I do feel as if we're making progress in that direction. And as an economist I've been having a fair number of such good days lately. I know that sounds like a strange claim to make when the actual management of the economy has been a total disaster.

May 03, Apatt rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. Yes, I have read Foundation before, chances are you have too! So reread the series from the beginning it is then; no great hardship really, a fun time is already guaranteed, and the three volumes combined are shorter than a single book by Peter F.

The very first Foundation story was published in Yes, I have read Foundation before, chances are you have too! The very first Foundation story was published in , around the time poor Anne Frank was writing her diary.

I first read the trilogy in an omnibus volume in the early 80s, before Foundation's Edge came out. This first Foundation book is a fix-up novel of connected short stories, unlike some fix-up novels I have read these stories join up beautifully into one cohesive novel.

Such prediction is necessarily based on aggregate behavioral trends of vast numbers of people billions. To this end the Foundation is established on a remote planet called Terminus ostensibly to compile a mega Encyclopedia Galactica but in truth to save mankind as a whole from an extended period of dark ages, and eventually to set up a Second Empire.

Seldon is not the only protagonist of Foundation, as the book spans hundreds of years and several generations three other heroes no anti-heroes here follow him: Salvor Hardin, Linmar Ponyets, and Hober Mallow. The first is a politician and the other two are traders. What they have in common is a can-do attitude, a disdain of violence, and the instinctive wiliness to outwit just about anybody they come across.

The showdown between these heroes and their antagonists are all battles of wit, no ass kicking is ever implemented. What I did not appreciate in my teens is what a good writer and story teller Asimov is.

He is not great prose stylist witness the ample use of exclamation marks in the narrative , nor did he need to be for the type of stories he wanted to tell. However, there is a sincere and infectious enthusiasm in his story telling and a clarity that render the narrative very readable and entertaining; not to mention the witty and sardonic humour in much of the dialog. The scene where the Foundation citizens are waiting outside a vault for a hologram of Seldon to appear after 50 years is really quite thrilling.

The futuristic tech and world building are a lot of fun of course, though you will have to allow for some dated tech ideas or anachronisms such as messages printed on tapes, the use of microfilms and lack of AI computers are not mentioned.

As good as this first Foundation volume is I find it to be the least exciting of the trilogy. I distinctly remember some edge of the seat developments in the two follow-up volumes; see links below. View all 10 comments. Jun 21, Leonard Gaya rated it liked it. Foundation is one of these books most everyone pretends to have read. Campbell ruled over the genre in the U. Later still, Asimov would develop this into a massive trilogy and many more sequels that became a literary legend in its own right, and a source of inspiration for other space operas, such as Starship Troopers , Dune , The Left Hand of Darkness , Star Trek , Star Wars , Ender's Game or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

However, reading this first novel remains a rather disappointing experience. The fact that the stories were initially written in separate, almost stand-alone and open-ended episodes, sometimes with wide intervals in-between, is quite evident.

Each chapter has a different set of characters and a self-contained plot, loosely related to the rest of the novel. Each of these short stories tells about a crisis, where people, engaged in rather talkative playlets, are scheming and feinting to acquire power.

Thrown into the mix: religion, trade, nuclear weapons, diplomacy and intergalactic politics. Most of the stakes, however, and most of the elements of style, feel embarrassingly dated and repetitive. I kept asking myself why this was a science fiction novel at all? Why did Asimov feel the need to extrapolate, when it really could have been a historical novel about the late Roman Empire and the rise of Christendom and feudalism, or even perhaps about the United States and World War 2? Nov 19, Thomas rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Science Fiction fans.

The Foundation trilogy three first books and the Foundation series all seven are often regarded as the greatest set of Science Fiction literature ever produced. Isaac Asimov was among the world's best authors, an accomplished scientist, and he was also a genius with an IQ above , and it shows in the intelligently concocted but complex plots and narrative.

There are already reviews for this Science Fi The Foundation trilogy three first books and the Foundation series all seven are often regarded as the greatest set of Science Fiction literature ever produced. There are already reviews for this Science Fiction novel, however, I still believe I have something unqiue to contribute which is stated in my last paragraph. This book and the rest in the series take place far in the future allegedly 50, years at a time when people live throughout the Galaxy.

A mathematician Hari Seldon has developed a new branch of mathematics known as psychohistory. Using the law of mass action, it can roughly predict the future on a large scale. Hari Seldon predicts the demise of the Galactic Empire and creates a plan to save the knowledge of the human race in a huge encyclopedia and also to shorten the barbaric period expected to follow the demise from 30, years to 1, years.

A select people are chosen to write the Encyclopedia and to unknowingly carry out the plan to re-create the Galactic Empire. What unfolds in this book and in the books that follow is the future history of the demise and re-emergence of a Galactic Empire, written as a series of adventures, in a similar fashion to the Star Wars series. Even though this is arguably the greatest set of Science Fiction novels ever written, I do not recommend it to those who are only mildly interested in Science Fiction.

If you read this one you will feel the need to read the others which may take a long time. If you are new to Science Fiction start with something lighter and when you are hooked you can continue with this series. Also, in my opinion the second and third books were better than the first. View all 8 comments. Nov 17, J. Sutton rated it really liked it.

Isaac Asimov's Foundation is a good start to a great series! Really like the idea of Hari Seldon, the psychohistorian at the heart of the Foundation Series. Even though he largely disappears after the book's beginning, much of the subsequent action is based on his predictions. Seldon predicts the collapse of the 12, year galactic empire and what it will take to preserve the knowledge of mankind so that the period of barbarism between civilized life is shortened.

That beacon of hope is the Fou Isaac Asimov's Foundation is a good start to a great series! That beacon of hope is the Foundation. During this reading, he reminded me of futurists I've been following who tell us about trends and what our world will look like in 20 or 30 or 50 years from now.

For Seldon, though, his most consequential predictions are for thousands of years in the future. Seldon's nearly prophetic vision based on scientific reasoning made me think of Asimov himself. He was also one of those visionaries or futurists. Asimov also anticipated the ubiquity of personal computers and how the internet could be used for education. Asimov was clearly a visionary! It's no surprise that Foundation is an innovative and engaging space opera that has shaped science fiction since it was published.

The downside is that the actual writing isn't great for this first book in the series. It does improve in subsequent books, though.

Even though I am dinging Foundation a bit for the writing, it is an important and recommended book which I still enjoyed! Call it an identification of myself with that mystical generalization to which we refer by the term, 'humanity. Don't even start looking for a more fitting word, because you won't find any. He's a genius, period and this is only the third time I rate one of his works less than four stars.

The fact that this is happening with the first installment 3. The fact that this is happening with the first installment in the most famous of his series only makes the entire thing even more incomprehensible to my eyes and hurtful to my heart. No wonder, then, that the author was forced to adopt some kind of strategy to make sure that all this material could be adequately contained in only three books. Thus, the episodic structure of Foundation. Now, I have nothing against episodic structure.

Most of the times, actually, I even enjoy it, and a lot. Here Asimov employs it with his usual skill: each "episode" has an initial situation, a conflict, a resolution.

In terms of plotting and scheming, every single one of them is perfect. The actualization of each stage, though, leaves a bit to be desired.

And I know that Asimov's literary production has never shone for and didn't make his fortune thanks to its cast, but truth be told I've always had a particular weakness for his characters, especially his robots yes, believe it or not, this man created the most human and robotic robots I've ever read about.

Doesn't make any sense? I couldn't care less. Go read his Robot series and then we can talk about it. Which is, at the end of the day, the reason why I'll never, ever, ever stop reading this magnificent author. Sep 03, Orhan Pelinkovic rated it really liked it Shelves: russian , novel , science-fiction. This Sci-fi narrative takes place fifty thousand years into the future. Humanity has achieved the possibility of interstellar travel and inhabited a large part of our galaxy, although, strangely, still relying on oil, coal, and for the fortunate ones, nuclear power, as the primary source of energy.

Isaac Asimov Foundation begins on planet Trantor the administrative and ruling capital of the 12, year old Galactic Empire. Hari Seldon, who is on trial for treason in front of the Emper This Sci-fi narrative takes place fifty thousand years into the future.

Hari Seldon, who is on trial for treason in front of the Emperor himself, is a psychohistorian a branch of mathematics that combines psychology and mathematics uses his deterministic system and calculates that in years the Empire will collapse and enter a 30, year dark age period. As predicted and wished by Seldon, he is ousted by the Emperor, along with his scientists and scholars, to a far off insignificant planet Terminus Foundation that is located at the edge of our galaxy where he would be allowed to unite all human knowledge and compose the Encyclopedia Galactica in order to reduce the dark age period to 1, years.

This book was written at a different time, mostly in the 's, but the story takes place in the high-tech future where you would not expect to hear phrases like "women and children", "man to man", etc. Also, it's surprising that, Asimov, envisions a future with a possibility of human interstellar space travel at parsec distances which is close to impossible but didn't foresee women having a roll in science, politics, military, and trade.

As you probably assume all of the characters are male who still hunt birds for sport and smoke in public areas. Women are referred to as wives and mistresses. We have here a fairly well-written book, with some really good dialogues, and somewhat developed characters. Although, the allegory of the story is very meaningful! It portrays knowledge as the only and true beacon of hope.

The "religion of science", even though practiced by the few, is the path to equality, freedom, and a utopian society. There is also a hidden political message that was relevant at the time the book was written. If you like Sci-fi, you could give it a try.

Feb 07, Markus rated it really liked it Shelves: science-fiction , classics , A civilization falling. Nuclear power forgotten. Science fading to mythology — until the Foundation had stepped in. Its vain aristocracy is ignorant of this, but the psychohistorians, making predictions of the future under the guidance of the brilliant Hari Seldon, know it for a statistic fact. By careful planning and manipulation, they start the project that will provide a beacon of light and knowledge lasting through the Dark Ages in preparation for the formation of a new empire: the Foundation.

The book centres around the leaders and people of the Foundation itself, mostly on an around the main planet of Terminus, a faraway rock in outer space. The internal workings and tenets of the Foundation are quite interesting, mainly how it manipulates, threatens and employs divide and conquer strategies to combat those who would seize its resources, all without using violence. The innovate and prolific Isaac Asimov is by many regarded as the greatest and most popular science fiction author of all time, the Foundation series often coming in second behind Dune on rankings of sci-fi series.

While journeying through the pages of Foundation , the reader will discover so many passages and descriptions reminiscent of the greatest works the genre has later produced. There are flaws. One issue that invited curiosity followed by annoyance is the astounding lack of women.

I was two thirds through the book when I realised there had been not a single female character nor any mention of the existence of women. I was curious because I assumed there would be some form of explanation, and that this was all part of the setting. Then the appearance of one single unimportant female character only to try on some jewelry made it abundantly clear that there was no good explanation. Another point, which is hardly a flaw, but something readers should be aware of, is that Foundation is not about the setting, the characters or even the story, but rather the ideas.

As others have pointed out before, this reads more like a fictionalised essay than a tale of science fiction. Characters and places are never particularly compelling compared to later works of the genre.

But despite the flaws, and more than anything, this is an early work that inspired so many brilliant stories yet to come.

An amusing read, but I think I still prefer Brin and Simmons when it comes to epic space opera. Probably the most interesting thing about this book and, I assume, the rest of the series is the millennia-spanning time scale of its narrative, which Asimov handles by establishing Hari Seldon's statistical prophesy, and then dropping in at critical junctures to investigate how individuals contrive to fulfill that prophecy. It's kind of a fun model, always knowing the general direction of the plot An amusing read, but I think I still prefer Brin and Simmons when it comes to epic space opera.

It's kind of a fun model, always knowing the general direction of the plot without knowing the detail, a bit like reading the last page first. It can also be dull, contradictory, and occasionally unpleasant. There isn't that much suspense when you can always know Seldon is going to end up correct, and the in the end the Foundation will end up ushering in the Renaissance. Asimov's characters also aren't all that likable, or human. They're like strategic robots, avatars the author can inhabit to explain the brilliance of the little political puzzle he's concocted.

It's also slightly ridiculous that in a universe where computational power is so great as to statistically model the destiny of civilizations with great accuracy, we are asked to believe that individual wills and intellects are responsible for shepherding these statistical trends. Characters are always saying, "Oh, it's a Seldon crisis, we should make sure we don't screw this up. This is also a universe of white guys. I'm not against books about white guys, and I don't think every book needs to have a sympathetic, fully-realized representative of every socio-sexual-political-racial identity, but I don't love books about boring , soulless white guys in which all the other humans are pointedly idiotic.

I think there is one woman in the entire book, and she's a petulant, impotent princess who's easily impressed by fancy jewelry. I guess it's not really a book about people. Anyway, a decent read, though I'm not feeling particularly compelled to read the next. Should I? Aug 19, picoas picoas rated it really liked it Shelves: If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review. The Dead Hand: "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov If I remember rightly, Asimov's robots do indeed find a cunning way around the three laws - they invent a Zero-th Law which states that "no robot can injure humanity or through inaction allow humanity to come to harm" which doesn't directly contradict the First Law, so their brains will accept it, but has the interesting effect in moral philosophical terms of turning them from Kantians to util If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

The Dead Hand: "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov If I remember rightly, Asimov's robots do indeed find a cunning way around the three laws - they invent a Zero-th Law which states that "no robot can injure humanity or through inaction allow humanity to come to harm" which doesn't directly contradict the First Law, so their brains will accept it, but has the interesting effect in moral philosophical terms of turning them from Kantians to utilitarians.

So rather than being guided by an absolute "thou shalt not kill" imperative they become able to kill or harm humans if and only if they have calculated it's for the greater good.

Rather than becoming brutal overlords because of this as the other laws still apply they end up guiding the development of humanity quietly from the shadows, taking on a role not a billion kilometers from Ian M. Banks's AIs. More stuff on the other side of the rainbow. One of my all time favourite books, I first read this many years ago and as books have been added to the original trilogy I have re-read the whole series.

I feel that IA pulled the stories together well, so the Robot novels all join with the Empire novels, what a master. Well I re-read it again 2nd time GR officially, umpteenth time un-officially and realise yet again what a marvellous book it is.

Yes it is split as a collection of stories but Asimov is such a master story-teller it all hangs One of my all time favourite books, I first read this many years ago and as books have been added to the original trilogy I have re-read the whole series.

Yes it is split as a collection of stories but Asimov is such a master story-teller it all hangs together so so well. Still 5 stars. View all 6 comments. Jan 15, Tom rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Anyone who has a grain of interest in Sci Fi. In Foundation's Edge , Asimov began the project of uniting the Foundation universe with his other series, making a single, unified timeline.

Published in and , these are the final Foundation books that Asimov Published. Prelude and Forward follow Seldon's development of psychohistory, the method through which he predicts the future. Asimov has written a number of other stories set in the Foundation universe! If you've read and enjoyed the Foundation series, check out these other titles of Asimov, giving glimpses into the past and future of Asimov's universe.

The Galactic Empire Series. Explore the beginnings of the Galactic Empire, long before the Foundation series. Asimov has written many other novels and short stories in the Foundation Universe. Plus, his universe has been further fleshed out by other writers! Below are three books set in the Foundation universe, but not part of the main story. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. Shelve The Foundation Trilogy. Fondazione 1 by Isaac Asimov. Preludio alla Fondazione - Fondazione anno zero Nel… More.

Shelve Fondazione 1. The story of our future begins with the Foundation… More. Fondazione 2 by Isaac Asimov. L'impero galattico esercita da secoli il suo poter… More. Shelve Fondazione 2. Sono passati cinque secoli dall'inizio del Piano S… More.

Robot, chronological order. Galactic Empire. Fantastic Voyage.