The Foundation Trilogy is far beyond the epic book that I've ever read. It started to be written in 1942, and still very popular among sci-fi fans. This series is the winner of the Special Hugo Prize. The prize was promoting the best sci-fi and fantasy series of all times, and the Foundation Trilogy won, even the Lord of the Rings couldn't take this prize.
In almost 20.000 years later, humankind conquered all the stars and the planets of the universe. And everything that exists is under Galactic Empire control, and it´s capital is Trantor, in the center of the galaxy. The psycho-history named Seldon discovered, by the math and psychology, that this great empire will fall about in 300 years. Then he began studying how to avoid this, and he founded the foundation, a planet with a lot of scientists that will write an encyclopedia that will decrease the time of darkness and of pain, all through knowledge.
Through the trilogy, we see how humankind responds to some questions, like the centralization of the empire, the fall, etc. This series is based on Roman history.
And all the universe, the diplomatic questions, the respond of classes, is much interesting. And we saw how the reaction of masses can be easily calculated, it seldom dies in the second chapter of the first book, but he really saw everything that would happen, and his presence is constant in the whole series.
I really love geopolitics and study the great empires. This book is all this, but in 20.000 years later. We can see that everything, even the most constant thing can change, like a pretty big state. This book is a review about the human ways of action, about the burocracy, about history, and about atomic power. Just as in “I Robot” Asimov shows all his deep knowledge about almost everything, since atomic energy, to rocket science, to neural activity.
I really didn´t like a lot the third book, especially the plot-twists, but all the concept and the universe that Asimov created is amazing, the planets, the mythology, the equipment, the calculation that is made to travel through the hyperspace. This is probably the best thing in Asimov, everything he writes about technology and space travel is real science, he always studied a lot before writing about something.
In my opinion, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the best sci-fi series, but I didn't read all the Asimov series yet, I´m excited about reading the robot series, but Foundation wins 5 stars.
" Violence is the incompetent's last resort" - Salvador Hardín, first Foundation´s Mayor.
Back to the main page