If you are passionate about science fiction, you cannot certainly miss reading the Foundation series, a series of novels written starting from 1951 by Isaac Asimov. After the initial trilogy, known as the Foundation Trilogy, Asimov took up the cycle again and in 1982 and 1986 he made two sequels to the first three novels, concluding with two prequels in 1988 and 1993.
The entire saga, ordered according to the internal chronology of events, is composed of:
- Prelude to Foundation (1988)
- Forward the Foundation (1993)
- Foundation (1951)
- Foundation and Empire (1952)
- Second Foundation (1953)
- Foundation’s Edge (1982)
- Foundation and Earth (1986)
The three novels of the original trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) were written three decades before the other sequels and prequels and are stylistically very different from them.
Let’s start a monumental journey in a possible far away feature of humankind.
Original Foundation Trilogy
The Foundation Trilogy is made up of the three original novels Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation, for which Asimov won the Hugo Award for best science fiction cycle in 1966.
Foundation
Hari Seldon, the first and greatest psycho-historiographer of the Galactic Empire, using complex mathematical functions invented by him and collected in a scientific framework called “psychohistory”, comes to the conclusion that the Galactic Empire would collapse within 500 years, and that before the reconstitution of a new galactic order that could ensure peace and tranquility, 30,000 years of anarchy and barbarism would pass.
In an attempt to reduce this period of chaos to just a thousand years, Seldon, who in the meantime has gained power and popularity in the capital of the Empire, uses psychohistory to push events to send a community of scientists to Terminus, a planet in the periphery of the galaxy, who will officially have the task of creating a galactic encyclopedia, a monumental work that will have to keep the technological and scientific knowledge intact for generations to come.
In reality, this foundation of scientists, which will find itself having to overcome a series of Seldon Crises or moments of crisis predicted years or even centuries earlier by Hari Seldon thanks to psychohistory, is destined according to the “Seldon plan” to become the core of the new Galactic Empire which should rise over the next thousand years.
In this first chapter, we learn about the two characters who, together with Hari Seldon, will enter the legend of the Foundation: the mayor of Terminus Salvor Hardin, who will be able to solve the first and second Seldon Crisis using the subtle weapons of diplomacy and interplanetary politics, and Hober Mallow, defined as “the prince of merchants”, who will have to face the third Seldon Crisis, which this time will involve the world of the galactic market.
Starting from this first episode Isaac Asimov shows us a science fiction different from the one we are used to today: a science fiction without aliens, without epic intergalactic battles, without mysterious supernatural forces. Each of the numerous adventures that will see the Foundation as the protagonist will touch on problems that are absolutely known to our daily reality: religion, economy, politics, and diplomacy are the themes that Asimov uses to paint the future of history of humanity.
Foundation and Empire
Defeated all the opponents and overcome all the Seldon Crises of the first 150 years of life, the Foundation inevitably finds itself having to face the Galactic Empire. The two kingdoms begin to touch: above all, rumors begin to circulate about its merchants, confused with mystical magicians with extraordinary powers. The technical level reached by the Foundation, in fact, is such that the innovations introduced seem magical compared to the technology known in the decadent Empire.
With the merchants, however, come the legends of the Second Empire, thus attracting first the attention of a strong general, Bel Riose, and, once defeated this thanks to the intervention of a merchant, Lathan Devers, of a dangerous and – in the equations of Hari Seldon – unexpected element, an individual who has symbolically assigned himself the name of the Mule. He is a mutant with enormous psychic powers, through which he is able to convert his bitterest enemies into loyal allies.
It will be the latter to defeat the Foundation and only the decisive intervention of Bayta Darell will prevent him from discovering the location of the Second Foundation and therefore from obtaining a definitive victory on the Seldon Plan.
Second Foundation
The Mule is looking for the Second Foundation created by Seldon and sends Han Pritcher, one of the conditioned to his service, along with a young, unconditioned, in the hope that the freer mind of the latter will discover its location. What he does not know, and will only discover in the end, is that he has fallen into a trap of this other Foundation, made up of people who have developed senses in all respects similar to his innate psychic powers. The main objective of this trap is to condition the Mule and prevent him from continuing the search, until his death.
After the death of the Mule, the Foundation regains control of the lost planets, but a group of people plots in the shadows thinking that, in reality, the Second Foundation, which exists for the Seldon Project to be successful, is the real and last enemy remained between them and the Second Empire. The secret of the apparent final victory of this handful of conspirators seems to lie in the great deductive abilities of little Arcadia Darell, grandson of that Bayta, who, unique in the whole Galaxy, had managed to stop the advance of the Mule.
Extension of the Cycle
Sequels
Asimov unsuccessfully attempted to end the series at the conclusion of the Second Foundation. However, since only a third of the set thousand years of the Seldon Plan had been covered, the series remained unfinished. For decades, fans asked Asimov to put his hand back, sooner or later, to the story and finish it worthily. Finally, in 1982, Asimov wrote Foundation’s Edge, set around the 500th year of the Plan. The novel was a resounding success and soon after a new episode came, Foundation and Earth, which served as a continuation and conclusion of the events of the previous novel.
However, the two novels – especially Foundation and Earth – were felt by the more orthodox fans as an u-turn to the previous stories. The Seldon plan was completely set aside at the end of the events, and the disturbing threat that transpired in the very last pages of Foundation and Earth was not developed further by Asimov, who then admitted that he actually had no idea how to continue the story. To respond to pressure from readers, Asimov threw himself into writing the prequels instead.
Prequels
Written last, but chronologically first within the Cycle, the prequels consist of two novels: Prelude to Foundation (1989) and Forward the Foundation published posthumously in 1993. They tell the story of Hari Seldon and the development of his science of psychohistory. In these two novels Asimov carries out an extensive psychological study of the main characters until, in Forward the Foundation, he identifies himself with the dying Seldon. The novels tell of the first years of the fall of the Galactic Empire and develop more the theme of psychohistory. Furthermore, they serve as a preparation for the twists and turns of the sequels – the partial setting aside of the Seldon plan itself, the role of R. Daneel Olivaw – and a worthy (though not chronologically) conclusion to the Cycle.
Contributions from other authors
The universe of the Foundation has been the subject of some stories written by the main American science fiction authors.
Second Foundation Trilogy
After Asimov’s death, his wife Janet Jeppson asked writers Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and David Brin to write a trilogy of novels – commonly known as the “Second Foundation Trilogy” – set in the scenario of the two prequels, and therefore centered on the lucky figure of Hari Seldon. The three novels are Foundation’s Fear (1997), Foundation and Chaos (1998), and Foundation’s Triumph (1999). Without a doubt, at the end of the reading experience of the saga, the work of Benford, Bear, and Brin can be read as an intelligent homage to Asimov’s inventiveness revised and corrected in the light of science fiction as the three authors understand it.
Foundation’s Fear
The story is set in the period narrated in the Forward the Foundation and is placed between the first and second part of the Asimovian novel, after the departure of Demerzel / Oliwav and before the official appointment of Hari Seldon as Prime Minister. The appointment, strongly desired by Cleon, is opposed by the Supreme Council of Trantor and its leader, Lamurk: to escape the men of Lamurk, Seldon and his wife Dors leave Trantor starting a long journey through the galaxy that will allow Seldon to know other societies and perfect his psychohistory.
Benford fails to keep himself in the Asimovian canonical line and adds elements of his production to the story: the jump into hyperspace is set aside to adopt the most probable wormholes to travel in the galaxy. In addition, virtual simulations, cybernetic networks, and alien entities are created (completely absent in the galaxy of the Foundation painted by Asimov), to the point of creating existential and philosophical debates between two artificial intelligence that simulate the personalities of Joan of Arc and Voltaire, thus breaking the veil of ignorance that in the classic saga of the Foundation envelops everything related to the history of the Earth and the most distant past of the human race.
Foundation and Chaos
With Foundation and Chaos (1998), Greg Bear continues the story, which is now set in the narrative arc traced by the chapter Psychohistoricals which opens the first of the Foundation’s classic novels.
Seldon is now in disgrace and must face the Public Health Commission of the Empire which condemns him to choose between death and exile. Here above all the figure of R. Daneel Olivaw dominates, who appears, perhaps exaggerating, the true designer of the human future compared to Seldon: the debate focuses on the goodness of the Zero Law of robotics to which Daneel adheres, that is No robot can damage the humanity or, through its inaction, allow humanity to be harmed. Behind the choices on the future of the galaxy, in fact, there is a tough battle between different factions of robots over the role they should have in safeguarding the human race. The personalities of Joan of Arc and Voltaire return, here flanked by a positronic robot damaged and deprived of the three laws, Lodovik Trema. In the meantime, the Second Foundation, directed by mentalics (able to read and shape the minds of others) Wanda Seldon, and Stettin Palver, develops on Trantor.
Bear succeeds more than his predecessor in recovering the themes dear to the original Asimov, also avoiding introducing subjects belonging to his cultural background, but using a clearly non-Asimovian style.
Foundation’s Triumph
The end of the saga is entrusted by David Brin in Foundation’s Triumph (1999).
In this novel, we witness the escalation of the clash between the factions of robots and the solution of all the events in an incredible scenario, that of the Earth, on which none other than Hari Seldon and R. Daneel Olivaw meet again. Seldon learns of the Galaxia project while remaining convinced that in the end, his Plan will be able to bring together both the two Foundations and Galaxia.
The novel represents an attempt by Brin to recompose what Asimov had upset, namely the Seldon Plan, and he tries harder than the other two predecessors to recover the Asimovian atmosphere and continuity.
Foundation’s Friends
More fortunate was the collection Foundation’s Friends (1989), an anthology of short stories set in the Asimovian universe (with a preface by Ray Bradbury). Among the stories – written by authors such as Poul Anderson, Frederik Pohl, Robert Sheckley, and Robert Silverberg – some set in the universe of the Foundation, including the stories Trantor Falls by Harry Turtledove, Foundation’s Conscience by George Zebrowski, and The Originist by Orson Scott Card.