Foundation series

Second Foundation (1953), 1973 Panther paperback edition with cover art by Chris Foss.

The Foundation Series is a science fiction series by Isaac Asimov which covers a span of about 550 years. It consists of seven volumes that are closely linked to each other, although they can be read separately. The term "Foundation Series" is often used more generally to include the Robot Series and Empire Series, which are set in the same fictional universe, but in earlier time periods. In total, there are fifteen novels and dozens of short stories written by Asimov, and six novels written by other authors after his death, expanding the time spanned by more than twenty thousand years. The series is highly acclaimed, winning the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966.^[1]

The premise of the series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology (analogous to mathematical physics) devised by Asimov and his editor John W. Campbell. Using the law of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone on a small scale. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of this mass is very large (equal to the population of the galaxy, which has a population of quadrillions of humans, inhabiting millions of star systems). The larger the number, the more predictable is the future.

Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. To shorten the period of barbarism, he creates two Foundations, small, secluded havens of all human knowledge, at "opposite ends of the galaxy".

The focus of the trilogy is on the First Foundation, that of the planet Terminus, in the extreme periphery of the galaxy. The people living there are working on an all-encompassing Encyclopedia, and are unaware of Seldon's real intentions (for if they were, the variables would become too uncontrolled). The Encyclopedia serves to preserve knowledge of the physical sciences after the collapse.

Publication history

Foundation was originally a series of eight short stories published in Astounding Magazine between May 1942 and January 1950. According to Asimov, the premise was based on ideas set forth in Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and was invented spontaneously on his way to meet with editor John W. Campbell, with whom he developed the concept.^[2]

Original trilogy

The first four stories were collected, along with a new story taking place before the others, in a single volume published by Gnome Press in 1951 as Foundation. The remainder of the stories were published in pairs as Foundation and Empire (1952) and Second Foundation (1953), resulting in the "Foundation Trilogy", as the series was known for decades.^[3]

Later sequels

In 1981, after the series had long been considered one of the most important works of modern science fiction,^[1] Asimov was persuaded by his publishers to write a fourth book, which became Foundation's Edge (1982).^[4]

Four years later, Asimov followed up with yet another sequel, Foundation and Earth (1986), which was followed by the prequels Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1993). During the lapse between writing the sequels and prequels, Asimov had tied in his Foundation series with his various other series, creating a single unified universe.

Original trilogy

The early stories were inspired by Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The plot of the series focuses on the growth and reach of the Foundation, against a backdrop of the "decline and fall of the Galactic Empire".

The focus of the books is the trends through which a civilization might progress, specifically seeking to analyze their progress, using history as a precedent. Although many science fiction novels such as Nineteen Eighty-Four or Fahrenheit 451 do this, their focus is upon how current trends in society might come to fruition, and act as a moral allegory on the modern world. The Foundation series, on the other hand, looks at the trends in a wider scope, dealing with societal evolution and adaptation rather than the human and cultural qualities at one point in time.

Furthermore, the concept of psychohistory, which gives the events in the story a sense of rational fatalism, leaves little room for moralization. Hari Seldon himself hopes that his Plan will "reduce 30,000 years of Dark Ages and barbarism to a single millennium," a goal of exceptional moral gravity. Yet events within it are often treated as inevitable and necessary, rather than deviations from the greater good. For example, the Foundation slides gradually into oligarchy and dictatorship prior to the appearance of the galactic conqueror, known as the Mule, who was able to succeed through the random chance of an empathic/telepathic mutation. But, for the most part, the book treats the purpose of Seldon's plan as unquestionable, and that slide as being necessary in it, rather than mulling over whether the slide is, on the whole, positive or negative.

The books also wrestle with the idea of individualism. Hari Seldon's plan is often treated as an inevitable mechanism of society, a vast mindless mob mentality of quadrillions of humans across the galaxy. Many in the series struggle against it, only to fail. However, the plan itself is reliant upon the cunning of individuals such as Salvor Hardin and Hober Mallow to make wise decisions that capitalize on the trends. The Mule, a single individual with remarkable mental powers, topples the Foundation and nearly destroys the Seldon plan with his special, unforeseen abilities. To repair the damage the Mule inflicts, the Second Foundation deploys a plan which turns upon individual reactions. Psychohistory is based on group trends and cannot predict with sufficient accuracy the effects of extraordinary, unforeseeable individuals; and, as originally presented, the Second Foundation's purpose was to counter this flaw. Later novels would, however, identify the Plan's uncertainties that remained at Seldon's death as the primary reason for the existence of the Second Foundation, which (unlike the First) had retained the capacity to research and further develop psychohistory.

The Foundation's location is chosen so that it acts as the focal point for the next empire to arise in another thousand years (rather than the projected thirty thousand). It is eventually revealed that the Second Foundation is located on the capital planet, Trantor, at the center of the (first) Empire. The two Foundations are thus placed at opposite social ends of the galaxy.

Sequels

Asimov unsuccessfully tried to end the series with Second Foundation. However, because of the predicted thousand years until the rise of the next Empire (of which only a few hundred had elapsed), the series lacked a sense of closure. For decades, fans pressured him to write a sequel.

The original trilogy did not include robots. The decision to merge the "Foundation Universe" with the "Robot Universe" came much later.

In 1982, Asimov gave in after a thirty-year hiatus, and wrote what was at the time a fourth volume: Foundation's Edge. This was followed shortly thereafter by Foundation and Earth. The story of this volume (which takes place some 500 years after Seldon) ties up all the loose ends, but opens a brand new line of thought in the last dozen pages. According to his widow Janet Asimov (in her biography of Isaac, It's Been a Good Life), he had no idea how to continue after Foundation and Earth, so he started writing the prequels.

Merging with other series

The series is set in the same universe as Asimov's first published novel, Pebble in the Sky, although Foundation takes place approximately ten thousand years later. Pebble in the Sky became the basis for the Empire Series. Then, at some unknown date (prior to writing Foundation's Edge) Asimov decided to merge the Foundation/Empire series with his Robot series. Thus, all three series are set in the same universe, giving them a combined length of 15 novels, and a total of about 1,500,000 words. The merge also created a time-span of the series of approximately 20,000 years.

Timeline inconsistencies

Early on during Asimov's original world-building of the Foundation universe, he established within the first published stories a chronology placing the tales approximately 50,000 years into the future from the time they were written (circa 1940). This precept was maintained in the pages of his later novel Pebble in the Sky, wherein Imperial archaeologist Bel Arvardan refers to ancient human strata discovered in the Sirius sector dating back "some 50,000 years". However, when Asimov decided decades later to retroactively integrate the universe of his Foundation and Galactic Empire novels with that of his Robot stories, a number of changes and minor discrepancies surfaced — the character R. Daneel Olivaw was established as having existed for some 20,000 years, with the original Robot novels featuring the character occurring not more than a couple of millennia after the early-21st Century Susan Calvin short stories. Also, in Foundation's Edge, mankind was referred to as having possessed interstellar space travel for only 22,000 years, a far cry from the fifty millennia of earlier works.

In the spring of 1955, Asimov published an early timeline in the pages of Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine based upon his thought processes concerning the Foundation universe's history at that point in his life, which vastly differs from its modern-era counterpart. Many included stories would later be either jettisoned from the later chronology or temporally relocated by the author. Also, the aforementioned lengthier scope of time was changed. For example, in the original 1950s timeline, humanity does not discover the hyperspatial drive until approximately the year AD 5000, whereas in the reincorporated Robot universe chronology, the first interstellar jump occurs in AD 2029, during the events of I, Robot.^[5]

Prequels

The prequels, written last in the series but chronologically first, tell the life story of Hari Seldon and (simultaneously) the development of Psychohistory. The first prequel, Prelude to Foundation, starts with a young Hari Seldon presenting a paper outlining the possibility of psychohistory, and ends with circumstances leading him to research and make psychohistory a reality. When he presents the paper, psychohistory for him is just something that is theoretically possible, but practically impossible. In this novel, he ultimately starts believing in the practicality of his work, and starts to work on it. The second novel, Forward the Foundation, takes place at intervals starting about ten years after Prelude to Foundation. It tells how psychohistory becomes functional, all while Hari loses loved ones, and the Galactic Empire continues to decay. Forward the Foundation ends just as the dying Hari finishes recording the messages to be played throughout the original trilogy. Forward the Foundation was the last Foundation novel Asimov completed before his death.

Other authors

Asimov's novels covered only 500 of the expected 1,000 years it would take for the Foundation to become a galactic empire. The Foundation universe was once again revisited in 1989's Foundation's Friends, a collection of short stories written by many prominent science fiction authors of today. Orson Scott Card's "The Originist" clarifies the founding of the Second Foundation shortly after Seldon's death; Harry Turtledove's "Trantor Falls" tells of the efforts by the Second Foundation to survive during the sacking of Trantor, the imperial capital and Second Foundation's home; and George Zebrowski's "Foundation's Conscience" is about the efforts of a historian to document Seldon's work following the rise of the Second Galactic Empire.

Also, shortly before his death in 1992, Asimov approved an outline for three novels, known as the Caliban Trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen, set between Robots and Empire and the Empire Series. The Caliban Trilogy describes the terraforming of the Spacer world Inferno, a planet where an ecological crisis forces the Spacers to abandon many long-cherished parts of their culture. Allen's novels echo the uncertainties that Asimov's later books express about the Three Laws of Robotics, and in particular the way that a thoroughly roboticized culture can degrade human initiative.

Science Fiction authors such as Orson Scott Card paid tribute to the Foundation series in the collection of short stories Foundation's Friends

After Asimov's death and at the request of Janet Asimov and the Asimov estate's representative, Ralph Vicinanza approached Gregory Benford, and asked him to write another Foundation story. He eventually agreed, and with Vicinanza and after speaking "to several authors about [the] project", formed a plan for a trilogy with "two hard SF writers broadly influenced by Asimov and of unchallenged technical ability: Greg Bear and David Brin."^[6] Foundation's Fear takes place chronologically between the first two chapters of Asimov's second prequel novel, Forward the Foundation; Foundation and Chaos is set at the same time as the first chapter of Foundation, filling in background; Foundation's Triumph covers ground following the recording of the holographic messages to the Foundation, and ties together a number of loose ends. These three books are now known collectively as the Second Foundation Trilogy.

Most recently, the Asimov Estate authorized publication of another trilogy of robot mysteries by Mark W. Tiedemann. These novels, which take place several years before Asimov's Robots and Empire, are Mirage (2000), Chimera (2001), and Aurora (2002). These were followed by yet another robot mystery, Alexander C. Irvine's Have Robot, Will Travel (2004), set five years after the Tiedemann trilogy.

There are novels by various authors (Asimov's Robot City series, Isaac Asimov's Robots and Aliens series, and Isaac Asimov's Robots in Time series) loosely connected to the Robot Series, but they contain many inconsistencies with Asimov's books, and are not generally considered part of the Foundation Series.

Cultural impact

Impact in non-fiction

In Learned Optimism,^[7] psychologist Martin Seligman identifies the Foundation series as one of the most important influences in his professional life, because of the possibility of predictive sociology based on psychological principles. He also lays claim to the first successful prediction of a major historical (sociological) event, in the 1988 US elections, and he specifically attributes this to a psychological principle.^[8]

Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, credits the Foundation series with turning his mind to economics, as the closest existing science to psychohistory.^[9][10]

A theory was proposed that Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist organisation, may have been influenced by the novel in its formation as a method to expand Islamic fundamentalist influence, even extending to the name 'Al Qaeda' which may translate to 'foundation', amongst many other words, in Arabic. Yet a Karl Marx book (Grundrisse) also translates as 'Al Qaeda', and there is no confirmation that Asimov's books were ever read by Osama Bin Laden.^[11]

Impact in fiction and entertainment

An eight-part radio adaptation of the original trilogy, with sound design by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1973 — one of the first BBC radio drama serials to be made in stereo. A BBC 7 rerun commenced in July 2003.

In 1965, the Foundation Trilogy beat several other science fiction and fantasy series (including The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien) to receive a special Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series." It is still the only series so honored. Asimov himself wrote that he assumed the one-time award had been created to honor The Lord of the Rings, and he was amazed when his work won.

Science fiction parodies, such as Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero, often display clear Foundation influences. For instance, "The Guide" of the former is spoof of the Encyclopedia Galactica, and the series actually mentions the encyclopedia by name, remarking that it is rather "dry," and consequently sells fewer copies than the guide; the latter also features the ultra-urbanized Imperial planet Helior, often parodying the logistics such a planet-city would require, but that Asimov's novel downplays when describing Trantor.

In 1995, Donald Kingsbury wrote "Historical Crisis", which he later expanded into a novel, Psychohistorical Crisis. It takes place about 2,000 years after Foundation, after the founding of the Second Galactic Empire. It is set in the same fictional universe as the Foundation series, in considerable detail, but with virtually all Foundation-specific names either changed (e.g., Kalgan becomes Lakgan), or avoided (Psychohistory is created by an unnamed, but often-referenced Founder). The novel explores the ideas of Psychohistory in a number of new directions, inspired by more recent developments in mathematics and computer science, as well as by new ideas in science fiction itself.

The oboe-like holophonor in Matt Groening's animated television series Futurama is based directly upon the "Visi-Sonor" which Magnifico plays in Foundation and Empire. (See the DVD commentary for the series' final episode, "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings".) The "Visi-Sonor" is also mirrored in an episode of Special Unit 2, where a child's television character plays an instrument that induces mind control over children.

During the 2006-2007 Marvel Comics Civil War crossover storyline, in Fantastic Four #542 Mister Fantastic revealed his own attempt to develop psychohistory, saying he was inspired after reading the Foundation series.

Film production

By 1998, New Line Cinema had spent $1.5 million developing a film version of the Foundation Trilogy. The failure to develop a new franchise was partly a reason the studio signed on to produce The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.^[12]

On July 29, 2008, it was reported that former New Line Cinema co-founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne have been signed on to produce an adaptation of the trilogy by their company Unique Pictures for Warner Brothers. This follows a period of time where the project had been under development at 20th Century Fox.^[13]

However, Columbia Pictures (Sony) successfully bid for the screen rights on January 15, 2009, and have contracted Roland Emmerich for direction. Emmerich and Michael Wimer will produce the screen adaptation.^[14]

List of books within the Foundation Universe

Prelude to Foundation contains Asimov's suggested reading order/chronology for his science fiction books in the introduction [1]. An expanded and corrected strictly-chronological reading order for the books is listed below. Another alternative is to read the books in their original order of publication, since reading the Foundation prequels prior to reading the Foundation Trilogy fundamentally alters the original narrative structure of the trilogy by spoiling what were originally presented as plot surprises. Asimov noted that there is room for a book between Robots and Empire (5) and The Stars Like Dust (6), and that he could follow Foundation and Earth (15) with additional volumes but this was never accomplished by his own hands.

Tangential books

While not mentioned in the above list, some consider the books The End of Eternity (1955) and Nemesis (1989) part of the series.

The End of Eternity is vaguely referenced in Foundation's Edge, where a character mentions the Eternals, whose "task it was to choose a reality that would be most suitable to Humanity". (The End of Eternity also refers to a "Galactic Empire" within its story.) In Forward the Foundation, Hari Seldon refers to a twenty-thousand-year-old story of "a young woman that could communicate with an entire planet that circled a sun named Nemesis," a reference to Nemesis. In Nemesis, the main colony is one of the Fifty Settlements, a collection of orbital colonies that form a state. It is possible that the Fifty Settlements were the basis for the fifty Spacer worlds in the Robot stories. The implication at the end of Nemesis that the inhabitants of the off-Earth colonies are splitting off from Earthbound humans could also be connected to a similar implication about the Spacers in Mark W. Tiedemann's Robot books.

On the other hand, these references might be just jokes by Asimov, and the stories mentioned could be just those really written by himself (as seen in The Robots of Dawn where Fastolfe makes a reference to Asimov's Liar!). Furthermore, Asimov himself did not mention The End of Eternity in the series listing from Prelude to Foundation. As for Nemesis, it was written after Prelude to Foundation, but in the author's note Asimov explicitly states that the book is not part of the Foundation series, but that some day he might tie it to the others.

Nemesis also touches on a pair of short stories published in Asimov's collection, Gold, dealing with the Fifty Settlements.

Major characters

• Hari Seldon, leader of the Psychohistorical movement which creates the Foundation and the Seldon Plan; first First Speaker of the Second Foundation (traditional), First Minister of the Galactic Empire under Cleon I, after Eto Demerzel
• R. Giskard Reventlov, the first robot able to alter human minds (of the 'diaspora' era, see I, Robot story "Liar!")
• R. Daneel Olivaw, a humanoid robot who organizes the creation of both the Seldon Plan and Gaia and Galaxia. He also assumes the names Chetter Hummin and Eto Demerzel (First Minister)
• The Mule, (originally from Gaia), a mutant who was extremely adept at altering human minds
• Dors Venabili, Seldon's wife and protector, known as the "Tiger Woman" for her physical prowess and swiftness to action. She is eventually revealed to be a humanoid robot like Daneel.
• Yugo Amaryl, Seldon's colleague, a heatsinker from the Dahl Sector of Trantor
• Emperor Cleon I, Entun Dynasty, Emperor during the first part of Hari Seldon's stay on Trantor
• Salvor Hardin, First Mayor of Terminus, first Foundationer to realize the 'farce' of the Encyclopedia Galactica
• Gaal Dornick, One of the last Psychohistorians to join the Project
• Hober Mallow, a "Merchant Prince" during the Foundation's 'Trader' days
• Bel Riose, General of the Galactic Empire
• Golan Trevize, Councilman of Terminus who discovers the secret location of Earth
• Janov Pelorat, Historian, accompanies Trevize
• Arkady Darell, granddaughter of Bayta Darrell who theorizes a location of the Second Foundation
• Blissenobiarella (Bliss), a human element of the superorganism Gaia
• Bayta Darrell, grandmother of Arkady Darell; Bayta was instrumental in the defeat of the Mule
• Raych Seldon, Hari Seldon's adopted son from the Dahl Sector of Trantor
• Wanda Seldon, Raych Seldon's eldest daughter who later becomes a Psychohistorian and second First Speaker of the Second Foundation
• Preem Palver, a very successful First Speaker of the Second Foundation
• Ebling Mis, Thought to be first person to discover the location of the Second Foundation
• Elijah Baley, Famous Earth detective and former partner of R. Daneel Olivaw

See also

• List of Foundation planets
• List of Foundation series characters
• Timeline of Asimov's Foundation Series
• Foundation: The Game

References

External links

• Early Timeline for Asimov's Foundation Universe
• books.guardian.co.uk: Terrorism and the Foundation series
• The Isaac Asimov Wiki for the Foundation Universe
• 15-Book Reading Order as Suggested by Asimov From "Author's Note" of Prelude to Foundation Doubleday (1988 hardcover edition)
• Johnny Pez's Complete chronological listing of all stories in the series
• The Foundation Trilogy (BBC Radio)