Product Description

The first volume of Asimov's saga, which won the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Novel Series. The ostensible task of Foundation, a group of savants established by Seldon on the remote planet Terminus, is to compile the "Encyclopedia Galactica", a complete account of human knowledge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2668 in Books
• Published on: 1994-03-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Foundation marks the first of a series of tales set so far in the future that Earth is all but forgotten by humans who live throughout the galaxy. Yet all is not well with the Galactic Empire. Its vast size is crippling to it. In particular, the administrative planet, honeycombed and tunneled with offices and staff, is vulnerable to attack or breakdown. The only person willing to confront this imminent catastrophe is Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian and mathematician. Seldon can scientifically predict the future, and it doesn't look pretty: a new Dark Age is scheduled to send humanity into barbarism in 500 years. He concocts a scheme to save the knowledge of the race in an Encyclopedia Galactica. But this project will take generations to complete, and who will take up the torch after him? The first Foundation trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) won a Hugo Award in 1965 for "Best All-Time Series". It's science fiction on the grand scale; one of the classics of the field. -- Brooks Peck

Review
First of a three-book series covering the world of remote tomorrows, the effectiveness of this first volume is curtailed by its attempt to cover more than a century in time with its many generations of characters. Psychohistorian Seldon senses the coming crash of the galactic empire, prepares a chosen corps of his best students to colonize a remote planet where war cannot impede his work. The story of this colony's survival and eventual command of the broken empire sustains the narrative which is- this time-better science than fiction. (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Fast-paced storytelling and plot-twists to leave the reader wanting more
Isaac Asimov's first novel in the `Foundation' series is a must read for all who enjoy science-fiction literature, and even those who would not normally read such material. The text is of a simple style, and manouvered using fast-paced storytelling and plot-twists to leave the reader wanting more after it's fairly short 240 pages. Luckily this is the first in the original Foundation trilogy, and only a small part of the expansive 40-year Foundation Series.

The focus of the story is a group of scientists called the `Encyclopedists', who are trust in the rebuilding of the 12′000 year old Galactic Empire which is facing a long and drawn-out demise. Situated at one edge of the Milky Way, these pioneers proceed through an array of religious-scientific methods to bring about the Second Galactic Empire in 1′000 years, far short of the 30′000 predicted by their founder, Hari Seldon, if his knowledge of `Psycho-history' is not embraced to engineer this transition.

One of the cornerstones of science fiction
This book, along with Frank Herbert's Dune are the two cornerstones of science fiction. Many subsequent writers owe a debt to Foundation, which is best read within the original trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation. It is extremely exciting for anyone with a sense of the 'epic' questions of the fate of mankind, or for that matter, any large society or culture. A staggering achievement.

It is hard to get to the end of this work and not want to pick up Foundation and Empire.

Now I might add that I did not personally enjoy very much the subsequent "interference" with the books created by the subsequent novels - Foundations Edge, Foundation and Earth, and Prelude to Foundation. I think Asimov's idea for the story changed as he got older (certainly the "robot" angle is increasingly emphasised, which I think is to the general detriment of the series) and while I have not read much literary criticism on this topic, I would suggest the original idea was better.

Great read
I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in science fiction and politics. I won't write a synopsis since other reviewers have already done that, but suffice to say that this book is short, easy to read and very thought-provoking, if a little dated.

While reading it, I kept wondering why no-one had ever made a movie out of it. It's ideal source material, with its strong plot and episodic narrative. It's like Star Wars for grown-ups. I guess the politics aren't to Hollywood's liking with its dual themes of control by religion and the avarice of royalty. Pity since it would make a truly wonderful film (or series of films). Maybe one day. In the meantime, read it!