Foundation: The Best Science Fiction Series of All Times

Foundation is the first book in Isaac Asimov’s Trilogy. This is a collection of five short stories, and was published in 1951. The three books together are considered to be the best set of Science Fiction series of all times, and in 1966, the series had won the Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series“. The entire series has received hundreds of reviews.

The Story

The story and the situations described in the first book in the series occur in the future, approximately 50,000 years into the future. Isaac visualizes it to be a time where there exists life in the entire Galaxy. The first scene of the book involves Hari Seldon, a mathematician, and this part of the book was written after the completion of entire book, yet, it blends so well. The story flows like this; Hari Seldon develops “psychohistory”, a method that uses the law of mass action to predict what the future would be like.

Thinking through the new science, Hari predicts that the Galactic Empire would fall into barbarism, and the displeased emperor exiles him and his staff into a planet, called “The Foundation”. Hari thinks of a plan to reduce the barbaric period that follows the fall of the empire to 1,000 years from 30,000 years. Using psychohistory, hari is able to predict all that would happen in the future, and adjust time accordingly.
Foundation One goes on to focus on Salvor Hardin. He happens to be one of the initial leaders during the early years of the planet Foundation. The planet falls into a threat from its neighbors who wish to conquer the land and nuclear technology. But, Hardin is unmoved, and sticks to the thought that "violence is the last refuge of the incompetent“. However, the Foundation endures the threat, using the logic of playing off the opposing kingdoms in that area between themselves, and then by making use of religion to get hold of the kingdoms.

Writing Style

The first half of the story is fascinating, but, the second half is quite slow, and there is not much action happening. However, Hardin's idea to "do nothing" is not too convincing. Because, as the story follows, we see him provoking the whole religious section to wake and fight against the attacking kingdom.

However, the novel has not come up to the mark of what the readers expect from Asimov. The characters were not too believable, and the readers would find it difficult to relate to them. But, this is a story where character formation is not of too much importance. However, there was a lack of flow and clarity between the different parts of the story, and they were loosely connected.

This is certainly the greatest series of Science Fiction novels, but, readers who are not too interested in Science Fiction, may not develop an intense interest on this. This is because, the story is driven forward by long chunks of technical and scientific information, and this can seem quite confusing for somebody who is not a regular reader of science fiction. It might seem quite heavy for such readers. - Great for real fans of the genre and see true sciencefiction quality

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