davidgau

Essential science fiction reading, "Foundation" contains the first short stories Asimov published revolving around a concept in which he took "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," moved it 10,000 years into the future (literally), and proposed a fall of a Galactic Empire. Perhaps more impressively, Asimov managed to make an octogenarian mathematician into an iconic hero in Hari Seldon, bestowing his champion with the ability to predict the future using mathematics and thereby devise a plan to reduce the period of chaos ensuing from the empire's fall from 10,000 years to 1,000. Since the power over an entire galaxy is at stake, and the Empire hasn't actually 100% fallen yet at the time of Hari's work, he's not a terribly popular guy, and the first story goes from there. Two things about "Foundation" make it essential--it is the most famous work of a famous author; and more importantly, no matter what kind of entertaining story is unfolding in the short term, the specter of Hari Seldon's predictions lurks over everything, every short is in some sense a story-within-a-story, and that just makes everything a lot more interesting. Hari's mathematics deal in probabilities, not certainties. His plan could fail (and he knows what the odds are that it will!)! I don't want to descend into excess plot summary or detail, so if you're still curious, read the first Foundation story and see what you think.

2023-07-26 20:03