Review- foundation

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'd never read Asimov before, and this book is the first in the 'foundation' series, which is supposed to be amongst his best work. The story is set amongst the 'galactic empire' in the far future, where human civilization has spread over many planets. Despite the apparent strength of the empire, a brilliant scientist, Hari Seldon, predicts its demise through his development of the doctrine of 'psychohistory', a means of determining the future of populations through a mixture of statistics and psychology. As a result, Seldon and his followers are exiled to a far flung planet where they establish the foundation of the title, which is dedicated to protecting civilization.

On the plus side, the book was easy to read, with enough factions and rapid changes of scene to maintain interest. The action largely takes place at a level of political discussions amongst leaders, trade disputes and the like, which is naturally going to be appeal to some readers more than others. There is an ambition of scale to the backdrop of the book that lends a grandiosity to events.

On the other hand, there is a strange lack of futurism for a book set so far in the future. Apparently, 10,000 years from now, the defining technology of civilization will be... atomic power. Patterns of speech and political organization are reminiscent of nineteenth century Europe (there are a lot of monarchies), and mayors smoke cigars. There aren't any woman in the future. The novel seems intellectually lightweight- the foundation is ruled by a series of 'great men', each of whom infer the future by follows the signs that Seldon left behind in his writings, in the best style of conspiracy theorists everywhere. This is fun, but not a plausible idea of how a technologically advanced society would develop.

Overall, the book is worth reading, and I will probably read the next one in the series at some point, although I wouldn't describe the book as a classic.



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