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Foundation's Fear

(Second Foundation Trilogy #1)

Gregory Benford

3.85 · Rating details · 11,807 ratings · 152 reviews

Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is one of the high-water marks of science fiction. It is the monumental story of a Galactic Empire in decline, and the secret society of scientists who seek to shorten the inevitable Dark Age with the science of psychohistory. Now, with the permission -- and blessing -- of the Asimov estate, the epic saga continues.

Fate -- and a cruel Empe ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, 608 pages

Published November 2000 by Eos (first published 1997)

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Jun 18, 2011 Steven rated it liked it

This first entry into the Foundation (2) Trilogy by other authors is a mess. I would not have finished it except that I wanted to read the additional entries in the series. I had read reader reviews before I started this book, so I was prepared for it to have problems.

There are three major strands in the story. One is the attempt by the Emperor to nominate Hari as first minister. Cleon knows of Hari's work on psycohistory. This story winds its way through the 578 pages and is a relatively cogent This first entry into the Foundation (2) Trilogy by other authors is a mess. I would not have finished it except that I wanted to read the additional entries in the series. I had read reader reviews before I started this book, so I was prepared for it to have problems.

There are three major strands in the story. One is the attempt by the Emperor to nominate Hari as first minister. Cleon knows of Hari's work on psycohistory. This story winds its way through the 578 pages and is a relatively cogent, and readable story for most people, I think. There is intrigue and violence and plots and counter plots all involved in Hari's attempt to be confirmed in the position.

A second story involves simulated intelligences inside of computer systems named Voltaire and Joan of Arc. This begins in a big way around page 100 and continues on and off until the end of the book. I found this storyline uninteresting and distracting from the Foundation premise and story. I did not understand a purpose or point to this storyline. The author explains after another couple of hundred pages why the sims are important to the plot of this book. But by then I had lost all interest in them, and I think they could be removed entirely from the book, with no loss of coherence or plot development.

The third major storyline involves Chimpanzees. This storyline about pans as they are called in the book starts around page 327. I was actually looking forward to this storyline since I had read that the author introduced them as a tool for Hari's development of psycohostory. Although we see a connection between the pan episodes and Hari's theory development, here again I found this storyline distracting and merely an interlude away from the main story. Again here is a major section, which I feel could have been completely excised with a resulting improvement to the plot flow.

I give this book 3 stars, because of my strong interest in Asimov world and the other two entries in this trilogy. Also, as I mentioned I found one of the storylines interesting and worth my time. But if I did not have an ulterior motive in reading this book I would not have finished it, and it would have earned less stars from me. This is copied from my identical review in LibraryThing. ...more

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Sep 13, 2008 Danielle rated it did not like it

Shelves: pans, 2008-read

So it took me over a month to get through this disaster of a book, and I ended up skimming some of it just to get through it. If you haven't read the original Foundation books, SPOILER ahead.

The entire reason this book exists is to show, in detail, Seldon's ascent from academian to First Minister. There was an almost-interesting sidebar about how another species helped him form his theory of psychohistory. All in all, not a book worth reading.

The first part of the book starts out good: it's remi ...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Peter Hutkins rated it it was ok

"is not canon"

This book is written in a much different tone than that of Asimov's, and that takes a toll on the feel. By taking the Empire and Robot legacies and projecting onto it, I think Benford creates a distraction from the Asimov universe, not a development or refinement. It leaves me with the same slightly-betrayed feeling as if Turner Classic Movies produced a colorized spinoff called "Casablanca: the Paris years".

This book contains complicated mishmashes of ideas and philosophical tre ...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Daniel McGill rated it did not like it

How can you write a tribute to one of the greatest works of science fiction by one of the greatest science fiction authors and start out by throwing his physics out the window and replacing them with your own? Don't bother reading this one. ...more

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Jan 15, 2010 Paul, rated it it was ok

Benford was given a tough task: trying to flesh out Hari Seldon's conception of psychohistory. Benford's answer is the scientist propaganda of our day: that humanity can be understood more deeply by looking at our simian ancestors. Benford did wrestle somewhat admirably with the idea of the self as a self-organizing, emergent property of the complexity of the brain and with emotions as endemic to all animals.
However, Benford is not a very good writer, there were several times when I was simply ...more

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Feb 19, 2013 JBradford rated it really liked it

I had not even known about the second Foundation trilogy until last month, when I became an instant fan of the author of the third book in the set — so much so that I purchased that third book after reading complementary comments about it about the Internet, but it occurred to me that it made no sense to read the third book in a trilogy before reading the preceding two, so I sought this one out at the library, despite the fact that I had noticed many of those reviewing comments expressing praise I had not even known about the second Foundation trilogy until last month, when I became an instant fan of the author of the third book in the set — so much so that I purchased that third book after reading complementary comments about it about the Internet, but it occurred to me that it made no sense to read the third book in a trilogy before reading the preceding two, so I sought this one out at the library, despite the fact that I had noticed many of those reviewing comments expressing praise for the third book but seeming to have nothing but disdain for the first two. Now that I have read it and am ready to comment myself, I find myself absolutely befuddled at all the disparaging comments that have been made by other Goodreads readers about this novel. I am in fact more than tempted to rate this book at five stars, except that I keep finding myself giving as reasons for doing so things that have nothing to do with the content — such as that it is a brave new attempt to add onto an extremely popular and well-known work of the past. Something must be said about style, and I will admit that Benford’s style and pace seem a bit heavy at times. Actually, there is so much in this book that I think it needs to be read again in order to be properly evaluated … moreover, I am now convinced that, since this first book of the second Foundation trilogy apparently actually is conceived as a prequell to the first Foundation trilogy, that I must now go seek out that first trilogy (which have believed to be hiding somewhere in one of the bookshelves down in my basement) and reread it, and then read the next two of the second trilogy, and then come back to this one again, and perhaps to all of them.

Some of the disparaging reviewers have complained that there is too much dialogue in this book. There is a lot of dialogue, but for the most part I found it very interesting dialogue. There is, for example, a terrific discussion in the second part (Section 13) about the distinctions between the soul, body, and ego — with the discussion made even more interesting by the fact that it takes place between a young scientist (who happens to have a hangover and is not quite willing to admit that he has an attraction to the female scientist who works with him) and a 1000-year-old artificial re-creation of the mind of one of our past philosophers, Voltaire. This is only a prelude to a longer debate that takes place between that same Voltaire and another even older artificial re-creation, Joan of Arc, with both of these re-created intelligences having been brought back from extinction purely for the sake of conducting a debate on the question of whether man-made intelligences have a soul (a question which takes on added significance in view of the fact that we also witnessed incipient love affair between two low-level mechanicals as another side plot). Voltaire, held up as the perfect example of the rational man, comes prepared to argue that the soul does not exist; Joan of Arc, the epitome of religious thought and feeling, is selected as his most worthy opponent … but these two artificial intelligences complicate the whole process by falling in love with each other. So what have these two and their discussion to do with the world as it existed before Hari Sedon created the foundation, you might ask — and the actual answer is … probably nothing much, except that it gives Benford an opportunity to tell us many things about life in the world of the pre-Foundation empire as well as to suggest that some of the thoughts that came out of this debate were crucial to Seldon’s developing concept of psychohistory.

Similarly, there is a another extensive side plot in which Seldon and his rather remarkable wife take a “vacation” as a means of getting away from would-be assassins after a few attempts have been made on his life while waiting for the Galactic Council to approve the Emperor’s nomination of Hari as the new First Minister. This vacation includes a visit to the planet of Panucopia, where the local treat is a mental excursion that puts the intelligence of the tourists into the minds of primitive primates, which we can take to be the relatively undeveloped offspring of baboons. These excursions normally extend for just a few hours, but the long hand of the forces behind the assassination attempts reaches out even this far, and Hari and his wife find their mental selves locked into the bodies of two of these pan creatures, with no way to get back to their own bodies, which are locked away in the visitor center. Again, some of the disparagers have questioned what this side plot has to do with the story — and, again, probably very little, although Benford has Hari subsequently attributing his perfection of the psychohistory formula to some of the elements what he learned while living as a pan. In addition, Hari’s attitude toward life and the First Ministership clearly undergo a change because of this experience.

To me, these and other subplots do not seem a distraction at all. It is part of the grand, sweeping view of life in the Galactic Empire of 25 million inhabited planets, spread out in a disk like expansion from the forgotten home planet of Earth, now lost in the mists of time and legend. It is an inherent impossibility to summarize all that humanity, but Bedford does so by focusing in on a few key characters with the empire around them merely constituting a backdrop. All authors do this, of course, and in my humble opinion Bedford does it very well. When I pick up a novel that supposedly takes place 10,000 or so years in my future, I expect to find certain things very different, but I also expect to find a reasoned portrayal of how humanity fits into that different life, and this novel does that very well, indeed. The novel entertained me, amused me (which is not at all the same thing), and informed me — what more would we want from a novel?

It has been something more than 50 years, I think, since I read the Asimov’s first trilogy, and I have to admit that most of its details are more than fuzzy in my mind, which is another reason why I intend to go seek it out and read it again. I do not recall, for instance, that Hari was married to a robot — in this case, a rabbit who is charged with the particular task of protecting Hari so that he can develop his psychohistory theory. I also do not recall that R. Daneel Olivaw, one of Asimov’s greatest robot creations, was involved in that original trilogy. Whether old or new, however, I find these things portrayed in an interesting manner, and I found the novel increasingly interesting and tenacious as I went through it.

...more

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Jul 17, 2008 Karina rated it it was ok

Shelves: unsorted

The original series was so much better. I don't know what I don't like about this one: lack of action? or is it the things that the author introduces into this series: like computers, the Mesh, simulations, the theory of psychohistory... meh. don't know if I should keep on with the next books in this trilogy. ...more

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Jul 04, 2016 Graham rated it it was ok

I was re-reading this book, as part of re-reading all of the Robot, Empire, and Foundation books in in-universe chronological order and this is the first time I felt like just stopping where I was. I hemmed and hawed about whether to include these non-Asimov books in the re-read, and I kind of wish I had decided against it, but I recall thinking more positively of the other books in its series, so... We'll see.

Mostly the problem with this book is the Joan of Arc and Voltaire sims. Endless stream ...more

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Apr 11, 2017 Susan rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 30, 2020 Meng Tan rated it it was ok

I found this to be a really hard slog, with thoroughly turgid writing at times. Lots of science for the hard sci-fi fans (AI, existentialism, astrophysics) and yet I felt the story became lost in the technical details at the expense of exploring the human condition. Benford admit that he took on this project with reservations, and furthermore that he did not try to emulate Asimov's writing style, and I respect him for that, but also commiserate with those fans who were hoping for more Asimov. I ...more

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Dec 19, 2010 Tim Weakley rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 50-book-challenge-2010, science-fiction

I really failed to get into this book. I understand that Benford wasn't trying to duplicate Asimov's style. It's just that as a work in this series it didn't grab me or add into the arc of the story. The entire aspect of the sims of Voltaire and Joan of Arc was not to my taste. The portrayal of Seldon and Daneel did not live up to the other books in the series even with a large gift of creative room for the author on the part of the reader.

Maybe the other "extar books" will be better. ...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Chris rated it did not like it

Terrible continuation of the Foundation series. What was the point of this book? I'm still wondering months later. There are so many boring side discussions that have no relevance that I found myself skimming towards the end. The plot never really develops, and although I liked the ending, it left me wondering why Hari didn't just make it happen 400 pages earlier. Thoroughly unenjoyable, even to a big Foundation fan. I hear that the next two (Chaos and Triumph) are good though. ...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Mars rated it it was ok

The Seldon sections are pretty decent, but the entire Joan/Voltaire thing is unreadable drivel - my enjoyment of the book increased significantly around 75% in, after I just started skipping all the pieces about them, and I only wish I did this starting with page 1.

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Aug 24, 2020 Chaz Wyman rated it did not like it

I've read 27 pages of this so far and I'm annoyed. For a man claiming to be a scientist Benford mis represents "evolution" early on as a cause rather than an effect of change; common enough so no biggy But where does he get off with this word "Mathist". Whilst I can accept that new words appear, the lack of continuity is disconcerting. Having re-read "Prelude to F" and "Forward the F", where Seldon et al use "mathematician", never the ugly Mathist, to find that appear between the narratives of t ...more

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Jun 30, 2008 Michael rated it liked it

Recommends it for: fans of the Foundation books

Shelves: science-fiction

I've never ready any Greg Benford, so I didn't know what to expect. I found that Greg Benford does not write like Asimov. I also found that that doesn't matter.

If you're a fan of Asimov's Foundation series, as I have been since I first read it in high school, you will enjoy this book. It tells the story of how Hari Seldon came to be First Minister of the Empire. There is a lot of interaction between Hari and Dors, which I enjoyed. Bear writes with a playfulness that works well with the story. A ...more

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Apr 23, 2018 Mirek.Olech rated it did not like it

Had to finish after more-less third of it, because it was so boring...
Author is introducing new things that do not fit to existing universe.
Writing style is chaotic (although ideas may be interesting) and filled with technical language, that feels not justified by the plot.

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Oct 10, 2020 Steve Eckroad rated it liked it · review of another edition

A Welcome Addition to Asimov Arcana - But, Wordy

Succeeds in answering questions about Asimov’s SF world, like what about aliens and where do computers come in. The Voltaire / Joan subplot is both interesting and very confusing at the same time, but finally redeems itself. The role, even the identity of the alien minds (meme-minds), is never clear until the very end and then even just barely. Distinctions between the Tik-toks and the meme minds, and their interactions with the sims are are not we ...more

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Mar 21, 2015 Eoghann Irving rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

I approached this book with considerable trepidation. I'm a big fan of Asimov's original Foundation Trilogy but was not overly impressed by his later additions to the series like Foundation's Edge where he attempted to tie the Foundation stories in with his robot stories.

So, knowing that this book took place prior to the setting up of the Foundations, that it featured robots and that it was written not by Asimov (for obvious reasons) but by Gregory Benford, who's books I had never read…..

I was, I approached this book with considerable trepidation. I'm a big fan of Asimov's original Foundation Trilogy but was not overly impressed by his later additions to the series like Foundation's Edge where he attempted to tie the Foundation stories in with his robot stories.

So, knowing that this book took place prior to the setting up of the Foundations, that it featured robots and that it was written not by Asimov (for obvious reasons) but by Gregory Benford, who's books I had never read…..

I was, however, pleasantly surprised. This didn't strike me as a great original story, nor is it an Asimov Foundation book. What it is though is an entertaining story set in the Foundation universe and using familiar characters.

The story itself concerns the events in Hari Seldon's life just prior to his becoming First Minister. Specifically, his continuing development of psychohistory (which appears to be at a fairly advanced stage at this point) and the political machinations he becomes embroiled as he is drawn into politics

Various secondary strands pad out the book and the importance of some of them may not become completely clear until I have read the other two books in this trilogy.

Particularly intriguing to me was the initial appearance of the "sims" Voltaire and Joan, who engage in a most dramatic public debate. However, the rest of their plot arc was rather dull and the tie in with the main story seemed unconvincing.

Benford has a much more wordy writing style than Asimov and we get far more of what characters are thinking. We also get a fair amount of repetition. I'm not sure whether this is down to bad editing or was done because Benford thought the reader might have forgotten certain theories mentioned 100 pages earlier.

Purists may be upset by certain liberties that Benford has taken. For example the introduction of modern computers and cyberspace. The most glaring update must be replacing hyperspace ships with travel via wormholes.

To me getting upset about this sort of thing is rather missing the point. Asimov wrote roughly according to the science of the time and did update the Foundation universe himself in later stories. Not only that but as Benford notes in the afterword, Asimov was not terribly consistent about many aspects of the Foundation universe anyway.

This book does what it sets out to do, namely setup a trilogy of books which will try to answer some of the open questions about the Foundation universe. Already I am curious about just how the two Foundations get set up and exactly what role the robots play in this.

There are hints that the Robots "overseeing" isn't perhaps as snowy white and pure as one might have thought. ...more

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Jan 12, 2019 Sorin Gheorghe rated it liked it

As a stand alone it would've been a nice one. But seen it as a continuation of Asimov's work it disappoints. Not only in writing style (I miss the simple, flowing and light style of Asimov) but it presents a much more complicated universe, technology far more advanced although it was the same era, and -what irked me the most- some characters' personality was altered, some traits that Asimov hasn't bestowed on them. And the impression that the author wanted to be sure of writing a good one, to im ...more

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Sep 29, 2017 Darryl rated it it was ok

Just having Foundation in the title can send chills down my spine in anticipation. Unfortunately, Benford seems constrained when writing in Asimov's universe. His strengths are when he moves away from the Trantor created universe. His weaknesses are trying to work with The Empire. Sometimes I enjoy Benford's hard science -- but in a Foundation novel? It just doesn't work, and isn't comfortable to read. Thank goodness the reviews for the next 2 prequels are much stronger -- its the only thing mot ...more

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May 13, 2018 Woody Woodbury rated it it was ok

Disappointed- I feel that the editor failed to do their job of cutting uninteresting spurious sections of the authors manuscript. This rambled between the story and other stuff which I’m sure the author felt was relevant but really wasn’t. This book should have been half the length and dealt with Hari as a person and his development of psychohistory. I kept wondering when he was going to figure it out but by the time he did the book was over. Foundation deserved better.

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Nov 22, 2018 Gayla Bassham rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-reads, science-fiction, fiction

For me, this book was to Asimov's Foundation what the J. J. Abrams reboots are to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. And I found the Hari Seldon depicted here unrecognizable. (I feel bad because I am sure that this was a passion project for the three authors involved in this trilogy. I have enjoyed short fiction by all three of them. But Asimov's Foundation series is close to my heart and this just didn't work for m.e) ...more

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Jan 14, 2019 Mark Rabideau rated it liked it

Not a bad book, but not a really good one either. I guess my expectations were for something more powerful, along the lines of Asimov's later Foundation novels. The story line was odd and nearly insightful. Sadly, the final plot twist seemed inconsistent with certain of the characters.

I'll read the two additional follow-on "Foundation" novels for comparison purposes. We'll see what comes of that. ...more

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Jul 07, 2020 Aki Ranin rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Unnecessary

The main problem is that the ambition was low. It doesn’t extend the main storyline but adds color. But in fulfilling this minor task it compromises key elements of the entire series: mainly aliens and that Seldon knew Dors was a robot.

Further: Voltaire, Joan, pans. Just felt a little out of genre for the Foundation world.

Summary: adds little to nothing, yet manages to dilute the series. Just unnecessary.

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Aug 23, 2017 Mark rated it did not like it

I enjoyed all of Empire and Robot stories that Asimov wrote over many years. When I found Foundations Fear, I had high hopes but did not like it.

For years, my memory of how bad this book caused me to not continue the series. I finally decided to give Foundation and Chaos a chance. I'm glad I did. If you've read the Asimov stories, skip this book and start with Foundation and Chaos. ...more

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Oct 06, 2008 Rhoda rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

There were so many good ideas in this book, but I couldn't get interested in the plot until I was nearly 3/4 of the way done...then i stayed up all night to finish it. ...more

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Nov 19, 2009 Frank rated it liked it

Shelves: light-reading, usa

amazingly true to the brand and to the original author. asimover than asimov.

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Jun 19, 2011 Bruce Jones rated it really liked it

Benford leads the trilogy with a smart, philosophic close look at Hari Seldon and the robots that make crucial moves in the Foundation era.

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Oct 16, 2020 Franco rated it it was ok · review of another edition

ENGLISH
I had to decrease my rating after checking a little detail about which this book made me uncertain. What the heck is wrong with Benford? I can almost understand (but not approve of) that he felt the need to bring Asimov's universe up to date, technologically-wise. But why have the character of Dors perform self-maintenance under Hari's eyes, when Asimov clearly stated that Hari is not aware of Dors' true nature (albeit he clearly suspects) until she "dies" in "Prelude To Foundation"? And ENGLISH
I had to decrease my rating after checking a little detail about which this book made me uncertain. What the heck is wrong with Benford? I can almost understand (but not approve of) that he felt the need to bring Asimov's universe up to date, technologically-wise. But why have the character of Dors perform self-maintenance under Hari's eyes, when Asimov clearly stated that Hari is not aware of Dors' true nature (albeit he clearly suspects) until she "dies" in "Prelude To Foundation"? And didn't Dors always went to great lengths to deny her robotic nature? What was wrong with this aspect of Asimov's work?

ITALIAN
Del tradimento della mitologia Asimoviana che imperversa in questo romanzo si parla già abbondantemente in rete. L'autore ha spiegato le proprie intenzioni nella postfazione, e le sue idee non sono certo da buttare, ma il risultato lascia a desiderare per la pretenziosità delle ambizioni, la grevità della narrazione ipertrofica, la dispersività delle digressioni interminabili, la scopiazzatura di Star Trek e l'incapacità di sviluppare e approfondire gli elementi narrativi principali, ai quali viene riservata una sbrigativa soluzione nell'ultimo quarto del romanzo, come per toglierli di mezzo a seguito di un ripensamento.

Si vuole modernizzare l'universo di Asimov, come il buon dottore stesso fece nei suoi romanzi successivi, per adattarlo agli sviluppi tecnologici e sociali della nostra epoca e per rendere il futuro della Fondazione più futuribile?
Va bene, ma allora perchè far parlare Hari Seldon della "messa della domenica", o mandarlo in cucina a friggere manzo e cipolle perchè è un cibo malsano ma che lo conforta? In che modo questi dettagli tolgono al ciclo originale quell'atmosfera inevitabile di vetustà tecnosociale?
E perch raccontare per pagine e pagine un ciberspazio che tra ventimila anni sembra uguale a quello dell'usuratissima fantascienza virtuale collocata in un contesto contemporaneo?

Tornando alle idee che l'autore inietta nel romanzo, la faccenda dei "tiktok" (proto-robot ) che prendono piede nel tardo Impero è accettabile (ma inutile), come anche la scoperta dell'esistenza di alieni digitali nell'internet di Trantor, superstiti di civiltà precedenti, come anche il discorso dei wormhole: il problema è che l'autore caccia dentro a forza queste trovate senza esplorarle e giustificarle in maniera adeguata, e le rimuove alla fine del romanzo con alcune soluzioni che sono sì logiche, ma allestite in fretta e furia, per chiudere queste sottotrame senza alcun approfondimento. Non solo si stravolge l'universo di Asimov, ma lo si fa in maniera acciabattata e senza impegno, ricorrendo a una postfazione per giustificare questi cambiamenti invece che argomentarli nella storia. In un romanzo di una tale mole, è una scelta inaccettabile, specialmente se si considera che una quantità enorme di pagine è buttata via per raccontare le soporifere avventure di due simulazioni digitali perse nel ciberspazio, quelle di Voltaire e Giovanna d'Arco. Ma davvero un lettore di Asimov è interessato, in un romanzo della Fondazione, a decine e decine di pagine in cui si blatera di fede cristiana, guerra tra Francia e Inghilterra, Parigi, i bistrot, la Fiera del Rinascimento e altra roba pseudostorica (sì, perchè i due personaggi sono "simulazioni" e i loro presunti ricordi sono stati creati da programmatori vissuti migliaia di anni dopo di loro)?
Davvero al lettore interessano interminabili e confusionari sproloqui di tecnochiacchiere alla Star Trek, per dare credibilità tecnologica a queste simulazioni e al loro ciberspazio in cui continuano a muoversi in banali e triti scenari determinati dalla loro mente, e quindi del tutto falsi? Davvero al lettore di Asimov interessano le avventure di due ologrammi scappati dal Ponte Ologrammi dell'Enterprise di Star Trek, e per di più intenti a filosofeggiare continuamente sull'Io e sull'anima, scambiandosi opinioni vecchie di trentamila anni?
Come ha potuto il supervisore di questo romanzo lasciar passare pagine e pagine di questa noia logorroica e inconcludente, senza accorgersi che esse rubavano spazio ad altri passaggi narrativi rimasti inspiegati? Dobbiamo concluderne che questi passaggi (marginali, ma comunque inspiegabili) sono il residuo di altri tagli, e che questo polpettone digitale era ancora più lungo?

Sicuramente, il suddetto spazio dedicato ai battibecchi virtuali degli inesistenti Voltaire e Giovanna d'Arco avrebbe potuto essere meglio impiegato circostanziando la grottesca idea della spedizione spaziale dei robot, guidata da Daneel, che sterminò le civiltà aliene che popolavano la galassia prima degli umani, per garantire la sicurezza di Coloni e Spaziali che su stavano espandendo. Davvero dobbiamo credere che la tecnologia robotica umana, su una misera astronve, fu sufficiente per annientare precedenti civiltà interestellari, per di più eliminandone ogni prova fisica dell'esistenza, sia in termini tecnologici che biologici, fino a garantire che tutta la galassia non ospitasse altro che pianeti popolati al massimo da alghe? Davvero dobbiamo credere che un po' di robot hanno sterilizzato miliardi di mondi e cancellato ogni traccia del proprio intervento e dell'evoluzione stessa su tutti quei mondi?
Davvero gli umani non hanno mai sospettato niente, nonostante la presenza degli inspiegabile della rete di trasporto dei Wormhole, altra aggiunta inutile fatta dall'autore per pestare ulteriormente i piedi all'universo di Asimov con un macchinoso concetto tanto implausibile quanto i balzi nell'iperspazio che egli vuole accantonare? Quanto sono scemi, questi umani?
Certamente la trovata degli antichi alieni nascosti nel nucleo galattico si adatta ai timori espressi da Daneel in "Fondazione e Terra", ma questa buona intenzione non compensa neanche lontanamente l'asssurdità dell'esecuzione e del modo in cui viene infilata a forza nella narrativa dell'Impero Galattico.

Invece della confusione degli interminabili discorsi sul sesso degli angeli, altro spazio avrebbe dovuto essere concesso alla connessione tra gli alieni digitali e i TikTok, come anche al "Nuovo Rinascimento" sul pianeta Sark, di cui non abbiamo visto niente (eccetto le frasi con cui Seldon lo descrive). Sembra quasi che l'autore, troppo impegnato a pavoneggiarsi e a impressionare il lettore con un lessico ricercato, la logorrea e gli effetti speciali, si sia dimenticato delle trame che aveva iniziato, e si sia deciso a risolverle in fretta e furia quando ha esaurito lo spazio: il risultato è approssimativo, e spinge a chiedersi perchè Seldon non abbia risolto tutto così sin dall'inizio, risparmiandoci alcune centinaia di pagine di speculazioni cervellotiche e confusionarie.
Come hanno suggerito altri lettori, il romanzo può essere letto e fruito con più piacere se si saltano tutte le parti relative a Voltaire e Giovanna d'Arco nel ciberspazio (fra l'altro descritto come se fosse tecnologicamente fermo alla nostra epoca, alla faccia della "modernizzazione" dell'universo di Asimov).

Come già detto, le idee e gli scenari del romanzo sono interessanti, ma entrambi sono stati inseriti a forza (e con la grazia di un elefante) in un universo che non li contemplava, rivelando la superficialità di un autore che sembra più interessato a compiacere la propria arroganza e infilare ovunque le proprie ossessioni narrative, invece che a celebrare l'universo di Asimov.

Per fortuna, l'autore stesso si rimangia praticamente tutto nel precipitoso e raffazzonato finale, e in appendice al volume (almeno nella versione inglese) si può leggere il primo capitolo del seguito, "Fondazione e Caos", che è stato scritto da un altro autore e si dimostra già molto più interessante e in sintonia con i concetti originali di Asimov. ...more

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Feb 27, 2021 Jay rated it it was ok · review of another edition

After Asimov's death, his wife and estate contacted several prominent sci-fi authors of the late 1990s and asked them to write some interstitial novels to fill in some details of certain periods of the Foundation saga that Asimov had left unfleshed out. This is the first of those novels.

Benford's tale takes place in the period immediately preceding mathist Hari Seldon's ascension to the post of First Minister of the Empire under Emperor Cleon. It details his continuing work on the discipline of After Asimov's death, his wife and estate contacted several prominent sci-fi authors of the late 1990s and asked them to write some interstitial novels to fill in some details of certain periods of the Foundation saga that Asimov had left unfleshed out. This is the first of those novels.

Benford's tale takes place in the period immediately preceding mathist Hari Seldon's ascension to the post of First Minister of the Empire under Emperor Cleon. It details his continuing work on the discipline of psychohistory--the ability to predict human history on a grand scale. At this point Seldon hasn't settled on what use, exactly, psychohistory will be in averting the collapse of the Galactic Empire, the outlines of which he is already beginning to see. He hasn't yet come up with the idea of setting up a Foundation to help preserve the Empire's knowledge and culture, shortening the Long Night which is to come. But he is realizing that, despite his utter distaste for politics, he can best be placed to put psychohistory to practical use if he endures a tenure as First Minister. This, however, puts him in the crosshairs of multiple rivals, stretching to the utmost the abilities of his wife and bodyguard, Dors Venabili, to protect him.

Hari and Dors undergo several harrowing episodes in this story as a result of trying to keep Hari alive long enough to take office. These parts of the book are as fine examples of good sci-fi as I've come across. Unfortunately, the book suffers mightily from a subplot involving some artificial intelligences ("sims"), whose purpose I never really divined and without whom the book would have been much tighter--and shorter, as it's over 600 pages in this edition.

POSSIBLE SPOILER (though I don't think so because they don't have a material effect on this story; I can't speak yet for the other two in the trilogy) Benford also introduces the notion of alien intelligences hiding within Trantor's equivalent of a world-wide Internet. These are purported to be the remnants of an old alien race that pre-dates humanity; however, if you subscribe (as I do) to the idea that Asimov's 1955 book The End of Eternity explains why humanity never found any complex alien life anywhere else in the galaxy, this idea of Benford's contradicts that.

This book also introduces--for the first time in Asimovs Robots/Foundation milieu, I believe--the notion that a vast network of wormholes are the most common method of travels across the vast distances of the galaxy-spanning Empire. Asimov himself only ever talked about ships with hyperspace travel capability, and those still exist in Benford's book; but the "heavy lifting" of transport and communications is done via the wormholes, which would make it much easier to keep the empire from fragmenting by not limiting the speed of communication to the speed of travel, which would imply a more feudal structure to the Empire's politics than is shown in the books.

All in all a good read, especially for lovers of the Robots/Foundation series; but if I ever re-read it I will skip past all the parts with Joan and Voltaire. ...more

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About Gregory Benford

Gregory Benford

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Gregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.

As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare wit ...more