After reading Foundation’s Edge I thought I should follow up with Foundation and Earth.  When it was first published the cover claimed it was the the 5th Foundation novel.  This is the 2nd Foundation novel written after Asimov’s 30 year gap and his decision to combine his Robot and Foundation settings.

The story continues where Foundation’s Edge leaves off.  Trevise and Pelorat, along with Bliss, are now searching for the long-lost planet Earth in hopes it will answer their questions about whether or not the formation of Galaxia is a good idea and what unseen force is controlling information in the galaxy.  All things considered, I’d say I liked the book but not with the enthusiasm I was hoping I’d be able to muster.  There is a lot of information about stars in planets that comes up in conversations between the characters that kept me reading.  Like most Asimov novels, there isn’t a lot of action.

My main disappointment is, like Foundation’s Edge, this isn’t really a Foundation novel.  It should have been called the 2nd of the Expanded Universe Novels or Robot/Foundation Novels.  The book doesn’t deal with the central premise of the Foundation novels written in the 1950′s.  The early Foundation novels dealt with the Seldon Plan and the stages of development through which galactic civilization passed.  The 2 new novels deal with combining the Robot and Foundation settings and don’t even worry about what the early Foundation novels revolved around.  The early and later Foundation novels really should be seen as separate series.  In that light, Foundation and Earth is better than Foundation’s Edge because it concerns itself with the new material and mostly forgets the old.

Asimov’s thoughts on humanity and society are interesting if not encouraging.  In the original Foundation series the 2nd Foundation was so secret and so powerful that it guided humanity regardless of how humanity might struggle against it.  In the later Foundation novels a secret cabal of robots take over from the 2nd Foundation and again lead humanity secretly regardless of what humanity may want.

Despite its quality, I decided a while back to read all the Foundation novels so that I could take part in conversations with other science-fiction fans.  The Foundation Series is one of the bedrock pieces of science-fiction writing that has had a large influence on later authors.  I’m going to carry through and read Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation so that I can finish what I started.

SPOILERS ALERT

No science-fiction fan should restrict his hobby to the screen. The best stories in science-fiction remain in novels. Whenever I can find the time I read another science-fiction novel in search of a great story. This time it was Isaac Asimov’s Foundation’s Edge. Written in 1982, this novel continues the epic Foundation trilogy that Asimov wrote in the 50′s. Thirty years later the fans’ desire for a continuation of the epic was successful in coaxing Asimov’s publisher to demand a continuation.

Asimov deserves credit for being a pioneer and one of the big minds of science-fiction. The ideas he has brought to his stories earned him the honor of Grand Master of Science-Fiction. However, I do not feel compelled on any level to acknowledge Asimov as a great author. Although his style changed quite a bit from the 50′s to the 80′s, his stories remain dry and simple-minded. This is a shame as it detracts much from the brilliant ideas he built his stories around.

Foundation’s Edge is more than a continuation of the Foundation story, however. Asimov took a look at what other science-fiction authors were doing and decided to hitch a ride on the same train. Other authors of the 80′s, most notably Larry Niven, were creating detailed settings and placing many (or even all) of their stories there. In the early days of science-fiction (when Asimov was writing) authors made a new setting for every novel and short story they told. The setting was created to serve the premise of the story. Starting with Foundation’s Edge Asimov created a “Grand Asimov Universe” that linked the Robot stories with the Foundation stories. It’s worth mentioning here that the Foundation Universe Asimov created in the 50′s was the setting for not only the Foundation Trilogy but also the three Empire Novels. However those 6 books worked well in that setting. The new Grand Asimov Universe welded together two or three science-fiction universes that didn’t belong together. The resulting mishmash of Robot story material and Foundation story material didn’t sit well with me at all. The Foundation epic could have been continued quite nicely without rolling all the other stuff into it.

On its own the novel wasn’t terrible but I wouldn’t recommend it to other science-fiction fans. The leaps of logic that Asimov’s characters find unavoidable seem simplistic. The Second Foundation that was so thoroughly exposed at the end of the original trilogy hides itself again too easily and then is exposed again too easily. The hive mind of planet Gaia is an interesting idea but the way it synthesizes the Laws of Robotics (which Asimov himself saw as full of holes in his later career) and then acts to change the destiny of the galaxy seems flimsy and hard to swallow. Also, the plot device of finding a person with super-rare intuition and then Gaia’s hive mind basing its decision on his unknowable insight seems ludicrous. Even more ludicrous when you consider Gaia based its playbook on ultra logical robots!

Asimov’s early novels and short stories, while a bit dry and simplistic, are worthwhile reading for science-fiction fans. However, his later stories just don’t seem to have as much going for them. Foundation’s Edge may be worth your while but don’t blame me if you don’t like it. You were warned.