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Foundation (Paperback)

by Isaac Asimov (Author) "His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before ..." (more)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (268 customer reviews)
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Foundation marks the first of a series of tales set so far in the future that Earth is all but forgotten by humans who live throughout the galaxy. Yet all is not well with the Galactic Empire. Its vast size is crippling to it. In particular, the administrative planet, honeycombed and tunneled with offices and staff, is vulnerable to attack or breakdown. The only person willing to confront this imminent catastrophe is Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian and mathematician. Seldon can scientifically predict the future, and it doesn't look pretty: a new Dark Age is scheduled to send humanity into barbarism in 500 years. He concocts a scheme to save the knowledge of the race in an Encyclopedia Galactica. But this project will take generations to complete, and who will take up the torch after him? The first Foundation trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) won a Hugo Award in 1965 for "Best All-Time Series." It's science fiction on the grand scale; one of the classics of the field. --Brooks Peck --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Sheldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for a fututre generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.

But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. Mankind's last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and be overrun—or fight them and be destroyed.
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His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

268 Reviews
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3 star:
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2 star:
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4.4 out of 5 stars (268 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Foundation is Astounding!, Dec 1 2003
By Yvette Champagne (Lafayette, LA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Foundation (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is amazing science fiction novel. Asimov's straightforward and simple way of writing presents the reader with a concise and well formed novel. The plot is amazing with its many twists and turns, although the character development isn't very strong. However, the lack in character development comes from Asimov's style of writing in which he presents the reader with several major characters. The entire book revolves around foreshadowing of a point in history where knowledge will be lost and barbarians will rule over an ingorant civilization. In order to shroten the period of ignorance and barbarianism, Hari Seldon forms the Foundation, a group of scholars on a planet at the edge of the galaxy. Asimov uses foreshadwing to great effect throughout the entire novel to form the plot. Another device well used by asimov is symbolism. One example is the Foundation, which is used as a symbol for hope for the future. The symbols placed throughout the novel bring about a sense of profound revelation to the reader. Irony is also used very effectively in one instance. When the encyclopedists realize that all their work was all in vain, Asimov reveals the fragility of the human intellect. He explains how the composition of human knowledge is not in one single person, but is spread out throughout all of humanity, and cannot be contained within one book or one set of books.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Psychohistory and the statistical prediction of mob behaviour!, Nov 2 2008
By Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Foundation (Mass Market Paperback)
By the end of the thirteenth millennium, mankind had populated millions of planets scattered throughout the galaxy. The centre of the imperial government was located on the planet Trantor, in effect a single planetary city some 75,000,000 square miles in extent. Every conceivable square foot of habitable space was occupied with a teeming population well in excess of 40 billion souls. Its internal problems were so vast that it was all but inevitable that its grip on the outer reaches of its dominion should weaken. The empire, like every other empire that had preceded it, was in the throes of decline.

Hari Seldon, a brilliant mathematician and psychologist developed the science of psychohistory - the use of mathematics and symbolic logic to evaluate and predict the future behaviour of statistically large segments of human population. When he applied his analysis to the Empire, the conclusions were bleak and inescapable. The stagnating Empire would imminently fall and collapse into a galactic dark age - a period of anarchy and chaos and a loss of art, culture, knowledge, technology and science that would last for thirty thousand years.

When he knew that imperial collapse was inevitable, he created the "Foundation" and implemented what was later to become known as the Seldon Plan. He couldn't stop the dark age but he could shorten its duration to a mere thousand years and give civilization the ability to start over again.

Asimov, known to his millions of fans merely as the "good doctor", certainly didn't stint when it came to the scope of his ideas and the size of the canvas on which he chose to paint. "Foundation" is a classic sci-fi novel that leans far towards the left side of the sci-fi spectrum. Hard sci-fi, technology and advanced science are touched upon only to the extent that they are necessary to make sense of an Empire that spans an entire galaxy. Quaintly, much of the science is seriously dated - data storage is on microfilm, atomic power is the norm even in spaceships that are expected to travel galactic distances - and could hardly be considered brilliantly prescient.

So it is clearly the ideas that Asimov deals with that have elevated "Foundation" to its status as one of the most loved and most read science fiction novels of all time - science as religion, the authoritarian nature of religious dogma, the insidious Machiavellian nature of political diplomacy, the inevitability of the decline and collapse of a major empire and a powerful discussion as to whether violence is a necessary tool to resolve differences or whether it is merely "the last refuge of the incompetent".

While I will happily acknowledge that "Foundation" was interesting and thoroughly enjoyable, I was somewhat disappointed to discover that it did not have the same thrill or excitement that I experienced when I first read it thirty years ago. The level of science in the book seems almost lack-lustre and in my mind did not live up to the grandiose scope of the novel. Like so many of his peers in the 1950s, women were stoutly ignored and played no part in "Foundation" at all.

Dickens wrote at the turn of the century so one expects his prose to be different. Asimov wrote "Foundation" in 1951 so one certainly expects it to be a product of that time. But, unlike Dickens (and I'm not really quite able to put my finger on the reason why), the prose simply didn't age quite as well. So, in the full knowledge that many will disagree with me, I'm unwilling to accord "Foundation" the 5-star rating that many will expect. Four stars only from this reader and a high recommendation that this book must be read if you claim to be a fan of the classic sci-fi genre.

Paul Weiss
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5.0 out of 5 stars Best book of conquest I ever read, Jan 9 2008
By S. Lemieux - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Foundation (Mass Market Paperback)
It's not just territorial conquest... it's conquest over the world of physics, technology, psychology.
I've read the whole Greater Foundation series (Robots, Empire, Foundation) and my favorite book of all is this one. But reading just this book would be like eating one cherry on a cake... better sit down and go through it all because, the whole series is better than Anything else I've seen/read/heard!

Long live the memory of Asimov!
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of time;Stick to Robot novels.
This book is one of the most overrated books I have ever read. There is very little in the way of plot and character development. There is no climax in this book. Read more
Published on July 15 2004 by R. Riordan

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Foundation" series was mesmerizing!
But, then, how could it not be when its author was the incomparable Isaac Asimov? There are, of course, plenty of other noteworthy works by all manner of Old Masters as well as... Read more
Published on Jun 16 2004 by Eric

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just the greatest trilogy ever...
But Asimov is one of the greatest science-fiction authors to have every lived. His massive work adding itself to works by other such sci-fi masters: "Childhood's End",... Read more
Published on Jun 15 2004 by Christopher

4.0 out of 5 stars A classic tale of civilizations
This is the first book in the famous Foundation trilogy. The story is simple. It's over 50,000 years in the future and humans have spread throughout the whole galaxy, with... Read more
Published on May 8 2004 by Frikle

4.0 out of 5 stars A psychohistorical futureworld inspired by Edward Gibbon
In a preface written in 1982 for a volume collecting the original "Foundation" trilogy, Asimov recalled the sources of inspiration for the series and boasted, "Why shouldn't I... Read more
Published on April 30 2004 by D. Cloyce Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars I know why this is a classic...
This is the first book I read by the author Asimov. I know there are many more famous books from him like the Robots collections and Foundation. Read more
Published on April 13 2004 by T. W. M. Philip

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sci Fi Classic, and Rightly So
Asimov was one of the incredible path-breakers for science fiction, and the Foundation books are thought by many to make up one of the best and most far-reaching series of the... Read more
Published on April 12 2004 by whizkid2000

1.0 out of 5 stars I almost read the whole thing!!!
50,000 years in the future and they are still smoking cigarettes, reading newspapers, the main power source is nuclear energy..and they carry nuclear guns??? Read more
Published on Mar 16 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book EVER!
This book is my all-time favourite book. It is so amazing, especially the science Asimov created. And it made sense too! Read more
Published on Mar 8 2004 by holodude

5.0 out of 5 stars Not only the greatest trilogy ever...
But Asimov is one of the greatest science-fiction authors to have every lived. His massive work adding itself to works by other such sci-fi masters: "Childhood's End",... Read more
Published on Feb 17 2004 by Christopher

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