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Course Title: Literature 200, SF Classic Series:
Isaac Asimov's Foundation
Prerequisite: None
Credits: 4
Isaac Asimov (January 2, 1920 - April 6, 1992, Russian) was one of three recognized
giants in Science Fiction of his time, along with Arthur C. Clarke and Robert
A. Heinlein. It is believed that he wrote over 500 works, covering everything
in the Dewey Decimal System save philosophy.
Best known for his Sci-Fi classic Foundation, Empire, and Robot Series.
Three trilogies which were all tied together by a common shared history and a particular
common character, although they span over 10,000 years.
Few writers of any genre, in any age, have ever approached the amount of work
Isaac Asimov produced in his lifetime. Right Sarcasm University is proud to
present a course on this master, and have the hope that it will inspire curiosity
in our students to further explore the works of this most influential of authors.
Foundation
1951 p236
Book one of the original Foundation trilogy. Awarded the Hugo as Best
Series Ever. This first installment of the spectacular Foundation trilogy is
in 5 parts. Titled The Psycho historians, The Encyclopedists, the Mayors, The
Traders, The Merchant Princes. This is the beginning of a future history, a
story that has spawn a slew of trilogies and stand alone novels Main character
Hari Seldon, is not even alive anymore, having died in 12,069. But it is what
he left behind that will capture your imagination, and it is the mystery and story
telling of Asimov that provides the spark.
The Empire is dying, as certainly all great empires do. This
particular Galactic Empire is fading after 12,000 years. Hari Seldon, master
and inventor of psycho-history, knows this, has predicted this with his new math.
Unfortunately, 30,000 years of barbarism will follow the collapse before civilized
society is restored, according to the numbers of Seldon's psycho-history. To
steer man-kind swiftly through this tumultuous period and restore order, is the Foundation.
The Foundation is located on Terminus, a world on the edge of the galaxy.
Run by a group of Encyclopedist, they have access to the collected work of Hari Seldon,
as well as predictions, or rather quite accurate forecasting of the future events.
Seldon's science was based on the premise that although individuals are hard to predict,
the greater the number of people in a group, the more predictable people and events
become. Armed with this knowledge they work to steer humanity through history.
Foundation and Empire
1952 p285
Book two of the original Foundation trilogy. The second installment does
not disappoint. Again, with the mystery building style of Isaac Asimov, the
pitting of the weak against the strong and the grand notion of intergalactic geopolitics
over not only large distances but large time frames as well. Asimov captures.
By this time, the Foundation has gathered together a small number of worlds,
sequestering them from the further degradation and barbarisms of the Galactic Empire.
It is in this way, a planned enveloping of the Empire, in order to restore the
Empire, that the Foundation endeavors to complete the work of its founder. Yet
at present it seems that a mutant, the Mule, could lay to ruin all the best laid plans
of Hari Seldon and the Foundation. Did the math behind the Foundation,
the only hope for civilization for 30,000 years factor in an unpredictable talent,
a mutation like the Mule? Will the Empire crush the Foundation, and thus ensuring
the ruin and butchery that was predicted by Hari Seldon?
This is a terrific follow-up, it logically advances the story, and fortunately
for future writers, leaves many years separation from the first novel. These
large time periods between the stories allow many to fill in the holes with great
stories of their own.
Second Foundation
1953 p282
Book three of the original Foundation trilogy. This third installment
is written in two parts, Search by the Mule and Search by the Foundation.
At this point, the Foundation is floundering and the Mule is strengthening,
the revelation of a second Foundation, at the opposite end of the galaxy, has them
both in a desperate search to find the home planet of the second Foundation first.
New protagonist Arkady Darrell is only 14, and a girl!
This is the novel of hope, since the conclusion of Foundation and Empire, in
classic trilogy fashion, leaves the protagonist is ruins. In this case, the
Foundation. Although defeated, they continue on, for their cause is to save
the galaxy from 30,000 of savagery when the empire crumbles and the void is filled
by men worse than the Mule. This young lady, holds the secret.
Will it be enough?
Foundation's Edge
1982 p426
Book four of the original Foundation trilogy. The fourth installment
was written nearly thirty years since the third novel was published! Although
Isaac Asimov waited three decades, it shouldn't take students of RSU three days
to wait between the third and fourth novels!
Golan Trevize and Stor Gendibal take the center stage in advancing the Foundation
story, and despite the disconnect in timely sequels, there is no disconnect in the
type of story the reader enjoys. Another classic Asimov/Foundation mystery of
galactic scope. Trevize has been exiled for his zeal in warning of the Foundation,
and Gendibal is out to trace Trevize and come to understand how he knows so much.
The Foundation Series does not end at four, but our course does.
There are many sequels and prequels to this original four. Please shop our bookstore
for Foundation and Earth, Prelude to Foundation, Forward
the Foundation, and even Foundation's Fear by Gregory Benford.
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