Forward The Foundation By Isaac Asimov

Forward The Foundation by Isaac Asimov

[2007-11-10]
I don’t actually know if this is when I started the book, but I might as well put some date.

[2007-11-28]
I’m probably about 3/4 of the way through the novel. It basically follows the life of Hari Seldon once he is in power as the First Minister under Cleon I. That means he is the second in power of the entire Galactic Empire! Through tribulations and trials over a span of 10 years he follows in the steps of Eto Demerzel (the former First Minister and Hari’s friend).

He gets through that time even though there are a couple of attacks on his life and the regime actually turns from an Imperial rule to a military one. He has settled into his life furthering the development of psychohistory. The project has grown to a very large size and it seems to be at a critical point right now.

Seldon has just met with the head of the junta, the ruling military. At the meeting he was met with threats of cutting off the funding as well as insinuations about how useless psychohistory was. Behind the scenes, it seems like the head of the junta are preparing to make some sort of move against Seldon so that psychohistory will still be in play without him.

Dors Venabili, his wife and protector (she might very well be a robot), is trying to figure out what is going on and whether Seldon is in danger.

[2007-12-01]
So I don’t even know if this is the date that I completed this novel. In any case, I’m actually updating this almost a month later.

The book begins to wind down as all of those close to Seldon begin to die or leave. Eventually he is left alone as he is forced to send even his granddaughter away to start the Second Foundation, which will become crucial to the future of mankind.

As the end of this novel also very nearly marks the actual end of Asimov’s life, it’s rather foreboding to read about Hari’s decline in health and spirits.

I enjoyed reading the novels in the order that they were written, but I think that it would suit others better to read them in chronological order. Much of this novel did not really pique my interest simply because I had already found out more facts in other novels that were supposed to be chronologically following this one.