Just finished reading Foundation by Isaac Asimov and published long ago in 1951. Harry Truman was President then and computers less powerful than my iPhone took up a whole building. Although I love Science Fiction I never read anything by him before on purpose. For some reason I always thought I would not like his books. I can’t tell you why – maybe it was because he wrote so many books, maybe it was his name, maybe it was because he wrote a commentary on the bible?
I realize now I have been missing out. Foundation is a great work of Science Fiction and I am now hooked on reading the whole series.
The basic plot is a statistician (psychohistory in the book) Hari Seldon determines the galactic empire will disintegrate is a few years. With the help of the empire he sets up a couple of outposts at the edge of the empire to shorten the “dark ages” after the galactic empire’s disintegration. The remainder of Foundation tells the story of the first 3 crisis along the road to the 2nd empire.
Salvor Hardin (first mayor of Terminus, one of the outposts) is the hero of the 1st two. Hober Mallow, a trader, is the hero of the third.
After each crisis Hari reappears in a special vault in a form we know as a hologram, a term coined well after the book.
I don’t want to reveal anymore of the Saga. You need to read the book yourself. Happy reading!