The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov

Given his enormous output, I'm a very inexperienced Asimov reader but from what I understand his career in science fiction can be split into two major periods. The first covered the 1940s and 1950s, in which he wrote a great deal for the magazines that then dominated science fiction. Novels started appearing in 1950, starting with Pebble in the Sky, a novel of the Galactic Empire. So far I've read four of his books. The original Foundation trilogy and I, Robot. All of these have been published in the 1950-1953 period and lean heavily on work Asimov had produced in the 1940s. During the 1960s Asimov mostly wrote non-fiction. The Gods Themselves (1972) can be seen as something of a triumphant return to the genre. In this book he answers the critics of his earlier work, winning a Hugo, Nebula and Locus award in the process.

The story is that of the discovery of the electron pump, a device that promised a clean and inexhaustible source of energy by using the different laws of nature that can be found in parallel universes. The story of its discovery one of coincidence and pettiness but the man being hailed as the inventor soon achieves rock star status. His influence on the scientific world is such that he leaves a trail of broken careers in his wake and suppresses information that threatens his status and the use of 'his' invention. Not everybody is discouraged by his bullying though. Doubts are being raised about the safety of the device. Soon a theory surfaces that suggests continued use might cause the sun to go nova. Bitterness, stupidity and infighting ensue.

The title is taken from Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans, 1801) by Friedrich Schiller, who said "Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens", most commonly translated as "against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." The novel essentially consists of three novellas, each with a part of that quote in the title. The novellas had been published in Galaxy and Worlds of If earlier in 1972. I guess you could call the novel a fixup.

One of the main problems I had with Asimov's earlier books is that they read like unedited manuscripts. His prose is atrocious. Most of it is awkward dialogue with hardly any descriptive passages. Although the concepts that he discusses in these works are interesting enough, Asimov, at that point, clearly didn't have the skills to make the most of it. For that reason I decided that if I was going to read anything by him again it would be something from his later years. It must be said  he has improved. His prose still isn't exceptional but it is certainly readable. The Gods Themselves is a much smoother read than the early  Foundation novels.

Asimov also tackles some other problems with his early writing with varying degrees of success. The lack of aliens (personally I find science fiction without aliens perfectly acceptable but some people disagree), the lack of sex and the lack of well drawn female characters.  The solution to the first two is to include alien sex in the novel. Don't worry he doesn't get too explicit. The alien section of the novel, of the second novella if you will, is probably where Asimov challenges himself most as a writer. The creatures he describes are very alien. It took me a while to settle into their mode of thinking. As for the well drawn female characters, I don't think the novel passes the Bechdel test but there is one female character with an important role in the story. I guess we shouldn't expect miracles.

The stupidity Asimov refers to in the title is mostly committed by scientists. Where in most science fiction novels, and certainly in more than a few of Asimov's stories, scientists are the heroes, in this novel they are a petty, self-centered lot. Where the 'inventor' of the electron pump - who mostly got the idea handed to him by the aliens - is doing everything to protect his creation, while the scientists who got sidetracked try to discredit him out of spite. It's a sad lot and a very sharp contrast to quite a lot of other science fiction novels. I'm particularly thinking of Kim Stanley Robinson's novels that radiate a belief in the process of science, even if those practicing it can be very nasty as individuals. In this novel just about every character has purely selfish reasons for their actions, loosing perspective on the larger threat in the process. Stupidity is too mild a word in some cases.

Asimov also exposes a problem that I've come across in environmental science quite a lot. Not wanting to give up a comfort or luxury despite the obvious environmental drawbacks. I've always thought cars are a perfect example of this. There is a long list of problems associated with them. There is acidification, greenhouse gas emissions, traffic related deaths, the noise they produce, particulate matter and smog issues and the huge amounts of raw materials put into making them to name a few. Personally I also feel that they are a less than optimal solution for transporting large numbers of people in a highly urbanized environment but people have been known to disagree with me on that. Fact is we do not want to give them up, or even limit their use, so we keep looking for technological fixes. One that is popular at the moment is the development of electrical cars. It must be said they are quieter but the electricity to make them run is produced elsewhere and still for the most part by using fossil fuels. Part of the emissions is simply being shifted elsewhere, providing, at best, only a partial solution to the emission problem. And of course none to some of the other problems I've mentioned. In fact, the use of various metals in the batteries might be adding a whole new problem. Making cars sustainable is not an easy matter, it may defeat human ingenuity yet.

The novel raises the stakes much further. If we are unwilling to give up, or even limit, something with such obvious problems, how hard would it be getting people to give up what is essentially free energy without any side effects based on dubious and untested theoretical physics very few people are actually capable of understanding? Even Asimov doesn't have an answer to that. He resorts to a technical fix himself. A very elegant one it has to be said. He doesn't seem to believe humanity will be able to give up it's bad habits without something better to replace them though. Which puts the title of the novel in yet another perspective.

Some people see the Hugo win The Gods Themselves as a retroactive reward for Asimov's golden age work but I must admit I enjoyed it a lot more than everything else I've read by him. At this point he has grown as a writer, able to keep up with a younger generation of authors making a name for themselves in the 70s. There might have been books that deserved the win more, I haven't really read enough of the period to pass judgement on that, but it is certainly a strong novel. While I can see the appeal of his older work, if someone asked me for a recommendation of Asimov's work I would be much more likely to suggest this novel.

Book Details
Title: The Gods Themselves
Author: Isaac Asimov
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 269
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-575-12905-4
First published: 1972

I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

For my fifth Grand Master reading challenge, this project may well be the only one at Random Comments that runs on schedule, I decided to read something by Isaac Asimov. Several of his novels feature prominently on all kinds of recommended reading lists and he is certainly one of the genre's towering figures. I read his Foundation novels (the original trilogy) a while ago and I can't say I was overly impressed. Asimov didn't lack ideas but his prose is barely serviceable and he has the tendency to explain everything in great detail to his readers. Perhaps I should have picked something from later in his career but I, Robot (1950) is such an iconic work in the genre that I felt I should give it a go. Much to my surprise, I liked this book better than the Foundation novels. Not that the flaws in Asimov's writing are absent in this novel, but the quality of the stories is more consistent and on the whole, I though them more entertaining as well.

I, Robot has been described as a fix-up novel or a short fiction collection. I think of it as the former but it is certainly true that most of the text appeared in the shape of various short stories between 1940 and 1950 in a Super Science Fiction Stories and of course John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction, to whom the book is dedicated. Asimov has connected the stories with bits of interviews with Dr. Susan Calvin, a robotpsychologist working for U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc, as she is looking back on her long career in the field. She is not always the main character, or even a character, but she does provide just enough context to put the stories into a general future history. Asimov does this in his usual efficient way, not wasting a word more on it than absolutely necessary. I understand Asimov changed some of the details in the stories to make them more consistent. He is certainly making the most of repackaging these short stories with minimal effort here.

Being written in the 1940s, most or the novel is pretty badly dated and some of Asimov's depictions of the future will seem decidedly strange to new readers. We have caught up with the start of the series now. I, Robot starts in 1996, with the story Robbie (1940), about a primitive robot and playmate of the eight year old Gloria. The girl treats the robot like she would a human friend and this makes her mother uneasy. Robbie wil have to go. Asimov uses the story to outline the resistance against artificial intelligence, the fear of superior robots replacing human beings. First in the work space and later completely. It is an introduction to his famous three laws of robotics, which he will name in the second story Runaround (1942).

"We have: One, a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

"Right!"

"Two," continued Powell, "a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law."

"Right!"

"And three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws."

Powell and Donovan discussing the Three Laws of Robotics - Runaround

Runaround, set in 2015, introduces the field testers Powell and Donovan and is a story in which Asimov examines the conflicts that may arise from these three laws. The laws are the kind of logic that Asimov seemed to have liked, simple, elegantly formulated and its intent easily understood. He was smart enough to see they are by no means flawless though. Most of the stories contain situations in which some conflict between these laws makes the robots behave unexpectedly or cause them to be caught in a loop, often jeopardizing the project they are working on or the lives of the unfortunate humans in their company. In Runaround it happens in the supremely hostile environment on Mercury, which shows just how little we knew about conditions on the planet in 1940. It gives Asimov plenty of room to speculate though.

Some six months after events in Runaround Donovan encounter a different sort of problem. In Reason (1941), which I consider to be one of the strongest stories, Asimov takes a more philosophical tone when our field testers are stuck with a robot who will not accept the (in its opinion) contrived and unnecessarily complicated explanation for its existence. A case of Occam's razor gone blunt I suppose. This story contains the most memorable quote in the book if you appreciate sarcasm.

"I have spent these last two days in concentrated introspection", said Cutie, "and the results have been most interesting. I began at the one sure assumption I felt permitted to make. I, myself exist, because I think..."

Powell groaned, "Oh Jupiter, a robot Decartes!"

QT-1 discussing its own existence.

Cutie retreats from reality along the same lines as a human being might do in the end by resorting to religion, shutting out the need for an explanation. It is one of several instances where robotpsychology runs parallel to human psychology. Something even Susan Calvin reluctantly admits later on in the book.

In Catch That Rabit (1944) robot behaviour shows some parallels to buggy software as well. It sees our field testers use drastic measures to get the robot back under control. Asimov spends a lot of the later part of the story lecturing (disguised as a conversation between Powell and Donovan). I can't say I particularly liked it. Liar! (1941) is more interesting.Set in 2121, it deals with a robot that can read minds. The conflict arises when it receives one sets of instructions verbally, that don't correspond with the real desires of the person giving the instructions. Calvin's behaviour in this story will no doubt make some readers groan but the concept is a strong one.

By the time Little Lost Robot (1947), robots have become quite advanced and exploration of the solar system is well under way. In 2029, one such space program employs robots with a slightly altered set of robotic laws, enabling them to ignore a human being putting themselves in danger. If the mere existence of such a robot was to become public knowledge on earth, the political consequences would be dire. When one of the robots is lost, the people who run the project are in deep trouble. Calvin is called upon to find it. The three laws of robotics can be quite a restriction I suppose, so the temptation to do away with them is clear. Asimov presents a perfectly reasonable argument for doing so in this story. It might have worked better if there had been more of an element of danger in the story though. The missing robot is still unable to actively do harm. Personally I wouldn't have been particularly worried to have it around.

In Escape! (1945), positronic brains have become so advanced they are capable of calculations comparable of those of a super computer. The Brain, as this robot is called, is set to the task of creating the means for interstellar travel, a problem that has already cracked a competing robot. Calvin is aware that there is a conflict with the three laws but doesn't know where. The company tries to avoid the problem by feeding The Brain the information is small sections. It features a lot of irrational behaviour on the Brain's part. I'm not particularly fond of this story but as usual, Asimov's rationale is perfectly logical.

The book then moves on to 2032, a year that poses a completely different challenge to Susan. A Turing with a twist. In Evidence (1946), Stephen Byerley is a brilliant district attorney running for mayor, when one of his opponents accuses him of being a robot. How do you prove someone is a robot when the subject is not cooperating and very aware of his rights? Written during the aftermath of the second world war, it is easy to see what Asimov (of Russian Jewish descent himself) was aiming at. It is the most politically charged story in the book, with a lot of it focussing on the suspicion and outright hatred of robots despite the fact they are incapable of harming a human being. Where Asimov usually explains the entire plot to the reader in detail, this story is certainly food for thought.

Interestingly enough I, Robot then goes to show us some suspicion of robots might actually be warranted. In The Evitable Conflict (1950), set in 2052, Calvin has realized that robots rule the world. They are responsible for the allocation of goods and services and the division of labour of the entire planet, which by that time is divided into four super states. Calvin is called upon to explain apparent imperfections in the solution the robots provide. These turn out to have a perfectly reasonable explanation in line with the three laws of course. This story has aged very badly, Asimov's future, at this point in time, seems positively silly, although from his perspective it might not have been entirely impossible. It was not my favourite part of the book though. Partly because of Asimov's tendency to explain everything and partly because of the fact that the plot is mostly a guided tour though planetary government in 2052.

With I, Robot Asimov lays the foundation of what would become one of the three main series in his career as science fiction writer. He is not technically a good writer (at this point in his career at least) but back in the days where science fiction was very much seen as the literature of ideas, you probably couldn't do much better than Asimov. He had ideas and was not afraid to explain them at length. For the modern reader a lot of I, Robot is dated but with lasting contributions to the genre such as the three laws of robotics and the positronic brain, it is one of the novels that shaped the genre. One of the thoughts that kept returning while reading this novel is just how many things Asimov discussed that were in the experimental stage at the time, or didn't exist at all. All things considered, I think it deserves at least some of the praise that is heaped on it.

Book Details
Title: I, Robot
Author: Isaac Asimov
Publisher: Bantam Books
Pages: 224
Year: 2004
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-553-80370-9
First published: 1950

Second Foundation - Isaac Asimov

I read Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Foundation and Empire last year in my attempt to read more of the classics of Science Fiction. Without a doubt these novels left a mark on the genre, they've been read by generations of SF-fans and seven decades after the first Foundation story appeared in in Astounding Magazine, the novels are still in print. They may have been the pinnacle of Golden Age SF, I can't say I thought them great literature. Asimov's style is dreadfully direct and the previous books were in dire need of a good round of editing. The Foundation novels are big on ideas however, I have to give him that. Second Foundation is the final novel in the original trilogy. It contains two loosely connected stories, the first part was originally published in Astounding in January 1948, the second, much longer, part appeared in late 1949 and early 1950 in the same magazine.

Second Foundation is completely devoted to the mirror organisation Hari Seldon set up in Foundation. It's location is shrouded in mystery and several parties are interested in finding it. In the first part of the novel, Search by the Mule, the mentally gifted and unforeseen mutant known as the Mule, tries to find the location of this threat to his rule. He suspects the Second Foundation possesses similar qualities to his own when it comes to controlling people, making the search for them extremely difficult. He still has a few tricks up his sleeve though.

The second part of the novel, titled Search by the Foundation, is set fifty-five years after the first part, almost four centuries after Foundation. The reign of the Mule is history but the question he's left behind is not. Does history still proceed according to Seldon's predictions or has it been wrenched of the tracks by the actions of the Mule? The Second Foundation may have the answer but it has still not been found. Something a group of men on Terminus mean to change. They plan a new search for Second Foundation. What they didn't take into account, is the help they'll receive from the 14-year old daughter of one of the men.

I felt that in Foundation and Empire Asimov was challenging his own creation and asking the right questions about if and how the predictions by Seldon could actually stand the test of time. In this volume I get the feeling he is just trying to be clever by creating a plot with lots of twists and turns. The Mule was without a doubt the most interesting character in the second book of the trilogy. His talent was unique and completely unpredictable. This doesn't appear to be the case to Second Foundation however, he has clearly found their match in them. Asimov snuffs out a potentially interesting storyline here, the Mule's reign ends in stagnation. The Mule is contained, he is relegated to a conqueror whose rise and fall is nothing more than an flash in history, someone who does not leave a lasting legacy. It seems like a waste of one of the psychologically more interesting characters in the trilogy.

Second Foundation remains quite mysterious even with most of the book dedicated to the search for them. Their mental talents are unnoticed but ever present. It creates a bit of a paranoid atmosphere in the later part of the novel, with characters aware that they might be controlled but never sure if it is actually happening. Second Foundation control is always indirect, always in the shadow, leading to a story full of characters trying to anticipate the other, all the while wondering how transparent their actions are. Wheels within wheels, plots within plot but very little constructive being done. In fact, I am somewhat surprised at the rivalry between the two Foundations. The competition between them is presented as natural, even when Foundation clearly can't oversee Seldon's plan. They presume one of them will lead humanity towards the Second Empire and each feels they are the only ones qualified to do it. For groups of people so well educated, they have some remarkable blind spots.

The ending of the novel is also a bit of a mystery to me. Seldon predicted an interregnum of about a thousand years between the collapse of the first and the creation of the second empire. At the end of Second Foundation almost four centuries of this period has passed. Centuries full of strive, several crises that threatened Seldon's vision and of course the unexpected challenge by the Mule. Why would the next six centuries, which surely must be shrouded in more uncertainty than the first four, be plain sailing? The satisfied attitude of the eventual victor of all the intrigues does not seem to be justified. Apparently the Mule failed to teach them anything about the unpredictable side of nature. Given the two of books that Asimov wrote that are set after events in Second Foundation, the author may have changed his mind about that too.

On the whole Second Foundation struck me as the poorest book in a trilogy that aged none too gracefully. I can see why it is influential and why it was so popular but Asimov's unadorned prose and direct style of storytelling is not something I can get used to. Like Foundation, Second Foundation excels in explaining every detail of the plot to the reader but this time, the plot was not nearly so engaging. After reading the first two books my expectations weren't too hight but I was hopeful that the series might grow on me. I guess this book disappointed me a little. I don't regret reading this trilogy but it is time to move on to something else.

Book Details
Title: Second Foundation
Author: Isaac Asimov
Publisher: Bantam Spectra
Pages: 241
Year: 2004
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-553-80373-0
First published: 1953

Foundation and Empire - Isaac Asimov

In my effort to get better acquainted with the classics of Science Fiction I read Isaac Asimov's novel Foundation in October. It was not a bad read but I can't say I was impressed with this collection of five tales centred on the decline and fall of a galactic empire. I've decided to see this through and at least read the original trilogy. Not sure if I really want to wade into the maze of sequels, prequels and books in the series written by other authors. Foundation and Empire is the second book in the original trilogy and was first published in 1952. It contains only two, loosely connected stories both of which are set after the events in Foundation. Both stories were originally published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1945.

The first story, The General, deals with the inevitable confrontation between Foundation and the dying Galactic Empire. The Empire may be in full decline, it still commands the resources of the centre of the galaxy and when a strong emperor and ambitions general rise to the occasion, there appears to be some spirit left yet. Foundation is heading for a new Seldon crisis.
In the second story, The Mule, deals with an threat to Foundation Seldon apparently did not foresee. A rebellion against Foundation lead by a mysterious general nicknamed The Mule is making rapid progress through Foundation space. Rumours of superhuman strength and ability precede the Mule and his rebels. What if Seldon's psychohistory is not as accurate as the people on Foundation like to believe?

The fact that it contains only two stories, instead of the five contained in Foundation, make it more of a novel than a short story collection. It allows Asimov to add a bit more flesh to the bare bones of the stories presented in the first book. I'm still not terribly impressed by the writing though. It is marginally more descriptive than in the previous book but it is still a lot of dialogue. As a consequence, there is still a lot of taking the reader by the hand and walk him/her through the story going on, but I do get the feeling Asimov is asking some more interesting questions here. Foundation was, in a way, repetitive, with the outcome of a crises more or less predetermined. In Foundation and Empire, Asimov uses this predictability as a theme in the novel.

Asimov examines the related concepts of determinism and free will in this second book of the series (for another excellent take on these concepts see The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson). Seldon's psychohistory claims to very accurately predict the major developments in galactic history, making Foundation believe that although there are not guarantees for individuals, even leaders, the organisation will survive whatever crisis is thrown at it. So far, Seldon has been proven right every time. History plays out as he predicted, it appears to be predetermined. Which raises the question, why bother to get all worked up about some hotshot Empire general doomed to fail anyway? How much room does Seldon leave for free will? What of the belief that some people can indeed change the course of events by being in the right place at the right time? Is the inertia of the galaxy so great that is rolls right over individual initiative? Some pretty uncomfortable questions to ask in a country that follows a dream rooted in individualism.

So then, how do we put Seldon's theory to a real test? One technique used in science is to challenge his assumptions. And it appears Seldon made quite a few to make is models work. For one thing, he assumes that people will be people, now and in the future, and that their behaviour will remain predictable. He also assumes that no individual can have a measurable effect on the course of history. But once in a while, nature throws in a wild card, one that is very hard to foresee. The Mule, with all his rumoured special abilities, fits the bill admirably. He is many things but most likely, he is not human. So now the unpredictable side of nature is pitted against Seldon's deterministic view of the future. It's definitely the most interesting challenge psychohistory has come across.

I guess I feel that Asimov is beginning to put his idea to a serious test in this novel and that alone makes it more interesting that the previous book. It still suffers from the flaws that many books from this era possess. Cardboard characters, sexism (there is actually a woman in this novel but the way she's portrayed will most likely not meet with the approval of the modern female reader), simplistic plot and in Asimov's case, dreadfully straightforward language. Still, I think he's beginning to grow on me a bit. It'll be interesting to see where Asimov takes his story next. From the ending of this book I'd say he isn't done with the Mule yet.

Book Details
Title: Foundation and Empire
Author: Isaac Asimov
Publisher: Bantam Spectra
Pages: 244
Year: 2004
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-553-80372-3
First published: 1952

Foundation - Isaac Asimov

I while ago I asked what would be a good place to start reading Asimov. Normally I can figure out a good place to start but this man's output is enormous, even if you don't take all the non-fiction into account. I ended up with Foundation (1951), probably his best known novel and one of the earlier ones. I'm calling it a novel but that is probably not accurate. Foundation itself is a collection of five shorter pieces, four of which appeared in Astounding Magazine between 1942 and 1944. A fifth was added when Foundation appeared in book form. Although the Foundation series was originally a trilogy, Asimov wrote several more books in this setting later in his career and at some point tied up his Robot and Empire series as well, creating a series of more than a dozen novels. A whole bunch more have been added by other authors, creating a vast future history in which, chronologically, Foundation is one of the later books. Having only read one, it all seems like an unholy mess to me. So for now I am just going to stick to this novel.

In de distant future one huge galactic empire rules the planets settled by humanity. For over twelve millennia this empire has brought peace and prosperity to the galaxy but now it has grown old and tired. A brilliant mathematician named Hari Seldon, working in the field of psychohistory, develops a technique to predict large scale sociological and economic events. He soon realizes that the empire is doomed. He considers the empire to be in a spiral of decline that cannot be stopped or slowed and so he sets his mind to the time after the empire's collapse. A time when the empire will be fragmented, incapable of maintaining its scientific and technological infrastructure. A time of violence and barbarism is inevitable but Seldon sees ways to radically shorten this new dark age. He creates the Foundation.

I guess it is very much a Golden Age novel. It's short and to the point, there is not a woman in sight, lots of people seem to be addicted to tobacco and the writing is not the main attraction of the novel. That last point in particular struck me when I read the first pages. His prose has been called functional, sparse or unadorned, in some places those are very generous descriptions. To me it feels like he did one round of quick editing and that was it. Especially the relatively rare scenes that do not rely on dialogue are often rambling. On the other hand it is this reliance on dialogue that made the book age more gracefully than some of its contemporaries. There are very few descriptions of what the future actually looks like, and therefore few things that appear dated to us. Given the fact that the first story of this collection is almost seventy years old, that is quite an achievement.

Asimov is known as one of the big three of hard science fiction and this novel shows why. There is no doubt in Seldon's mind that his mathematical descriptions of society are accurate and that the predictions, very scientifically always expressed in percentages, as reliable as the math indicates. The Foundation is run as a scientific experiment, in which the participants are carefully kept ignorant to avoid influencing the outcome. Asimov even mentions a second Foundation on the other end of the galaxy. I wonder if we'll find out what happens if these two meet, later on in the series.

Science dominates the Foundation to the point where it turns into a religion. I was struck by the similarities between Frank Herbert's Dune series, in which an organisation known as the Bene Gesserit designs religions for specific purposes. It doesn't stop there. Paul Artreides and his son Leto II also have detailed knowledge of the future (acquired through a different mechanism but no less reliable) and try to force humanity on a path that will be the least costly in terms of human suffering. Interesting enough Herbert's final conclusion is that we shouldn't keep all our eggs in one basket but in Asimov's book the dream is to once again unite humanity and create a second empire.

Part of the novel is inspired by Edward Gibbons' The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (first published between 1776 and 1789), one of the first modern historic studies on the subject. In this book Gibbons states that the Roman Empire fell to the barbarians because it's citizens were no longer willing to do the civic duties necessary to maintain the empire. Which I suppose is what happens to the Galactic Empire, even if it does not have to deal with outside stresses such as barbarian invasions. The Empire frays at the edges, its influence every receding towards the centre. At the end of the 175 years covered in the book it is still mentioned as being around, far away from the Foundation and it's home at the fringe of the galaxy.

I finished this novel two days ago and I still haven't quite decided if I actually like it. It was not a boring read by any means but Asimov's style is awfully direct. On top of the general bad habits of Golden Age writers Asimov leaves absolutely no room whatsoever for ambiguity or doubt. He tells you what happens, as long as you follow his reasoning, there is very little room for any input by the reader in the form of interpretation. The most you can do is disagree with him. I guess I wouldn't have minded if Asimov had made the reader work a little harder. The idea is wonderful, I can even see why it stands out among its contemporaries, but to say it is a great novel... no, I wouldn't go that far. Still, I have decided to read the other two books in the original trilogy as well. Let's see if Foundation and Empire requires more effort on my part.

Book Details
Title: Foundation
Author: Isaac Asimov
Publisher: Bantam Spectra
Pages: 244
Year: 2004
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-553-80371-6
First published: 1951