I'm a fan of
science fiction stories, particularly loooong and complex tales such as
Isaac Asimov's Foundation Saga. However, for the past three years I have engaged in small attempts to experiment with other types of writing. In 2015, I tried to write
a science fantasy story. I prefer long format stories, but in 2016, I tried to write a
short summary of the Exode Saga and in 2017, I tried to write a
short mystery story. What about my writing "change challenge" for 2018?
I don't hesitate to give advice to fellow Sci Fi fans concerning good books to read. For example, I
recently decided that
Trullion is a great place for readers to obtain an introduction to the writing of
Jack Vance. Here in this blog, I've written many thousands of words about my favorite science fiction novels such as
Trullion and
The End of Eternity, but I have never tried to write a real book review for a novel. Why not? Firstly, I would only want to write a review for a book that I like. However, the books that I enjoy are complex and I doubt if I can adequately express what makes them great in a few words during the course of a book review.
Also, I've read
what Isaac Asimov once wrote about how a book review should be written and his criteria for a good book review are rather daunting. And I agree with his rules for writing a book review. Therefore, I am seriously inhibited from trying to write a book review because I do not think I could rise to Asimov's high standards. And besides, writing a serious book review is hard work. This blog is my playground, not a place for me to work hard!
Foundation and Earth
Here in this blog, I've repeatedly commented on Isaac Asimov's novel,
Foundation and Earth. Below, I'll attempt to actually write a review of this novel by Asimov.
****book review start****
Mystery story
The setting for
Foundation and Earth is Isaac Asimov's imagined galaxy of the future, the home of 25 million worlds that have been colonized by humans. It took about 10 thousand years for humans to spread outward from Earth and fill up the habitable worlds of the galaxy. Mysteriously, the location of Earth was forgotten
🤔, but a few
scholars of the far future still puzzle over the location of Humanity's home world.
Adventure story
One such historically-oriented
scholar of the future is Janov Pelorat. He is one of the three main characters in
Foundation and Earth. A threesome consisting of Janov, Bliss (short for Blissenobiarella) and Golan Trevize search for the hidden location of long-lost Earth. These three characters were introduced to readers in
Foundation's Edge, the preceding novel in the Foundation Saga. However, in his introduction to
Foundation and Earth, Asimov assured readers that it is not necessary to have read
Foundation's Edge since
Foundation and Earth stands on its own. This is a slightly misleading claim because
Foundation and Earth is not simply a romp through the universe in search of a lost planet.
 |
Bliss, Pelorat and
a robot (defunct) see |
For one thing,
Foundation and Earth is built on top of a strange kind of love triangle. Pelorat is an older man with a very loving and very much younger Bliss at his side and in his bed
🛏. Trevize is protective of his friend Pelorat and suspicious of Bliss. Why? For one thing, Bliss is not human in the conventional sense. She is from the mysterious planet Gaia where the residents have been genetically engineered to function as part of a planet-wide group mind.
Mystery within a Mystery
The larger mystery in
Foundation and Earth, beyond the location of Earth, is the issue of who would intentionally hide the location of Humanity's home planet? And why?
Foundation and Earth is told from the perspective of Trevize, a First Foundationer who is suffering from a strange psychic compulsion to discover who has recently swept through all the archives and libraries of the galaxy, removing information about the lost planet Earth.
Telepathy
Back in the 1940s, when Asimov began the Foundation Saga, he was under the influence of
John W. Campbell, the editor of
Astounding Science Fiction magazine which published all the early Foundation stories. Campbell had a particular soft spot in his
head heart for stories about
telepathy. In 1945, Asimov introduced a character called "
The Mule" into the Foundation Saga. The Mule was a "mutant" human with telepathic powers. The First Foundation is devoted to physical science, but lurking in the background is a Second Foundation, populated by a telepathic minority of Humanity.
Throughout
Foundation and Earth, Trevize is guided on his search for Earth by a mysterious telepathic force. Readers might guess that it is agents of the Second Foundation who are playing with Trevize's mind, but the mysterious source of Trevize's compulsion to find Earth remains a mystery until page 475 of this 494 page novel.
Positonic Robots
Although the Foundation Saga is famous among science fiction fans, Asimov believed that he would be remembered for his stories about
positronic robots. Until he wrote
Foundation and Earth, Asimov had not made robots a prominent element of his Foundation stories. In the years just before publishing
Foundation and Earth, Asimov had published two long novels about telepathic robots:
The Robots of Dawn and
Robots and Empire. Although these two robot novels are set 20,000 years before the events of
Foundation and Earth, readers should probably make an effort to read at least one of them before reading
Foundation and Earth. Doing so will allow readers to appreciate what is happening when robots show up and play a major role in
Foundation and Earth.
 |
- Hari Seldon -
Creator of the
two Foundations.
cover art by Stephen Youll |
Foundation and Earth could be called "The Forced Re-Education of Golan Trevize". Poor Golan is like a puppet, held in an uncomfortable position between competing galactic forces: the two Foundations, Gaia and another party lurking off stage through most of the story. His education comes during his travels through the galaxy in search of Earth. The quest to find Earth begins on Gaia, a world that does not appeal to Golan. Upon meeting Bliss and learning about the existence of Gaia, Golan hates the idea that all of Humanity might become merged into a galaxy-spanning group mind if Gaia expands (as planned) so as to encompass all 25,000,000 inhabited worlds. Through all of
Foundation and Earth, Bliss is a constant reminder of this horrific possibility, although 200 pages into the story Bliss and Golan declare a truce in their feud and they actually shake hands
🤝. Only after working together to face and survive a life-and-death crisis are they driven towards this fragile truce.
From Gaia, the three travelers go to the planet Comporellon (originally known as "Baleyworld"), with Golan piloting the
Far Star, their spaceship, a modern "gravitic" ship with a sophisticated computer interface for controlling its movements through space. The people of Comporellon have ancient myths about a legendary figure, "Benbally", a name that will be familiar to readers of
Robots and Empire. Comporellon is a planet where the residents cling to legends of Earth while they are also deeply superstitious and fearful of the past.
Mere mention of the word "Earth" sends some residents of Comporellon into a ritual act of crossing their fingers
🤞in order to ward off evil influences. What evil? Well, the evil of radioactivity, for one thing. Readers cannot avoid jumping to the (incorrect) conclusion that the location of Earth was lost and forgotten after it was destroyed in a nuclear war. Miraculously, Golan stumbles upon an historical researcher on Comporellon who has recently made a startling discovery, including the coordinates of two nearby "forbidden worlds", planets of the ancient "Spacer" civilization.
The Settlers of Baleyworld and the 50 "Spacer" worlds are described in Asimov's novels
The Robots of Dawn and
Robots and Empire. Ideally, readers of
Foundation and Earth should read those novels first. Of course, readers who first read
Foundation and Earth might become curious enough to then read Asimov's robot stories, but I fear the more common path will be one of confusion and surrender. It takes Asimov 150 pages in
Foundation and Earth before mention is made of the Spacer Worlds and modern readers with short attention spans might not make it even that far. The thought of this happening saddens me, because the way that Asimov merges his robot stories with the Foundation Saga in
Foundation and Earth is masterful. I simply wish there were a sure-fire way for
all readers to appreciate what is going on.
Ancient Robots
The travels of Golan, Pel and Bliss aboard the
Far Star continue to the Spacer planets Aurora and Solaria, which, again, in order to be appreciated, the reader should have previously read
The Robots of Dawn and
Robots and Empire. Asimov gives readers a look at two more worlds during the
Far Star's journey to Earth: Melpomenia and "New Earth". On each of these planets, Golan learns more about the origins of Humanity. In proper high adventure fashion, our three heroes meet with danger on each world that they visit. Readers slowly begin to realize that the team of Golan, Pel and Bliss was carefully selected: perhaps only they, working as a team, can survive the dangerous journey to Earth.
 |
Hari Seldon
...known through the galaxy
as the creator of Psychohistory
cover art by Michael Whelan |
Finally, Golan, Pel and Bliss reach Earth and the hidden mysteries of Earth's past are revealed to them. However, Asimov leaves readers wondering what will happen next. Sadly, he never got around to writing another book that would continue the story of his imagined galaxy past the events depicted in
Foundation and Earth. Asimov's next two books in the Foundation Saga were prequels.
Prelude to Foundation and
Forward the Foundation are intimately linked to the "hidden robots" theme that Asimov developed in
Foundation and Earth. Asimov connects the origins of Hari Seldon,
Psychohistory and the Foundations to positronic robots. Thus, an alternative to reading
The Robots of Dawn and
Robots and Empire prior to reading
Foundation and Earth is to read the the other books of the Foundation Saga first, particularly the two prequel novels.
Foundation and Earth presents readers with a long (almost 500 pages) and twisty journey to the hidden planet Earth. The journey is worthwhile: culminating in one of the great reveals of science fiction literature. Similarly, Asimov's many positronic robot and Foundation stories provide a decades long journey to
Foundation and Earth.
Foundation and Earth is not a place for readers to begin exploring Asimov's Foundation Saga, but this novel is a worthy destination to keep in mind for readers who might just be starting to read Asimov's fiction.
****book review end****
 |
| Looking for an entry point for Asimov's science fiction? Try his short story "Cal". |
 |
| Make me one with Gaia |
Always leave the reader wanting more. There are several elements that Asimov included in
Foundation and Earth that seem like dangling threads, twisty tendrils that may point towards a needed continuation of the Foundation Saga. If you have not read
Foundation and Earth then you should probably stop reading here; spoilers follow, below...
Fallom
A strange character named
Fallom becomes central to the solution of the major technological challenge in
Foundation and Earth.
 |
Jemby?
Is that you, Jemby? |
Readers must wonder: was the entire interstellar journey of Golan, Pel and Bliss to Earth designed to make it possible for them to "kidnap" Fallom and deliver this odd child to a mysterious
mastermind who for deeply personal reasons could not simply go out and capture Fallom without help? Golan seems to reach that conclusion, but he does not appear to resent having been used by the hidden
mastermind as part of a plot to kill Fallom's parent and cart Fallom away from the beloved care-taker Jemby.
 |
| Golan the Never Wrong |
Galaxia
The Mysterious
Mastermind of Earth intends to convert all of Humanity into a vast galaxy-spanning group mind called Galaxia, and Fallom is needed in order to complete that 20,000-year-long project. When Golan begins his journey of discovery in
Foundation and Earth he is profoundly uncomfortable with the idea of Gaia as a planetary group mind, but in the end he endorses the creation of a Galaxia that will span all the 25 million human-colonized worlds. Why? As a defense against aliens.
Golan concludes that Hari Seldon's science of Psychohistory was worthless and can never be used successfully to create a viable future of Humanity because its fundamental postulates assumed that the galaxy would only be populated by human beings. Seldon's Plan never took into account the existence of non-human intelligences, so Golan concludes that Galaxia (and
not a second Galactic Empire built upon the Foundations) must be the best future path for Humanity.
Alien Invaders
 |
| the odd couple |
Asimov wrote openly about why his early Foundation stories did not include any aliens. The absence of aliens was due to the heavy-handed meddling of his editor, John Campbell. Campbell had specific and inflexible views on how depictions of alien beings should be constructed and included in stories. Finding it difficult to write about aliens in a way that would satisfy Campbell, Asimov decided to simply not include any aliens in the Foundation stories that he sold to Campbell for publication in
Astounding.
This choice led to Asimov inventing a contorted explanation (involving Earth's large moon) for the uniqueness of Earth as the
only planet in the galaxy that could give rise to higher forms of life. Asimov was writing in the primitive era, before astronomers had data concerning the existence of exomoons. With the arrival of more sensitive observation techniques, such data are now becoming available to us. Asimov's in-story "explanation" for a "humans only galaxy" and no aliens remains in danger of being tossed on the trash heap of science fiction history along with networks of
canals on Mars and jungles on Venus.
The Dead Hand of Hari Seldon
 |
there are no aliens...
or are there? |
Of particular interest to readers of
Foundation and Earth is that after decades of telling readers "there are no aliens", at the end of
Foundation and Earth Asimov raises the specter of there actually being space aliens who are a danger to Humanity's future. Sadly, Asimov never showed us where this new thread might lead before he died.
Might genetic engineering be used to convert humans into a new alien-seeming species or would Asimov have chosen to depict actual space aliens arriving from beyond our galaxy as part of a sequel to
Foundation and Earth? Sadly, with Asimov's early demise, we will never know how he might have continued the Foundation Saga.
2019 Change Challenge:
Vance Theory
Related Reading: reminds me of Asimov's story "Cal"... "
Slave to Man" by Sylvia Jacobs,
Also: the path not taken,
Asimov's aliens
Next:
Quickly Beyond
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