Foundation (Isaac Asimov novel)
Dust-jacket of the first edition
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| Author | Isaac Asimov |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | David Kyle |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Foundation Series |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Gnome Press |
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Publication date
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1951 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 255 pp |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | Foundation and Empire |
Foundation is the first novel in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy (later expanded into The Foundation Series). Foundation is a cycle of five interrelated short stories, first published as a single book by Gnome Press in 1951. Collectively they tell the story of the Foundation, an institute to preserve the best of galactic civilization after the collapse of the Galactic Empire.
Four of the five stories had been earlier published in Astounding Magazine (with different titles) between 1942 and 1944, and a fifth story (positioned first in the book) was added when they first appeared in book form. The original four stories also appeared in 1955 as part of Ace Double's novel series as D-110 under the title The 1,000-Year Plan.
Two further books, each consisting of two novellas, were published shortly after. Decades later, Asimov wrote two further sequel novels and two prequels. Later writers have added authorized tales to the series. The Foundation Series is often regarded as one of Isaac Asimov's best works, along with his Robot series.
(First in the book edition in 1951)
Set in the year 0 F.E. ("Foundation Era"), The Psychohistorians opens on Trantor, the capital of the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire. Though the empire appears stable and powerful, it is slowly decaying in ways that parallel the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Hari Seldon, a mathematician and psychologist, has developed psychohistory, a new field of science and psychology that equates all possibilities in large societies to mathematics, allowing for the prediction of future events.
Using psychohistory, Seldon has discovered the declining nature of the Empire, angering the aristocratic members of the Committee of Public Safety, the de facto rulers of the Empire. The Committee considers Seldon's views and statements treasonous, and he is arrested along with young mathematician Gaal Dornick, who has arrived on Trantor to meet Seldon. Seldon is tried by the Committee and defends his beliefs, explaining his theories and predictions, including his belief that the Empire will collapse in 300 years and enter a 30,000-year dark age, to the Committee's members. He informs the Committee that an alternative to this future is attainable, and explains to them that creating a compendium of all human knowledge, the Encyclopedia Galactica, would not avert the inevitable fall of the Empire but would reduce the dark age to one millennium.
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Wikipedia