Sci-Fi

The first two stories, featuring Salvor Hardin, were published in 1942, and the next two, featuring the traders, especially Hober Mallow, followed in 1944. It wasn’t until 1951 that these stories were put together as the novel, Foundation, and a new chapter – the first in the novel – was added at that time. For me, that first chapter, “The Psychohistorians,” is the strongest and most satisfying of this initial novel of the series. It introduces the world of Trantor and the Galactic Empire through the eyes of a young newcomer, Gaal Dornick, “a country boy” who, while being a brilliant mathematician, has no inkling of the true purpose of his new employment with the great Hari Seldon. He longs to tour the great city of the empire – which is hard to see because it covers the entire planet and is mostly built underground. But his dreams of working on Trantor are quickly dashed when he unexpectedly meets Seldon in person and learns for the first time about the basics of psychohistory.
I remember once hearing Alastair Reynolds asked for his recommendation about the best Asimov novel to start with for new readers. He recommended The End of Eternity, saying that Foundation was disappointing because it consists of a series of fourteen conversations, implying that they discuss but do not dramatize the key events of the story. I think that’s a fair criticism, but it’s also true that Asimov achieves a remarkable amount of variety and drama despite this limited form of narrative structure. “The Psychohistorians,” in one sense, follows the pattern: a figure of great insight explains to someone far less well informed the state of what is happening and what the likely outcomes might be. But the conversations of this first section are fresher and more dramatic than many of the others, partly because Dornick’s reactions are quite believable. He had no idea what he was getting into, that is, joining a group of mathematicians whose work was predicting the downfall of the empire and efforts to shorten the dark ages that would follow. That aspect of Seldon’s work had never been published, so it comes as a shock to Gaal that he has been drawn into such deep and dangerous waters in complete ignorance.
There quickly follow his arrest and participation in Hari Seldon’s trial for treason. This trial may be a conversation, but it has an intensity and drama which make it quite compelling. The upshot is the exile of Seldon and his group, which totals almost 100,000 people, to the planet Terminus at the Periphery of the galaxy.
The rest of the novel covers some of the major crises that confront Terminus predicted by psychohistory in its first century and a half. The first takes place fifty years following the establishment of the colony on Terminus, and the second thirty years after that. I won’t go into the details except to note that these stories follow the same pattern of the dominant figure explaining what’s going on to someone who functions as a foil. What keeps these scenes dramatically interesting, for me, is the strength of the ideas about psychohistory and figuring out how the next crisis is going to be managed. Even though we often don’t see the action, the point of each section is to explain more about the strategy for handling the crises, each of which is resolved (mostly) without violence. And in “The Mayors” and “The Merchant Princes” I think the action is quite effectively portrayed, as Hardin in the first and Mallow in the second cleverly use the different forms of power at their disposal to enhance the position of Terminus without the destruction of war.
The history of Terminus over the 155 years covered in this first novel shows an enormous evolution in the uses of power. At first, the encyclopedists assume that it is the power of knowledge, gathered in a single great publication (the Encyclopedia Galactica), that will shorten the dark ages. The first crisis reveals, as confirmed through an appearance of Seldon in hologram form, that the encyclopedia project was a ruse that could enable the establishment of Terminus without posing an obvious threat to the Empire. The resolution of the first crisis actually depends on balancing the power of other planets of the Periphery against one another, and it is Hardin who is keen enough to perceive this. By the time the second crisis comes around, thirty years later, Hardin as mayor has supplanted the power of the scholars and has overseen the development and spread to neighboring planets of a religion based on the scientific inventiveness of Terminus. It is the spiritual power of this widely believed religion that defeats the plans of a would-be emperor to destroy Terminus. After another 75 years, it is the economic power of traders like Hober Mallow that is coming to dominate, and the third crisis is averted by a blockade of trade that breaks the power of Terminus’ rival planets.
That raises interesting points about psychohistory. Supposedly, it is based on a mathematical branch of psychology which analyzes the reactions of great masses of people. It has little to say about the actions of individuals, yet it is possible for Seldon to set in motion a whole series of events which will have a tremendous impact on history by shortening the dark age following the collapse of empire from thirty thousand to one thousand years. And at the end of that thousand years, an improved version of an empire will emerge. That plan can only work, however, if each crisis psychohistory predicts can be successfully resolved. Evidently, those aspects of the plan can be thrown off by meddling of individuals. That is why there need to be powerful figures, like Hardin and Mallow, who are keen enough to perceive the unfolding of each crisis and exercise enough control over wildcard characters to let the “inevitable” resolution take place.
What impresses me about Foundation is the way in which Seldon’s plan is such a unifying force holding together the episodic nature of the narrative. While some of the conversational sections just turn into information dumping because they are so one-sided, many are powerfully dramatic and sometimes take you into the climactic moments of critical events. For me, it’s remarkable how well this novel holds up 80 years after the initial writing, especially since it doesn’t depend on character development and has none of the diversity that has become essential to contemporary science fiction.

The main story takes place on the Hail Mary spacecraft and is intercut with flashbacks as Grace's memory returns. This summary is in chronological order. In the near future, scientists observe the Sun dimming at an exponential rate, coinciding with the formation of a dim infrared line from the Sun to Venus (dubbed the Petrova line after its first observer, Dr Irina Petrova). As the dimming will cause a catastrophic ice age within thirty years, the world's governments appoint former European Space Agency administrator Eva Stratt to lead a task force to solve the problem, giving her almost unilateral authority. A space probe is sent to Venus to investigate the makeup of the Petrova line.
Stratt appoints Ryland Grace, a junior high school teacher with a PhD in molecular biology, to study a sample from the Petrova line. He discovers that it is made up of single-celled organisms which consume and release electromagnetic radiation, which he names "Astrophage",[a] and determines that Astrophage breeds by absorbing energy from the Sun and carbon dioxide from Venus.
Astrophage has also infected and dimmed nearby stars; however, one star, Tau Ceti, has resisted the infection. A starship, the Hail Mary, is created to travel to Tau Ceti to investigate, using a special engine fueled by Astrophage. Meanwhile, terraforming efforts are made on Earth to increase the greenhouse effect (prolonging the Earth's life) and to mass-produce Astrophage. They can only breed enough Astrophage for a one-way trip, so the mission will return its findings to Earth using unmanned mini-ships called "beetles". Grace trains the two science experts for the mission, but they are killed in an accident shortly before launch. With no time to train a comparably skilled replacement, Stratt forces Grace to join the suicide mission against his will; he is sedated, placed aboard the ship, and administered a temporary amnesia-inducing drug to ensure he does not sabotage the mission out of spite.
Four years and eight months later,[b] Grace emerges from his coma aboard the Hail Mary as it approaches Tau Ceti. He has no memory of his identity or situation, and finds that the rest of the crew has died en route; over the ensuing weeks, he gradually recovers his memory of the mission. The Hail Mary is approached by an alien starship, which Grace names the "Blip-A" after its default display name on the radar. The starship sends a star-map sculpture, indicating it came from 40 Eridani. The ships dock, and Grace develops a system to communicate with the eyeless, spider-like, five-legged, rock-like alien whom he names "Rocky". A skilled engineer, Rocky has been in the Tau Ceti system for 46 Earth-years and is the last survivor of his crew, the rest having died of radiation sickness. As Rocky's planet, 40 Eridani A b (dubbed "Erid" by Grace), is also under threat from Astrophage, Grace and Rocky agree to cooperate.
Grace learns that the Eridians are unaware of relativity and thus Blip-A has more than enough Astrophage fuel for both ships to return to their planets. Grace and Rocky find Tau Ceti has its own Petrova line and hypothesize that the connected planet, dubbed "Adrian", is home to an organism that preys on Astrophage, keeping its population in check. Grace and Rocky construct a 10-kilometer chain made of xenonite, an Eridian super-material, in order to collect a sample. A hull breach occurs during collection, and Grace and Rocky risk their lives to save each other. From the sample, they identify the predator microbe and name it "Taumoeba". During study, some Taumoeba get into the Hail Mary's fuel lines and eat most of the Astrophage inside. Grace and Rocky jettison the infected tank and sterilize the Hail Mary by flooding it with nitrogen, which is lethal to Taumoeba.
Grace and Rocky use selective breeding to produce Taumoeba that can survive the atmospheres of both Venus and the planet where Astrophage breeds around 40 Eridani. Rocky repairs and refuels the Hail Mary before parting ways with Grace. En route to Earth, Grace discovers that he accidentally bred into the Taumoeba the ability to penetrate their xenonite containers. He quarantines them on the Hail Mary but realizes that the Blip-A is made almost entirely of xenonite, meaning that the Taumoeba will consume its Astrophage fuel and leave Rocky stranded.
Grace is forced to choose between returning to Earth as a hero but dooming the Eridians, or saving the Eridians while facing his own starvation on Erid where the food is toxic to humans. Grace sends the beetles back to Earth with Taumoeba farms and instructions to save the Sun. He locates the Blip-A and rescues Rocky, who is overjoyed and points out the possibility that Grace could survive by consuming Taumoeba.
Sixteen years later, Grace is living on Erid, now rid of its Astrophage infection. Using Grace's digital archive of human knowledge, the Eridians have built him a comfortable environment and synthetic food. Rocky tells Grace that Earth's Sun has returned to its original luminance, marking the success of Grace's mission. Knowing that humanity has survived on Earth, Grace contemplates going home before returning to his current job as a science teacher for young Eridian students.