Since my last post, I have finished the books The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun. As mentioned before, both books follow the detective Elijah Baley and his partner R. Daneel Olivaw.
The Caves of Steel is a more traditional mystery story (except set in the future, of course) than The Naked Sun; it all takes place on Earth. I won’t really go into the storyline, as it would be difficult to do with a mystery story, but suffice it to say that it’s a great story. Besides being a good mystery story (even if the end isn’t all that surprising) it shows just enough of the strange culture of this future Earth to make you want more.
I was wrong in saying that the problem was lack of space in my last post; it was lack of resources (a much more reasonable problem). Food is rationed, and such things as actual meat are rarities. The majority of the food for the planet is specially bred yeast. They can make anything from stand-in strawberries to lubricant from it.
A good deal of the book deals with the fight by Earthmen to arrest the integration of robots into the economy. Everyone accepts that robots can work in the fields, but as they become more common in the Cities, riots have occurred.
The Cities are also important to both stories. They are giant caves of steel and concrete (hence the title) that house the grand majority of the inhabitants of Earth. They are essentially giant, opaque domes enclosing the entire city. These have the major drawback of massive consumption of resources; they cannot support themselves for a single hour. If even something simple were to go wrong; catastrophe.
The Naked Sun takes place on the planet of Solaria, which has a population of 20,000. It’s robots outnumber its humans 10,000:1. Elijah Baley and R. Daneel are sent both to solve another murder and to spy for their respective planets, Earth and Aurora (the most powerful of all the 51 inhabited worlds).
Earth fears an invasion by the Outer Worlds; an invasion in front of which, they would be powerless. Elijah is expected to find their weaknesses. Of R. Daneel’s mission, however, we know little about.
This book deals heavily with psychology and sociology. The citizens of both Earth and Solaria have developed irrational fears due to their lifestyles; those on Earth fear the outdoors, and those on Solaria, each other.
Elijah is forced to confront his fear of the open air; the naked sun. All those humans of Earth who inhabit the Cities have this fear; very few ever venture outside. Elijah considers it barbaric to live one’s life as dictated by the rotation of the planet. It is unlikely that he will ever truly overcome this fear; it’s likely a mental disorder, honestly. If he spends too much time outside, he will actually faint.
The Solarians, on the other hand, fear “seeing” each other. Due to its low population, they are isolated from each other, and meet each other only through “viewing;” seeing each other by hologram. This has led to a great fear of “seeing.” Even a woman who frequently “sees” children will only allow Baley to stand 20 feet away. One other man couldn’t handle his presence and eventually fled from the room, still another committed suicide at the threat of someone going to meet him. Depending on whom you ask, the planet may be a utopia, dystopia, or just something in between (hmm, Word doesn’t recognize “dystopia”).
They are isolated from all physical contact with other humans beginning in roughly their teens. It is considered horrible that younger children enjoy contact, enjoy “seeing” each other, enjoy playing physical games. This occurs in only one building on the planet, where all of the children are brought up from one-month-old fetuses until they are ready for their own estate.
Spouses are assigned to each person, and, as the population is rigidly controlled, children are only allowed if it is approved (by whom, I’m not sure) after an examination of each person’s genes; fetuses with genes showing a likelihood of such things as nearsightedness are killed (on all of the Spacer planets, genetic defects and disease are virtually unknown; this is both a strength and a weakness; they have no natural immunity). The assignation of a spouse is quite traumatic for both parties, due to the aforementioned fear.
However, tricentenarians are very common.
Interestingly, these are just two in a long string of books that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I find very few that I don’t. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that, despite being a fan of fantasy and sci-fi, I really don’t like Lord of the Rings and Dune much at all.
Too bad my luck at finding books I like (or my mom’s luck, perhaps) doesn’t stretch to enjoying books that are assigned to me. Dracula and Frankenstein were pretty good, but summer reading books tend to get under my skin.
The title this time is a reference to Children of Dune. It doesn’t really refer to the actual plot (which I don’t remember) but rather to the fact that the Outer Worlds, once colonies of Earth, have turned against it, and are perhaps even preparing for war.
Stay tuned for The Robots of Dawn; the next of the Robot series.
Ach, I forgot something important; another major subplot of the books is that Earth must colonize more worlds in order to survive (the only Earthman who know this is Elijah, as he has been manipulated by the Spacers). Those new colonies would be better than any of the currently inhabited worlds, as they would have take things to fewer extremes, being used to having some robots around but not relying upon them overmuch (I think that was the reasoning, anyway).
It would relieve the pressure of the population on Earth (which hardly compares to the future population of Trantor) and they would be able to establish a stable C/Fe culture, as it is called in the books (Carbon/Iron; Human/Robot).
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Smallness
This is a minor post, so it doesn't get a clever (to my mind, at least) name.
The Caves of Steel, the first of Asimov's Robot series, is set significantly closer in time period than Foundation (a few millenia). By this point, animosity has grown between the Spacers and those who live all their lives on Earth.
There is also a great deal of anger toward robots, which are taking over peoples' jobs.
Elijah is an investigator who has been assigned to the murder of a Spacer; a scientist. His partner, as dictated by the Spacers, is R. Daneel Olivaw; the murdered scientist's greatest creation; "R." standing for Robot.
Interestingly, this book seems to deal with overpopulation (here comes the reason for my post). A global population of eight billion strains the available living space on Earth. That's right only eight billion; that's just 1.2 billion more than today's population. A little research, however, shows that the world's population had just his 3 billion in 1960, several years after this book was written. Asimov must really have thought that a 166% increase would have been disasterous.
He probably never imagined that we are now projected to hit 9 billion by 2050; several years before he predicted we would hit 8 billion.
Although, Wikipedia claims that the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that we'll hit 7 billion in July of 2012. 2012. It's going to cause the end of the world over the course of five months; I'm calling it right now.
On the topic of the book, this older copy has the worst image of a robot that I could possibly imagine. It's hilariously impossible.
http://www.amazon.com/Robot-Novels-Caves-Steel-Naked/dp/B000PC46DU
Look at it! (That naked bit refers to The Naked Sun, which is also in this copy of the book.)
The Caves of Steel, the first of Asimov's Robot series, is set significantly closer in time period than Foundation (a few millenia). By this point, animosity has grown between the Spacers and those who live all their lives on Earth.
There is also a great deal of anger toward robots, which are taking over peoples' jobs.
Elijah is an investigator who has been assigned to the murder of a Spacer; a scientist. His partner, as dictated by the Spacers, is R. Daneel Olivaw; the murdered scientist's greatest creation; "R." standing for Robot.
Interestingly, this book seems to deal with overpopulation (here comes the reason for my post). A global population of eight billion strains the available living space on Earth. That's right only eight billion; that's just 1.2 billion more than today's population. A little research, however, shows that the world's population had just his 3 billion in 1960, several years after this book was written. Asimov must really have thought that a 166% increase would have been disasterous.
He probably never imagined that we are now projected to hit 9 billion by 2050; several years before he predicted we would hit 8 billion.
Although, Wikipedia claims that the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that we'll hit 7 billion in July of 2012. 2012. It's going to cause the end of the world over the course of five months; I'm calling it right now.
On the topic of the book, this older copy has the worst image of a robot that I could possibly imagine. It's hilariously impossible.
http://www.amazon.com/Robot-Novels-Caves-Steel-Naked/dp/B000PC46DU
Look at it! (That naked bit refers to The Naked Sun, which is also in this copy of the book.)
Friday, October 22, 2010
The Foundationa Strain
I would like to share my new favorite word with everyone.
quixotic-adj.-resembling or befitting Don Quixote
That's right, he has a word (in the English dictionary) that was named after him! Plus, they apparently still know it even after they've forgotten where the human race originated! I guess it's going to become wildly popular soon.
Otherwise, I’ve finished my Gothic story, and I’m quite happy with it. I hope anyone reading this will enjoy it (and vote for it) when it’s read in class.
In Second Foundation, we start with the Mule. He has searched for the Second Foundation for 5 years; during this time period he has not expanded his empire. He sends out a man who he has not used his mutant powers on, along with one who has been artificially faithful to him for years.
The unaltered man finds the Second Foundation to a planet at the center of a much smaller empire. With the other man, he travels to a small planet in the empire to prove his conjecture.
Once there, he accuses the Mule’s man of having been altered by a Second Foundationer, who are known to have mental powers surpassing the Mule’s. Just then, the Mule appears, having traced the ship. He knows the man to be from the Second Foundation, and engages him in a battle of wills. The Mule wins, and forces him to tell the true location of the Second Foundation; the planet they are currently on.
The First Speaker, leader of the Second Foundation, then enters. He reveals that the first man had volunteered to have his mind altered into believing an incorrect location for the Second Foundation. He overpowers the Mule, and forcibly changes him into a more harmless dictator.
In the second section, we skip a bit further into the future, to join a 14-year old girl named Arkady.
We also see the new First Speaker, who knows that the Foundation is becoming dangerously close to destroying Seldon’s plan by studying to far into psychology and relying on the Second Foundation to keep them safe.
He tricks the leading psychologists there into believing they had destroyed the Second Foundation (who they knew were altering the minds of many of the Foundation’s leaders) with a psychic weapon that they had developed.
At the same time, Arkady realizes the location of the Second Foundation to be Terminus itself, as a circle (the galaxy) has no end. This is untrue, and it is later revealed that Arkady had been altered at birth, so the psychologists could detect nothing unusual in her, as being altered was her usual state.
A conversation between the First Speaker (who doesn’t actually speak; the Second Foundation has developed psychology so far that they can read minor gestures like a language) and his future successor reveals the true location of the Second Foundation to be Trantor; the opposite end of the galaxy from a psychologist’s point of view. It was the center of the greatest ever empire in Seldon’s day, while Terminus was a tiny, unpopulated planet.
The First Speaker is also revealed to have been the seemingly innocuous farmer that Arkady had been staying with when she fled the Mule’s successor (in title only) to Trantor during the war between Kalgan and the Foundation (if you want to understand that…read the book!).
So. This book rekindled my interest in the Foundation series, as it was a good bit more complicated than the other books in it. I do plan to continue reading the series, and sincerely hope that I can find the rest of the books.
The next book that I need to read, Caves of Steel, will actually jump into a different series, the Robot series, and will be set in the past in relation to Second Foundation. This seems like it will be rather annoying to me. I have also had difficulty finding it; I know it’s somewhere in this house (I’ve read it before) but it’s nowhere to be found. A quick scan of the school library recently showed there to be many Asimov book, so I hope I can find a copy there, at least.
Boy, that was rather lengthy and ineloquent, wasn’t it? That title is a pretty big stretch, too.
quixotic-adj.-resembling or befitting Don Quixote
That's right, he has a word (in the English dictionary) that was named after him! Plus, they apparently still know it even after they've forgotten where the human race originated! I guess it's going to become wildly popular soon.
Otherwise, I’ve finished my Gothic story, and I’m quite happy with it. I hope anyone reading this will enjoy it (and vote for it) when it’s read in class.
In Second Foundation, we start with the Mule. He has searched for the Second Foundation for 5 years; during this time period he has not expanded his empire. He sends out a man who he has not used his mutant powers on, along with one who has been artificially faithful to him for years.
The unaltered man finds the Second Foundation to a planet at the center of a much smaller empire. With the other man, he travels to a small planet in the empire to prove his conjecture.
Once there, he accuses the Mule’s man of having been altered by a Second Foundationer, who are known to have mental powers surpassing the Mule’s. Just then, the Mule appears, having traced the ship. He knows the man to be from the Second Foundation, and engages him in a battle of wills. The Mule wins, and forces him to tell the true location of the Second Foundation; the planet they are currently on.
The First Speaker, leader of the Second Foundation, then enters. He reveals that the first man had volunteered to have his mind altered into believing an incorrect location for the Second Foundation. He overpowers the Mule, and forcibly changes him into a more harmless dictator.
In the second section, we skip a bit further into the future, to join a 14-year old girl named Arkady.
We also see the new First Speaker, who knows that the Foundation is becoming dangerously close to destroying Seldon’s plan by studying to far into psychology and relying on the Second Foundation to keep them safe.
He tricks the leading psychologists there into believing they had destroyed the Second Foundation (who they knew were altering the minds of many of the Foundation’s leaders) with a psychic weapon that they had developed.
At the same time, Arkady realizes the location of the Second Foundation to be Terminus itself, as a circle (the galaxy) has no end. This is untrue, and it is later revealed that Arkady had been altered at birth, so the psychologists could detect nothing unusual in her, as being altered was her usual state.
A conversation between the First Speaker (who doesn’t actually speak; the Second Foundation has developed psychology so far that they can read minor gestures like a language) and his future successor reveals the true location of the Second Foundation to be Trantor; the opposite end of the galaxy from a psychologist’s point of view. It was the center of the greatest ever empire in Seldon’s day, while Terminus was a tiny, unpopulated planet.
The First Speaker is also revealed to have been the seemingly innocuous farmer that Arkady had been staying with when she fled the Mule’s successor (in title only) to Trantor during the war between Kalgan and the Foundation (if you want to understand that…read the book!).
So. This book rekindled my interest in the Foundation series, as it was a good bit more complicated than the other books in it. I do plan to continue reading the series, and sincerely hope that I can find the rest of the books.
The next book that I need to read, Caves of Steel, will actually jump into a different series, the Robot series, and will be set in the past in relation to Second Foundation. This seems like it will be rather annoying to me. I have also had difficulty finding it; I know it’s somewhere in this house (I’ve read it before) but it’s nowhere to be found. A quick scan of the school library recently showed there to be many Asimov book, so I hope I can find a copy there, at least.
Boy, that was rather lengthy and ineloquent, wasn’t it? That title is a pretty big stretch, too.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Of Mules and Men
Unsurprisingly, considering the Foundation’s attitude as of the last post, Seldon’s plans failed to predict the outcome of the war. He failed to predict the war at all, as the Mule is a Mutant; he can control people’s emotions. As this is freak chance, the sweeping arm of psychohistory did not catch it. Seldon had predicted that the democrats would have rebelled against the three-generation aristocracy that was currently in place.
The Mule, using his powers to instill panic into the leaders of the society, easily conquered the Foundation. The main characters (who I won’t even bother to name) flee with a Fool who escaped from the Mule and the only psychohistorian in the Foundation.
After several times nearly being caught in the advancing armies of the Mule, they go to the seat of the Old Empire; Trantor, which had been sacked several decades earlier. The people there now trade the metal of the buildings for meat, growing there own plants and raising their own chickens on the cleared ground.
They go to the library (full of video-books, I suppose), where the psychohistorian pours over the books with the Fool at his side. After two weeks of neglecting his health, he is on his deathbed. However, he has discovered the purpose and location of the Second Foundation. He tells them that it is made up of scientists of the mind, as opposed to the scientists of the physical world that made their Foundation successful.
Just before he tell the location…BLAM (or whatever sound a laser makes) he is shot. The girl of the group knew the identity of the Mule; it was the “Fool” who had been with them all along. If he had learned the location of the Second Foundation, Seldon’s back up plan, all hope for a new empire under the Foundation would be lost. The Mule’s empire would collapse after he died, leaving the galaxy open to the 30 millennia of darkness foretold by Seldon centuries before.
The next book of the series is Second Foundation, so that promises to be new and interesting. However, I don’t think that I’ll continue past the original trilogy (for now), as I have almost entirely lost interest, and I don’t want to bother reading his Robot series, which I believe eventually ties in with the Foundation, with such books as Robots and Foundation.
On an unrelated note, I read The Fall of the House of Usher today, hoping for some inspiration as to what the antagonist should be in my short story. It did not help. Quite frankly, I barely understood the story. Was the house alive? Was the woman a vampire? Why on earth was she buried alive if not?
It did remind me of how great a writer Poe was, though. He really sets the mood well, even though I sometimes had to reread a paragraph several times before I bothered paying attention to what was written there (that’s unusual for me; I wonder what that was about).
Like I said, it did not bring me any closer to my goal of finding a suitable antagonist.
Wikipedia, ho!
It's also interesting to look at the shape in which Poe wrote the poem The Bells. It seems to sway back and forth. Thoughts?
The Mule, using his powers to instill panic into the leaders of the society, easily conquered the Foundation. The main characters (who I won’t even bother to name) flee with a Fool who escaped from the Mule and the only psychohistorian in the Foundation.
After several times nearly being caught in the advancing armies of the Mule, they go to the seat of the Old Empire; Trantor, which had been sacked several decades earlier. The people there now trade the metal of the buildings for meat, growing there own plants and raising their own chickens on the cleared ground.
They go to the library (full of video-books, I suppose), where the psychohistorian pours over the books with the Fool at his side. After two weeks of neglecting his health, he is on his deathbed. However, he has discovered the purpose and location of the Second Foundation. He tells them that it is made up of scientists of the mind, as opposed to the scientists of the physical world that made their Foundation successful.
Just before he tell the location…BLAM (or whatever sound a laser makes) he is shot. The girl of the group knew the identity of the Mule; it was the “Fool” who had been with them all along. If he had learned the location of the Second Foundation, Seldon’s back up plan, all hope for a new empire under the Foundation would be lost. The Mule’s empire would collapse after he died, leaving the galaxy open to the 30 millennia of darkness foretold by Seldon centuries before.
The next book of the series is Second Foundation, so that promises to be new and interesting. However, I don’t think that I’ll continue past the original trilogy (for now), as I have almost entirely lost interest, and I don’t want to bother reading his Robot series, which I believe eventually ties in with the Foundation, with such books as Robots and Foundation.
On an unrelated note, I read The Fall of the House of Usher today, hoping for some inspiration as to what the antagonist should be in my short story. It did not help. Quite frankly, I barely understood the story. Was the house alive? Was the woman a vampire? Why on earth was she buried alive if not?
It did remind me of how great a writer Poe was, though. He really sets the mood well, even though I sometimes had to reread a paragraph several times before I bothered paying attention to what was written there (that’s unusual for me; I wonder what that was about).
Like I said, it did not bring me any closer to my goal of finding a suitable antagonist.
Wikipedia, ho!
It's also interesting to look at the shape in which Poe wrote the poem The Bells. It seems to sway back and forth. Thoughts?
Thursday, October 14, 2010
The Modern Plutocracy
This time, that title has absolutely nothing to do with what is happening in the story. Two of the past titles have been [not so subtle] plays on two famous books (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and War and Peace), but I just thought of a better one for “War and Plutocracy.” So, I used it for this post. Can anyone get the reference?
In Foundation and Empire, the Galactic Empire attacked the Foundation. A glory-hunting general named Riose had heard tales of Magicians from the periphery, and, discovering the weakness of the Foundation, attacks.
This short story was interesting because of the person(s) on whom the story focuses on. Instead of some brilliant leader, as has always before been the case during Seldon Crises, it instead focused on Riose himself and two of his prisoners.
Riose first surrounds the Foundation without their knowledge. When it attempts to bargain with him, he refuses, knowing of the transmutation technologies on Terminus. All the might of the Foundation is, by far, insufficient to face the general’s small fleet of ten ships. The defense line has been pushed all the way to the original four kingdoms.
Here, the prisoners escape, and attempt to take a note which incriminates the general to the Emperor on Trantor. However, they are caught, and barely escape. Knowing that there mission is doomed, they are near despair. They then look at the ships message log, and see that Riose has been executed by the Emperor on false charges.
They realize that, the only way an Emperor can remain strong in those days was to kill off his opposition. With Riose’s popularity due to his successes in war becoming threatening, it was a necessity for him to be killed. Seldon’s Plan depends not on the individual, but on society as a whole.
100 years later, the Traders no longer control the once plutocratic state of the Foundation, instead living on small, fringe worlds. On Terminus, a new threat has been discovered in a man known only as the Mule. Having risen from the slums, he has managed to take over a world without a war, though its once leader is now dead. He also has an army which is large enough to threaten the Foundation. However, the officials no longer believe action is necessary. They “know” that anything Seldon predicted (the Foundation’s ascension into an empire) must come true.
I think I’m running out of ideas here. I suppose it’s somewhat sad to see the Foundation, which produced such amazing men in the past, fall into complacency. It is just a book, though, after all, and with so few pages to get to know the characters, I just find myself not caring.
Ooh, did I mention that the Foundations greatest challenge is going to the second Foundation that Seldon founded, that we know next to nothing about? No? Well, I’ll bet that’ll get interesting later.
In Foundation and Empire, the Galactic Empire attacked the Foundation. A glory-hunting general named Riose had heard tales of Magicians from the periphery, and, discovering the weakness of the Foundation, attacks.
This short story was interesting because of the person(s) on whom the story focuses on. Instead of some brilliant leader, as has always before been the case during Seldon Crises, it instead focused on Riose himself and two of his prisoners.
Riose first surrounds the Foundation without their knowledge. When it attempts to bargain with him, he refuses, knowing of the transmutation technologies on Terminus. All the might of the Foundation is, by far, insufficient to face the general’s small fleet of ten ships. The defense line has been pushed all the way to the original four kingdoms.
Here, the prisoners escape, and attempt to take a note which incriminates the general to the Emperor on Trantor. However, they are caught, and barely escape. Knowing that there mission is doomed, they are near despair. They then look at the ships message log, and see that Riose has been executed by the Emperor on false charges.
They realize that, the only way an Emperor can remain strong in those days was to kill off his opposition. With Riose’s popularity due to his successes in war becoming threatening, it was a necessity for him to be killed. Seldon’s Plan depends not on the individual, but on society as a whole.
100 years later, the Traders no longer control the once plutocratic state of the Foundation, instead living on small, fringe worlds. On Terminus, a new threat has been discovered in a man known only as the Mule. Having risen from the slums, he has managed to take over a world without a war, though its once leader is now dead. He also has an army which is large enough to threaten the Foundation. However, the officials no longer believe action is necessary. They “know” that anything Seldon predicted (the Foundation’s ascension into an empire) must come true.
I think I’m running out of ideas here. I suppose it’s somewhat sad to see the Foundation, which produced such amazing men in the past, fall into complacency. It is just a book, though, after all, and with so few pages to get to know the characters, I just find myself not caring.
Ooh, did I mention that the Foundations greatest challenge is going to the second Foundation that Seldon founded, that we know next to nothing about? No? Well, I’ll bet that’ll get interesting later.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
War and Plutocracy
Ach, I don’t really want to do this tonight, but I really should before I start the next book. Here it goes…
Ponyets was successful in selling the transmuted gold. More importantly, he also sold the (nuclear) transmutation device to a lower official, so that he could use the gold to secure the Grand Master…ship? when the current one died. Using as blackmail the holographic (is that the right word?) tapes he has taken of the transaction, (if they were released, the atomic nature of the item would spell death for both of them) Ponyets forces the man to purchase more of his products.
We learn after the next time skip that the man did ascend to the position of Grand Master, and the religion was established on Askone successfully, giving the Foundation control of it.
The size of the next time skip is not directly stated, but, according to wikipedia, 95 years have passed since the last Seldon Crisis (the attack by Anacreon), and the previous chapter was set 20 years before this one (which is called “The Merchant Princes”).
We join a trader, Hober Mallow, as he goes to the planet of Korell to trade. There, he sells them atomic convenience items, which help around the house and increase efficiency in factories 100-fold. He also discovers that the planet is being supplied with atomic weaponry by the [weakened, but still extremely powerful] Galactic Empire.
After a series of complicated political events that I couldn’t accurately record without a ton of time wasted, Mallow becomes the Mayor [president, more-or-less] of the Foundation (now including Terminus, the four kingdoms, and Askone) and also its religious leader during a three year “war” with Korell. While it has enough power to destroy the Foundation (with its Imperial ships), the failing atomics (which leav many without power, and the factories no longer fit for producing) eventually force it to join the Foundation for the upkeep of its newfound power source.
This establishes a plutocracy (a system of gov. where the rich rule) in the Foundation.
While this occurs, Mallow takes a trip to the empire, where he finds that civil wars are common, the army is corrupt, and innovation has stalled. The people there (in a fairly backwater system) consider him to be one of the wizards from the periphery that they have heard of, as he has a personal shield with a walnut-sized nuclear source (So they don’t know where the human species originated, but they know what a Walnut is? Really?)
The next book is Foundation and Empire, where, according to the introduction, the Empire goes to war with the Foundation.
There were some signs of advancement in this chapter, which I was glad to see (even if they were a little ridiculous, such as jewelry that makes your entire body glow). This was perhaps the least interesting of the chapters to me, however. The Seldon crisis this time doesn’t seem to escalate as far as the others did (the war was bloodless).
It was interesting to see, though, what was so much science-fiction at the time this was written. One of the seemingly important advancements is something that is called “video chat” these days (I think). I don’t think that our current system would hold up well in the void of space, but it still isn’t nearly as far-fetched as it was.
Hmm…That time typing would have been better spent on my Dracula paper, wouldn’t it [have]? Ah well.
Ponyets was successful in selling the transmuted gold. More importantly, he also sold the (nuclear) transmutation device to a lower official, so that he could use the gold to secure the Grand Master…ship? when the current one died. Using as blackmail the holographic (is that the right word?) tapes he has taken of the transaction, (if they were released, the atomic nature of the item would spell death for both of them) Ponyets forces the man to purchase more of his products.
We learn after the next time skip that the man did ascend to the position of Grand Master, and the religion was established on Askone successfully, giving the Foundation control of it.
The size of the next time skip is not directly stated, but, according to wikipedia, 95 years have passed since the last Seldon Crisis (the attack by Anacreon), and the previous chapter was set 20 years before this one (which is called “The Merchant Princes”).
We join a trader, Hober Mallow, as he goes to the planet of Korell to trade. There, he sells them atomic convenience items, which help around the house and increase efficiency in factories 100-fold. He also discovers that the planet is being supplied with atomic weaponry by the [weakened, but still extremely powerful] Galactic Empire.
After a series of complicated political events that I couldn’t accurately record without a ton of time wasted, Mallow becomes the Mayor [president, more-or-less] of the Foundation (now including Terminus, the four kingdoms, and Askone) and also its religious leader during a three year “war” with Korell. While it has enough power to destroy the Foundation (with its Imperial ships), the failing atomics (which leav many without power, and the factories no longer fit for producing) eventually force it to join the Foundation for the upkeep of its newfound power source.
This establishes a plutocracy (a system of gov. where the rich rule) in the Foundation.
While this occurs, Mallow takes a trip to the empire, where he finds that civil wars are common, the army is corrupt, and innovation has stalled. The people there (in a fairly backwater system) consider him to be one of the wizards from the periphery that they have heard of, as he has a personal shield with a walnut-sized nuclear source (So they don’t know where the human species originated, but they know what a Walnut is? Really?)
The next book is Foundation and Empire, where, according to the introduction, the Empire goes to war with the Foundation.
There were some signs of advancement in this chapter, which I was glad to see (even if they were a little ridiculous, such as jewelry that makes your entire body glow). This was perhaps the least interesting of the chapters to me, however. The Seldon crisis this time doesn’t seem to escalate as far as the others did (the war was bloodless).
It was interesting to see, though, what was so much science-fiction at the time this was written. One of the seemingly important advancements is something that is called “video chat” these days (I think). I don’t think that our current system would hold up well in the void of space, but it still isn’t nearly as far-fetched as it was.
Hmm…That time typing would have been better spent on my Dracula paper, wouldn’t it [have]? Ah well.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
October the 10th, 2010
Hooray for October the 10th, 2010! That’s right, it’s 10/10/10. That’s the largest reason I am posting; I want to memorialize this day! Now onto the body of the post.
I mentioned the science-as-religion in the kingdoms in my last post, and that comes greatly into play in this one. Hardin was able to repel the attack through the use of this religion. Shortly after the prince regent on Anacreon ordered the launching of the navy, Hardin gave his own order. He had all the power shut down on Anacreon (which was fueled by nuclear plants under watch of the priests), except in the temples. Happening during the prince’s coronation, it gave the appearance that the “Galactic Spirit” had abandoned the planet.
Meanwhile, on the Imperial cruiser, the priest activated an ultra wave relay after a speech about how he was cursing the ship for attacking the seat of the religion, Terminus. With the soldiers on the ship fervently following him, he forces the captain to state that he would use the ship to blow up the palace if the attack was not called off.
Anacreon and the other kingdoms are then forced to sign similar treaties that give Terminus power over all of them. Hardin’s popularity for this effectively destroys any chance of the separate political party ousting him.
The hologram of Hari Seldon then returns again, on the 80th anniversary of the Foundation. He warns them against overconfidence.
Skipping into the future again (the number of years has not been said), we find Limmar Ponyets, a trader, trying to save his friend, Gorov (who is a spy for the Foundation), from being executed on Askone on charge of attempting to sell atomics. This is necessary for the Foundation to establish their religion on Askone, which would eventually give them the same sort of power they have over the four kingdoms.
I left them off as Ponyets was attempting to sell transmuted (from iron) gold (valued on Askone in the future as it is now on Earth) to the Grand Master of the planet. He’s having difficulty because of the atomic nature of the transmutation, but the Ponyets is trying to pitch to the Grand Master that any “black magic” in the nature of the gold would surely be overcome if it was used as a tribute to the spirits (ancestor worship is currently prevalent on Askone).
I left off on page 148.
The biggest surprise for me in this section was that Hardin remained in power. I had expected the rival group to succeed, just as Hardin had done when faced with the Encyclopedists (which is the name of one chapter; the last one was The Mayors (referring to Hardin) and the one I’m currently on is The Traders (referring to the space faring traders that sell atomic products)).
Other than pointing out that humanity finally got alchemy right (even if it’s iron and not lead), I’m fresh out of ideas. Not to mention the possibility that it’s just gold paint.
I mentioned the science-as-religion in the kingdoms in my last post, and that comes greatly into play in this one. Hardin was able to repel the attack through the use of this religion. Shortly after the prince regent on Anacreon ordered the launching of the navy, Hardin gave his own order. He had all the power shut down on Anacreon (which was fueled by nuclear plants under watch of the priests), except in the temples. Happening during the prince’s coronation, it gave the appearance that the “Galactic Spirit” had abandoned the planet.
Meanwhile, on the Imperial cruiser, the priest activated an ultra wave relay after a speech about how he was cursing the ship for attacking the seat of the religion, Terminus. With the soldiers on the ship fervently following him, he forces the captain to state that he would use the ship to blow up the palace if the attack was not called off.
Anacreon and the other kingdoms are then forced to sign similar treaties that give Terminus power over all of them. Hardin’s popularity for this effectively destroys any chance of the separate political party ousting him.
The hologram of Hari Seldon then returns again, on the 80th anniversary of the Foundation. He warns them against overconfidence.
Skipping into the future again (the number of years has not been said), we find Limmar Ponyets, a trader, trying to save his friend, Gorov (who is a spy for the Foundation), from being executed on Askone on charge of attempting to sell atomics. This is necessary for the Foundation to establish their religion on Askone, which would eventually give them the same sort of power they have over the four kingdoms.
I left them off as Ponyets was attempting to sell transmuted (from iron) gold (valued on Askone in the future as it is now on Earth) to the Grand Master of the planet. He’s having difficulty because of the atomic nature of the transmutation, but the Ponyets is trying to pitch to the Grand Master that any “black magic” in the nature of the gold would surely be overcome if it was used as a tribute to the spirits (ancestor worship is currently prevalent on Askone).
I left off on page 148.
The biggest surprise for me in this section was that Hardin remained in power. I had expected the rival group to succeed, just as Hardin had done when faced with the Encyclopedists (which is the name of one chapter; the last one was The Mayors (referring to Hardin) and the one I’m currently on is The Traders (referring to the space faring traders that sell atomic products)).
Other than pointing out that humanity finally got alchemy right (even if it’s iron and not lead), I’m fresh out of ideas. Not to mention the possibility that it’s just gold paint.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire
Dr. Seldon states that his reason for gathering his group was to create an Encyclopedia Galactica: an encyclopedia containing all human knowledge that he believes would reduce the dark age after the Empire falls from 30 millennia to 1 millennium.
He and his group are then exiled to the planet Terminus, at the very edge of the galaxy. However, Dr. Seldon knew of the inevitable exile for years, and actually arranged for them to be exiled there.
Fifty years pass, and we join Salvor Hardin, the mayor of Terminus City (the only city on the planet). On Terminus’s 50th anniversary, a vault opens. With the city council there (made up of Hardin (who manages the every day problems on Terminus) and several Encyclopedists (who concern themselves only with the encyclopedia)) a message from Dr. Seldon is played, revealing that the encyclopedia was all a ruse, and that his true plan was to lock Terminus into a point where only one decision will enable them to avoid each crisis. This will eventually lead to them starting a new Galactic Empire.
With the first crisis going on (the placing of a military base on Terminus by one of its neighbors, Anacreon (four planets on the periphery have been given nearly full autonomy by the empire, calling themselves kingdoms) which bodes poorly for Terminus’s future.
However, Hardin and Yohan Lee have pulled off a coup d’etat, removing the council from their place of power. Hardin is able to avoid catastrophe for Terminus by pointing out to the other three kingdoms how bad it could be for them if Anacreon got hold of Terminus’s technology (throughout this arc, it is shown that technological stagnation and reversion has begun; the kingdoms have reverted back to fossil fuels to power (instead of nuclear energy) and an archeologist states his opinion that it is a waste of time to actually go to the planets he studies; he instead reads book on the subject written by the “old masters” over 800 years ago, and chooses which one he believes is correct).
Skipping into the future another 30 years, Hardin and Yohan have parceled out knowledge to the kingdoms in the form of religion (a treatment for cancer is believed to be “Holy Food”). Even the priest themselves believe this, with only six people knowing the truth. This makes Terminus invaluable to the kingdoms.
Meanwhile, another political group has formed with the plan of seizing power, and Anacreon again plans to attack (using a 300 year old Imperial battle cruiser which was fixed for them by Terminus more or less as a peace offering; this ship more than doubles the power of the planet’s “Navy”).
That was both long-winded and, unfortunately, left out some subtle details that could become important later.
I found it interesting that in this universe, even after 50 thousand years (I think that was the number, anyway) of space travel, humanity has so little to show for it. Nuclear power is considered the greatest source of power, and a nuclear bomb is still the ultimate threat. I’m not sure if this shows that Asimov believed that we were already nearing the pinnacle of human achievement when he wrote the book, or (smile) if he was just unimaginative.
It’s a great book, however, and I even have a little of the back story to the empire, as I have read another loose trilogy by Asimov, where Trantor is shown moving from a small empire in the Horse Head nubula, to the galactic empire seen in this book
I also find that I like the time jumps that are used in the book; whenever I read a good book that has good characters, I’m disappointed that I don’t get to see how well the characters do after becoming king, or sailing into the west, or whatever they end up doing. The drawback to this is that you get significantly less time to get to know the characters (plus, I’m only on page 107, and it still took me this whole post to summarize; that could get annoying).
Oh, and the book takes its name from the city on Terminus, which is sometimes referred to as the foundation (not to mention the fact that Dr. Seldon’s plan is to found a new empire).
He and his group are then exiled to the planet Terminus, at the very edge of the galaxy. However, Dr. Seldon knew of the inevitable exile for years, and actually arranged for them to be exiled there.
Fifty years pass, and we join Salvor Hardin, the mayor of Terminus City (the only city on the planet). On Terminus’s 50th anniversary, a vault opens. With the city council there (made up of Hardin (who manages the every day problems on Terminus) and several Encyclopedists (who concern themselves only with the encyclopedia)) a message from Dr. Seldon is played, revealing that the encyclopedia was all a ruse, and that his true plan was to lock Terminus into a point where only one decision will enable them to avoid each crisis. This will eventually lead to them starting a new Galactic Empire.
With the first crisis going on (the placing of a military base on Terminus by one of its neighbors, Anacreon (four planets on the periphery have been given nearly full autonomy by the empire, calling themselves kingdoms) which bodes poorly for Terminus’s future.
However, Hardin and Yohan Lee have pulled off a coup d’etat, removing the council from their place of power. Hardin is able to avoid catastrophe for Terminus by pointing out to the other three kingdoms how bad it could be for them if Anacreon got hold of Terminus’s technology (throughout this arc, it is shown that technological stagnation and reversion has begun; the kingdoms have reverted back to fossil fuels to power (instead of nuclear energy) and an archeologist states his opinion that it is a waste of time to actually go to the planets he studies; he instead reads book on the subject written by the “old masters” over 800 years ago, and chooses which one he believes is correct).
Skipping into the future another 30 years, Hardin and Yohan have parceled out knowledge to the kingdoms in the form of religion (a treatment for cancer is believed to be “Holy Food”). Even the priest themselves believe this, with only six people knowing the truth. This makes Terminus invaluable to the kingdoms.
Meanwhile, another political group has formed with the plan of seizing power, and Anacreon again plans to attack (using a 300 year old Imperial battle cruiser which was fixed for them by Terminus more or less as a peace offering; this ship more than doubles the power of the planet’s “Navy”).
That was both long-winded and, unfortunately, left out some subtle details that could become important later.
I found it interesting that in this universe, even after 50 thousand years (I think that was the number, anyway) of space travel, humanity has so little to show for it. Nuclear power is considered the greatest source of power, and a nuclear bomb is still the ultimate threat. I’m not sure if this shows that Asimov believed that we were already nearing the pinnacle of human achievement when he wrote the book, or (smile) if he was just unimaginative.
It’s a great book, however, and I even have a little of the back story to the empire, as I have read another loose trilogy by Asimov, where Trantor is shown moving from a small empire in the Horse Head nubula, to the galactic empire seen in this book
I also find that I like the time jumps that are used in the book; whenever I read a good book that has good characters, I’m disappointed that I don’t get to see how well the characters do after becoming king, or sailing into the west, or whatever they end up doing. The drawback to this is that you get significantly less time to get to know the characters (plus, I’m only on page 107, and it still took me this whole post to summarize; that could get annoying).
Oh, and the book takes its name from the city on Terminus, which is sometimes referred to as the foundation (not to mention the fact that Dr. Seldon’s plan is to found a new empire).
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Foundation
Even though I’m only on page 26 and it isn’t Friday night yet, enough things have happened that I feel that I need to make a post (plus, I’m bored right now). My current book is the first in Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation Trilogy (the name is Foundation).
Our main character is the mathematician Gaal, who has come to the seat of the Galactic Empire (mind, this was copyrighted 26 years before A New Hope was released), Trantor, home to 40 billion people, to work with his new employer, Hari Seldon. When he arrives, we learn that a population or 40 billion people takes a toll on the planet. The only green area left is 100 square miles around the emperor’s palace. The rest is covered in steel buildings tunneling a full mile down into the surface, but only a few hundred feet above. Due to this, seeing the sky requires either a space shuttle tour or a trip up one of the observation decks.
We also find that Dr. Seldon is well known for predicting the fall of the empire through psychohistory (I’m surprised my word program recognizes that one), complex mathematics that takes into account the likelihood of each occurrence. He has determined that, due to the increasing reliance of Trantor on other planet’s for it’s food and such items, increased power struggling, declining exploration of planets, the known rate of assassination in the upper echelons of society, and the like, that there is a 92.5% chance of the empire collapsing within the next 500 years. This, of course, has made him hated by the government. He has even predicted a 1.7% chance of his own execution.
Gaal is quickly apprehended by the government, who takes him into questioning. He gives them no useful information, and demands a lawful trial. At the trial, it is truly Dr. Seldon who is being questioned. Currently, they have forced him to admit to having a 100,000 person force (including women and children; not even the men have any arms training) despite admitting that it is far to low a number to influence human history in such a large way as to prevent the fall of the empire (where nearly a quintillion people live in roughly the year 12,000 Galactic Era; the A.D. year is not given). What they want to know, is why?
That is where I left off.
Yet again, I’m enjoying this book so far. It is significantly different that the last series I read that was set in the future (Otherland). That was only about 100 years in the future and focused on VR immersion rather than space travel (which is accomplished through a jump through hyper-space). The difference in opinion on how far we will have progressed in the future is quite interesting. In Otherland, people have neural interfaces, and can literally enter the Net as an avatar. In Foundation, we see Dr. Seldon using a simple calculator, the only difference from a calculator of today being that the numbers glow (which we could do now). In Foundation, there is widespread space travel, while in Otherland, there is only mention of an attempt to colonize Mars. It seems to me that the author of Otherland (Tad Williams) believes that humans will progress much faster than Asimov did. I guess that goes to show how much progress we’ve made in the last 60 years alone.
Our main character is the mathematician Gaal, who has come to the seat of the Galactic Empire (mind, this was copyrighted 26 years before A New Hope was released), Trantor, home to 40 billion people, to work with his new employer, Hari Seldon. When he arrives, we learn that a population or 40 billion people takes a toll on the planet. The only green area left is 100 square miles around the emperor’s palace. The rest is covered in steel buildings tunneling a full mile down into the surface, but only a few hundred feet above. Due to this, seeing the sky requires either a space shuttle tour or a trip up one of the observation decks.
We also find that Dr. Seldon is well known for predicting the fall of the empire through psychohistory (I’m surprised my word program recognizes that one), complex mathematics that takes into account the likelihood of each occurrence. He has determined that, due to the increasing reliance of Trantor on other planet’s for it’s food and such items, increased power struggling, declining exploration of planets, the known rate of assassination in the upper echelons of society, and the like, that there is a 92.5% chance of the empire collapsing within the next 500 years. This, of course, has made him hated by the government. He has even predicted a 1.7% chance of his own execution.
Gaal is quickly apprehended by the government, who takes him into questioning. He gives them no useful information, and demands a lawful trial. At the trial, it is truly Dr. Seldon who is being questioned. Currently, they have forced him to admit to having a 100,000 person force (including women and children; not even the men have any arms training) despite admitting that it is far to low a number to influence human history in such a large way as to prevent the fall of the empire (where nearly a quintillion people live in roughly the year 12,000 Galactic Era; the A.D. year is not given). What they want to know, is why?
That is where I left off.
Yet again, I’m enjoying this book so far. It is significantly different that the last series I read that was set in the future (Otherland). That was only about 100 years in the future and focused on VR immersion rather than space travel (which is accomplished through a jump through hyper-space). The difference in opinion on how far we will have progressed in the future is quite interesting. In Otherland, people have neural interfaces, and can literally enter the Net as an avatar. In Foundation, we see Dr. Seldon using a simple calculator, the only difference from a calculator of today being that the numbers glow (which we could do now). In Foundation, there is widespread space travel, while in Otherland, there is only mention of an attempt to colonize Mars. It seems to me that the author of Otherland (Tad Williams) believes that humans will progress much faster than Asimov did. I guess that goes to show how much progress we’ve made in the last 60 years alone.
Friday, October 1, 2010
A Possibly Impossible Conclusion
Reading another 350 pages (to the end of the book) an in-depth summary is out of the question. I’ll just give the most important parts this time.
By the end of the book, the island is well developed. They even have a farm and telegraph. The person the use the telegraph to speak to is a man named Ayrton. They found him after receiving a chest full of useful items (including guns and an atlas showing a small island near them) from the master of the island. They construct a boat (called the Bonadventure) and Pencroft, Herbert, and Gideon sail to Tabor Island, where they find Ayrton.
After taking him back to Lincoln Island (guided by a fire lit on it, which Harding denies having a part in) he tells them that the reason for his being on Tabor was that he attempted to take over a ship he was on with the help of some convicts from a prison island. Failing, he was marooned there as punishment, the captain saying that he would return once he felt a long enough period of time had passed (this was 12 years ago). Ayrton is very remorseful, and refuses to live with the other colonists.
The convicts mentioned by Ayrton, however, did take a ship. They find Lincoln Island, and attempt to kill the colonists. They fail due to a torpedo that blew up their ship, but destroy the Bonadventure (which the colonists had planned on using to leave a note on Tabor Island for the captain to find) and all the farms on Lincoln.
The colonists are then led to the master of the island through a wire connected to their telegraph. They find, down in a watery cave deep beneath the island, the Nautilus and in her, Captain Nemo (revealed to be an Indian prince who lost a war for independence in India, then shunning mankind). Now an old man, he has been the mysterious benefactor of the colonists, and gives two last gifts to them before he dies. One, a fortune in diamonds and pearls gathered over the course of his life, and two, the knowledge that the island is destined for destruction.
Soon, cracks in the underwater cavern will allow water to rush into the volcano at the center of the island, causing a build up of steam resulting in an explosion large enough to destroy the island (I don’t know if this is actually possible, but I doubt it).
He dies, and, according to his last wish, is given a watery grave in his submarine.
Months later, with the colonists on the verge of finishing a larger boat, the catastrophe occurs. All that is left of the island is a small projection of granite, where the colonists have enough supplies to survive a little while longer.
There, the captain mentioned earlier finds them with his ship, the Duncan. Captain Nemo had given them one last gift. He had left a note on Tabor Island, giving the co-ordinates of the colonists.
Saved, the colonists use Nemo’s fortune to purchase a large area, naming it Lincoln Island after their lost paradise.
I’m not very good at keeping this short, am I?
I was glad to see Renfield become a bit more normal. They eventually found tobacco for him, and the meat thing was just dropped. His past as a sailor was also emphasized a bit, and he was the one who led the construction of the boats (thankfully it wasn’t Harding). By the end of the book, he was my favorite character again.
Interesting how writing a blog like this emphasizes this sort of quirk in storytelling. Character traits (even if they are ones that I don’t like) are dropped entirely with little ceremony. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t decided to pay special attention to Pencroft (whose first name is Bonadventure, by the way) for the purposes of this blog, it would have gone right past me without my noticing it (I’ve a feeling that the grammar of that sentence is off, but oh well).
I was surprised by the small amount of science fiction in this book, as the introduction specifically said that it was science fiction in some surprising ways at the end of the book (I no longer have it, so I can’t give you a quote). The only thing was the Nautilus, which features in the book for about 20 pages. It was still a good story, though.
I think that this is longer than my English theme at this point, so I think I’ll stop there.
By the end of the book, the island is well developed. They even have a farm and telegraph. The person the use the telegraph to speak to is a man named Ayrton. They found him after receiving a chest full of useful items (including guns and an atlas showing a small island near them) from the master of the island. They construct a boat (called the Bonadventure) and Pencroft, Herbert, and Gideon sail to Tabor Island, where they find Ayrton.
After taking him back to Lincoln Island (guided by a fire lit on it, which Harding denies having a part in) he tells them that the reason for his being on Tabor was that he attempted to take over a ship he was on with the help of some convicts from a prison island. Failing, he was marooned there as punishment, the captain saying that he would return once he felt a long enough period of time had passed (this was 12 years ago). Ayrton is very remorseful, and refuses to live with the other colonists.
The convicts mentioned by Ayrton, however, did take a ship. They find Lincoln Island, and attempt to kill the colonists. They fail due to a torpedo that blew up their ship, but destroy the Bonadventure (which the colonists had planned on using to leave a note on Tabor Island for the captain to find) and all the farms on Lincoln.
The colonists are then led to the master of the island through a wire connected to their telegraph. They find, down in a watery cave deep beneath the island, the Nautilus and in her, Captain Nemo (revealed to be an Indian prince who lost a war for independence in India, then shunning mankind). Now an old man, he has been the mysterious benefactor of the colonists, and gives two last gifts to them before he dies. One, a fortune in diamonds and pearls gathered over the course of his life, and two, the knowledge that the island is destined for destruction.
Soon, cracks in the underwater cavern will allow water to rush into the volcano at the center of the island, causing a build up of steam resulting in an explosion large enough to destroy the island (I don’t know if this is actually possible, but I doubt it).
He dies, and, according to his last wish, is given a watery grave in his submarine.
Months later, with the colonists on the verge of finishing a larger boat, the catastrophe occurs. All that is left of the island is a small projection of granite, where the colonists have enough supplies to survive a little while longer.
There, the captain mentioned earlier finds them with his ship, the Duncan. Captain Nemo had given them one last gift. He had left a note on Tabor Island, giving the co-ordinates of the colonists.
Saved, the colonists use Nemo’s fortune to purchase a large area, naming it Lincoln Island after their lost paradise.
I’m not very good at keeping this short, am I?
I was glad to see Renfield become a bit more normal. They eventually found tobacco for him, and the meat thing was just dropped. His past as a sailor was also emphasized a bit, and he was the one who led the construction of the boats (thankfully it wasn’t Harding). By the end of the book, he was my favorite character again.
Interesting how writing a blog like this emphasizes this sort of quirk in storytelling. Character traits (even if they are ones that I don’t like) are dropped entirely with little ceremony. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t decided to pay special attention to Pencroft (whose first name is Bonadventure, by the way) for the purposes of this blog, it would have gone right past me without my noticing it (I’ve a feeling that the grammar of that sentence is off, but oh well).
I was surprised by the small amount of science fiction in this book, as the introduction specifically said that it was science fiction in some surprising ways at the end of the book (I no longer have it, so I can’t give you a quote). The only thing was the Nautilus, which features in the book for about 20 pages. It was still a good story, though.
I think that this is longer than my English theme at this point, so I think I’ll stop there.
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