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).
I don't quite understand what you said about Dr. Seldon's plan of locking Terminus into decisions. Could you maybe explain, please? I mean, the character sounds brilliant, but I have no idea what's going on.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I like your new quote on the sidebar about bookshops.
His plan requires that the people of Terminus allow each crisis to reach the point that only one course of action allows their settlement to continue to exist. That course of action is the one that will keep them on track to becoming the next galactic empire. Seldon himself doesn't feature much, though. He's been dead for 49 years after the first time skip.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks. :) That's another one from Terry Pratchett's books.
It is interesting that Nuclear power is so advanced for Asimov. Because it is still so hotly contested, I think that we might find our progression in this direction a little slower than we might have anticipated.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was pretty surprised that nuclear was considered the best power source in the Empire (hopefully it's from Thorium, not Uranium). I don't think that second statement necessarily applies to Asimov, though. This is so far into the future that they don't remember that Earth was the origin of humanity; it's not even mentioned by name-just as a small planet in the Sol system (could have that wrong, though; there were a few possibilities for the origin mentioned).
ReplyDelete