Book Review: The Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Review: Foundation

This was the 1st book written by Isaac Asimov in the original Foundation sci-fi Trilogy in 1951 though it was followed much later by its prequel in 1988.

For those of you who think this book will be all about gizmos and space adventures, you would be in for a surprise. What started as a journey in science and mathematics in Prelude to Foundation continues more as a treatise on Galactic political ambition and maneuvering. Foundation describes the fall of the galactic empire that had thrived and survived for 12000 glorious years and the slow rise of the Foundation as an economic political power to reckon with in the edges of the galaxy. The legendry Hari Seldon, who appeared in the prequel as a self-doubting young man, now appears supremely confident having carefully chartered the path on how his Foundation will become the Second Empire once the anarchy following the fall of the 1st one is over.

The book is neatly divided into 5 distinct sections and spaced 30-50 years apart from each other covering about 200 odd years of the 1000 year anarchy that follows the decline of the Imperial Empire. It starts out with Hari Seldon predicting the decline and fall of the Empire in a trial and being banished along with 100000 other scholars to a distant planet Terminus to set up his Foundation to preserve the knowledge of mankind to reduce the period of anarchy following the eventual fall of the Empire. The 5 sections in the book describe who at various points in time played a critical role in the Foundation not only retaining its independence from the barbarous kingdoms in the Galaxy periphery, but also slowly dominating the political frontier. The Foundation manipulates itself into a position of dominance over the kingdoms in its periphery by casting itself at different points of time as a center of religious faith, nuclear power (do we see a parallel in the real world!!), and later as a merchant economy capable of engaging in economic warfare which none can defend against (pretty much like Jews in America!). Pretty much the feeling you get on how any country tries dominating the other in today’s times.
For those of you who think that sci-fi as a genre is simply too techie and cannot be understood (read Nayak!!!), Foundation just isn’t about that. There are no green Martians or viruses that threaten mankind. What you do get are intricate political plots and characterizations (unlike Prelude to Foundation!) all adding up at the end just like how Belgian detective Hercule Poirot explains his case. In a nutshell, I did like this book and planning to finish this series.
I do wonder at times whether Foundation is a timeless classic just for the heck of it. Fact of the matter is that this book was written over 57 years ago and must be treated as that. Had this book released in today’s age, it is unlikely to have met commercial success. For instance, if 'Towering Inferno' or 'Shree 420' were to release today, audiences may not have found it appealing.