Review: Prelude to Foundation

This is the first book by Asimov I ever read, and it has definitely left me wanting to read more of him.

The Foundation series is one of the most famous and highly rated science fiction series.
Similar to Star Wars, this prequel was released many years (1988) after the 1st book was published in 1951. Prelude to Foundation is the story of young mathematician Hari Seldon in the year 12020 Galactic Era (G.E.) and describes his adventures as he tries to make his theory of psychohistory (statistically predicting the future of large social systems like that of the Galaxy) practical. This is the world of the future where quadrillions of people inhabit 25 million worlds around the world and the concept of the single planet ‘Earth’ where civilization started is but a myth. The book begins with the journey of Hari Seldon from his home planet ‘Helicon’ to ‘Trantor’ to deliver his paper on psychohistory (a science he considers possible but not practical) in a mathematical convention. This arouses the interest of the Imperial Emperor Cleon I and his aide Eto Demerzel. When a journalist meets Seldon to suggest that Imperial interest means personal danger, Seldon finds himself in a flight across Trantor trying to hide from the Emperor and figure out how to make psychohistory a practical science. The bizarre and diverse societies of Trantor with their rituals, social structures, foods, and ways of living, engross you to no end. Asimov does touch upon how even in the distant future, humanity has never entirely given up on caste discrimination (‘Dahl’ sector), and gender discrimination (‘Mycogen’ sector).

I found Hari’s approach to solving the problem of psychohistory remotely resembling Mathematical Induction i.e. shift back to a time when the world was much more simple (n=0 in the case of Mathematical Induction) and create a workable solution for the simple system which can then be used to solve the problem for larger systems.

What I liked was Asimov’s vivid imagination of society in the future where most scientific inventions and discoveries have been made. Also, what were remarkable were his depiction of the social structures within the various sectors in Trantor and what role each sector played in the functioning of the planet (pretty much how countries today play a role in the functioning of the world economy).
What I definitely did not like about the book was the shallow character setups which made me unable to relate with them. Even at the end, I could never really figure what kind of a person Seldon was apart from his passion to solve the problem of psychohistory. Also, what was surprising is that there is no mention of animals or any other species in the book which made me wonder. Also, in most part, everyone seemed to be vegetarian.

On the whole, I found this book refreshing from the regular novels I read and I look forward to reading the remaining books in the series.