Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
Hello, Stranger.
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Fail
Technobabble: Moderate to high.
Review: Some interesting moments mixed with some truly bizarre choices. Plot seems to constantly be a scene where one character says, "Ah, I knew he would do that, and instead..." and then the next says, "Ah, I knew you would counter that, so I..." and on we go. I did not enjoy the conclusion of this; in a universe with a number of interesting concepts, throwing in another in Act III of another book is an odd move. I hypothesize that this won because the previous three did not. Does not add anything interesting to the Foundation Universe; instead undercuts the core concepts that make the first three appealing.
It was written more than thirty years after the stories of the original Foundation trilogy, due to years of pressure by fans and editors on Asimov to write another, and, according to Asimov himself, the amount of the payment offered by the publisher.
And that's the feeling. This is a story that does not need to be. It is not bad, exactly, but it lacks the spark that the previous volumes had. Even when the others dragged, there were bits of genius sprinkled throughout. This one is a paycheck. Asimov is a good writer and maintained high standards for himself, but you can nonetheless feel that his heart was not in it.
I am writing this entry a few days after having read the book (life has a habit of getting in the way) and I cannot name a single character who showed up in these 450 pages. This is for two reasons; first, they've got a bad case of annoying SF names; second, they all have one character trait. There's the girl who is inquisitive. There is the tough mayor. There's a bunch of military folks; a Second Foundation guy who is suspicious, and a whole wall of other people. I'd estimate that each one has around 8% of a personality.
Pacing. Not good. It's a long, slow slog. This is the first of these books that was not originally other short stories; I did not know that having it as a full novel would be detrimental. Perhaps if I had waited 30 years for it I'd be all about it; reading it immediately after the originals does it no favors.
The plot is nothing to write home about; it's barely enough to write about here. A creative writing professor of mine said that a good twist in a story should be both inevitable and unavoidable - and it has to have a payoff. This is to say, once you're there, you say, "Of course!" but it's still a surprise. Christopher Nolan's films do an amazing job of doing this; the second time you watch The Prestige or Memento it is a completely different movie. This tangent is all to say: there are a whole bunch of twists. They are both completely surprising and totally uninteresting. There is probably a solid 100 pages of story here, stretched across four times that length.
Consider, in contrast, Foundation. We're talkin' five different stories in a book that's under 300 pages.
It's not atrocious, there's nothing egregiously wrong with it. It just does not enhance to originals.
If you're going to go full steam ahead with it anyway, consider using the link below! I'll get a few cents at no extra cost to you.
“And who is Dom?”
“Well,” said Bliss. “His full name is Endomandiovizamarondeyaso—and so on. Different people call him different syllables at different times, but I know him as Dom and I think you two will use that syllable as well. He probably has a larger share of Gaia than anyone on the planet and he lives on this island. He asked to see you and it was allowed.”
Gaia is a hive-mind planet; everything and anything is connected and has a say. They thus exist in perfect harmony.
Trevize said, “Surely someone ordered our ship to be taken.”
“No, not someone! Gaia ordered it. All of us ordered it.”
“The trees and the ground, too, Bliss?”
“They contributed very little, but they contributed. Look, if a musician writes a symphony, do you ask which particular cell in his body ordered the symphony written and supervised its construction?”
Pelorat said, “And, I .take it, the group mind, so to speak, of the group consciousness is much stronger than an individual mind, just as a muscle is much stronger than an individual muscle cell. Consequently Gaia can capture our ship at a distance by controlling our computer, even though no individual mind on the planet could have done so.”
We spend an inordinate amount of time working repeatedly through the pronouns for individuals who are a part of this collective mind. And just so much time doing nothing on this planet. The sheer quantity of monologue exposition is astonishing; even more so as a deus ex machina. Also, just as some fun statistics, the word "Gaia" appears 361 times in this book; the word "Foundation" a bit over 500. I assure you that by the end both of those words are going to lose all meaning.
Now the second issue: the Asimoverse. This is actually Book 16 (in-universe timeline) of the broader Foundation universe. This includes all of the Robot books as well; luckily we have some extremely clunky explanations of Asimov's Laws of Robotics, in case we weren't up to speed. I'll include the unbroken monologue that discusses them:
“The robots were deeply indoctrinated with what are called the Three Laws of Robotics, which date back into prehistory. There are several versions of what those Three Laws might have been. The orthodox view has the following reading: ‘1) A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; a) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; ~) A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.’
“As robots grew more intelligent and versatile, they interpreted these Laws, especially the all-overriding First, more and more generously and assumed, to a greater and greater degree, the role of protector of humanity. The protection stifled people and grew unbearable.
“The robots were entirely kind. Their labors were clearly humane and were meant entirely for the benefit of all—which somehow made them all the more unbearable.
“Every robotic advance made the situation worse. Robots were developed with telepathic capacity, but that meant that even human thought could be monitored, so that human behavior became still more dependent on robotic oversight.
“Again robots grew steadily more like human beings in appearance, but they were unmistakably robots in behavior and being humanoid made them more repulsive. So, of course, it had to come to an end.”
Worry not; it continues with a handful of interruptions for around another page. Luckily we have a number of other monologues to explain how it applies:
Novi said, “I do not know if I can explain this to your satisfaction. Gaia was formed thousands of years ago with the help of robots that once, for a brief time, served the human species and now serve them no more. They made it quite clear to us that we could survive only by a strict application of the Three Laws of Robotics as applied to life generally. The First Law, in those terms, is: ‘Gaia may not harm life or, through inaction, allow life to come to harm.’ We have followed this rule through all of our history and we can do no other.
I've opted to leave out the other couple of pages of monologue here; you get the idea.
The Foundation Series Wiki Page is wild. Asimov has 18 books of his own set in this universe. Other authors have expanded that to a hair under 60(!!!) different books and stories. I guess the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a bit behind the game...
Keep on keepin' on, Stranger.And don't forget to read a book!
Reading Prelude to Foundation now. Much better than the original 3. Enjoying it a lot. Fills in the back story to Trantor and what it's like to live there. Cool.
ReplyDeleteAlright, good to hear! I was hesitant to read another in this universe after the disappointment of Foundation's Edge... but I'll put it back on the list!
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