This book review is for people who are already familiar with the Foundation trilogy.
The foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
The last Book of the Trilogy ends with the 1st foundation on terminus thinking that they have eliminated the 2nd one.......I’ll start from the prologue
The prologue in the book gives u the story of the two foundations in short ..the whole trilogy in brief.
Issac Asimov would traditionally start his prologue to Foundation books like this-
’’ The 1st galactic empire was falling. It had been decaying and breaking down for centuries and only one man fully realised the fact...........’’
Then he tells u about Harry Seldon, the Perfector of Psychohistory, the architect of the Foundation, the demi-god who planned the future........
Seldon foresaw the fall of the Galaxy wide Empire and the consequent period of chaos that will exit till a Second Empire rises to unite the Galaxy. It would last for 30 thousand yrs, if left to itself. He also calculated - by psychohistorical methods- that by adjusting some of the conditions he could shorten the barbaric interval to just one millenium. To bring about this adjustment he set up two colonies of scientists at ’’ opposite ends of the galaxy’’....
The Foundation trilogy is about the 1st four centuries of the millenium of ’’Interregnum’’. This book starts when the 1st Foundation on planet Terminus is thinking that it has eliminated the 2nd Foundation and is the sole master of the galaxy. But we know that that it still exists and Looks over the Seldon plan. they are traditionally the guardians of the plan. ( we have read the Trilogy, if u haven’t check out some of its great reviews on Mouthshut )
A man.
Seldon always stated that an individual human being is unpredictable, and so its behaviour is not taken into psychohistorical statastics, psychohistory works with mobs, the larger the mob, the greater the accuracy of predictions.
But, a man. Councilman Golan Trevize. He is all it takes to alter the course of galactic history. He was of course special, in a way.... but I’m not going to tell u the whole story.
In the superconfident land of Foundation, there is one man who doubt its position of the sole master of the galaxy. Golan Trevise doesn?t belive that the Seldon plan is working. Everything is working smoothly, there are no crisis, and that’s what worries Trevise. Somebody else is looking over their shoulders. The 2nd Foundation..??...but that was eliminated long ago..or was it??
Rebel
The second foundation too, is happy, the seldon plan working well it has nothing to worry about. But speaker Stor Gendibal is thinking something else. If the 2nd foundation is not doing anything and all is working out fine..is’nt that a bit absurd?....could there be a third force??...some body equally powerful in mind and physical science....somebody like the ’’ Mule’’ maybe....or a group of Mules- naturally born with the powers of mind the 2nd foundationars so laboriously learn....what if its a planet full of Mules....Mule worked against the plan ..these people / who knows what.. are working for it..so ’’ Anti- Mules’’..........or is Speaker Gendibal is just being paranoid ....???
Exile
Both Trevise and Gendibal speaks out their views and in return gets tactfully deported out of their planets.
Trevise is sent out to Trantor , the capital of the 1st galactic empire , now in ruins. with him is Janov Pelorat a researcher of Mythology and History. He hopes to find Earth - the mother planet of human race. The truth’s they discover on their way turns them away to another direction........
Gendibal is sent out to find this Mysterious Anti-Mules. With him is Sura Novi a peasant woman from Trantor whose unpolished mind with its natural smoothness would help Gendibal detect any outside mind control....or so he thought........
Gaia
Gaia is a name for Earth -the mother. Trevise stumbles upon this mysterious planet, Pelorat thinks its earth, but Trevise has a feeling it means more.
Trevise knows, its more than a feeling.......
Gendibal knows that Trevise is Important. He has a Natural ability to see right and wrong. Maybe he will lead ....Gendibal Follows...
Gaia knows....that Trevise is Special, it is on him that depends the whole fate of the Galaxy........
Conclusion
On the whole this book is different from the Foundation trilogy. It is a bit slow. Asimov gives you apparent irrelevant details, but after you finish the book you will know that the master of science Fiction writes nothing in vain..you even might want to go over the ’boring details’ parts that u skipped.
Asimov was a thinker, he had is very own Galaxy all in is head, he calls it the ’’foundation Universe’’ and all the stories that he ever wrote happens there. So none of the Stories are Independent, even when they are unrelated to the foundation.
His prime love was robots, and yes he comes back to them in this book.
The book ’’Prelude to Foundation’’ is the story of Harry Seldon and what led him to perfect psychohistory. Here again he goes back to the robots.
His robot in the story’s of Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun- Robot Daniel Olivow, plays big part.( I recommend a reading of this book ’’the prelude..’’ , although not really a part of the Foundation trilogy, it will get u a better insight into it)
I always thought Mule had some Robot connections. He was a mind controller , just like R.daniel in ’’Prelude to.....’’. I got my answers in this book .
Also related to this book is the story-’’ The End of Eternity’’...robots again..and this is very much a deciding factor in this book, so I recommend you read it beforehand.
And finally this is not really a Science Fiction book if your idea of SF is Spaceships and aliens and laser guns.
Foundations Edge is a book about foundations but not the Foundation itself , disappointment is guarantied if you are expecting the fast paced political drama of the Foundations, This is much more mature.
Last Word
You might find a different meaning to this book, other than what I wrote. But to me, I Found an alternate Universe, an alternate Galaxy.....a living one, of which we all are a part of.