captaind's Full Review: Isaac Asimov - Prelude to Foundation
Prelude to Foundation was written after, but in terms of the Foundation series’ own chronology set before the rest of the series. Set on the world of Trantor, the centre of the Galactic Empire, it follows the progress of mathematician Hari Seldon, as he tries to develop his fledgling theory of Psychohistory.
Psychohistory is the mathematical prediction of future events (in terms of probability ratios). At the beginning of the book, Seldon has delivered a paper on this new concept at a prestigious mathematical conference. This paper has caught the eye of the Emperor, among other people… Emperor Cleon I is not impressed when Seldon tells him that the theory is not yet, and may never, practical, but if Seldon predicts the right things, well that’s fine by Cleon… maybe not by his aide and the real power behind the throne, Eto Demerzel… so Seldon must take flight – yet remain on Trantor, to attempt to make Psychohistory into a practical concept that can be used…
Aiding him is someone else who found his paper interesting, Chetter Hummin, though for completely different reasons – he can perceive the stagnation that has plagued the galactic empire, and wants to stop it – or at least, reduce the damage. He sees Seldon as the only way of doing this. Hari is later introduced to Dors Venabili, a historian, and begins to envisage a way of turning his theory of Psychohistory into a reality…
Now you know quite a bit of the plot, but not as much as you might imagine considering the amount of info I’ve given you. The plot follows a winding course among the different sectors of Trantor, and the vastly different cultures are portrayed in some depth. Prelude to Foundation enjoys the same advantages over the first few Foundation books that Foundation’s Edge (my favourite of the series) also has – it was written as a novel rather than a series of short stories that were later joined together to make a novel, thus the characterisation and continuity is much better than in the original Foundation trilogy. Asimov’s characterisation is always criticised, but here it is rather effective, and the different cultures portrayed, and the scientific / philosophical ideas depicted are interesting and varied. Seldon as the main character is surprisingly a little dull (considering that in the other books he has attained a legendary status).
There are plenty of action set pieces and psychological battles in Prelude to Foundation, but while it’s always good, it fails to reach the heights of excellence. Prequels are always tricky beasts and this is no exception – another problem is that, unlike any of the other books in the Foundation series, it remains on a single planet – somehow that just feels slightly claustrophobic after you’ve read the other books. What we’re left with is a most interesting book that’s very readable, but fails to be truly compelling. A worthy read if you’ve enjoyed other Foundation books, of course, but if you read this before the other books you may just find it a little too slow-moving. It’s a relatively long book (well, compared to the original trilogy at least) with 460 pages. Oh, and it has a really daft ending… good plot twist, but daft ending… (trust me on that!)
It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic E...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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