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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780553278392
ISBN number: 0553278398
Label: Spectra
Manufacturer: Spectra
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 528
Printing Date: March 01, 1989
Publishing house: Spectra
Release Date: March 01, 1989
Sale Popularity Level: 24841
Studio: Spectra
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Product Description:
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 Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall - those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.
Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire... the man who holds the key to the future - an apocalyptic power to be know forever after as the Foundation.
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Rated by buyers 
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This book was written 25 years after the others in the series, and Asimov's writing skills had obviously matured and improved. He was a master writer in his 20's but he continued to get better. The characters
in this work are more believable, and in this book he incorporated a very interesting surprise at the end. Asimov earned all the tributes reviewers
have given him through the years.
Rated by buyers 
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First in fictional order of the Foundation series, it is actually the last book written in chronological order. Next in series is Foundation (Foundation Novels) (1951), Foundation and Empire (Foundation Novels) (1952) and Second Foundation (Foundation Novels) (1953). After a 30-year hiatus, Asimov concluded the series with Foundation's Edge (Foundation Novels) (1982) and Foundation and Earth (1983) before wrapping back around to pick up the story at the beginning.
This is just an OK book, nothing spectacular. The original three that I read as a teenager I remember as classics, so it will be intriguing to see if they live up to my memories (they don't; see the reviews at the above links). This book, perhaps intentionally as the opening book that frames the series, seems more a platform to discuss the philosophies of "psychohistory", Asimov's term for chaos theory applied to historical prediction, and relatively simplistic analogies to current social issues such as racism, economic stratification, pollution, and religion.
Rated by buyers 
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This prequel to Asimov's classic Foundation trilogy, written almost thirty years after the original stories, is almost as long as the original three books combined. Hari Seldon, the creator of psychohistory, has just announced its discovery. Suddenly, Hari finds on the run, hiding from the Emperor and others who would use his mathematics to further their own political ends. He is also searching for the clues in history that will allow him to perfect his theory and make it practical for predicting the future.
The themes here are as old as man's quest to develop tools to make life easier. How can these tools be put to best use? And how do we prevent these same tools from falling into the hands of those that would use them for personal gain at the expense of others? These questions have been raised again and again as new technologies emerge, and this book provides a long exploration of these questions.
This book also helps to link the Foundation series to Asimov's other works, including his Robot stories, helping to create an sweeping history of the future.
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"Prelude to Foundation" by Isaac Asimov
Prof. Asimov has a knack for telling a good story. The really interesting part of this is that it is written in 1980 or so, and talks a little about using computers. In some of his older stories, he mentions the 'slide rule guys' figuring stuff out. I suppose that my knowing what a slide rule is dates me some. It is also obvious that he did not write this for serial publication. He can put together a good book with some disparate magazine stories, but this is written differently. It would have been possible to serialize it, but it was not, that I know of.
In the end it turns out that robots are God.
Rated by buyers 
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I wanted a good Sci-Fi book or fantasy book. I remember the Xanth series, John Carter of Mars books, but this was rediculously dull. If I hate a book half way I'll stop reading it, which I did. It seemed like a story about a scientist running away from agents of a leader who were trying to kill him. He wanders around on a top of a dome for several pages and I told myself, that's it. I'm done. I'm sure Asimov has done well for himself with the other books, but this one seemed like he was just trying to stretch out a story way too long.
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