Isaac Asimov – Foundation’s Edge (1982) Review

7.5/10

In the 1940s, Isaac Asimov wrote his famous Foundation trilogy and promptly forgot all about it. In the next few decades while he was writing non-fiction, fans pestered him endlessly to write a sequel, but uncle Isaac never listened. Only 28 years later, when a publisher offered him a pile of money, did Asimov lean out the window and yell: “ALRIGHT! FINE!”, took his pipe out of his mouth, which also has been lodged there for 28 years, began to type furiously and wrote Foundation’s Edge. Which then won all the awards and became a bestseller.

It must have went something like that.

We are now 500 years into the expansion of the Foundation sinds Hari Seldon founded it. By now it is common knowledge that a Second Foundation existed, which saved the galaxy from the Mule and then disappeared. Councilman Trevise doesn’t believe it for a second. He thinks the Second Foundation is still pulling the strings behind the scenes. Unfortunately, saying so is now a thought-crime and he’s arrested right away. But even the major of Terminus fears that Trevise has a point and the councilman is sent on a secret mission to find out the truth.

The 28 year gap in the series wrought some pleasant changes compared to the old trilogy. Asimov’s writing style got smoother over the years. He also updated his world with modern technology such as computers, and we follow Trevise through the entire novel as a main character. A full novel then, instead of short stories, and an entertaining one too.

As a SF story I thought it was alright, but not greatly impressive. Since the short story format is now gone and we stick with one set of characters, I missed an essential feature of the first trilogy: that sense of deep time, of slow-moving sociological forces, of civilisation changing through the centuries. Instead, Asimov doubles down on telepathy and hand-wavy mind control, and:

~~*~with special powers *~* of the brain *~* you can do anything!~*~~

But we can count on Asimov to make telepathy interesting, so there’s that. The conversations among the Second Foundationers are lengthy but very clever. They reminded me of Frank Herbert’s Bene Gesserit plots in his Dune series.

This is also the moment when Asimov decided to merge his Foundation, Robot and Empire series into one mega-series. Consequentially, the end of this novel (which up to then has been a long road trip) ties Trevise’s story to the other series in a climax where everything comes together. It’s all very intellectual. The book is all about a couple of ideas that take a lot of explaining.

Now, it’s safe to read Foundation’s Edge without knowledge of the Robot series. Some robots are mentioned. But if you want to continue the story in Foundation and Earth (1983), you’d be well advised to read the Robot series first. So that is what I will do next.