Two Student Posts: Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Review written by Steve Wei

I don't read all that much but when I do read, however, I read what I like. When I first picked up this book and started reading it a year ago, I put it down immediately. A year later when I picked it up and started it again, however, I realized my tastes in reading must have changed, because after a kind 0f boring introduction, it hooked me.

So, what is Foundation? Well, it all started several thousand years in this 'Galactic Empire', which, coincidentally, is exactly what it sounds like. This dude Hari Seldon developed a scientific theory called Psycho-History to the point where he can predict the future in terms of social, political, and economical changes 10,000 years in the future, and honestly he thinks it's going to fail. Really bad. He forces the government to let him set up a Foundation at the edge of the galaxy (where the Empire isn't threatened) on the pretense that they will preserve the knowledge they have now and shorten the Dark Age to come by 9,000 years.

Without going into too much detail, let me just say that this whole Foundation idea turns out to be a complete farce and all along, Seldon had other plans for Foundation. It's still meant to save the galaxy, but not the way it was presented. The rest of the story follows the characters who keep Foundation from being destroyed - characters who, by the way, are killed off every couple of chapters.

By nature, you may not want to read this book if you like a character driven story or if you're uninterested in politics, because it's mostly about politicians getting killed off/usurped. However if you like sci-fi, if you like challenging books, or if you hate the long-winded descriptions given by writers such as, say, Tolkien, then you may very well enjoy Foundation and its sequels - one of which I'm reading now.

- Steve Wei



Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Review written by John McLean

I must have picked up and put this book down three times in the past four years. My uncle gave this book to me more as a “Here, I don’t want this anymore, I thought you might like it” present, but I never got around t0 reading it. It seemed I always would pick it up around 11 o’clock at night, when I was dead tired and every time, without fail, I would fall asleep within the first three pages. My initial impression was that the book itself was putting me to sleep, so I gave up on reading it. Much to my surprise, however, I actually started carving into the book last night with a renewed intensity and to my surprise and delight, i discovered it’s fantastic!

Gaal Dornick, a mathematician from Synnax, travels to Trantor, the center of the Galactic Empire. Trantor is one giant city where the law-making decisions of the Empire are decided. It is also in Trantor that Hari Seldon, a renowned mathematician and psycho-historian, is attempting to lessen the impact of what he proves mathematically to be the unstoppable downfall of the Empire.

Although I’m not too far into the book, I can tell it's going to be fantastic and I can’t wait to complete the entire trilogy.

If you’ve ever read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card or seen the movie I, Robot starring Will Smith, read this book. It’s not some "boring book" - it begins right in the middle of all the action and is exciting from the get- go! Just make sure you don't start reading it when you're exhausted!

- John McLean