Lovers of classic sci-fi were treated to a neat surprise this week, with the release of a trailer for Apple TV+’s upcoming TV series based on Isaac Asimov’s seminal masterpiece, Foundation. The trailer itself looks spectacular, teasing a high-budget and thrilling interpretation of Asimov’s world with a killer cast and massive scope.
Check it out!
But, what is it all about?
The Foundation series begins in the far future, in a galaxy-spanning empire that’s in decline. Key to the story is a concept known as psychohistory, a new branch of social mathematics that uses complex algorithms to accurately predict the future. The founder of psychohistory, Hari Seldon, has predicted that the empire will soon collapse, ushering in a new dark age that will last for 30,000 years. Charged with treason for his predictions, Seldon enacts a plan to set up the Foundation, a project to preserve the knowledge and culture of the empire with the goal of reducing the length of the dark age and helping the galaxy reach civilisation again as quickly as possible. The entire saga takes place over 1,000 years with a rotating cast of characters, across many different worlds and cultures, with many surprises, twists and turns.
So, where should you begin if you want to jump into these novels? Asimov initially wrote a series of short stories, which were collected as the Foundation Trilogy consisting of Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation in the early 1950s.
This was followed in the early 1980s with two sequels, Foundation’s Edge and Foundation and Earth, and then in the late ’80s/early ’90s with two prequels, Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation.
While you could start with the prequels, I think you can’t go wrong with publication order. The initial trilogy is immensely enjoyable and has had a huge impact on the modern sci-fi landscape. It was one of the first sci-fi novels I ever read, and is responsible for creating the monstrous nerd you see before you today. In reading the original trilogy, you’ll see its impact on so much modern science fiction, from Star Wars to Westworld. It truly is one of the most influential and significant science fiction works of all time, and I personally can’t wait to see what this adaptation brings.
–Find out more about Foundation on Apple TV+ here.
Foundation
The Foundation Series: Book 1
Long after Earth was forgotten, a peaceful and unified galaxy took shape, an Empire governed from the majestic city-planet of Trantor. The system worked, and grew, for countless generations. Everyone believed it would work forever. Everyone except Hari Seldon. As the great scienctific thinker of his age Seldon could not be ignored. Reluctantly, the Commission of Public Safety agreed to finance the Seldon Plan.
The coming disaster was predicted by Seldon’s advances in psychohistory, the mathematics of very large human numbers, and it could not be averted. The Empire was doomed...
Comments
October 4, 2021 at 5:51 pm
This is a wrong way of dealing with this. This is a story. Not a tribute to an author. One should start with the prequels of this story. What was before Hari Seldon.