One of my pandemic silver linings has been re-establishing a regular reading habit. I plan on recapping my reading in these short overviews, with quick summary information and quotes for anyone looking for their next book.

Published: 1951

Read: March 2021

Publisher Summary: For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. Only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humanity, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls this sanctuary the Foundation.

Genre: Sci-Fi

Rating: 9/10

Opening Sentence: His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before.

Eric’s Two Cents: That Asimov guy had it all figured it out, let me tell you. Not only is Foundation worth reading, it’s worth re-reading — I’m just wondering how much time should pass before sitting down with it again because it packs a wallop. Built like a Russian nesting doll, with interconnected stories flinging the reader further and further into the future, it’s an essential read for anyone interested in how human beings think and interact with one another. The story of the horse and the man alone is worth the price of admission.

Who Should Read This?

• Big thinkers
• Budding game theorists, economists and political scientists
• Fans of galactic civilization

Notable Quotables (may include spoilers)

• “State-supported? But we are the State, Dr. Pirenne, and we’re not supporting.”
  Pirenne rose angrily. “Your eminence, I am the direct representative of –”
  “—his august majesty, the Emperor,” chorused Anselm haut Rodric sourly, “and I am the direct representative of the King of Anacreon. Anacreon is a lot nearer, Dr. Pirenne.”
• And Hardin leaped through the opening. “Are you, though? That’s a nice hallucination, isn’t it? Your bunch here is a perfect example of what’s been wrong with the entire Galaxy for thousands of years. What kind of science is it to be stuck out here for centuries classifying the work of scientists of the last millennium? Have you ever thought of working onward, extending their knowledge and improving upon it? No! You’re quite happy to stagnate. The whole Galaxy is, and has been for space knows how long. That’s why the Periphery is revolting; that’s why communications are breaking down; that’s why petty wars are becoming eternal; that’s why whole systems are losing nuclear power and going back to barbarous techniques of chemical power.
  “If you ask me,” he cried, “the Galactic Empire is dying!”
• “I wanted to be a psychological engineer, but we lacked the facilities, so I did the next best thing – I went into politics. It’s practically the same thing.”
• “But you haven’t tried. You haven’t tried once. First, you refused to admit that there was a menace at all! Then you reposed an absolutely blind faith in the Emperor! Now you’ve shifted it to Hari Seldon. Throughout you have invariably relied on authority or on the past – never on yourselves.”
  His fists balled spasmodically. “It amounts to a diseased attitude – a conditioned reflect that shunts aside the independence of your minds whenever it is a question of opposing authority. There seems no doubt ever in your minds that the Emperor is more powerful than you are, or Hari Seldon wiser. And that’s wrong, don’t you see?”
  For some reason, no one cared to answer him.
• “To that end we have placed you on such a planet and at such a time that in fifty years you were maneuvered to the point where you no longer have freedom of action. From now on, and into the centuries, the path you must take is inevitable. You will be faced with a series of crises, as you are now faced with the first, and in each case your freedom of action will become similarly circumscribed so that you will be forced along one, and only one, path.”
• “It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.”
• “Whereupon the man laughed loudly and replied, ‘Never!’ and applied the spurs with a will.”
• “Well, it seems the old bird who’s boss here has his weak points. He leans toward pious speeches, so I took a chance that worked. I’m here in the capacity of your spiritual adviser. There’s something about a pious man such as he. He will cheerfully cut your throat if it suits him, but he will hesitate to endanger the welfare of your immaterial and problematical soul. It’s just a piece of empirical psychology. A trader has to know a little of everything.”
• “Now any dogma, primarily based on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user. For a hundred years now, we’ve supported a ritual and mythology that is becoming more and more venerable, traditional – and immovable. In some ways, it isn’t under our control any more.”
• “It lacks glamour?”
  “It lacks mob emotion-appeal.”
  “Same thing.”
• “We, on the other hand, bribe with little things, useless in war, but vital to prosperity and profits.”