Forward The Foundation

Forward the Foundation (1994) by Isaac Asimov
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 9780553404883
Condition: Good
Sold by: Crappy Old Books

Running a galactic empire sounds rather glamorous until you consider the administrative difficulties. Twenty-five million inhabited worlds, trillions of citizens, countless political factions and presumably an astronomical number of complaints about public transport. Unfortunately, the Galactic Empire is also collapsing, although nobody particularly wants to admit it. Fortunately, one mathematician has worked out how to predict the disaster. Unfortunately, being right about the end of civilisation is not necessarily a good career move.

Welcome to Forward the Foundation, Isaac Asimov’s magnificent return to the universe of psychohistory, political intrigue and humanity’s apparently inexhaustible capacity to make a spectacular mess of its own affairs.

At the centre of the story stands Hari Seldon, the brilliant mathematician whose revolutionary science of psychohistory promises to predict the future behaviour of enormous populations. By combining mathematics, statistics and human psychology, Seldon hopes to anticipate the inevitable collapse of the Galactic Empire and reduce the thousands of years of barbarism that might otherwise follow. It is an ambitious undertaking, especially considering that most governments struggle to predict what will happen to the economy next Tuesday.

Set on Trantor, the vast imperial capital where political power, technological sophistication and bureaucratic absurdity exist in uncomfortable harmony, the novel follows Seldon across several decades. As he ages, his theories develop, his personal relationships evolve and the Empire gradually reveals the cracks beneath its apparently indestructible foundations.

Naturally, the authorities are not particularly enthusiastic about predictions of impending collapse. Emperors prefer reassuring forecasts, politicians favour convenient statistics and the general population would rather not hear that everything they take for granted is heading towards a historical catastrophe. Seldon must therefore navigate political conspiracies, professional rivalries, personal tragedies and the increasingly awkward business of preparing humanity for a future it refuses to acknowledge.

Unlike some science fiction adventures, where the solution to every problem involves a spaceship, a laser cannon and somebody shouting orders, Forward the Foundation is concerned with ideas, institutions and the extraordinary consequences of intellectual persistence. Asimov understands that civilisations rarely collapse because everyone simultaneously forgets how to operate the machinery. They decline through a far more complicated mixture of complacency, political weakness, social fragmentation and institutional decay. Rather comforting, really.

Published originally in 1993, this was Asimov’s final Foundation novel and appeared after his death in 1992. It provides a deeply human portrait of Hari Seldon while connecting the earlier prequels to the events of the original Foundation trilogy. There is humour, melancholy, intellectual ambition and an unmistakable sense of farewell.

This 1994 Bantam edition is in Good condition and offered by Crappy Old Books, where we cannot predict the collapse of civilisation using advanced mathematics, although a glance at the evening news usually provides a reasonable approximation.

An essential addition to any serious science fiction collection, particularly for readers who enjoy grand historical visions, mathematical prophecy and the reassuring thought that even a collapsing galactic empire cannot escape the paperwork.

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