Foundation's Edge (and about the Foundation series in general)

Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov was the only Foundation book I had read for the longest time. I have read it twice or thrice in fact as it can be found in my parents' bookshelf. Recently I figured I should maybe read the rest of the series.

I picked Foundation and Empire and then Foundation, going through the original trilogy in a backwards order -- which probably wasn't the smartest idea but it was the order I found the books in library. And I had read the third book already anyway.

(I could've reserved the books to have them in the right order but I find it more fun to peruse shelves and borrow books as I come upon them. Reserving feels so overly orderly and you still have to wait for the books to free up. Reserving might be necessary with the really popular pieces though or you'll never get a chance to borrow them.)

Asimov's publishers and fans persuaded him to continue writing the series -- for it was sort of lacking closure (and publishers of course wanted more money) -- and so he did with two sequels and then with two prequels. I considered going for internal chronology at this point but since Asimov's writing clearly improved in each of the first three volumes, I decided publication order would be better. I've also read a recommendation that the last published novel, Forward the Foundation, gives the series a fitting end by finishing it where it began.

The premise of the novel series is mankind's galaxy-spanning Empire unbeknownst heading towards its doom: a 30,000 years lasting dark age. A mathematician called Hari Seldon discovers this when developing his mathematical sociology, psychohistory, that is able to predict the future of large populations using statistical laws of mass action. While the decline is deemed inevitable, Seldon is able to device a plan that would shorten this time period to a mere millennium.

The first novel focuses on the founding and early days of the Foundation, which by preserving and advancing the current level of technology will be able to keep declined galactic nations at bay and eventually lead Milky Way to the Second Empire. The series is focused more on events over hundreds of years rather than characters but the first novel still felt too fractured to me. Evidently that's because it was put together from eight short stories. And the next two novels were originally four novellas as well.

In the first half of the second novel, the Foundation fends off an attack against it, while in the second an anomaly Seldon's plan was unable to predict threatens to ruin everything. Psychohistory works with populations but can't foresee exceptionally powerful individuals. A man born with tremendous mental powers, calling himself simply the Mule, is able to defeat the Foundation despite its technology. Mule is not satisfied with that as he still seeks the Second Foundation that Seldon was fabled to have also founded to guide the galaxy from the shadows.

The trick with predicting a population's behavior is that the population can't be aware of their predicted behavior or it becomes unpredictable, thus the Second Foundation's secrecy. The knowledge and the skill to use psychohistory was also assigned to the Second and never passed on to the First Foundation.

The third novel is divided into two parts as well. In the first half, Mule still seeks and clashes with the Second Foundation. In the second half, the First Foundation now aware and worried about the Second as well, also attempts to remove them.

The Mule story in the third book is my favorite part in the series currently. Its culmination was clever and very satisfying. I knew Mule would be in Foundation and Empire too since the third novel mentioned past events. Unfortunately I was disappointed on how Mule wasn't depicted as interesting. There was no suspense.

Foundation's Edge

Finnish title for the first sequel, Foundation's Edge, is Säätiö veitsen terällä which literally means 'Foundation on a knife-edge'. I'm not certain if the idiom has the exact same meaning in English as in Finnish. I started thinking about it and I'm not sure what it even means in Finnish anymore. Some sort of difficult balancing act for sure but between like two or more choices or maybe being on the brink of destruction?

Regardless, I feel it's not quite the right title because I think the original name is referring to the Foundation's literal border where a region of space has never been a subject to an outside power. Or maybe it refers to the book's protagonists, "the cutting edge" of the Foundation(s). Such a double meaning wouldn't unfortunately work in Finnish in this case. The Finnish title is not inaccurate though: like when is the Foundation not in a crisis?

(To think of it, 'säätiö' doesn't have quite the same meaning 'foundation' carries in English. 'Säätiö' is the word for foundation in the sense of 'an organization or institution established by endowment with provision for future maintenance' while 'perustus' or 'perusta' would be the word for the base or basis of something. But the latter just doesn't have the same ring to it as Säätiö which I guess is why Foundation was translated the way it was. Also, I believe 'säätiö' is related to the verb 'säätää' (decree, impose, adjust) which fits the Second Foundation nicely.)

In the fourth novel, things are going well for the Foundation. It has existed for 500 years and is flourishing, having taken over most of the galaxy. Seldon's plan appears to be working perfectly. Even the Second Foundation is believed to have been destroyed. One man disagrees. Loudly.

The man, Councilman Golan Trevize, is publicly exiled from the Foundation's capital Terminus after he voices his concerns. Secretly the Mayor of Terminus however sends Golan on a mission to search for the mythical origin planet, Earth, with Janov Pelorat, a professor who's an expert on the subject. The Mayor, Harla Branno, hopes this will bait the Second Foundation out of hiding so that the First Foundation can destroy them for good this time.

The Second Foundation has taken notice of Golan Trevize -- having learned their lesson from the Mule incident and now keeping an eye on individuals. Or at least one of its Speakers has: Stor Gendibal is on his way to become the First Speaker even though he's not popular among his peers. He also discovers that there is someone guiding Seldon's plan even above the Second Foundation.

Golan and Janov with the both Foundations on their heels arrive to mysterious Gaia planet. I think that's where Foundation's Edge falters. The book has been slowly building up an epic confrontation (this time having a full novel length to do that) and then it gives you something that feels like a weekly "strange new life form" episode from Star Trek. Asimov barely ever wrote about aliens and I feel disappointed he kind of inserted them into Foundation.

I also wasn't very fond of the way Foundation's Edge ties together the Foundation and Robot series. Maybe if I had read the Robot books up to the point they are referred to in this one, I wouldn't have found the idea so far-fetched. It is true though that there had been no robots in the series before and the lack of them had been perplexing to me as advanced technology in science fiction works tends to come with some sort of androids etc.

The ending was somewhat salvaged by how the novel sets up a sequel, which based on its name -- Foundation and Earth -- will be a book of big revelations. Or I at least hope it's something of that nature.

Edited 2021-04-28: Corrected all the misspellings of Hari Seldon.