Foundation
Mind-numbing. Read it this morning, watched a movie since, and I'm still in awe of it. My first sci-fi ever (as in when I first read it, today was not the first time I read sci-fi) and probably still my favourite.
It begins a really long time into the future when humankind is spread across space and is all part of one big Empire. Everyone thinks it will last forever, but a man called Hari Seldon predicts the collapse of the Empire, and he is right because he is the best psychohistorian ever. Psychohistory is 'the study of mob reactions to events', or the prediction of events by using a mixture of history, psychology and statistics, more or less. So he creates a mini world to tide over the chaos, which is known as Foundation. The book talks about mainly four heroes - Hari Seldon, Salvor Hardin, Limmar Ponyets and Hober Mallow. Fascinating.
(Statutory warning: this was written some time ago, but I couldn't finish it and am publishing it now.)
It begins a really long time into the future when humankind is spread across space and is all part of one big Empire. Everyone thinks it will last forever, but a man called Hari Seldon predicts the collapse of the Empire, and he is right because he is the best psychohistorian ever. Psychohistory is 'the study of mob reactions to events', or the prediction of events by using a mixture of history, psychology and statistics, more or less. So he creates a mini world to tide over the chaos, which is known as Foundation. The book talks about mainly four heroes - Hari Seldon, Salvor Hardin, Limmar Ponyets and Hober Mallow. Fascinating.
(Statutory warning: this was written some time ago, but I couldn't finish it and am publishing it now.)
posted by Namya at
8:09 AM
6 Comments:
I love it. Love the whole series. Although I never could figure out very well how they fitted together. The order, that is.
By
Monkey With Keyboard, at 2:43 AM
It's a really nice book, the best thing in it is how the story progresses, he manages to maintain a very consistent flow throughout the story and at the same time he doesn't sacrifice the details, which is a pretty rare thing.
If you liked this one you could try Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" & "Ubik".
Left-em: It's called retroactive continuity, it isn't supposed to fit together that well, they're based in the same universe but that's just about it.
By
Anuj, at 1:36 AM
Eh? "Written some time ago"? The different parts of the book were written in 1950, 1942, 1942, 1944, and 1944 repectively. The book itself was first published in 1951. That's like 4 times my age! "Written some time ago". Sheesh.
That said, I'm not suprised you found t mind-numbing. I get that feeling every time I read an Asimov story, whether or not I've read it before.
PS: You have a blog with the title "Ellesmera"? I think Lothlorien or Rivendell fits in better.
By
Anurag Sahay, at 4:39 AM
I meant my post. Which was written sometime ago, and I always meant to finish it, etc. Sheesh. ;)
Well, thank you, but it bothers my brother, so I think I'll keep the title.
Do you think the actual URL fits in well?
By
Namya, at 5:38 AM
Ahh.. okay. Well, considering that it is your blog, I quite think your url fits. Also, why on Earth do you have a blog only for books? I'd think there are lots of oter possible topics you could broach.
By
Anurag Sahay, at 6:05 AM
Yeah I know, but I started with books and I don't think I can diversify now. I'll probably have to make another blog, and I'm too lazy to do that. Maybe sometime.
By
Namya, at 1:02 AM
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