![]() ![]() Let me be clear, however: in pointing out the familiarity of the various societies we see in Foundation, I'm not being critical. The Foundation itself seems to recapitulate a fair bit of American history, passing through Boss Tweed politics and Robber Baron-style plutocracy by the end of the trilogy it has evolved into something resembling mid 20th-century America – although Asimov makes it clear that this is by no means its final state. Trantor, the empire's capital, comes across as a sort of hyper-version of Manhattan in the 1940s. Asimov's Galactic Empire sounds an awful lot like the Roman Empire. The Foundation novels are about society, not gadgets – and unlike, say, William Gibson's cyberpunk novels, which are excellent in a very different way, they're about societies that don't seem much affected by technological progress. But these are superficial details, playing a fairly minor part in the story. Yes, it's set in the future, there's interstellar travel, people shoot each other with blasters instead of pistols and so on. Maybe the first thing to say about Foundation is that it's not exactly science fiction – not really. By the way, spoilers follow, so stop reading if you want to encounter the whole thing fresh. The trilogy really is a unique masterpiece there has never been anything quite like it. So how do the Foundation novels look to me now that I have, as my immigrant grandmother used to say, grown to mature adultery? Better than ever. ![]()
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