Jan-Maat's Reviews > Foundation's Edge

Sort of brick-like sequel to the earlier Foundation books. The sheer bulk of the book testifies to the difference in publishing between when Azimov wrote his original stories - mostly first printed in magazines and later released as books and as a result far shorter. But this was not all that had changed, the story testifies to a change in Azimov's thinking and vision. The original stories were the product of post WWII USA there is an uncomplicated optimism about technology and in the values of the USA, the far future as a result is the 1950s writ large with a generous splash of Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a degree of pessimism as the necessary sauce to sharpen the faith in those fundamental values.

This book takes the Foundation idea in a slightly different direction by introducing a factor and the possibility of a factor outside of the original psychohistorical calculations made by Seldon. Which rather renders the original stories superfluous. The drive of late Azimov to completeness and neatness, tying all of his stories together into one superbundle is accomplished at the cost of the integrity and cleverness of those original stories from the 40s and 50s. One can read and enjoy this book and the one that comes after it and as a pair they serve to tie the Foundation series back to the Bailey/robot books.

More seriously Azimov's solutions in the 1980s are revealed to be thoroughly collectivist, he had moved a long way from his starting point.