Here comes Christmas, lets get chilled out and some time off with repeats on the telly !
oh,,If I p...
Here comes Christmas, lets get chilled out and some time off with repeats on the telly !
oh,,If I promise to come back with an 'E', THEN REMIND ME !!, I will not be offended.Greg
Member since:24.09.2004
Reviews:377
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Prelude To Foundation.
Author - Isaac Asimov.,
Synopsis - This book was written in 1988 and was the last Foundation book yet to be written. As with Star Wars not all 6 Foundation novels where written chronologically. It, as the name suggests, should be considered the 1st Foundation book. At 460 pages long, here are just a few pointers to the virgin foundation reader.
The book wastes no time in introducing the reader to Hari Seldon, the mathematical genius of physcohistory. Which is the prediction of future events by mathematically understanding MASS human behavior.
Hari travels to Trantor to give a lecture but ends up meeting the Emperor Cleon 1 and his dangerous advisor Eto Demerzel. The Emperor is skeptical but decides to keep hari under survalence. Hari visits a local park where he is almost mugged but rescued by Hummin and taken to a place of safety where the emperor or his advisor cannot get to him. Hummin does this because he believes hari must develope his physcohistory for the good of mankind. Hari is hidden away in a far distant univercity where he is able to work on his physcohistory. Here he meets several people including Dors and you find yourself wondering who can be trusted, whos on whos side. At one point hari finds himself almost frozen to death whilst out on top of the vast domes that cover Trantor. Was he set up?
At this point it is decided to leave the univercity for a religious part of trantor called Mycogen where hari can have access to some very old historical records. Here hari and dors, she has accompanied him, find a 20,000 year old robot but then they are lucky to leave mycogen with their lives.
They then travel to the Dahi Sector where they again have to fight their way out of imperial trouble. They are taken to Wye where they meet the mayor of wye, who claims to be the decendent of the true line for the empirical throne of trantor and hence the Galaxy. The mayor is in a position to overthrow the emperor and with hari's help, using his physcohistory Rashelle can seize power. But Hari has finally worked out how to make physcohistory work and must keep galactic peace in order to progress his theories. Wye is attacked by imperial forces and certain people are revealed not to be who they pretend to be. Physcohistory is Finally put into 'laymans' terms.
The big, BIG, revelation at the end is a cracker! ( in fact it ties in with my review on Naked Sun).
Opinions/Conclusions: - Having read the other book many years ago I was looking forward to reading this book. I was not disappointed. The book roles along at an easy pace and is written cleverly, many times you will find yourself wondering about where this or that is leading, who is really working for whom etc.. The interaction and dialogue between the characters is superbly written.
Not to be smug, but I guessed the initial secret about Hummin about halfway through but his actual name came as a real surprise. If you read enough sci-fi YOU will also twig. The clue is in the name. However the truth about Dors was a surprise!
On the whole I would recommend this book to those who may have read others of this sextet, (sextet?) but I would not advise this as a book for the beach. Can be a bit technical
Greg.
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