Foundation and Earth

Foundation and Earth

OCLC		13123192
Preceded by	Foundation's Edge

Foundation and Earth is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series. It was published in 1986, four years after the first sequel to the Foundation trilogy, which is titled Foundation's Edge.

Plot introduction

Several centuries after the events of

, when scholars still seem to know the location of 'Sol'.

The story follows on from Foundation's Edge, but can be read as a complete work in itself. (It does, however, give away most of the mysteries around which Foundation's Edge is built.)

Plot summary

Part I: Gaia

Councilman

as the future of mankind.

Part II: Comporellon

First, they visit Comporellon, which claims to be the oldest currently inhabited planet in the galaxy. Upon arrival, they are imprisoned, but negotiate their way out. While there, a historian gives them the coordinates of three Spacer planets, surmised to be fairly close to Earth.

Part III: Aurora

The first Spacer planet they visit is Aurora, which was abandoned by its inhabitants and has a collapsing ecology. Trevize is nearly killed by a pack of wild dogs, presumed to be the descendants of household pets reverted to wolf-like savagery. They escape when Bliss manipulates the dogs' emotions to psychologically compel a retreat, amplifying the fear induced by cries from one of the dogs that Trevize used his neuronic whip on.

Part IV: Solaria

Next, they visit

, and with Fallom's help, reach the surface from Bander's underground mansion. Bliss, by preference, uses the feminine pronoun for Fallom. They take the child with them, as the Solarians would execute her - she would be surplus to their population requirements, and a more mature child from another estate would be chosen to take over Bander's estate.

Part V: Melpomenia

The crew now visit Melpomenia, the third and final Spacer coordinate they have, where the atmosphere has become reduced to a few thousandths of normal atmospheric pressure. Wearing space suits, they enter a library, and find a plaque listing the names and coordinates of all fifty Spacer worlds. On the way back to the ship, they notice a moss has begun to grow around the seals of their space suits, and just in time, surmise that the moss is feeding on minuscule leakages of carbon dioxide. Thus, they are able to eradicate the moss with a blaster and heavy UV-illumination so that no spores are unintentionally carried off the planet. They then plot the Spacer worlds, which form a rough sphere, on the ship's map and conclude that the location of Earth must be near to the center of the sphere. This area turns out to have a binary star system.

Part VI: Alpha

They arrive at the planet Alpha, which orbits Alpha Centauri and is all ocean except for an island 250 km long and 65 km wide on which live a small group of humans. In a reference to the radioactive Earth of Asimov's novel Pebble in the Sky, the restoration of Earth's soil was eventually abandoned in favour of resettling the population to "New Earth", which the First Galactic Empire had already been terraforming. The natives appear friendly, but secretly they intend to kill the visitors with a microbiological agent to prevent them from informing the rest of the galaxy of their existence. They are warned to escape before the agent can be activated, by a native woman who has formed an attraction to Trevize and was impressed by Fallom's ability to play a flute with just her mind. Now certain that Alpha Centauri is not Earth but near it, they approach a system close by and are puzzled by the very strong similarities between this star and the larger sun of the Alpha Centauri system. Asimov here is making use of an astronomical curiosity: the nearest star system to Sol contains a star that has the same spectral type, G2 V, though Alpha Centauri A is a little larger and brighter.

Part VII: Earth

On the approach to

is deteriorating and he is unable to design a new brain, as he had done several times before, since his brain is now too fragile; he therefore wishes to merge Fallom's brain with his own, allowing him time to oversee Galaxia's creation.

Daneel continues to explain that human internal warfare or parochialism was the reason for his causing the creation of psychohistory and Gaia. Trevize then confirms his decision that the creation of

Galaxia

is the correct choice, and gives his reason as the likelihood of advanced life beyond the galaxy eventually attacking humanity. Trevize states that there should be enough time for Galaxia to be fully ready as long as the enemy is not already present among them, not noticing Fallom's alien gaze resting unfathomably upon him.

Relationship with other works

Although hinted at in Foundation's Edge, this book was the first book of the series that merged it with Asimov's

's role in the events of that novel would later be described in the prequels.

This book serves as a kind of epilogue to the

.

The book

Erythro

, a very abstract alien intelligence.

In Foundation's Triumph, the last book in the Second Foundation Trilogy authorized by Asimov's estate, another possible future for the Galaxy is discussed. In a conversation between Hari Seldon and Daneel Olivaw, Seldon discusses the possibility that the Foundation will in fact incorporate Gaia into the Second Galactic Empire. He then bets that in a thousand years, well after Galaxia should have been established and removed the need for formal education, editions of the Encyclopedia Galactica will be published. The fact that two versions of the Encyclopedia are published after this deadline seems to lend credence to the view that Seldon won the bet.

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed Foundation and Earth for White Dwarf #84, and stated that "Whopping concepts and evocative descriptions boost the novel half-way to excellence, but are defeated by the dead-weight of the stereotypes and lecturing. Hard SF fans will forgive its flaws."^[1]

Reviews

• Review by Dan Chow (1986) in Locus, #309 October 1986^[2]
• Review by Gene DeWeese (1986) in
  Science Fiction Review
  , Winter 1986
• Review by Elton T. Elliott (1986) in
  Science Fiction Review
  , Winter 1986
• Review by Don D'Ammassa (1987) in
  Science Fiction Chronicle
  , #88 January 1987
• Review by Donald M. Hassler (1987) in
  Fantasy Review
  , January-February 1987
• Review by Jon Wallace (1954 -) (1987) in
  Vector
  136
• Review by Darrell Schweitzer (1987) in Aboriginal SF, February-March 1987
• Review by Everett F. Bleiler [as by E. F. Bleiler] (1987) in
  Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine
  , April 1987
• Review by Thomas A. Easton [as by Tom Easton] (1987) in
  Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact
  , May 1987
• Review [French] by Jonathan Dornet (1987) in A&A, #108-109
• Review by John Newsinger (1987) in Paperback Inferno, #68
• Review by Doug Fratz (1987) in Thrust, #26, Spring 1987
• Review [Portuguese] by Roberto de Sousa Causo (1990) in Isaac Asimov magazine, #07

References

1. ^ Langford, Dave (December 1986). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf. No. 84. Games Workshop. p. 8.
2. ^ "Title: Foundation and Earth".

External links

• Foundation and Earth title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Foundation and Earth at Open Library
• Foundation and Earth at Worlds Without End