FOUNDATION by Isaac Asimov

Welcome to Page 24 of I Read That Book! On each Page, I’ll tell you a little about a book I read, often in a fun and informal manner, with the hope that you also may become interested enough to read it – or perhaps read it again if you’ve already enjoyed it once. The books I’ll be featuring come from a variety of genres at differing stages of my life, so whether you prefer history, literature, science fiction, or horror, there’s a good chance you’ll get some interesting ideas for your personal “To Be Read” list. Thank you for joining me on this journey as we flip through the pages of some of my favorite books. But before you start reading below, I invite you to grab a cup of your favorite beverage (coffee for me!) and find a comfortable place to sit, then turn to Page 24.

FOUNDATION by Isaac Asimov

Publication Date: 1951

Isaac Asimov, who wrote and edited over 500 books, first published FOUNDATION (arguably his most famous work) in four parts for the magazine Astounding Science Fiction. A fifth part was later added when it all came together in book form in 1951.

If you hear science fiction fans discussing the book, you may catch them saying, “Foundation Trilogy,” which was true for a while, until Asimov decided to revisit the Galactic Empire, adding a number of new editions, along with tying in his Robot novels and stories and a handful of other novels. So, if you decide to read FOUNDATION and love it, there are a lot more related books you can explore.

While science fiction books sometimes seem off-putting to readers due to all the technical jargon (along with strange and scary aliens, unbelievably gigantic constructs, frightening artificial intelligence, and devastating nuclear fallouts), some writers are adept at pulling their readers in by giving us characters that we can associate with.

His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before. That is, not in real life. He had seen it many times on the hyper-video, and occasionally in tremendous three-dimensional newscasts covering an Imperial Coronation or the openings of a Galactic Council. Even though he had lived all his life on the world of Synnax, which circled a star at the edges of the Blue Drift, he was not cut off from civilization, you see. At that time, no place in the Galaxy was.

See what I mean? Asimov starts Foundation off with a country boy, someone we can easily envision. The fact that Gaal doesn’t live on earth just adds to the intrigue, leaving us wondering why Trantor is important, and why he lives on a planet at the edges of the Blue Drift.

But keep in mind that this isn’t The Adventures of Tom Sawyer…in Space. We come to learn that the Galactic Empire has been around much longer than the Roman Empire, and is also heading toward a decline, the results of which will be disastrous. Yet Hari Seldon, creator of psychohistory, came up with an amazing plan that could be, in modern terms, a game changer!

If you stay away from the genre of science fiction, or tend to “just read the new stuff,” you should seriously consider exploring this grand classic. You may end up not liking it, but if you do, it will open your eyes to a whole new world of great books.

I read the original trilogy in 2010 and have also read several of the Robot novels (including the excellent short story collection, THE COMPLETE ROBOT), and I’ve never forgotten these fascinating tales of adventure in a far-flung future and look forward to exploring more of the Foundation series.

Some of you may know that Foundation is now a streaming series on Apple TV+, but I’m not a subscriber, so I can’t really comment on whether the series is doing justice to the book. If you’ve been watching the show and have some thoughts on it, please leave a comment below. Many of us would appreciate it.

And don’t forget to join us here again when I flip to the next Page!

Note: The first 32 pages of I Read This Book! originally appeared on Substack.

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