Foundation by Isaac Asimov (English) Paperback Book

Description: Foundation by Isaac Asimov A band of psychologists, under the leadership of psychohistorian Hari Seldon, plant a colony to encourage art, science, and technology in the declining Galactic Empire and to preserve the accumulated knowledge of humankind. Readers Guide available. Reissue. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description The first novel in Isaac Asimovs bestselling science fiction masterpiece, The Foundation series, now repackaged in time for the summer 2004 release of an Asimov classic on film.The first novel in Isaac Asimovs classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation seriesTHE EPIC SAGA THAT INSPIRED THEAPPLE TV+ SERIES FOUNDATION .Nominated as one of Americas best-loved novels by PBSs The Great American ReadFor twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future-to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire-both scientists and scholars-and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.The Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are among the most influential in the history of science fiction, celebrated for their unique blend of breathtaking action, daring ideas, and extensive worldbuilding. In Foundation, Asimov has written a timely and timeless novel of the best-and worst-that lies in humanity, and the power of even a few courageous souls to shine a light in a universe of darkness. Author Biography Isaac Asimov began his Foundation series at the age of twenty-one, not realizing that it would one day be considered a cornerstone of science fiction. During his legendary career, Asimov penned more than 470 books on subjects ranging from science to Shakespeare to history, though he was most loved for his award-winning science fiction sagas, which include the Robot, Empire, and Foundation series. Named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction Writers of America, Asimov entertained and educated readers of all ages for close to five decades. He died, at the age of seventy-two, in April 1992. Review Praise for Isaac Asimov and his Foundation series "A true polymath, a superb rationalist, an exciting and accessible writer in both fiction and nonfiction, Isaac Asimov was simply a master of all he surveyed."—Greg Bear "Asimov served wondrous meals-of-the-mind to a civilization that was starved for clear thinking about the future. To this day, his visions spice our ongoing dinner-table conversation about human destiny."—David Brin "Isaac was still in his teens when I met him, a fan of mine before I was a fan of his. Writing for John W. Campbell back in the famous golden age of science fiction, he became one of the founders of our field. With the Robot stories and the Foundation stories, he helped to shape science fiction as we know it."—Jack Williamson "I grew up on the ABCs of science fiction—Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke. Theres a reason Asimovs name comes first, and not just because of the alphabet!"—Janis Ian "With his fertile imagination, his wit, and his prolific output, Isaac Asimov truly laid the foundation for all future generations of science fiction writers."—Kevin J. Anderson "If anything can be said to have been the launch pad for space-age science fiction, it has to be the Foundation trilogy. Its a classic. And its unforgettable."—Jack McDevitt "The Foundation series is one of the masterpieces of science fiction. If youve never read these novels, then youre in for a treat, and even if youve already read them, then you owe it to yourself to reread them, because theyre still great."—Allen Steele "Quite simply, Asimov got me started."—Liz Williams "Asimovs Foundation trilogy was the pivotal touchstone of my life in creative fiction. His vision and scope spanned the galaxy across eons, and at the same time he told deeply personal stories of living characters. The writer I am sprang from the boy that these books touched back then. They continue to move me still. Thank you, Isaac, for opening my mind and my life to the possible."—Tracy Hickman "Im sure there will be more Foundation stories, and more robot stories, and more science-fictional mysteries, because those are Isaacs legacies to us. But reading them wont be quite the same. There was only one Isaac Asimov; there will never be another."—Mike Resnick Review Quote Praise for Isaac Asimov and his Foundation series "A true polymath, a superb rationalist, an exciting and accessible writer in both fiction and nonfiction, Isaac Asimov was simply a master of all he surveyed." --Greg Bear "Asimov served wondrous meals-of-the-mind to a civilization that was starved for clear thinking about the future. To this day, his visions spice our ongoing dinner-table conversation about human destiny." --David Brin "Isaac was still in his teens when I met him, a fan of mine before I was a fan of his. Writing for John W. Campbell back in the famous golden age of science fiction, he became one of the founders of our field. With the Robot stories and the Foundation stories, he helped to shape science fiction as we know it." --Jack Williamson "I grew up on the ABCs of science fiction--Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke. Theres a reason Asimovs name comes first, and not just because of the alphabet!" --Janis Ian "With his fertile imagination, his wit, and his prolific output, Isaac Asimov truly laid the foundation for all future generations of science fiction writers." --Kevin J. Anderson "If anything can be said to have been the launch pad for space-age science fiction, it has to be the Foundation trilogy. Its a classic. And its unforgettable." --Jack McDevitt "The Foundation series is one of the masterpieces of science fiction. If youve never read these novels, then youre in for a treat, and even if youve already read them, then you owe it to yourself to reread them, because theyre still great." --Allen Steele "Quite simply, Asimov got me started." --Liz Williams "Asimovs Foundation trilogy was the pivotal touchstone of my life in creative fiction. His vision and scope spanned the galaxy across eons, and at the same time he told deeply personal stories of living characters. The writer I am sprang from the boy that these books touched back then. They continue to move me still. Thank you, Isaac, for opening my mind and my life to the possible." --Tracy Hickman "Im sure there will be more Foundation stories, and more robot stories, and more science-fictional mysteries, because those are Isaacs legacies to us. But reading them wont be quite the same. There was only one Isaac Asimov; there will never be another." --Mike Resnick Description for Reading Group Guide Isaac Asimovs Robot series and Foundation series comprise some of the greatest classics in their genre. They probe the questions of technology and destiny, war and politics that have captured readers imaginations for generations. I, Robot, the first and most widely read book in Asimovs Robot series, is a collection of nine stories that forever changed the worlds perception of artificial intelligence. Here are stories of sensitive robots, robots gone mad, mind-reading robots, prankster robots, and closeted robots that secretly dominate politics. Chronicling the robots development from primitive prototype to ultimate perfection, I, Robot blends scientific fact with science fiction in Asimovs provocative style. Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation tell the story of Hari Seldon, a brilliant visionary who synthesized history, psychology, and mathematical probability to shape a bold commandment for the future and steer humanity through a series of brutal eras. Following the collapse of a Galactic Empire, Hari gathered together the top scientists and scholars on a bleak planet at the very edge of the Galaxy in order to preserve the accumulated knowledge of mankind. He called his sanctuary the Foundation and designed it to withstand a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that would last for the next thirty thousand years. But not even Hari could have predicted the intense barbarism lurking in space, or the birth of an extraordinary creature whose mutant intelligence would destroy all that Hari held dear. The questions, discussion topics, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your reading of these four classics written by one of the most widely recognized fiction authors of our time. I, Robot Isaac Asimov 0-553-29438-5 (paperback) 0-553-80370-0 (hardcover) Foundation Isaac Asimov 0-553-29335-4 (paperback) 0-553-80371-9 (hardcover) Foundation and Empire Isaac Asimov 0-553-29337-0 (paperback) 0-553-80372-7 (hardcover) Second Foundation Isaac Asimov 0-553-29336-2 (paperback) 0-553-80373-5 (hardcover) Discussion Question for Reading Group Guide 1. Do Asimovs now-famous Three Laws of Robotics mirror humanitys ethics code in any way? Whose orders are human beings required to obey? Do our definitions of "harm" ever lead to the same confounding dilemmas experienced in I, Robot ? 2. Why was Glorias mother unable to accept Robbie as an excellent nursemaid? Was Robbie premonitory on Asimovs part--a prediction that children in the twenty-first century might form intense emotional attachments to electronics? 3. Cutie (QT) questions his origins and finds it impossible to believe that a human created him. In what ways did Powell and Donovan reinforce this belief? 4. Does the case of Stephen Byerley indicate that robots might make better politicians? Would this only hold true if, as the novel envisions, nations dissolve into massive world regions? 5. What is the ultimate commodity produced by U.S. Robot & Mechanical Men, Inc. Does our global workforce follow this model in any way? Were humor and compassion inevitable traits in the robots? Do these traits interfere with productivity in the world of I, Robot ? 6. In the books closing lines, Dr. Susan Calvin tells the narrator, "You will see what comes next," as robots stand between mankind and destruction. How did her career lead up to such a precarious conclusion? 7. I, Robot has been turned into a major motion picture starring Will Smith. How does the movie compare with your book-reading experience? What do you think of the adjustments made and liberties taken when converting this collection of stories to one seamless film adaptation? 8. Foundation opens with the perspective of Gaal Dornick, "a country boy who had never seen Trantor before." What is the effect of opening the novel with Gaals observations? Why did Hari Seldon extend such an invitation to Gaal? 9. In the trial portrayed in chapter 6, the Commissions Advocate repeatedly rejects Haris deductions regarding the future. What has made Hari a target for exile? Why are his projections--supported by seemingly irrefutable logic and mathematics--so easily dismissed by his accusers? 10. Part 3 of Foundation begins with an entry from the Encyclopedia Galactica that reads, "Undoubtedly the most interesting aspect of the history of the four Kingdoms involves the strange society forced temporarily upon it during the administration of Salvor Hardin." In what ways does Hardin distinguish himself from the other rulers described in the novel? What conditions fostered his rise to power? 11. The Foundation is intended in some ways as a kind of religious center. What are its doctrines? Can a religion of science fail? 12. Discuss the novels references to energy--in this case, nuclear power--in relation to political and economic supremacy. What other forces drive the novels hierarchies of dominance? How does the role of the Traders evolve in the novels closing chapters? 13. What were the root causes of the Foundations fall? Could its demise have been avoided, even after war had begun? 14. As Lord of the Universe, is Cleon II na Excerpt from Book 1 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 opening 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. There were nearly twenty-five million inhabited planets in the Galaxy then, and not one but owed allegiance to the Empire whose seat was on Trantor. It was the last half-century in which that could be said. To Gaal, this trip was the undoubted climax of his young, scholarly life. He had been in space before so that the trip, as a voyage and nothing more, meant little to him. To be sure, he had traveled previously only as far as Synnaxs only satellite in order to get the data on the mechanics of meteor driftage which he needed for his dissertation, but space-travel was all one whether one travelled half a million miles, or as many light years. He had steeled himself just a little for the Jump through hyper-space, a phenomenon one did not experience in simple interplanetary trips. The Jump remained, and would probably remain forever, the only practical method of travelling between the stars. Travel through ordinary space could proceed at no rate more rapid than that of ordinary light (a bit of scientific knowledge that belonged among the items known since the forgotten dawn of human history), and that would have meant years of travel between even the nearest of inhabited systems. Through hyper-space, that unimaginable region that was neither space nor time, matter nor energy, something nor nothing, one could traverse the length of the Galaxy in the interval between two neighboring instants of time. Gaal had waited for the first of those jumps with a little dread curled gently in his stomach, and it ended in nothing more than a trifling jar, a little internal kick which ceased an instant before he could be sure he had felt it. That was all. And after that, there was only the ship, large and glistening; the cool production of 12,000 years of Imperial progress; and himself, with his doctorate in mathematics freshly obtained and an invitation from the great Hari Seldon to come to Trantor and join the vast and somewhat mysterious Seldon Project. What Gaal was waiting for after the disappointment of the Jump was that first sight of Trantor. He haunted the View-room. The steel shutter-lids were rolled back at announced times and he was always there, watching the hard brilliance of the stars, enjoying the incredible hazy swarm of a star cluster, like a giant conglomeration of fireflies caught in mid-motion and stilled forever. At one time there was the cold, blue-white smoke of a gaseous nebula within five light years of the ship, spreading over the window like distant milk, filling the room with an icy tinge, and disappearing out of sight two hours later, after another Jump. The first sight of Trantors sun was that of a hard, white speck all but lost in a myriad such, and recognizable only because it was pointed out by the ships guide. The stars were thick here near the Galactic center. But with each Jump, it shone more brightly, drowning out the rest, paling them and thinning them out. An officer came through and said, "View-room will be closed for the remainder of the trip. Prepare for landing." Gaal had followed after, clutching at the sleeve of the white uniform with the Spaceship-and-Sun of the Empire on it. He said, "Would it be possible to let me stay? I would like to see Trantor." The officer smiled and Gaal flushed a bit. It occurred to him that he spoke with a provincial accent. The officer said, "Well be landing on Trantor by morning." "I mean I want to see it from Space." "Oh. Sorry, my boy. If this were a space-yacht we might manage it. But were spinning down, sun-side. You wouldnt want to be blinded, burnt, and radiation-scarred all at the same time, would you?" Gaal started to walk away. The officer called after him, "Trantor would only be a gray blur anyway, Kid. Why dont you take a space-tour once you hit Trantor. Theyre cheap." Gaal looked back, "Thank you very much." It was childish to feel disappointed, but childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child, and there was a lump in Gaals throat. He had never seen Trantor spread out in all its incredibility, as large as life, and he hadnt expected to have to wait longer. 2 The ship landed in a medley of noises. There was the far-off hiss of the atmosphere cutting and sliding past the metal of the ship. There was the steady drone of the conditioners fighting the heat of friction, and the slower rumble of the engines enforcing deceleration. There was the human sound of men and women gathering in the debarkation rooms and the grind of the hoists lifting baggage, mail, and freight to the long axis of the ship, from which they would be later moved along to the unloading platform. Gaal felt the slight jar that indicated the ship no longer had an independent motion of its own. Ships gravity had been giving way to planetary gravity for hours. Thousands of passengers had been sitting patiently in the debarkation rooms which swung easily on yielding force-fields to accommodate its orientation to the changing direction of the gravitational forces. Now they were crawling down curving ramps to the large, yawning locks. Gaals baggage was minor. He stood at a desk, as it was quickly and expertly taken apart and put together again. His visa was inspected and stamped. He himself paid no attention. This was Trantor! The air seemed a little thicker here, the gravity a bit greater, than on his home planet of Synnax, but he would get used to that. He wondered if he would get used to immensity. Debarkation Building was tremendous. The roof was almost lost in the heights. Gaal could almost imagine that clouds could form beneath its immensity. He could see no opposite wall; just men and desks and coverging floor till it faded out in haze. The man at the desk was speaking again. He sounded annoyed. He said, "Move on, Dornick." He had to open the visa, look again, before he remembered the name. Gaal said, "Where--where--" The man at the desk jerked a thumb, "Taxis to the right and third left." Gaal moved, seeing the glowing twists of air suspended high in nothingness and reading, "TAXIS TO ALL POINTS." A figure detached itself from anonymity and stopped at the desk, as Gaal left. The man at the desk looked up and nodded briefly. The figure nodded in return and followed the young immigrant. He was in time to hear Gaals destination. Gaal found himself hard against a railing. The small sign said, "Supervisor." The man to whom the sign referred did not look up. He said, "Where to?" Gaal wasnt sure, but even a few seconds hesitation meant men queuing in line behind him. The Supervisor looked up, "Where to?" Gaals funds were low, but there was only this one night and then he would have a job. He tried to sound nonchalant: "A good hotel, please." The Supervisor was unimpressed. "Theyre all good. Name one." Gaal said, desperately, "The nearest one, please." The Supervisor touched a button. A thin line of light formed along the floor, twisting among others which brightened and dimmed in different colors and shades. A ticket was shoved into Gaals hands. It glowed faintly. The Supervisor said, "One point twelve." Gaal fumbled for the coins. He said, "Where do I go?" "Follow the light. The ticket will keep glowing as long as youre pointed in the right direction." Gaal looked up and began walking. There were hundreds creeping across the vast floor, following their individual trails, sifting and straining themselves through intersection points to arrive at their respective destinations. His own trail ended. A man in glaring blue and yellow uniform, shining and new in unstainable plastotextile, reached for his two bags. "Direct line to the Luxor," he said. The man who followed Gaal heard that. He also heard Gaal say, "Fine," and watched him enter the blunt-nosed vehicle. Details ISBN0553293354 Author Isaac Asimov Short Title FOUNDATION Pages 320 Language English ISBN-10 0553293354 ISBN-13 9780553293357 Media Book DEWEY FIC Year 1991 Audience Age 14-18 Residence US Birth 1920 Death 1992 DOI 10.1604/9780553293357 Series Number 1 UK Release Date 1991-10-01 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 1991-10-01 NZ Release Date 1991-10-01 US Release Date 1991-10-01 Place of Publication New York Publisher Random House USA Inc Series Foundation Format Paperback Publication Date 1991-10-01 Imprint Random House USA Inc Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:2617149;

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