It was with a sense of duty, trepidation, and hope that I decided to open Foundation to page one and read. It has been to my dismay that science fiction novels which were created in the 1950's all too often possess a zeitgeist overladen with atomic ray guns, bubble glass helmets, macho males with all the right answers, and so many more cringeworthy characteristics. Foundation thankfully did not deliver on two of the above hideous throwbacks to one of the earliest tropes that has sullied the genre even to this day. Hari Seldon, a psychohitorian, has predicted that the long standing galaxy expansive empire of humanity will fall. His mathematical probabilities ascertain that a period of barbarism will last thirty thousand years unless the empire acts on his recommendations. He is put into exile along with over one hundred thousand adherents of his tenants on the far edge of the galaxy. His public belief that all the accrued knowledge that the empire has collected over the eon's will become fractured and that in turn it will bring millennia of chaos. On the planet of Terminus we follow what happens to this minor branch of doom sayers. As time passes the denizens of Terminus steadfastly follow the teachings of Hari Seldon by continuing to keep his idea of a Galactica Encyclopedia, the sole focus of their limited and socially isolated existence. However, and this turns out to be a rather juicy plot twist, the encyclopedia is nothing more than a ruse. His true reason for instigating this Diaspora was to force a select minority to actually think and fend for themselves. They are to be the inchoate socio-economic pioneers a new empire. That particular plot twist caught me by surprise - that was the novel's only true highlight. From that point on the novel simply mulls along. Foundation is broken up into five segments from which various chronological timelines introduce to how the players of Terminus slowly expand their sphere of influence through non violent means. They attain power and influence by introducing technology to the newly technologically disenfranchised planets of nearby unfriendly star systems. This was such a blatantly over the top simplistic plot development involving mayors, traders, spies, and demagogues. Considering when this novel was originally written it hasn't aged as poorly as I feared, but even though I tip my hat to the memory of the polyglot and all round genius that was Isaac Asimov, I just have to admit that science fiction has, to a certain degree, come a long way in the intervening decades.

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