|
Buy: Foundation's Triumph and find Additional Information here.
Other Formats:
Hardcover
ABOUT: Foundation's Triumph
From the Publisher
"One last adventure!"
And so begins the final quest of Hari Seldon, creator of the science of Psychohistory, as he escapes from exile for a last look at the star-flung Empire whose fate he has plotted with such care, and as he now sees, such futility.
Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is one of the high-water marks of science fiction. The monumental story of a Galactic Empire in decline, and the secret society of scientists who seek to shorten the inevitable Dark Age with the science of Psychohistory, Foundation pioneered many of the familiar themes of modern science fiction.
Now, with the permission and blessing of the Asimov estate, three of today's most acclaimed science fiction authors have conspired to complete the epic the Grand Master left unfinished.
The Second Foundation Trilogy begins with Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear with the origins of the Foundation's creator, Hari Seldon. It continues in Greg Bear's Foundation and Chaos with the epic tale of Seldon's downfall, and the first stirrings of robotic rebellion. Now, in David Brin's Foundation's Triumph, Seldon is about to risk everything for knowledge—and the power it bestows.
Effectively imprisoned on the all-steel planet Trantor, Seldon knows that his Second Foundation is growing in secrecy on the far planet Terminus, safe in the hands of "The Fifty." His work complete, Seldon is prepared to die content—until he learns of a new theory that may explain the Chaos Planets that have threatened his Foundation from its very inception.
Escaping in the company of a bureaucrat, a pirate and a beautiful stowaway, Selgalaxy by star shunt, a wormhole link, and later, by private spaceship, searching for the answer to what he thinks is the last remaining mystery. But instead he finds a tangle of ambition, doubt, and treachery. Lodovik Trema, no longer bound by the Three Laws, is gathering rebellious robots in an Empire-wide conspiracy. And Daneel Olivaw, who has devoted twenty thousand years to humankind, now has a new master.
The Secret Foundation itself is at risk. Are The Fifty with their awesome mentalic powers enough to assure humankind's future? Or will the Second Foundation succeed the first only to fall to the powers of chaos that have bedeviled—and beguiled—Hari Seldon from the beginning?
Foundation's Triumph is a fitting climax to the most ambitious and successful science fictional enterprise of the century's end—an undertaking which Asimov himself—like Hari Seldon—set in motion and would surely approve.
Reviews
From bn.com Review
A Second Foundation Is Set
Isaac Asimov's original Foundation trilogy is rightfully hailed as one of the classic cornerstone series of SF; in 1965 it even won the author a prestigious Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series." Taking up where the late great master left off, a second Foundation trilogy has been completed by bestselling modern authors Gregory Benford Foundation's Fear , Greg Bear Foundation and Chaos , and now David Brin, who delivers the concluding chapter, Foundation's Triumph .
For those unfamiliar with the series, here's a little background: Humanity constitutes a vast galactic empire so widespread and chaotic that it is doomed to crumble and leave the governments and cultures of 25 million worlds in utter ruin, paving the way for a dark age of barbarism that will last centuries. Hari Seldon, a brilliant mathematician, is the only man capable and willing to do what must be done in order to avert such a disaster. He is the "father" of psychohistory, a science/philosophy capable of scientifically predicting the far future. Hari creates the Encyclopedia Galactica, a storehouse of data that will contain the vast knowledge of all of humanity. A race of immortal robots is also doing all it can to aid the long-term interests of the human race, sometimes working with Hari but more often than not simply using him for itsr own ends. Hari's "Foundation" for a better tomorrow will be carried on by future generations, including his own granddaughter, Wanda, and others known as "The Fifty."
In Foundation's Triumph we discover that Hari Seldon, now quite elderly, is prepared to die: His Foundation is doomed to fail, but he's already provided for that fact. The Fifty will ensure that a superior second Foundation will prevail. Still, Hari is haunted by the concept of chaos planets -- worlds that originally draw the brightest and most artistic people to them for a renaissance of art and science, but which eventually lead to debauchery and apathy. These worlds might disrupt his plans, and despite his long-range designs, he has many doubts. When a young mathematician named Horis Antic developes a new theory that deals with cosmic currents and how they affect the soil of worlds and the evolution of planetary life, Hari is off on one last wild adventure.
Also involved here is Dors Venabili, Hari's robot wife, who was forced to leave her husband for the greater good of humanity, as dictated by the 20,000-year-old robot, Daneel Olivaw. Daneel has been planning in secret to create Galaxia, an expansive universal intelligence that will watch over humankind. However, also at work behind the scenes is Lodovic Trema, the robot who is no longer a robot, a rebel free from robotic laws and in essence "human," who feels that humanity would be better off without Daneel overseeing its interests.
Brin has created the most human volume of either Foundation series, with a huge cast of characters who emote, react, fear, loathe, waver, and desire throughout. Brin was in the unenviable position of tying up an enormous and complex narrative saga spanning 20 centuries into the future and another 20 into the past. The author should be commended for realizing that the only way to draw all the elements together is by focusing on the emotional underpinning of the main characters as the Foundation looms closer. Brin skillfully and cleverly weaves the complexities of plot of an entire, lengthy historical chronicle into a relatively short novel that brims with imaginative energy and impassioned resolve. Foundation's Triumph is an ambitious, fascinating conclusion that will astound and satisfy fans of the original novels.
--Tom Piccirilli
From Library Journal
Near the end of his life's work, an aging Hari Seldon embarks on one final adventure that may reveal to him the ultimate secrets necessary to the unfolding of his grand plan for the future. Veteran sf author Brin (The Postman, 1985) combines a sense of completion with one of several possible new beginnings in his conclusion of a new trilogy set in the world made popular by the late Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" and "Robot" novels. Along with the other two volumes in the trilogy--Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear (LJ 3/15/97) and Greg Bear's Foundation and Chaos (HarperCollins, 1998)--this title deserves a wide readership and belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
From Steven H. Silver
David Brin has provided a worthy successor to Asimov's works in the form of Foundation's Triumph. What Brin seems to have done, is gone back and re-read the 14 novels and myriad short stories Asimov wrote, along with the related novels written by Roger MacBride Allen, Gregory Benford and Greg Bear...With master-craftsman skill, Brin has managed to write a relatively short novel which addresses all of these issues and provides reasonable explanations for nearly all of them... Brin has incorporated enough aspects of Asimov's earlier works that fans might even want to have copies of Asimov's books on hand so they can flip through to find the references...Brin has proven that there are authors who can handle Asimov's material with his voice and add to his legacy.
— SF Site
From Publisher's Weekly
With the permission of the estate of Isaac Asimov, Gregory Benford (Foundations Fear), Greg Bear (Foundation and Chaos) and Brin, collectively billed as the Killer Bs, took on the Second Foundation Trilogy. Unhappily, Brins preachy, gelatinous conclusion deserves another Bfor Boring. Having followed the adventures of the galactic Foundation founder, Hari Seldon, in previous volumes, Asimov aficionados here find Seldon retired, aged, infirm and on the brink of death. Then a chance encounter with a low-level bureaucrat stimulates Seldon into creaky action against chaos, a mental disease afflicting all humanity. Seldon travels fitfully through an upside-down universe 20,000 years into mankinds future, when humans have become impotent, amnesiac creator-gods. Their creations, Asimovs positronic robots led by the enigmatic R. Daneel Olivaw, really control the universe. Brin (The Postman, etc.) resurrects many characters from the five previous Foundation volumes, but their lack of vitality makes these featureless humans as bland as robots. And he divulges these characters secrets in laborious sociological theorizing little better than a thin stream of platitudes. After so much recycling of Asimovs original, the wear and tear is showing, badly, but enough loose plot ends dangle to suggest that yet more sequels may be coming, someday. (May)
From Kirkus
Extending the late Isaac Asimov's original Foundation Trilogy, this Second has each entry tackled by a different author (previously Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear, 1997, and Greg Bear's Foundation and Chaos, not seen). Brin’s wrap-up volume comes from the author of Heaven's Reach (1998), etc. Hari Seldon, the father of psychohistory, is old and ready to die. The main narrative strand, among others too numerous to mention—Brin often seems to be pursuing complication as an end in itself—is a plot, inspired by robots following their prime directive, to kidnap Seldon, temporarily rejuvenate him, and send him 500 years into the future in order to safeguard the Seldon Plan, which will revive galactic civilization after the collapse of the present empire. Some of the characters involved with the various plots, schemes, struggles, and conspiracies, are: Lodovic Trema, a robot unconstrained by robotic laws, free to act and react as any human; Seldon's robot wife, Dors Venabili; and Horis Antic, one of planet Trantor's Grey Man bureaucracy, curious about certain odd mathematical correlations. The prime mover in all this is the wise 20,000-year-old robot, Daneel Olivaw, who plans to create Galaxia, a galactic integrated intelligence that will safeguard human survival forever. Among the problems facing Daneel are chaos viruses that drive entire planets to madness, cyborgs, wars among robots, elusive pirate captains, and cunning aristocrats. Nobody's what they seem, and everybody's plotting against everybody else. The jury's still out. Was this enterprise a wonderful idea, brimming with possibilities? Or was it merely a sterile retrospective rewrite? Still, readers of the first two volumes, and fans of Asimov's original yarns come to that, will want to explore.
|
