Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov

Foundation and Empire book cover

Foundation and Empire is broken up into two longer stories, rather than five shorter ones that appeared in Foundation. The first story, The General, begins almost 200 years after the Foundation was established on Terminus. The second story, The Mule, takes place just over 300 years into the Foundation Era. I think I liked this book more because the stories were longer and the character development was a bit deeper. Also, it seemed that the action picked up noticeably compared to the last book.

The first story focuses on Bel Roise, an accomplished general of the Galactic Empire, who is searching for the “magicians” of the periphery. These magicians are from the Foundation, and have met several Seldon crises already and have always come out on top. Bel Roise intends to crush the Foundation before they become too powerful. It seems that the General will succeed, surrounding the Foundation using a tactic which has never before failed, but he underestimates the capabilities of two of his Foundation prisoners.

One of the most important themes in this story revolves around “faith” in the principles of psychohistory. Ducem Barr of Siwenna (Onum Barr’s son from Foundation) is steadfast in his belief that no matter what anyone does, the Foundation will prevail. Surely the “dead hand” of Hari Seldon will guide the Foundation to victory. Bel Roise does not believe in destiny, rather will challenge psychohistory with his “living will”.

The second story focuses on a warlord that calls himself “The Mule”. He has mysteriously risen to power out of nowhere and has never lost a battle. His conquests appear to be easy despite impossible odds. His enemies surrender quickly with little or no bloodshed. The latest world to fall to The Mule is Kalgan, a resort world which had recently been conquered by another aspiring warlord.

The leader of the Foundation on Terminus, Mayor Indbur, is not worried when Captain Han Pritcher warns of this new threat at a disciplinary hearing. Pritcher has refused orders from his commander to visit a Trader world called Haven because he believes that The Mule poses a much greater threat to the Foundation. The mayor is more concerned about Haven which refuses to pay taxes to the Foundation. He orders Han Pritcher to investigate Haven, but the insubordinate captain sets out for Kalgan instead.

The Trader worlds are also interested in The Mule, sending a pair of newlyweds (Toran and Bayta) to Kalgan under the pretence of a honeymoon. Essentially they are to try and get more information about The Mule, but end up more involved than they had planned. After rescuing a pitiful looking clown, court jester and entertainer to The Mule, they escape Kalgan with the help of none other than Captain Han Pritcher. This clown was named Magnifico Gigantus by The Mule as a joke because he is small and wiry.

The Mule uses the escape of Magnifico as an excuse to attack the Foundation. While he conquers worlds he demands the return of his precious clown. Psychologist Ebling Mis, known as The Scientist, works with Magnifico to try and extract information about The Mule to help the Foundation defend themselves. It turns out The Mule has strong mental powers, something which Hari Seldon’s calculations couldn’t have accounted for. Fortunately there is a Second Foundation, but nobody seems to know where that is. At the defeat of Terminus Ebling Mis, Toran, Bayta, and Magnifico escape to head toward Trantor to search for clues in the University Libarary.

I like how Asimov likes to take a spin on cultural norms whenever he can. For example, the Traders don’t normally marry, because they hardly even stay put long enough to “qualify” for marriage. The resurgence of succession by birth of the mayor is another example of how society seems to always be changing. Women from the Foundation are treated as equals, astonishing those in the crumbling Galactic Empire. There are many other things here and there that add up to make an interesting picture.

I think that having read the prequels before the original trilogy gives me a lot more insight into what is going on behind the scenes. Obviously there is a Second Foundation with mental powers, but we don’t know yet if they can possibly match the freak mutation of The Mule. This story is the culmination of all of Hari Seldon’s fears at the end of Foundation’s Triumph. As usual, Asimov ties off just about all of the mysteries in a nice little bow in the final few pages of this book. I’m sure that there will be a few surprises for just about everyone to enjoy.

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2016 year in review2016 year in review

Ok, so as I posted earlier, I didn’t do any reviews this year, but I consumed a ton of content. Some may be from 2015, but it is hard to remember. I’m going to provide a list with some highlights and recommendations

  • Audiobooks
    • Elantris – Brandon Sanderson: Good stanalone book, one of his earlier works. Interesting premise – people get a disease and are forced to live in the remnants of a once great city. They cannot be killed, but also cannot heal. Each injury never heals, and never stops hurting.
    • Mistborn Trilogy (1-3) – Brandon Sanderson: One of my favorites this year, very unique set of magic systems
    • Alloy of Law / Shadows of Self / The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn novels)- Brandon Sanderson: continuation in a different time period, also very good
    • The Rithmatist – Brandon Sanderson: Another unique magic system, aimed more at the YA audience, but I enjoyed it.
    • Pandora’s Star / Judas Unchained – Peter F. Hamilton: Second favorite series of the year, be warned, some explicit adult situations
    • Lock In (Amber Besson’s narration) – John Scalzi: unique premise, police procedural
    • Android’s Dream – John Scalzi: another unique premise, enjoyable
    • Redshirts – John Scalzi: must read for any Star Trek fan! won 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel
    • Agent to the Stars – John Scalzi: I didn’t really care for this one, too much focus on talent agency politics, interesting premise though.
    • Fuzzy Nation – John Scalzi: Good book, reboot of “Little Fuzzy”
    • The Dispatcher – John Scalzi: Novella, another interesting premise by Scalzi
    • Ready Player One – Earnest Cline: One of my favorite standalone novels of the year – must read for anyone that grew up in the 80’s
    • Armada – Earnest Cline: Lackluster followup, skip it. Cline doesn’t dodge the fact that he ripped the premise off of “The Last Starfighter” movie from the 80’s.
    • Undying Mercenaries Book 1-4 – B.V. Larson: Sci-Fi Military fiction. Lots of violence, a little sex. I got these super cheap at $1.99 a pop, would not recommend spending a full Audible credit on them.
    • Year Zero – Rob Reid: I read this in book format back in 2012. Premise is that aliens unwittingly pirate enough music from Earth to bankrupt the galaxy. The solution? Destroy Earth! Remeinds me a bit of The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy
    • Altered Carbon / Broken Angels – Richard K. Morgan: Great audiobooks, a couple of my favorite from this year. Lots of violence and a little sex, so be warned. I’m finishing up reading the 3rd book Woken Furies as the narrator changed and didn’t bother to read up on how to pronounce the main character’s last name.
    • Alien: Out of the Shadows (An Audible Original Drama – Full Cast) – Tim Lebbon & Dirk Maggs: Free from Audible, OK if you like the Alien universe
    • American Gods (Full Cast) – Neil Gaiman: Maybe the best standalone audiobook of the year. The performances were perfect and the story engaging. This is soon to be made into aTV series on Showtime I think.
    • Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman: Decent book, narrated by Gaiman himself
    • Hyperion (full cast) / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion / The Rise of Endymion – Dan Simmons – ABSOLUTE FAVORITE SERIES OF THE YEAR. I cannot count how many times I caught myself thinking back on the stories. I’ll definitely be listening to these again in the future. A good amount of violence and some sex as well, so be warned.
    • The Fountains of Paradise – Arthur C. Clarke: decent book that introduced the idea of the space elevator
    • Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke: ending literally gave me shivers up my spine – The Syfy TV miniseries was just loosely related to the book. Skip that and read this!
  • Books
    • Old Man’s War series (Book 1-6) – John Scalzi: Very interesting premise. Each book seemed to have a new perspective, not like a continuation of the previous ones. I’ll try to explain it a bit more if I have time to go back and review the books individually.
    • Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue – Hugh Howey: YA related, checked it out and it really wasn’t for me
    • Beacon 23: The Complete Novel – Hugh Howey: guy stuck on the edge of the galaxy, a bit of a psychological thriller toward the end
    • Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang: good collection of stories
  • Short Story
    • Paper Menagerie – Ken Liu – ending gave me shivers up my spine as well, very good story

That’s it for now. I don’t think I have time to list TV. maybe next year!

Frank Herbert’s Dune to be directed by Peter Berg and released by ParamountFrank Herbert’s Dune to be directed by Peter Berg and released by Paramount

It looks like Hollywood just can’t get enough of Dune. I’m midway through my reading the novels written by Frank Herbert (currently on God Emperor of Dune), have seen the 1984 movie and Sci-Fi Channel Miniseries. I’m about to watch the Children of Dune Sci-Fi Miniseries and just ran across this bit of news about a new Dune movie.

Found via Variety, actor turned director Peter Berg is set to direct the next adaptation which doesn’t appear to have any type of ETA. Hopefully they will get good script writers that can be faithful to the book. Although the Sci-Fi Channel remake was more true to the book than the 1984, the special effects were pretty bad due to a low budget. Most of the backgrounds were simply matte paintings. I’d like to see a new movie that looks great and is also true to Frank Herbert’s vision.

I, Robot by Isaac AsimovI, Robot by Isaac Asimov

I-Robot Book Cover

    The Three Laws of Robotics

  1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

First things first, the Hollywood movie I, Robot (also reviewed) with Will Smith has only has a few things in common with this book of short stories. Keep in mind that the NAME was licensed to the movie studio after the script was already written. Scenes were adjusted to include the Three Laws, Susan Calvin, and Alfred Lanning. That is about where the similarities between the book and the movie end. There might be a few concepts stripped from some of the stories, but by no means is the film “based” on the book. To give the movie makers credit, they only say “inspired” by in the opening.

I, Robot is a collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov. Keep in mind these stories were mainly written in the 1940s then published together in 1950. These stories describe the basics of the Three Laws of Robotics and what can go wrong with them. Asimov uses the Three Laws as a literary device to create puzzling situations. Several of these stories involve Susan Calvin, the top robo-psychologist for the only robot manufacturing company, US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. If anyone is interested in reading the Robot Novel series, this book kind of acts as a nice introduction to the basic concepts. As a matter of fact, anyone with any interest in Sci-Fi should read this book. I consider it required reading.