I recently found out that I, Robot and Foundation are essentially within the same series. It’s just that Foundation happens hundreds of years after the great robot wars.
Not essentially, Asimov combined his three series (robots, foundation, and empire) and a few other short stories and novels into one universe 30 years after with with foundation follow-ups. There’s a few continuity errors since it wasn’t planned like that from the start.
The books are awesome. The concept of being able to (more or less) predict the future and trying to shepherd humanity through various crises that will alter the timeline and trying to rescue us from our own nature is a fun one.
The nature of the story doesn’t lend itself well to adaptation in a visual medium but the show is decent (it does deviate some from the books and mess around with the timeline some to make it work better for TV). Can’t speak to the movie.
The Foundation Trilogy also was published 1951-1953 and you see a lot of ideas that became mainstay scifi tropes in their early form. For example, it’s easy to see the influence Foundation had on Dune.
I only read the first one and didn’t really like it. From what I remember (not much) it’s just full of “plot twists” where some smoking guy randomly appears and tell the protagonists “haha, I predicted you’d do this” and then “hah, I predicted you’d know that I’d predict your next move and you’d do something different!”.
I don’t know, I like the setup and the beginning but after a while it seemed silly to me.
It’s kinda competency porn. The heroes solve problems by being clever and predicting their opponents moves. The generational aspect, where it follows multiple characters over long periods of time, is also interesting. I really like the series, and now that I think of it it’s probably no coincidence that I also like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
I think it’s a touch more nuanced than that but yes the plot does follow Hari Seldon’s creation of a school of thought and study called psychohistory.
The main plot is that humanity would be plunged into 30,000 years of dark ages full of bad shit but Seldon believes following his plan it can be shortened to only 1,000 years of real bad times for the schmucks born then.
Like you said, one of the themes the books talk about is the paradox of knowing the future and if you can or can’t change it. If you know the future and do something to change it to be different from what you predicted - does that mean you did or did not actually know the future?
Personally I didn’t care for the series specifically because I thought the concept was really goddamn stupid, but finished it anyways simply because I thought it was well done despite the premise grating on me from beginning to end.
Masochistic tendencies aside, I think that’s in effect a pretty solid endorsement?
Read the first if nothing else just to see if you buy the premise.
As long as you remember that Asimov straight up hated women when he wrote the first novel, got engaged and realized women are slightly more than baby making machines and slowly improved from there.
I believe so. It’s some solid sci-fi. I’ve heard grievances from a lot of fans of the book because it is not a very faithful adaptation in the slightest, but I think they managed to put together something that works better for TV and manages to tell an interesting story in its own right.
Some parts of the narrative fall a bit more flat than others, but the highs of the series have (so far) done more than enough to make up for the lows for me.
And I’m just thankful to have more space sci-fi that isn’t trying to be another Star Wars.
I recently found out that I, Robot and Foundation are essentially within the same series. It’s just that Foundation happens hundreds of years after the great robot wars.
Not essentially, Asimov combined his three series (robots, foundation, and empire) and a few other short stories and novels into one universe 30 years after with with foundation follow-ups. There’s a few continuity errors since it wasn’t planned like that from the start.
Link
One of my favorite authors and series.
Maybe a bit more than that I think
Is Foundation any good?
I didn’t like I Robot because Will Smith annoys me.
The books are awesome. The concept of being able to (more or less) predict the future and trying to shepherd humanity through various crises that will alter the timeline and trying to rescue us from our own nature is a fun one.
The nature of the story doesn’t lend itself well to adaptation in a visual medium but the show is decent (it does deviate some from the books and mess around with the timeline some to make it work better for TV). Can’t speak to the movie.
The Foundation Trilogy also was published 1951-1953 and you see a lot of ideas that became mainstay scifi tropes in their early form. For example, it’s easy to see the influence Foundation had on Dune.
I only read the first one and didn’t really like it. From what I remember (not much) it’s just full of “plot twists” where some smoking guy randomly appears and tell the protagonists “haha, I predicted you’d do this” and then “hah, I predicted you’d know that I’d predict your next move and you’d do something different!”.
I don’t know, I like the setup and the beginning but after a while it seemed silly to me.
It’s kinda competency porn. The heroes solve problems by being clever and predicting their opponents moves. The generational aspect, where it follows multiple characters over long periods of time, is also interesting. I really like the series, and now that I think of it it’s probably no coincidence that I also like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
If you like generational stories, I suggest Ken Follet’s Kingsbridge and Century series of novels.
I think it’s a touch more nuanced than that but yes the plot does follow Hari Seldon’s creation of a school of thought and study called psychohistory.
The main plot is that humanity would be plunged into 30,000 years of dark ages full of bad shit but Seldon believes following his plan it can be shortened to only 1,000 years of real bad times for the schmucks born then.
Like you said, one of the themes the books talk about is the paradox of knowing the future and if you can or can’t change it. If you know the future and do something to change it to be different from what you predicted - does that mean you did or did not actually know the future?
Personally I didn’t care for the series specifically because I thought the concept was really goddamn stupid, but finished it anyways simply because I thought it was well done despite the premise grating on me from beginning to end.
Masochistic tendencies aside, I think that’s in effect a pretty solid endorsement?
Read the first if nothing else just to see if you buy the premise.
As long as you remember that Asimov straight up hated women when he wrote the first novel, got engaged and realized women are slightly more than baby making machines and slowly improved from there.
The movie has almost nothing in common with the original story.
But is the tv series Foundation worth watching?
I believe so. It’s some solid sci-fi. I’ve heard grievances from a lot of fans of the book because it is not a very faithful adaptation in the slightest, but I think they managed to put together something that works better for TV and manages to tell an interesting story in its own right.
Some parts of the narrative fall a bit more flat than others, but the highs of the series have (so far) done more than enough to make up for the lows for me.
And I’m just thankful to have more space sci-fi that isn’t trying to be another Star Wars.
Yes and the best part isn’t even in the books — the Genetic Dynasty.
That’s from his Galactic Empire series
The TV show is about his broader Foundation universe, so has Galactic Empire and Robot stories and lore too.
Yeah, honestly the Empire series was always my favorite. I’m happy to see it getting treatment here.
I really have enjoyed it so far.
Yes
Dunno. Haven’t seen it (nor gotten to the books yet). But I thoroughly enjoyed what I’ve read of Asimov so far.
Crazy how crazy Will Smith is. Even before the whole slapping thing.
i loved Foundation! Gaia is for the lefties, the early books are for everyone else. There’s something for everyone.
This guy goes in-depth on why it is a bad film.
1962 short film, Little Lost Robot.