OT: Sci-Fi Founders

[narf poit chez BOOM]

So long as it's interesting and not a rip-off, I don't particularly care.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I somehow missed the Death Star in Dune, but...sure, Star Wars is a dune 'ripoff'.

I'm confused where the "Foundation" series enters into Star Wars comparison, though.

[Randallw]

Out on a limb here, and I apologise for any spoilers, but perhaps it's because they both have the civilisations threat (or saviour, been awhile since i read foundation) as far away as is possible in a circular galaxy.

[Baron Munchausen]

1) A great 'cycle' of civilization. In the case of Foundation it was a specific course of history predicted by 'Psychohistory' while in Star Wars it was this constant oscillating between rule by the Jedi and rule by the Sith.

2) Secret or semi-secret societies with super-human powers ruling known civilization. In Asimov's case it was the "Foundation" itself. In Star Wars it was the Jedi/Sith.

3) Hugely developed capital world where the surface is actually completely covered and no longer accessible. Trantor/Coruscant

I suspect that I could go into more detail if I wanted to re-read the series.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

You might as well, then, say that the Foundation novels were ripping off the famed Lensman books. Those had a epic future history, two secret societies waging a war behind the scenes, and super-powered main actors.

Good books, too.

Or say that anything featuring powered armor is just a ripoff of Heinlein and Steakley.

[Atrocities]

What are the Foundation Novels about?

[Caduceus]

Atrocities said:
What are the Foundation Novels about?

From Amazon.com:
Foundation marks the first of a series of tales set so far in the future that Earth is all but forgotten by humans who live throughout the galaxy. Yet all is not well with the Galactic Empire. Its vast size is crippling to it. In particular, the administrative planet, honeycombed and tunneled with offices and staff, is vulnerable to attack or breakdown. The only person willing to confront this imminent catastrophe is Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian and mathematician. Seldon can scientifically predict the future, and it doesn't look pretty: a new Dark Age is scheduled to send humanity into barbarism in 500 years. He concocts a scheme to save the knowledge of the race in an Encyclopedia Galactica. But this project will take generations to complete, and who will take up the torch after him? The first Foundation trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) won a Hugo Award in 1965 for "Best All-Time Series." It's science fiction on the grand scale; one of the classics of the field.

---

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Short version:

There was a galactic empire centered around the city-planet of Trantor. A man named Hari Seldon and his assistants developed 'psychohistory', a science that could accurately predict the future of human societies. The Empire was collapsing, and psychohistory showed that it was inevitable. The powers that be didn't like this... He contrived to start a Foundation on a distant planet with no natural resources that would shorten the predicted galactic Dark Ages tenfold. The foundation books chronicle Seldon's struggle and the (predicted) struggles of the Foundation, whose supposed purpose was to create a gigantic encylopedia.

[kerensky]

Thermodyne said:
For those who have yet to read the Foundation series, do so ASAP.

For thoes who have read them, ever get the feeling that Lucas read them too.

HA! You noticed this too!!! I think that most of the sci-fi stuff today is made up of stuff borowed from the early pioneers such as Verne and Asimov.

[Kamog]

I love the Foundation Series. I've read (and re-read) all of the 7 original Foundation books by Asimov. So far I've only read one of the three new books by the other authors who carried on Asimov's work. It was good but not at the level of Asimov's.