| The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
The first trilogy, (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) is pretty damn good. It's the story of the Foundation, a group started on the distant planet of Terminus to preserve the knowledge of the declining Galactic Empire. Hari Seldon, a scientist in the field of psychohistory- the mathematical prediction of the future behavior of large groups of people- started the Foundation (and also a mysterious Second Foundation) to shorten the time between the Empire's fall and the Second Empire. The Foundation started off as a small colony, but it eventually, through the luck and determination of status-quo defying politicians like Hober Mallow and Salvor Hardin, became more and more powerful. In Foundation and Empire, it defeated the declining Empire, which was trying to strike back. In Second Foundation, it had to deal with the Mule, a man with super powers whose existence had not been predicted by Seldon's plan. In Second Foundation, the Mule is defeated, but the Foundation sets off on a search for its counterpart 'at the other end of the galaxy'.
The second two books, Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, aren't nearly as good as the first three. Although Foundation's Edge starts off interesting (I actually stayed up reading the first part of it- a first for me), it starts to suck when sex comes into the picture. Now, I'm not a prude. Asimov and most other science fiction writers are just BAD at erotica. When I want erotica, I read Zane. Foundation's Edge is about two fellows who, in their search for both the Second Foundation and the mysterious planet Earth, their long-lost planet of origin, go to Gaia, a planet that is a giant super-consciousness. They meet a Gaian woman named Bliss, whose role in the book has a lot to do with sex. And then they go to Comporellon, a planet whose sexual repressiveness leads to other complications. In Foundation and Earth, the search for Earth continues, and many strange planets are explored. Our adventurers pick up a little kid on one of the planets, and the two guys treat the kid like dirt just because the kid looks different. (Shades of transracial adoption, anyone?) They eventually abandon the kid to live with a robot. There is even a sexual adventure involving AF/WM, in which the AF is an exotic 'island girl' from a third world planet. You can really tell that the series is going downhill. Foundation and Earth may tie up all the loose ends in the series, but it lacks the punch (and the enlightened attitude!) of the originals. Of course, Asimov by FAR surpasses shitty writers like Raymond Feist.
From an Asian American perspective, the first trilogy kicks ass because even though it was written in the racist ol' 50s, I distinctly remember characters with names like 'Cheng' and 'Li', as well as South Asian names. I also noticed that most of the characters' races weren't mentioned, which is good and colorblind. It isn't Eurocentric, either- most planets are quite diverse, with minorities in pretty good positions. Women are also well represented. The Mule was defeated by a woman, Bayta Darell, and many women are in positions of power. But if you want the very best in literature, you'd better stick to the first three books. |
