Foundation and Earth (1986) is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation Series and chronologically the last in the series.Plot introductionSeveral centuries after the events of Second Foundation, two citizens of the Foundation seek to find Earth, the legendary planet where humans are said to have been originated. Interestingly, even less is known about Earth than was the case in Foundation, when scholars still seem to know the location of 'Sol'.The story follows on from Foundation's Edge, but can be read as a complete work in itself. (It does, however, give away most of the mysteries that Foundation's Edge is built around.)Plot summaryPart I: GaiaCouncilman Golan Trevize, historian Janov Pelorat, and Blissenobiarella of the planet Gaia (all of whom were introduced in Foundation's Edge) set out on a journey to find humanity's ancestral planet — Earth. The purpose of the journey is to settle Trevize's doubt with his decision at the end of Foundation's Edge to embrace the all-encompassing supermind of Galaxia.Part II: ComporellonFirst, they journey to Comporellon, which claims to be the oldest currently-inhabited planet in the galaxy. Although many other planets make that claim, Comporellon has a very long history with which to back it up. Upon arrival, they are imprisoned, but negotiate their way out. While there, they find the coordinates of three other Spacer planets. Since the Spacers were the first colonists from Earth back in the ancient days of space travel, it is surmised that their planets would be fairly close to Earth.Part III: AuroraThe first Spacer planet they visit is Aurora, where Trevize is nearly killed by a pack of wild dogs, presumed to be the descendants of household pets long since reverted to wolf-like savagery. They escape when Bliss manipulates the dogs' emotions to psychologically compel a retreat.Part IV: SolariaNext, they go to Solaria, where they find what the Solarians — who have survived the Spacer-Settler conflicts by clever retreat detailed in Asimov's novel Robots and Empire — have evolved into self-reproducing hermaphrodites, who have remained generally intolerant of human physical presence or contact. They have also modified themselves to have a natural ability to mentally channel ("transduce") great amounts of energy, and utilize this as their sole source of power. The Solarians intentionally avoid ever having to interact with each other, except by holographic apparatus ("viewing"), and reproduce only when necessary to replace someone who has died. Bliss, Pelorat, and Trevize are nearly killed by a Solarian named Sarton Bander. Bliss, however, deflects the transducer brain-lobes at the moment Bander tries to use them to kill. Bliss intends to knock out Bander, but underestimates the power of the deflection, and kills Bander. While escaping, they find Bander's immature child, Fallom. In the event of Bander's death, Fallom is to be killed and replaced by the other Solarians. Upon learning this, Bliss insists that they take Fallom with them.Part V: MelpomeniaThey next go to Melpomenia, the third and final Spacer coordinate they have. They find that the atmosphere has become depressurized to a few thousandths of normal atmospheric pressure. Wearing space suits, they enter a library, and find a statue with the coordinates of all of the Spacer worlds. While departing Melpomenia, they notice a carbon-dioxide-feeding moss has begun feeding off insignificant leakages in their space suits. Barely recognizing this before stepping on their fully pressurized ship — which would have likely been disastrous — they set their blasters to minimum power to fry it off, and then set the ship to heavy UV-illumination before stepping onboard. This disinfection procedure kills any trace of the moss, preventing it from spreading to other worlds.As well as giving them another 47 Spacer worlds that they could visit, they now have a vital clue to where Earth may be found. Since the Spacer worlds were settled from Earth, they form a rough sphere with Earth at the centre. Two stars seem to match. One in a binary star, and also on the charts as an inhabited world, though with a question mark where its status should be indicated. The other is uncharted and much more likely to be Earth's star, especially since legends do not mention Earth being part of a binary system. They decide however to go first to the binary system, because it may give them clues about what to expect on Earth itself.Part VI: AlphaThey next journey to the enigmatic charted system, which turns out to be Alpha Centauri. They find a remnant of the inhabitants of Earth, who many millennia ago were resettled there. There is a reference back to the events of Asimov's novel Pebble in the Sky: we learn that the restoration of Earth's soil was indeed attempted but was abandoned. Later, with Earth becoming uninhabitable, there was a grand project to terraform 'Alpha'. This too was not completed; the only dry land is an island 250 kilometers long and 65 kilometers wide. It is left open whether or not the entire population of the dying Earth was sent to Alpha.The natives, who call their home New Earth, are quite friendly, and Bliss, Trevize, Pelorat, and Fallom decide to enjoy some rest and relaxation. It turns out that the natives secretly intend to kill them, so as to prevent them from ever informing the rest of the galaxy of "New Earth" (the natives are paranoid of being taken by another "Empire" of any kind). They are warned by a native woman, who becomes sympathetic upon hearing Fallom playing the flute with its transducer brain-lobes, and make their escape in the middle of the night.Now certain that Alpha Centauri is not Earth and is near Earth, they head towards the uncharted system. They do notice and are puzzled by the very strong similarities between this star and the larger sun of the Alpha Centauri system. Asimov here is drawing attention to an astronomical curio: the nearest star system to Sol contains a star that has the same spectral type, G2 V, though Alpha Centauri A is a little larger and brighter.Part VII: EarthEntering the solar system of the uncharted star, they notice that it fits legends about Earth's solar system. The sixth planet has very prominent rings, much more so than any known gas giant. Also the third planet, the one fit for life, possesses an abnormally large moon for any planet other than a gas giant. Obviously this is Earth and its solar system.On the approach to Earth, they detect that it is highly radioactive, and not capable of supporting life. The ship is drawn to the moon by an external force. They land, and find R. Daneel Olivaw, who explains that he has been paternalistically manipulating humanity for many millennia, and indeed, since Elijah Baley's time, which was long before the Galactic Empire or Foundation. He caused the settlement of Alpha Centauri, the creation of Gaia, and the creation of psychohistory (detailed in Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation). He also manipulated Trevize into making his decision at the end of Foundation's Edge (although he did not manipulate the decision itself).Trevize confirms that decision, as the numerous narrow escapes have convinced him that the creation of Galaxia is the correct choice. Also, Daneel's positronic brain is deteriorating. He explains that he is unable to design a new brain, as it would require extreme miniaturization, to the point where the brain would deteriorate immediately. Thus, he tells his visitors that he wishes to merge Fallom's brain with his own, as Fallom's life span is the exceptionally long one of a Spacer. This will buy him time to oversee Galaxia's creation.Daneel continues to explain that since the dawn of civilization, man has been divided. This was the reason for his causing the creation of Psychohistory and Gaia. Another reason this was important was because of the likelihood of advanced life beyond the galaxy eventually attacking humanity. This danger is part of the conclusion to Asimov's book The End of Eternity, in which "Project Eternity" (which manipulated human history to maintain human comfort) had to be destroyed to undo that same extraterrestrial disaster -— extraterrestrials giving humanity no hope of expansion, at which point the birth rate fell, and humanity became extinct. The book ending tells us:"In all human history, no other intelligence has impinged on us, to our knowledge. This need only continue a few more centuries, perhaps a little more than one-ten-thousandth of the time civilization has already existed, and we will be safe. After all," and here Trevize felt a sudden twinge of trouble, which he forced himself to disregard, "it is not as though we had the enemy already here among us."And he did not look down to meet the brooding eyes of Fallom — hermaphroditic, transductive, different — as they rested, unfathomably, on him.The Unwritten SequelFoundation and Earth takes place only some 500 years into the 1,000-year Seldon plan. The ending hints greatly at the next part of the story. As detailed by his wife in It's Been a Good Life, Asimov intended to write a sequel, but his attempts were fruitless. He did not know what to do next. This is why he wrote the prequels (Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation) instead.Trevize mentions that no human ship has ever penetrated the Magellanic Clouds, nor the Andromeda Galaxy or galaxies beyond that. Intelligent aliens have been mentioned in the short story Blind Alley (who end up fleeing to the Magellanic Clouds). No reason is given why humans have not visited other galaxies, which would seem to be within range of the hyperspace drive.The book states several times that the Seldon plan does not take into account alien influences. Combined with the ending (see above), one could surmise that for the sequel, he planned to introduce aliens (almost certainly from another galaxy) who would upset and possibly destroy the Seldon plan. It is also possible that Fallom, combined with Daneel's vast knowledge and influence, but uninhibited by the Three Laws of Robotics, would have turned out to be the enemy of humanity (as the last two paragraphs seem to suggest). However, all his fictional citations from the Encyclopedia Galactica are dated after the formation of the Second Galactic Empire. This meant that there could never be irreparable damage to the plan, since, eventually, it must return to its precalculated path.Further notesAlthough hinted at in Foundation's Edge, this book was the first book of the series that merged it with Asimov's Robot series. The radioactive-Earth theme was begun in Pebble in the Sky, which is set thousands of years earlier. R. Daneel Olivaw's role in the events of that novel would later be described in the prequels.This book serves as a kind of epilogue to the Robot series. Asimov describes what has become of the Spacer worlds of Solaria and Aurora, described extensively in The Naked Sun and the Robots of Dawn, respectively. The author also reveals what has happened to Earth, as described in Robots and Empire.The book Nemesis, predating the Foundation and Robot series, hints at the motives and origins of Gaia. Humans had a very early contact with the sentient moon Erythro, a very abstract alien intelligence.
I really wanted to give this book like a four, but upon further reflection I just can't. Foundation and Earth is the conclusion of Asimov's masterpiece Foundation Series (I haven't read the two prequels yet) and it takes the series in a completely new direction. Which is wonderful, and also problematic. The Seldon Plan and the Galactic Empire on which the series were founded become side notes, mentioned in parenthesis and trivial in the wake of Golan Trevize's solving the ultimate human mystery in the story line: Where is Earth and why can't people find it any more. I have to admit, I loved the mystery and I loved the futuristic archeology, mythbusting and history work that went into the characters finding the planet and unraveling its mysteries. But the writing was just not A+ typical Asimov.Golan Trevize becomes increasingly annoying. He is arrogant, pedantic, self-absorbed and just plain mean spirited. Hardly four pages go by when he doesn't have a philosophical argument with Bliss about whether or not its better for humanity to remain isolated individuals or to join together in a superorganism that spans the galaxy, giving up their individuality and humanity to become something far bigger and better. It's repetitive, esoteric and slows down the pace of the story for no good purpose. Once the argument is outlined, at the end of the last novel in the series no less, he then proceeds to beat the dead horse into a bloody pulp until I found myself, quite frankly, skipping pages. It got really old. Asimov also uses Trevize to give mini-astronomy lessons, which altogether weren't that bad and interesting. But he makes Trevize talk in this Sherlock Holmes sort of way where he's always giving the deductive and inductive evidence for every decision he makes - again annoying. "I decided we should go to Planet X because A) I'm hungry, B) the Stars align every so precisely in that direction, C) the women on the planet might be hot, D) the computer in it's complex model has illustrated a design flaw in the universe that intrigues me because: D1) the laws of physics forbid such anomalies, D2) blah, blah, blah, blah. You get the picture.This novel was a plot success and a failure in the execution. I think that's my main problem with a lot of the "bad" books I read. People have good ideas and then muck it all up. I think by this point Asimov was really doing fan-service and really had no idea where the heck he was going with it. In fact, his wife comments in the afterword that he never wrote a sequel because he didn't know how to finish it, so he wrote the prequels instead. I can understand this. The plot shift at the end is dramatic and way out of left field. It's intriguing and quite genius and has enormous potential. It's a shame it couldn't be developed further. But this particular installment is in it's character development and dialogue is atrocious. Wikipedia it to clear up the mystery and move on with life.
Do You like book Foundation And Earth (2004)?
I loved the first 3 foundation novels. But this one, and to a lesser but still significant extent, the previous one, were awful.Have you seen the first season of the tv show 24?It follows various characters through 24 straight hours of an action packed day. Jack Bauer, the main character, is doing whatever the main plot of the season is, saving the president or whatever.All the while, as filler, other things are happening. The worst of all are the ridiculous storylines following his daughter, which are shoehorned in just to fill time and to give roundabout excuses for why sometimes Jack has to do things that no rational person would ever do, if they didn't have a child in trouble.At one point during one of the seasons, his daughter is hiking through the desert and gets caught in a bear trap and is being stalked by a mountain lion.Well, that is pretty much exactly what this entire book is. Jack Bauer's daughter, caught in the desert, being stalked by a mountain lion. For no reason, except to be used as a plot device later.BUT what makes this even WORSE, is that there IS no actual plot going on at the same time, and this book ENDS THE SERIES.It's as if the whole 24 episodes of the series were of Jack's Daughter caught in a bear trap, while Jack is off doing something that suddenly we aren't being told anything about.At the end of the last book, Asimov completely invalidates the hero of this series, which is psychohistory and The Plan, by mind controlling everyone involved. I was waiting, hoping, through this book that at some point, they would undo that damage and get back on track. But they didn't, they just made it worse.Not only did they just decide to cancel the plan based on one man's claimed "rightness", they never even explore or explain or, god forbid, TEST this "rightness" at any point. Just for some reason that no one knows, this one guy is magically *right* about things. Even though he is actually wrong about other things all the time. At least the character has the good sense to be suspicious about this magical rightness, and goes on a search on a completely unrelated quest which he "rightly" knows will lead him to some answers. But it doesn't lead him to answers, it just leads him to the end of the story. And it takes 500 pages to do it, and the only upside is that by that point I was soo desperate for the book to be over, that I was more able to accept whatever ending he wanted to give me.Oh, and another thing - NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK.Read the previous 4 books. The plot will not have changed one iota from what it was at that point after you have read the 5th. The (completely unlikable) characters go on a quest to determine whether their decision should stay the same. And it does. Bingo bango. End of story.I don't know what I'm saying anymore. This book sucks.
—Wesleyaboyer
Foundation and Earth is the last book on the Foundation Saga, and wraps up the story, because after all, "Everything that has a beginning, has an end" (Yes, i am quoting Matrix, sue me).Endings are weird, normally i have issues with them, i don´t tend to like endings, because they involve cutting chords, leaving something behind, and that's not a very popular feeling anywhere.On this last book, the story starts minutes after the ending of the previous book, Trevize was faced with a decision, either having a Second Empire, controller by either the Foundation, or the Second Foundation, or choosing Galaxia, an option that would lead the whole Galaxy to another level of entwinement, becoming a single conscious being, every single life form connected, sharing and living as one.After coming to a decision, one that Golan Trevize does not know how he came around, he decides to journey trough space trying to find out the answer to his decision. Bliss, one of the human beings from the planet Gaia, assured him that whatever he decided would be the correct decision, because that was his ability, making decisions, arriving to the correct decisions even without whole information to actually reach a decision through logical pathways.So, the book revolves around Trevize, Bliss and Pelorat travelling through the Galaxy in search of the answer, answer that comes in the form of the Planet Earth, the place where humanity originated. A Planet that is hidden, no one knows about it, or where it is, as if someone or something was pooling every resource possible to hiding this planets existence.In this journey, they come in contact with several unknown worlds, and get to know lots of secrets, and slowly they start to know more about humanity and its origins.A book that in some way is very different to the previous one, and at the same time follows the same idea, the search for Earth.I have to be honest, i liked the book, i enjoyed reading it, and it left a smile on my face after every turn of the pages. But i also have to say, it felt more shallow than the rest... maybe after reading the first trilogy, the other books are just worse, and this one marking the end gets the worst cut, but that's what i felt.Asimov is able to create incredible worlds and stories, and the book reflects this entirely. That is reason enough to want to read it. Also, the book marks and ending to a saga that you grow to love, and that is also reason enough to want to read it.Something interesting, are the references to the Robot stories he previously wrote, that are rather enjoyable if you read them, and intriguing if you didn't.A nice ending, to a beautiful saga, one that i will remember forever.
—Neo Marshkga
The near impossible from Asimov: a boring book. After finding that, after all the intervening years, #4 in the Foundation series had the same spirit as the original trilogy, the damp writing, lack of decent plotting and unlearning characters in #5 are a real let-down.Three characters – councilor Golan Trevize and historian Janov Pelorat, both from Terminus, and Bliss from the sentient world Gaia – zip around the galaxy looking for Earth, its existence erased form historical records. For about three-quarters of the book, they are the only characters interacting. Trevize finds Bliss's championship of Gaia as a global entity a nuisance, Bliss thinks of Trevize as an egotistical "isolate" (oh, he of non-integrated mind), Janov tries to keep peace between them. The ramifications of how a sentient world would behave, while interesting in themselves and reflecting Asimov's subtle mind, are bogged down in the worst sort of Socratic dialoguing. (And Trevize is an unlikable shithead.)Now and then they investigate a planet that may have info on earth. It rarely does. They do have adventures of sorts, as when (drum roll), Trevize is treed by wild dogs.About 2/3 of the way along the writing spruces up and there's a sense it may all go somewhere. Alas, the ending is patently ridiculous, not just a letdown but a kind of silliness I'd never expect of Asimov.
—Derek Davis
