Joined in 2023 
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This was, fortunately, an easy decision. I loved the series when I first read them, years ago. Indeed, the original trilogy of Foundation was one of the cornerstones of my love of SF. So jumping in like this just required that one tiny push. Hari is still young, here, and only just came up with the possibility of there being a way to kinda predict the future. Still, his presentation gets the emperor's interest so they meet. Afterwards, Hari meets a reporter who informs him that the powers that be plan his kidnapping and helps him escape to Streeling University (where Hari is introduced to Dors Venabili , his later wife who happens to also be a robot). However, it turns out that the man is actually an agent of Mayor Rashelle of Wye, whose family descends from an Imperial dynasty that was brought down millenia ago, and which has always wanted to regain that position. Wye's position in Trantor's southern pole gives them great power as it allows them to evacuate more heat than any other district: between this and Seldon's psychohistory, Rashelle and her father expect to be able to take over. Flaws aside, the Foundation Trilogy was the first science fiction story I ever read and it began my love affair with the genre that continues to this day. Thus, these stories will always hold a special place for me and I don't believe I'll ever discontinue to view them fondly. As Hari and Dors cannot hide in Mycogen anymore, Hummin sends them to Dahl, a district that, thanks to being closer to the mantle, can produce more geothermal power than others, but is looked down because it is considered of a lower class. During a visit to the heatsinks, Hari meets Yugo Amaryl, a worker who aspires to be a mathematician and has heard of Seldon's Psychohistory. An old wise woman called Mother Rittah that lives in Billibotton tells them that, while it is true Aurora existed, said planet was actually the "enemy" of humanity's original planet, Earth. During their time there they also meet Raych, a local guttersnipe that guides them around, and also helps them escape when a mob surrounds the home of the family Hari and Dors have been living in. While on their way through Dahl's sewers, they are met with a strange man Hari believes was sent by Hummin.
Hari then runs into a journalist named Chetter Hummin, who helps him to flee from the Imperial forces and then what follows is the grand adventure of Hari Seldon as he travels from place to place evading different forces that all want his theory for different reasons. This is the first of two books chronicling the life of Hari Seldon, the mathematician who invented psychohistory and tried to save humanity from the Dark (Ages).Además, el personaje de Hari Seldon me ha parecido insoportable. Ya no tenemos aquí al Seldon casi mítico que predice el futuro de Fundación; lo que tenemos aquí es un egocéntrico y pedante matemático que no hace caso de lo que le dice nadie. No sane man wants to uphold an Imperial system that maintains itself by fostering mutual hatred and suspicions. Even when it seems to work, it can only be described as metastable; that is, as too apt to fall into instability in one direction or another.” Questo libro precede il ciclo della fondazione, qui si gettano le basi per il dopo e si ritrovano vecchie storie che ricordano i bei tempi andati di Baley e Oliwar. My first Asimov book, it was both wonderful and disappointing. I loved the hugeness of the imagination at work here. The bizarre and diverse societies of Trantor with their rituals, structures, foods, ways of living, and just the physical structure of the world itself, with multiple layers and a surface covered with sand and the occasional forest, made for fun reading. As for the disappointments, although it is probably a cliché at this point, I could not stand the squareness of the dialogue, the clumsy yet regular attempts at sexual innuendo, and the thinness of some (all?) of the characters.
The only thing that detracted from my enjoyment, was the protagonist's awkward attempt at flirting. I even suspected sarcasm initially, as Hari's sudden sleazy remarks felt rather out of character. It's funny how much I don't want to see romantic (sub)plots outside the genre anymore, when I could hardly picture a happy ending without it ten years ago. Rashelle attempts to launch her coup, but Eto Demerzel skillfully subverts Wye's troops and puts a stopper to the rebellion before it can happen. When he arrives to Wye, Seldon finds out that "Hummin" is actually Demerzel. Asimov salva la historia en el último tercio con ese giro final y cuando hace referencias a sucesos que ocurren en la saga de los Robots. Esa unión de todas sus sagas es lo más valioso que te puedes encontrar aquí y si estás leyendo los libros en orden como es mi caso lo vas a disfrutar mucho más. Raindrop Forty-three and Raindrop Forty-five are two Sisters who help Seldon and Venabili with various aspects of life in Mycogen. They are also agents reporting to Sunmaster Fourteen.Before Hari Seldon became the fearsome apostle of doom, and the legendary founder of psychohistory, he was an idealistic 30-year-old with an interesting scientific theory. He only meant to start a hypothetical discussion among fellow mathematicians, but ended up seriously pondering its practical applicability. Hummin shuttles them off to another of Trantor's sectors known as Dahl. Not only is their purpose for going here unexplained, their stay in Dahl is one of the weaker sections of the book. Were it not for introducing important characters who play a larger role in the sequel, there would be little to recommend its place in the story. Seldon meets a precocious factory worker named Yugo Amaryl whom he promises a job after seeing some scribbled equations Amaryl had been working on in his spare time. Amaryl also mentions a wise woman known as Mother Rittah who holds ancient knowledge about Earth—the original home of humanity and, Seldon hopes, an ideal case study for psychohistory. And I went on to show that this would result in the ability to predict future events in a statistical fashion—that is, by stating the probability for alternate sets of events, rather than flatly predicting that one set will take place." As the name suggest it is the prequel to the Foundation series which is considered one of the best SF series ever. Oh well, I enjoyed myself and I loved that the story filled in gaps in both the Foundation series and the Robot novels. Worth a read, it will make you smile.
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