Darwin's Nightmare

I've had this movie on my “to-watch list” for such a long time that I don't even remember where I've had this recommendation... not such a surprise here in the forgetfulness department, but I digress.

This movie is a documentary; the action takes place on and around Lake Victoria. The reference to Darwin applies to the fact that the region is a cradle to mankind and Lake Victoria used to be a shelter for hundreds of species... Slowly, but surely, all the species inside the Lake are destroyed by the Nile perch, a fish introduced by man for a little experiment and that has become the number one economical activity of the area, and the local population is destroyed by... something... Some will call it mankind or indifference, others capitalism or cupidity, others colonialism or exploitation. The bottom line is it's probably all of the above.

To sum it up, I'd say it's the hardest blow against mankind I've had for a long time: seeing all the horrors that we (we as in "we, rich peoples in this world and our leaders", as in "Western powerhouses") make the people surrounding the Lake Victoria live through should make anyone an instant mankind-hater at first sight. Then, after the images have sunk in and you recover from the visual and moral shock, what happens? You've seen people working in filthy conditions, husbands die, wives driven to prostitution, children living in the streets by themselves, doing drugs, fighting for food, indifferent pilots coming in with weapons and ammunition and going out with Nile perch cargoes, people wishing for war, EU ambassadors spreading the "good work" word... It all makes you put in perspective all your petty day-to-day chores, but what happens next?

Long time no blog - seems recurring

2 full months since my last entry, and always the same excuse, real life always besting web life, aka wife-kids-house-work versus leisure time ;) well, mostly it was work...
I have had a hell of a workload and have been working in the train, mornings and evenings, and even at home for 3 months... So I've been shamefully inactive on the reading front and I've had no time to read anything but mangas and comic books. I'll try to fix that in the next months, I can barely contain my hunger for a good book.

I've been playing catch up with my Nintendo DS lately and I've (at long last!) dumped my tank model for a better DS Lite one: the comfort of the backlit screen is such that I now wonder why I waited so long.
Well, lately, I played:

• Sid Meier's Civization Revolution: not bad, but way too limited for someone who's used to Civ IV on a PC...


• Space Invaders Extreme: Just a quick distraction for short distances, I'm stuck in the fourth arcade level


• Anno: Create a new world: I've finished the campaign of this one... veeeeery good game


• Professor Layton and the Curious Village: Finished this one too. Some puzzles are really challenging but some others are just plain simple or badly phrased so that the solution lies in actually understanding the vague meaning of the text... But otherwise real cute


• Henry Hatsworth in the puzzling adventure: Real good blend of a platform game and a puzzle game; It's very cute, I love the graphics and the ridiculous way of speaking of the characters!


• Dragon Ball Origins: At last a Dragon Ball game that is not a brainless fighting game. Truthfully following the early adventures of Goku and Bulma, this one is a gem for all Dragon Ball fans

OK, it does look like a long list but it's to be spread on about 6 months I think so it's not that bad.

Vanity Fair

Just finished Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray : that was a veeeeery long read, but very interesting. It is somewhat similar to some other classics I read previously like Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre in that the main characters are young women, living in upper classes of the English society.
The style is a bit difficult, because the author is the narrator, and sometimes widely digresses, taking a step back to reflect on his characters, or writing about his very own life.

Here's a (very) brief summary of the story:
Amelia Sedley is rich, but fair and timid; she's hopelessly in love with of her childhood's relative, George Osborne. Becky Sharp is poor, but alluring and quick-witted and is ready to fight to elevate in society. They both come out of the same school at the same time, and their destinies will cross each other many times, but always in different directions: Amelia will touch the bottom but will get angelic help to get back to life whereas Becky will raise herself to the highest company before inevitably falling down.
This book is a Fair, where the characters are invited to show their Vanity, and every character, the humble as the arrogant, the weak as the strong, as Vanity in abundance. Vanity seems to be the first natural act of a human being in society.

Dune: House Atreides - Harkonnen - Corrino

Several years ago, I read Frank Herbert's Dune. And it remains today as probably the best book I've ever read. I can remember eagerly reading the following volumes up to Chapterhouse: Dune... All 6 volumes offer a coherent universe (interest slowly declining with the sequels, but that's not the subject...) But then, a couple of weeks ago, my sister offered me the 3 prequels to the Dune saga, written by Brian Herbert (son of Frank) and Kevin J. Anderson and, from the first line of "Dune - House Atreides", some 3 weeks ago, I've been hooked. So, this entry is going to cover the 3 books:

• Dune - House Atreides
• Dune - House Harkonnen
• Dune - House Corrino

since I've had no leisure to take my nose out of these books to write an entry after each one ;)
If you've liked Dune, you'll like the prequels, there's no doubt about it! They take you through the lives of the heroes you've learned to like (or disliked) before the Dune saga: How Leto became Duke, how Baron Vladimir Harkonnen reigned on Arrakis, etc... and honestly, I've loved the way they're written!

So to the story covered by the 3 books:

Here is the situation at the beginning of the first book:

• Atreides: Leto Atreides is 15, and his father, Paulus is a loved and respected Duke. He made a political marriage with Helena of House Richese, the mother of Leto, and has forced into Leto's head the idea that a marriage is to be political, not to be subdued by love. Great House Richese used to be a great technological house and to be ruling the fief of Arrakis: but House Harkonnen now exploits Arrakis (Houses takes century shifts, dictated by the Emperor) and Richese has lost a lot to Ix in an economical & technological war.


• Harkonnen: Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a handsome, muscular man, ruling with cruelty. He replaces his half-brother Abulurd who proved too soft to squelch the invaluable Spice from Arrakis. He has no heir (his taste for young boys does not help that) and treat Rabban (Abulurd's son) as such.


• Corrino: Elrood IX is at the head of the Empire and is power is balancer with that of the Guild (allowing interplanetary transport, with the Spice), the economic forces of the CHOAM and the Landsraad (representing all the respectable houses of the Empire). Elrood is veeeeery old, thanks to the geriatric properties of the Spice, and crown prince Shaddam is growing impatient... With the help of his breast friend, the clever and deadly Hasimir Fenring, he has already disposed of his elder brother.

The books cover the following stories that are all very cleverly intertwined:

• The education of Leto on Ix, together with Prince Rhombur of House Vernius

The long term plan of Fenring & Shaddam to produce artificial Spice for a Spice monopoly by the Emperor, which would allow him later to overpower the Guild, the CHOAM and the Landsraad. To achieve artificial Spice production, they secretly work with the despicable Bene Tleilax, who could try to grow spice with their mysterious axotl tanks.

• Pardot Kynes is sent by Elrood as imperial planetologist on Arrakis, in order to get to understand the planet, and more important, the Spice. On desert Arrakis, named Dune by the local fremen, it doesn't take much time for him to fall in love with the planet; he starts to share plans of slowly reshaping the ecosystem in order to bring plants and water on Arrakis, and the desert people adopt him as their Umma, their prophet. Going native, he marries a fremen woman and has a boy, Liet Kynes.


• We learn the first years of Duncan Idaho, on Giedi Prime: at 9 years old, Rabban kills his parents in front of him and makes him the target of a forest hunt (hence his hatred for the Harkonnens...). Managing to escape, the boy will find his way to Caladan and serve the Atreides.


• The Bene Gesserit's long developed Kwisatz Haderach program comes to fruition: they need a girl from the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who'll have a daughter by an Atreides and a boy from this daughter with a last Harkonnen heir have a great propability to produce their Kwisatz Haderach, the male who can see through space and time: only three generations left...


• The takeover of Ix by the Tleilaxu, helped by Sardaukars, the Emperor's powerful soldiers. House Vernius goes renegade, only Prince Rhombur and Princess Kailea are saved, exiled on Caladan.


• How the Bene Gesserit blackmails the Baron Harkonnen into impregnating Mother Helena Gaius Mohiam: the first time, the daughter is a failure; the second time, Mohiam gets raped by the Baron but has her daughter for the program. During the rape, she manages to give the Baron a debilitating disease that will slowly turn his perfect muscular body into the unsightly amount of flash we discover in Dune.


• How Helena, always disagreeing with the Duke, plans her husband's death, with mysterious Harkonnen help: Duke Paulus Atreides is killed in the Arena by an enraged Salusan Bull. Leto ends up being a Duke too early, and sends his mother in exile, not daring killing her for her deeds.


• How Fenring and Shaddam poison the emperor with a subtle, very slowly acting, substance to bring about his death as discreetly as possible. When the emperor finally dies, Shaddam marries Lady Anirul, a Bene Gesserit of Hidden Rank (who is in fact the Kwisatz Mother, supervising the Kwisatz Haderach program) and sends away Count Fenring, in order to prove that he can rule and take decision alone


• The evil scheme of the Harkonnens who, with the only no-ship available, frame young Duke Leto into a very risky business with the Tleilaxu: Leto is saved only by mysterious help from the Bene Gesserit, and unexpected (and forced) support from young Emperor Shaddam IV.


• We are taken through the fearful young life of Gurney Halleck on Giedi Prime, how he went from slave to prisoner, how his sister was taken and tortured in a Harkonnen brothel; we witness her being raped and tortured in front of Gurney by Rabban and his soldiers and how Rabban gave him his inkvine scar. Gurney finally escapes the Karkonnen hellhole to find shelter with smugglers.


• Since going renegade, Earl Dominic Vernius of Ix, an old brother in arms of Duke Paulus Atreides, becomes a smuggler, a thorn in the heel of the Emperor, but without being really dangerous. Gurney Halleck joins his band of smugglers and they have two bases: one on Arrakis, the other one on Salusa Secundus.


• How Leto, in love with Kailea Vernius since ages, finally take her as a mistress, and has a boy, Victor. He won't marry her though, since he has been educated to only marry for politics.


• Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, growing fat and needing suspensors to be able to move without help, finally turns to Suk doctor Yueh in order to diagnose his disease. He then learns the truth of the disease inflicted by the Reverend Mother Mohiam.


• On Arrakis, betrayed to the emperor, Earl Dominic Vernius is cornered by Sardaukars. He commits suicide using the family atomics. Gurney Halleck, then goes to Caladan to talks to Rhombur and Kailea about their father and joins the Atreides.


• Emperor Shaddam IV is doing quite poorly: first, the synthetic spice program is taking ages and there is still no idea as to when it may come to fruition; and then, there is unrest in the Empire, a war is raging between Houses Ecaz and Grumman that the Emperor cannot control. Not counseled by count Fenring anymore, he turns to his military strength as a solution and spreads his Sardaukars thin.


• On faraway Dune, Pardot Kynes dies in an accident, and Liet, his son, takes his imperial planetologist title and manages to unite the vastly spread fremen in a single goal, to reclaim Dune. Liet marries and has a daughter, Chani.


• Duncan Idaho is sent on planet Ginaz, on an 8 years course to become a Swordsmaster for House Atreides. We are taken through several steps of his very harsh and deadly training, which he'll eventually complete.


• The Bene Gesserit force Leto to take one of them, a young sister named Jessica, in his entourage. He reluctantly accepts, in exchange for the information that the Harkonnen are behind his framing against Tleilaxu.


• Since she was pregnant, Kailea Vernius has been assisted by a waitress, secretly provided by the Harkonnen devious mentat, Piter de Vries. Slowly, but surely, the matron turns Kailea against her Duke, having him live with Kailea the arguments he witnessed between his father and mother. When things go really bad, he turns to Jessica: but Jessica, against her orders to provide a girl for the Bene Gesserit, isn't getting pregnant and she's even developing feelings for her Duke.


• Shaddam starts a new military campaign, that he calls the Spice War: illegal Spice hoards are to be returned to the Empire or else... With his Sardaukar, and the support the support of the Guild and the CHOAM (who divide the hoards between them), he makes a couple of stunning examples, even using forbidden atomics on a satellite of House Richese, destroying it and rendering a quarter of the population blind. The Emperor is now out of control and regarded as a threat to political stability by the Landsraad.


• Her frustration at her status culminating, Kailea plans to murder her Duke (déjà-vu anyone?) but ultimately manages only to kill her son and almost kill her brother Rhombur. She'll suicide out of grief. Rhombur has almost nothing left and is in a coma. That's when the Bene Tleilax offer to Leto to bring Victor back (as a Ghola...) in exchange for the body of Rhombur their enemy. On the brink of sanity at this time, Leto finally refuses. Rhombur will get the help of Suk doctor Yueh who will provide synthetic replacement for his body and limbs: Prince Rhombur of Ix will live as a cyborg.


• After 20 years of doing nothing but being a guest to the Atreides, Rhombur is ready for a last hope attack on Ix; He and Loto, Thufir Hawat (the famous warrior mentat who accompanies both Paulus and Leto throughout the books), Duncan and Gurney plan the attack.


• On Xuttah (Ix renamed by the Tleilaxu), Master Ajidica approaches the end of the researches: he has managed to produce what he calls Amal from one of his Axotl tanks (butchered women reduced to inflated wombs reprogrammed by Tleilaxu). He has a plan for himself, and wants to take the Amal for his use alone in order to build a new order to replace the Bene Tleilax, which he judges too decadent. He starts to consume it himself and refuses further tests. Count Fenring however secretly introduces some synthetic Spice in navigator chambers in order to check if it is really working: the tests are utter failures and the Amal program in itself is a failure.


• As a step in his fight against the Harkonnen, Liet Kynes manages to get to the Emperor the word that the Harkonnen keep large (and illegal) Spice stockpiles. This is enough for Shaddam to order an all-out assault on the Harkonnen on Arrakis: his ships deploy over the planet and threaten Baron Vladimir Harkonnen while investigators are sent in search for the hoards.


• Not knowing that the Amal project is a failure, Shaddam believes he can now destroy Arrakis and, as he threatens to do so, the Guild takes all its ships back, leaving the Emperor alone and powerless: defeated, Shaddam IV will have to accept counsel and supervision from the Landsraad.


• On Ix, after the battle, the Atreides army conquer the planet and Prince Rhombur is reinstated as Earl of Ix.In the emperor's palace where she has been ordered by the Kwisatz Mother and Mother Mohiam, Jessica gives birth to Paul, son of Leto, but the infant is quickly abducted by Piter de Vries who then understands that the boy is Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's grandson. Learning that Jessica, against her orders, has given birth to a boy, Lady Anirul gets mad (she has been too deep in Other Memories for some time) but, trying to protect the baby, dies at the hand of Piter. Piter is ultimately killed by Mohiam and the infant given back to his parents. The Baron receives a package from the Bene Gesserit with Piter's body in pieces... He'll need a new twisted Mentat. Leto Atreides gets the glory his honor he deserves.

Quite a long story indeed, I've done as short as I could, and I've omitted tons of events, secondary characters, and so on... I cannot really do it justice in such a small article. When I'll be old, given I have enough time, I'm sure I'll read these books again!

Jane Eyre

Long after I've read the works of her sister (Wuthering Heights), it's now the turn of Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë. There are many similarities between the two sisters'works. And in the same way I've loved the works of Emily, I've loved Charlotte's Jane Eyre as much.
Here's the story: ***BEWARE, SPOILER WARNING***
Jane Eyre is a poor orphan. Her kind adopted father is dead and she lives with her adopted mother, who hates her, and her 2 adopted sisters and her adopted brother, who make her life miserable. She is high spirited and emotional but subdues her nature in this hostile environment. After a outburst with her adopted mother, she is sent to the school of Lowood, where she will integrate and blossom under the strictest of discipline, until she ranks among the teachers. At eighteen, she decides to leave the Lowood establishment to become a governess for a rich family's children. She then advertises and become the private teacher of Adèle, a little French girl in the care of Mr Edward Rochester.
Mr Rochester is an imposing figure in his forties, he has charisma but is not beautiful, at all. Jane is herself rather a plain (if not a little ugly) little thing. Love installs itself between them, but this love and complete trust is ended at the altar of the church when it is reported that Mr Rochester is indeed already married. His wife is a mad woman, a fury who he keeps confined in a secret room: he had been cheated upon by his own father and brother into marrying her with no love, and she has revealed herself to be a madwoman. Jane's pride gives her no choice but to leave the house, alone, in the middle of the night.
She will go alone, an outcast, even a beggar, for 3 days, until she is saved by Mr Saint John, a parson, and his two sisters. Saint John finds a employment for her, a teacher at the local school, where she has poor and uneducated children but she grows fond of them. Then, one day, she learns that her uncle died, leaving her a fortune; at the same time, she learns that St John and his sisters are her cousins. She divides the lot in 4 equal shares and enjoys her new family, a loving one like she never had. This money will help Saint John realize his long cherished project: going to India to spread the Lord's message, and, he asks Jane to marry him and accompany him there. Jane knows that Saint John likes her, for her wits and her works, but that he does not love her; she has known real love in Mr Rochester, and wouldn't have him. Instead, she flies back to Mr Rochester to get some news. When she arrives at his house, everything is burnt down; she inquires and hears that Mr Rochester is now blind, that he has lost a hand, and lives retired in a farm. She goes to him, learns that his mad wife has burnt the house, perished in the fire and has become infirmed when trying to save her and the servants. She stays with him, at long, he will recover some sight, and I guess it will be a "happily ever after" ending...

Arabian Nights : a selection

Ah, the famous tales of Sheherazade... I've just finished a selection of tales from The Thousand and One Nights, translation courtesy of Sir Richard F. Burton, and the reading was very entertaining, the tales very exotic, somewhat erotic (for the times, it was published in 1857).

• King Sharyar and his brother: The two kings were both betrayed by their wives, who prefer to have sex with blackamoor slaves... As a consequence, King Sharyar marries a new young and beautiful virgin everyday, and has her killed right after the first night. That is until he marries the daughter of his vizier, Sheherazade, who comes up with stories so gripping that the king cannot slay her or he'll never know the end... The following stories are then all recounted by Sheherazade


• The Tale of the Merchant and the Jinnee: more tales about unfaithful wives and black slaves (women are a bit too often portrayed as such)


• The Fisherman and the Jinnee


• The Ebony Horse: a tale about a wooden horse that can fly.


• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves: The famous one. I did not know that in the original tale, it's not Ali Baba that overcomes the 40 thieves, but one of his servant women.


• Aladdin and the Magic Lamp: Since the only version I had of the story is that of Disney, I was surprised to notice that there was so much differences, the biggest one being that Aladdin is not a nice & poor little thief but a thankless and renegade son who feeds off his parents. He gets the lamp by chance and is not granted 3 wishes but as many as he wishes...


• Julnar the Mermaid and her son Badar Basim of Persia: a long story about alliances between people of the sea and of the earth


• The Tale about the thief of Alexandria and the Chief of Police: a short one with a morale


• Prince Behram and the Princess Al-Datma: a tale where a princess refuses and humiliates men who do not match her in the joust and who is humiliated (and taken) in revenge


• The Tale of the three apples

Prelude to Foundation

Written after the Foundation trilogy and its two sequels, the Prelude takes us to the beginnings of psychohistory. It also serves as a starting point to the Foundation saga and links it to the rest of the works of Isaac Asimov. I personally enjoyed the Prelude a lot better than the Foundation sequels, maybe because its main character is none other than the great Hari Seldon; and then, although it also has the default of the Foundation sequels, in that it “flows” without a real destination until the last ten pages, in that one, the story feels better prepared, as though Asimov was better acquainted with this character than he was with Trevize.

So let's get to the story. I'll try to make it short, but that means I'll have to take shortcuts!:

Hari Seldon is a young mathematician, and he leaves his home planet of Helicon for the first time as he comes to a mathematical congress on Trantor, where he delivers a presentation of psychohistory: he has demonstrated that, theoretically, the future could be statistically predicted.

His speach has been remarked by Eto Demerzel, the Emperor's powerful councellor; he and the Emperor see how they could use him to maintain or extend the Empire's power. The Emperor, Cleon I, summons him, but Seldon explains to him that, at this point, psychohistory is possible but not practical (for instance, it is theoretically possible to meet everyone in the Galaxy, but it is not practical since no one would live nearly long enough to do it). The day before he should return to Helicon, he talks to a journalist, Chetter Hummin, when he is agressed by two punks. They manage to escape but Hummin is convinced (and convinces Seldon), that this attack has been orchestrated by Demerzel, who has eyes and arms everywhere. So, in order to protect him, and because he would like to see him develop psychohistory for the good of mankind, he keeps him on Trantor, where even the Emperor cannot do all that he wants to, and sends him to Streeling University.

There, Dors Venabili, a young historian, is to protect him and to help him by teaching him about history so as to advance on his work of making psychohistory practical. After taking a stroll on Upperside (understanding: outside of the buried complex of Trantor), Hari narrowly escapes death: Was is an accident or was that Demerzel's black hand? Whichever it was, Hummin relocates them to the Mycogen sector, where the locals boast an old history that could help Hari understand sociological evolution.

In Mycogen, the inhabitants are depilated (Hari and Dors have to hide hair and facial pilosity), all men are equals and all women are equals in their infériority. Hari manages to get the Mycogenian book (the local historical Bible) and learns about Aurora (see Foundation and Earth) and robots; but, doing that, he commits a sacrilege and Dors and he are faced with a death threat. Hummin extracts them and reveals again to be a *very* persuasive person. He relocates them to the Dahl sector of Trantor.

In the very poor sector of Dahl, Hari and Dors learn about Earth and again about robots. There they twice escape death and are finally saved by a general of Wye who brings them to the Mayor of Wye, knows as a powerful persona, second only to the Emperor in might, and who has claims on the throne. Rashelle, daughter of an aging Mayor of Wye, wants to use Hari and his psychohistory just as the Emperor wants to. But as she etches her plans, the Emperor's army quickly overthrow Wye's and Hari is saved (again) by Hummin.

But how did Hummin do it this time? Hari's theory proves right: Hummin is Eto Demerzel and is a 20,000 years old robot is disguise. Hummin confesses and explains to Hari the three laws and the Zeroth law that comes before the three laws, and how he tries to help humanity. But he is bridled by the law of robotics: however he will then help Hari to develop psychohistory as a path to build a brighter future. (And for the romance, Dors is also a robot, but since Hari is already in love, he is above that...)

Fables

The Fables are all the characters from those ancient stories parents read to their kids before bedding them: Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Jack, BlueBeard, and so on...
But the Fables have been forced out of their country by a strong and mysterious invader and those who managed to escape now live among us: those who can assume human form live in New York, the others in a farm protected by magical spells.
It's actually original to see all those characters that you know have modern problems and modern minds. It's a very good comic: I've only got the first 3 volumes, but I think I'll buy the next ones real soon... Let's take a peek at the gallery:

• Snow White is the right arm of the Mayor and runs the Fable Community, she is ice-cold and single


• Prince Charming has divorced Snow White, then the Sleeping Beauty and then Cinderella; he lives mostly off the girls he seduces


• "Bigby" Wolf has assumed human form and is the Sheriff of Fabletown


• BlueBeard is the richest of the Fables


• Goldilocks is a gun-totting maniac, sharing her bed with the animals she leads to a bloody revolution


• The youngest of the three pigs keeps escaping the farm to reach the town and intrudes in Bigby's flat

and so on...
And all of them cannot hold past grievances above each others ‘heads since a global amnesty has been voted that clears every Fable from his past crimes. A great read!

Indiana Jones et le Royaume du Crâne de Cristal

Bon, comme d'habitude dans une série, il y a l'épisode de trop: il n'y a rien de crédible, pas de scénario construit, même pas un montage cohérent des scènes... Je pense que j'ai tout dit, il n'y a pas grand chose à sauver dans ce film. Ca gâche le plaisir de retrouver Indy!

Foundation and Earth

Fifth installment in Asimov's Foundation saga, this volume intends to close the last mystery remaining in the story: what happened to Earth?
I've just finished summing up the story and it was a lot easier than the previous volumes: well, the story is just not as complex and as thrilling as the Foundation trilogy was. Several things have bothered me throughout the book:

• The lack of direction: just like in the previous one, Trevize just goes on and on and on, he has no purpose, and the author seems to be having difficulties in finding a way to the conclusion he wants


• Sex: Janov and Bliss, Trevize and Mitza Lizalor, then Trevize and Hiroko... Asimov had not needed sex in the previous stories to keep the reader interested; although it is not detailed, it seems incongruous in the book and looks like either an editor's request or an old man's late fantasies...


• The conclusion: the advantage in Galaxia is, to Trevize, to prepare for ennemies... I think that this does not sound like Trevize, and I was somehow disappointed with that conclusion

So, it was an entertaining read, but both "Foundation's Edge" and "Foundation and Earth" are clearly not as good as the Foundation Trilogy (but then again, you have to take into account that they were fans/editor requests, and Asimov wrote them roughly 40 years after the trilogy...)

I'll try to sum it up and make it shorter than before:

Golan Trevize has taken a decision; he has chosen a path for humanity: that of Galaxia, a galaxy as a living organism; nonetheless, he is proud of his individuality and is not sure that, by choosing a group conscience over individuals, he has not made a mistake. One thing he is sure of, it's that when he'll find Earth, he will know why he has chosen Galaxia and the path of Gaia over that of the First or Second Foundation.

Thus, together with Pelorat and Bliss (see Foundation's Edge) he sets on a journey to find Earth. The first stop is Comporellon, the planet of his traitor friend Compor, one of the oldest worlds in the Galaxy. There, Trevize encounters various problems, perform sexual prowess and they learn of some unknown and forbidden planets called the Forbidden Worlds. Their founders, the Spacers, are believed to be the first wave of immigration from Earth, and our heroes manage to get a set of 3 coordinates, probably to 3 of these Forbidden Worlds.

• Stop number one: Aurora. This world, which is on the calculated spot although it shows on no known map, shows traces of a former civilization but is now abandoned. They find a rusty robot, but that's it. The dominant species is now wild dogs, and they attack Trevize, Pelorat and Bliss who barely escape.


• Stop number two: Solaria. On this world, they are welcomed by simple robots and a human being named Sarton Bander. Bander proves to be a hermaphrodite; he has natural transducer lobes behind his ears, that work even as he sleeps, and that allow him to use thermals to power his robots, move things around, ... He lives on an estate and is its lone inhabitant; in fact, the whole planet only hosts 1200 individuals, which is the maximum that they can bear: they are so privy of their freedom that human interaction is considered a burden. Child are only produced when an inhabitant declines and is about to surrender his estate to a descendant. The surplus of children is "disposed of". Bander makes them prisoners and proudly shows them his estate and as he is about to kill them, Bliss kills him. They escape the planet with Bander's child, Fallom, who would have been killed if they had not taken it, for it (since it's not a he or a she...) was too young to take Bander's succession: its transducer lobes are not mature enough to power the whole estate.


• Stop number three, last chance: Melpomenia. This planet is not inhabited anymore, and its atmosphere is now very thin. On it, they face a deadly fungus, which they, again, barely escape. But there, they find the location of the 50 Spacer worlds, and, supposing galactic immigration has started some 20.000 years ago from Earth, Earth should have been at the center of these worlds 20.000 years ago!

So, they locate Earth’s star, but before they go directly to Earth, they stop on Alpha, a nearby habitable planet. On Alpha, there is only a small very welcoming island, everything like the paradise we all imagine, that calls itself New Earth. Trevize has, again, sexual intercourse with a local girl, Hiroko, but as the 4 make themselves comfortable, Hiroko warns them that they face death if they do not leave, because the Alphans do not allow outworlders to leave. So they escape once again, and now head to Earth.
Rounding Earth, they are obliged to recognize that all the legends are true: Earth is radioactive and not inhabited anymore... And then, they direct their attention to the Moon... and Bliss senses intelligence: not a robot, not a human, but something new. The Moon is now inhabited, under its surface, and they are welcomed by Daneel Olivaw, a 20.000 years old robot. He knows the whole history of mankind; moreover, adding the supreme Zeroth Law to the three law of robotics ("A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm"), he's been trying to direct it for all these years; He has set up Gaia, has brought about the science of psycho-history but in the end, he had needed Trevize to make the choice. And finally, the reason he had lured them on the Moon is that he is dying (even a robot has its weaknesses!) and that he wanted to merge with Fallom.
As a conclusion, Trevize explains that he is now sure of his decision for Galaxia:

1. The flaw in psychohistory and the Seldon Plan is that they only account for humans and nothing else (robots or even life outside of the Galaxy)


2. Humanity, and the Galaxy, as a whole unit, will be better prepared if they encounter unknown enemies

Foundation's Edge

I've just finished my summary of Foundation's Edge and I'm realizing how long it is... I've got to try harder not to give so much detail but if I don't, I cannot do justice to the book; I will try to do shorter for the next one. This volume follows the Foundation trilogy, and although it is very, very good, I've found it a bit lower than its predecessors. Maybe it has to do with the uncertainty in the direction of the story (since we do not know Gaia, we do not know where the characters are heading... it sometimes feels random) or maybe it has to do with the fact that Asimov tries to bring together his two worlds - Foundation and Robots and that seems a bit artificial; I'll see how it all turns out in the next one. Now, the full story:

The fourth volume in the Foundation saga, Foundation's Edge takes place about 120 years after the previous story. The Foundation Federation is at peace and quietly expanding through its commercial network. Arkady Darrell has passed to posterity for the biography of her grandmother Bayta, the one who defeated the Mule. Terminus is preparing the 500th anniversary of its Foundation, so the Seldon plan has gone through half its way.
Throughout the Federation, a question has risen, as to the pertinence of the location of the capital of such a large federation, at its edge, and Harla Branno, Mayor of Terminus, does not want any change. This question being of much importance in its millennium plan (a Seldon crisis), long-dead Hari Seldon appears and backs up the idea that Terminus must stay the capital city of the federation. Branno, in her fifties, used for years to the power forces of politics, knows she's been a good manager, but she also knows she will not leave a trace in history books: this backup and recognition will give her some leeway.
Golan Trevize is a young, loud and promising Councilman of Terminus, but one who believes that the Seldon plan is a joke; in fact, the more it is accurate, as it has just revealed to be, the more it is a joke, since he doesn't believe that even a genius as Hari Seldon could have predicted the future that precisely, all the more so since the Mule disrupted the Plan so much: to him, the Second Foundation is still here, and the First Foundation is still a puppet in their hands (or minds...). He confides his thoughts to his fellow Councilman Munn Li Compor, who betrays him to the Mayor. When Trevize becomes too loud, Branno, in a powerful position since the backup of Seldon, gets him arrested. She confides to him that she believes, but a lot less loudly, that the Second Foundation is alive, and she sends (or, more accurately, threateningly exiles) him in its hunt. That way, she hopes that Trevize may trigger something and reveal them.
He is sent with Janov Pelorat, an historian, who is sent to look for Earth, a cover for their hunt of the Second Foundation; Earth is a world said to be the original planet of the human race. Its location and even its existence are unknown, and Pelorat has searched for it, accumulating, stories, myths, beliefs from around the Galaxy.
They are to go to Trantor, to the Galactic Library, to find out Earth's location; Branno provides them with the best of ships and obliges Munn Li Compor to follow them so she can keep track of them. But Trevize, refusing to be dictated his actions, leads them to Sayshell instead, where they might learn about Earth.

On Trantor, Quindor Shandess is First Speaker of the Second Foundation since 18 years; it has not been too hard in his time and he feels that, although he will not be remembered as Preem Palver is, he could still keep the job for some years. But there is a new Speaker, the youngest one at the table, Stor Gendibal. Gendibal's ambition is to be first speaker before he turns forty and he has a very strong opinion about the plan lately: it is a joke. It does not show as many alternatives as it used to show before the times of Preem Palver, and this pushes him to think that the Second Foundation is outplayed in the keeping of the plan by another force, maybe superior in mentalics. Moreover, he is persuaded that a First Foundationer named Trevize is the key to unlocking this mystery.
This theory he manages to convince the First Speaker of, but the remaining members of the table do not like him and his ambition. Going to a crucial meeting, he runs into several Hamishers (native farmers of Trantor) who try to beat him up; he refuses to dispose of them with his mentalics, since the rules prevent him to and is saved in extremis by a young girl named Sura Novi, a simple Hamisher. He arrives too late for his meeting, and a political battle ensues, at the End of which it is decided that 1- he will follow Trevize to Sayshell 2- he will take the Novi girl with him, since her simple beautiful mind will prevent him before his own complicated one that a mental force field is around 3- when (and if) he returns, he will be appointed First Speaker by a resigning Shandess.

Trevize and Pelorat share a great liking for each other, each one teaching something to the other; Trevize learn temperance and about Earth from Pelorat, and Pelorat is opening new eyes on a world he has not really been living in. They both easily reach Sayshell, although its neutral status keeps it is out of the Foundation Federation, as it has been neutral during the period of the Mule.
Munn Li Compor follows his former friend and makes sure he will remain in Sayshell: as an Observer for the Second Foundation, he has his own agenda from Stor Gendibal.
On Sayshell, Trevize and Pelorat learn about Gaia, a planet in the vicinity, that could be Earth, about its secrecy and independence from the province of Sayshell since as far as it can be remembered, and about how some say that's where the Mule was born. That is enough to decide Trevize to go to Gaia.

Tired of the political battles in Terminus, and knowing that the action is taking place in the Sayshell district, around the Gaia planet, Harla Branno also decides to converge on the spot, with a fleet.
Stor Gendibal, arrives on the spot too, after having exchanged his old Second Foundation ship with that, much more modern, of Compor.
The First and Second Foundation leaders encounter and Gendibal discovers with horror that the First Foundation has developed a mentalic shield capable of protecting them from the Speaker's attacks.

Approaching Gaia, Trevize and Pelorat loose control of their ship and are escorted on the surface by a young girl named Bliss, with whom the old Pelorat cannot prevent from flirting. Once they are on the ground, the girl says she is Gaia, as are the trees, rabbits and the whole planet; Gaia is a group consciousness of which each component has a share. Bliss speaks of her as I/we/Gaia. History, or myths, says that, a veeeeeery long time ago, man created robots obeying to the famous three laws of robotics (see I, robot); robots eventually took over mankind for their own sake and devised a long term plan of which Gaia is a central piece before disappearing. But currently, Trevize learns there that a crisis involving the whole universe is brooding and that he has been led here for a purpose, which he does not know yet.
The final scene involves the First Foundation through Harla Branno, the Second Foundation through Stor Gendibal and Golan Trevize: Bliss/Gaia keeps them under control (it controls mind and computers) and allows them to mind-speak at distance and explains that:

• Gaia has labored for decades to bring everyone here, not by tampering minds, which is not its way, but by taking advantage of personal ambitions; Sura Novi for instance is also Gaia.


• The First Foundation has developed a mentalic shield, that will be complete in a generation, and that Harla Branno intends to put it to use to destroy the Second Foundation (which she has located on Trantor) and create immediately the Second Empire, after the fashion of Terminus; Gaia believes this will create a military empire no better than the first one and that will last no longer.


• The Second Foundation has had quietist First Speakers and has grown soft; when he becomes First Speaker, Stor Gendibal will turn the Second Foundation more toward physics, and, if he anticipates the shield of the First Foundation, it will realize the Seldon Plan. Gaia believes this paternalistic empire, maintained by calculation will die by it.


• Gaia offers a third path: a whole universe alive, Galaxia, just as the planet Gaia itself is alive.


• Trevize has been brought here for his unique ability to be able to take the right decision even given only pieces of the data; the status quo is only to be broken when Trevize has reached a decision, and Gaia will follow the decision he makes, whichever it is.

Trevize, helped by Pelorat, takes the decision. This is summed up in a paragraph said by Pelorat:
"You know what Bliss has told me? The Mayor is going back to Terminus with a commercial treaty with Sayshell. The Speaker from the Second Foundation is going back to Trantor convinced that he has arranged it - and that woman, Novi, is going with him to see to it that the changes that will bring about Galaxia are initiated. And neither Foundation is in the least aware that Gaia exists. It's absolutely amazing."

The book does not end that easily, it keeps two questions for its ending:
First, Trevize confronts Bliss, and thinks she is a robot, which she does not confirm nor deny
Second, Trevize has learned that all references to Earth have been cleared from the Great Trantorian Library, but not to the initiative of Gaia or the Second Foundation... Trevize now needs to find Earth.