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