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Foundations for the Foundation
Dr. Orville Boyd Jenkins
A review of the The Second Foundation Trilogy

The three individual books:
Benford, Gregory.  Foundation's Fear.  NY:  HarperPrism, 1998.  608p
Bear, Greg.  Foundation and Chaos.  NY:  HarperPrism, 1999.  401p
Brin, David.  Foundation's Triumph.  NY:  HarperTorch, 1999.  392p

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In early 2006, I set out to read the science fiction trilogy about the Foundation, a classic series among the voluminous and varied works of Isaac Asimov.  This series is called The Second Foundation Trilogy, but is story time, they provide the early background leading into the era portrayed in Asimov's original Foundation Series.  But Asimov never got to write these background stories.

Three contemporary writers developed these foundational settings to provide the "historical" background for the original Foundation Series, and the related Asimov works.  The three authors worked together to develop and coordinate the three stories, and each wrote one of the books.  The estate of Isaac Asimov chose a famous trio of established Sci Fi writers sometimes referred to as "The Killer Bs," because all their last names begin with B.

Book one is Foundation's Fear, written by Gregory Benford.  Greg Bear wrote the next story, called Foundation and Chaos.  Book Three, Foundation's Triumph, was written by David Brin.  I accidentally started reading the second book first.  So after reading about 110 pages, realizing my mistake, I set that one aside to read Foundation's Fear.

As I got into the first book, I was thinking a lot of this was beginning to sound familiar.  By about half way through, I realized that I had read this book some years ago.  I had sometimes recalled some of the scenes I was now reading, but had wondered what story they were from.  Some events later in the book had made an impression on me, and I recognized more and more as the story developed.  Many reviewers have rightly criticized Benford for shis druging detail and convoluted, distracting side-trips with coputer personalities that confusingly steal the stage from Asimov's psychohistory.  At the tiem, it did nto really strike me as negative. I

This series fills in details that would fill the gaps left in the sweeping Foundation series.  Asimov's original classic trilogy included themes and personalities developed in the Robots series, Empire series and others.

Asimov had written some fill in volumes that tied the various series together into a coherent saga.  But many questions still remained about Asimov's universe of the future after earth had been abandoned and human settlement had expanded across the galaxy.

These are superb stories that fit together tightly and for any new reader who starts here to read the complete saga in chronological story time, this Second Foundation Trilogy will read seamlessly as a foundation to the Foundation.

These are masterful pieces of literature, with detailed characters and storylines.  I appreciated the vivid depictions that read like an action, suspense and mystery story.  I could see in my mind's eye the lively events as each writer unfolded his part of the saga.

In Volume Three, Brin provides a good timeline of Foundation and Empire Events clarifying events across the Asimov books in the Robots, Foundation and Empire series and related individual novels.

See these books on Amazon.com:
Benford, Gregory.  Foundation's Fear.  NY:  HarperPrism, 1998.  608p
Bear, Greg.  Foundation and Chaos.  NY:  HarperPrism, 1999.  401p
Brin, David.  Foundation's Triumph.  NY:  HarperTorch, 1999.  392p

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OBJ

Original reading notes written February to April 2006
Review writtena nd posted on Thoughts and Resources 21 November 2008

Orville Boyd Jenkins, EdD, PhD
Copyright © 2008 Orville Boyd Jenkins
Permission granted for free download and transmission for personal or educational use.  Other rights reserved.

Email:  orville@jenkins.nu
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