Review: Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov - The Final Chapter of the Foundation Series (Book 5)
Foundation and Earth is the fifth book in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series and the second sequel of the series. As of now, this book has become my favorite in the series because it takes the reader on a journey to different planets in the galaxy and tells the story of how mankind spread across the universe.
Book Review: Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov - The Final Chapter of the Foundation Series
"Foundation and Earth" was written more than 30 years after the original Foundation Trilogy. In terms of publication order, "Foundation and Earth" is the fifth book. However, in chronological order, it is the seventh and final book of the series.
This novel, along with the fourth novel, "Foundation's Edge," significantly differs from the original Foundation Trilogy. Apart from being written almost 40 years later, these two sequel novels follow the story of the same protagonists and take place during the same time. On the other hand, the Foundation Trilogy, consisting of short stories, features different protagonists, and each story has a gap of 50 or even 100 years between them. The protagonists of the two sequel novels, "Foundation's Edge" and "Foundation and Earth," are Trevize, Pelorat, and Bliss.
Read More: Book Review: Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov (Foundation Series - Book 4)
The main protagonist of this novel is Trevize. He is a Foundation Councilman, and in the previous book, he is seen as a hero because he prevented the possibility of war between his Foundation and its rival, the Second Foundation. He was given a chance to decide how the galaxy will be in the future. Right now, he is in Gaia, a mysterious planet not known to any of the Foundations or any other planet. However, being a person who decides what the galaxy will become is not easy. He still lacks something.
“He would no more fit into the huge chaos of the Foundation than into the small orderliness of Gaia. He was at home nowhere, an orphan everywhere.”
He is looking for something more. While looking for the Second Foundation, he found Gaia and learned that Gaia was established by the people from Earth, the origin of all people and species. He also learned about the existence of robots in the past, which no one in Trevize's time even knew about. So now Trevize will look for Earth. Maybe there he can find the answers he was looking for.
Gaia - Planet sharing group consciousness
Before we delve into Trevize's journey through the universe with the old professor Pelorat and a woman named Bliss from Gaia, let's take a moment to discuss Gaia itself. In the initial chapters of the book, Asimov provides us with further insights into Gaia. Although we gained some knowledge about Gaia in the previous book, it is worth exploring its nature in more detail. So, what exactly is Gaia? Let's hear from Bliss, a representative from Gaia:“There must have been a time before the beginning of history when human beings were so primitive that, although they could remember events, they could not speak. Speech was invented and served to express memories and to transfer them from person to person. Writing was eventually invented in order to record memories and transfer them across time from generation to generation. All technological advance since then has served to make more room for the transfer and storage of memories and to make the recall of desired items easier. However, once individuals joined to form Gaia, all that became obsolete. We can return to memory, the basic system of record-keeping on which all else is built.”
In Gaia, not only do people possess a collective consciousness, but animals and even nonliving entities like mountains and rocks participate in this shared awareness. Mind-reading is a common ability, allowing everyone to access each other's thoughts. It is difficult for us to fathom such a concept. Let's explore how Bliss describes this extraordinary phenomenon:
“Look, Trevize, if you want to know something that isn’t in your mind, you look at some appropriate book-film, or make use of a computer’s data banks. I scan Gala’s total mind.”
So, where is all the information stored in Gaia if they don't have any books and records? It resides within the minds of the people and also within nonliving entities.
“In the mineral structure? The rocks and mountain range, you mean?”
“And, for some kinds of data, the ocean and atmosphere. All that is Gaia, too.”
“But what can nonliving systems hold?”
“A great deal. The intensity is low but the volume is so great that a large majority of Gaia’s total memory is in its rocks. It takes a little longer to retrieve and replace rock memories so that it is the preferred place for storing dead data, so to speak, items that, in the normal course of events, would rarely be called upon.”
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The Search for Earth: A Journey Through the Stars
Why did I like this fifth novel more than the others? Because it takes the reader on a space journey and adventure. The protagonists embark on a space journey, visiting different planets. Some are abandoned, some exist in a post-apocalyptic era, and some have dystopian societies. However, their goal is to find Earth.
While they travel and try to find Earth, they learn how humankind originated from one planet and spread across the galaxy. There were two waves for this. In the first one, humans used robots, also known as "Spacers," and they ultimately failed. This raises the question of why societies with robots could fail to maintain a planet, resulting in their abandonment.
One reason can be this: “It is easy to argue that a society that depends totally on robots becomes soft and decadent, dwindling and dying out of sheer boredom or, more subtly, by losing the will to live.”
The second wave is known as the Settlers. They settled on as many planets as they could in the universe and, in the end, formed the Galactic Empire.
Earth and how people settled across the universe
Trevize, Pelorat, and Bliss embark on a galactic journey, meticulously collecting fragments of data in their quest to find Earth. However, Earth has now become the stuff of legends. Some claim that it no longer exists, while others believe it has become a radioactive wasteland, rendering it uninhabitable.
“Earth was the original home of humanity and of millions of species of plants and animals. It continued so for countless years until hyperspatial travel was invented. Then the Spacer worlds were founded. They broke away from Earth, developed their own cultures, and came to despise and oppress the mother planet.
“After a couple of centuries of this, Earth managed to regain its freedom…”
“Earth initiated a second wave of settlements, founding many new worlds in a new fashion. The new group of Settlers proved more vigorous than the Spacers, outpaced them, defeated them, outlasted them, and, eventually, established the Galactic Empire. During the course of the wars between the Settlers and the Spacers-no, not wars, for he used the word ‘conflict,’ being very careful about that-the Earth became radioactive.”
But how did Earth become radioactive? This is explained in another book by Asimov. To learn more about it, I will read the novels 'The Caves of Steel' and 'The Naked Sun' from Asimov's Robot Series.
Foundation and Earth
Foundation Series Book 5
Spectra Publishing
1986
500 pages
Genre: Science fiction, novel, series, space
Photo: Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov (1987) cover art by Michael Whelan
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