[eBook] Foundation by Isaac Asimov (Book 1 of The Foundation Trilogy) $2.99 @ Amazon AU

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Ori0n on 17/12/2022 - 09:14 amazon.com.au (243 clicks)

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Kindle Daily Deal

If you know, you know.

For 3 bucks you can sample the first book in the Foundation Trilogy (although there are many sequels and prequels, this is the start of the main Trilogy).

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST ALL-TIME SERIES

The Foundation series is Isaac Asimov’s iconic masterpiece. Unfolding against the backdrop of a crumbling Galactic Empire, the story of Hari Seldon’s two Foundations is a lasting testament to an extraordinary imagination, one that shaped science fiction as we know it today.

The Galactic Empire has prospered for twelve thousand years. Nobody suspects that the heart of the thriving Empire is rotten, until psychohistorian Hari Seldon uses his new science to foresee its terrible fate.

Exiled to the desolate planet Terminus, Seldon establishes a colony of the greatest minds in the Empire, a Foundation which holds the key to changing the fate of the galaxy.

However, the death throes of the Empire breed hostile new enemies, and the young Foundation’s fate will be threatened first.

FYI - Book 2 of this trilogy is $9.99, Book 3 is $17.99

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• 

  Musiclover on 17/12/2022 - 09:29

  +4

  Originally published in 1942. Isaac Asimov died in 1992, 30 years ago. And yet some greedy publisher still manages to take money from people for it. It is probably worse than Nazis burning books. It will be "officially in public domain" in 2037. That's 95 years since it's been published. Hopefully, some of us would be able to read it for free then.

  • 

    mskeggs on 17/12/2022 - 09:33

    +2

    Came to make the same point. An 80yro work still collecting royalties. I wish I kept getting paid again and again for work I performed decades ago.

    • 

      Musiclover on 17/12/2022 - 09:38

      Asimov was a great humanist. If he was still alive and you ask him I am sure he would decline any payment for it now. But who cares about his opinion anyway, it's about making money for them.

    • 

      fantombloo on 17/12/2022 - 09:55

      I wish I kept getting paid again and again for work I performed decades ago.

      You wish for the essence of capitalism.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 17/12/2022 - 10:00

        +1

        Yesssss… embrace the dark side

  • 

    OfTheOverflow on 17/12/2022 - 10:21

    +2

    Your local library, if not also having a free ebook copy, would greatly appreciate you borrowing their copy. And you save $3!

    • 

      Musiclover on 17/12/2022 - 10:42

      Yes, I am aware of the concept of the library (though hard to wrap my head around their limitation for digital books distribution). I could also borrow it from a friend, or even download it for free by making a 1 second google search. But my complaint was more about copy right in general… How much cost (labour) is involved in selling the digital ebook? Same as selling air.

  • 

    Nubbin on 17/12/2022 - 12:19

    I think the already published editions should be free. If a publisher want to create a new edition with new art, formatting, etc and sell it, I think that's fair enough.

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  Larsson on 17/12/2022 - 10:00

  +2

  I know this book is very well respected. But in my opinion it was ‘meh’. Honestly it’s more fiction about politics rather than sci-fi.

  • 

    EightImmortals on 17/12/2022 - 10:38

    +1

    Like wut?
    Honest politicians?

    • 

      Larsson on 17/12/2022 - 10:43

      No, subjects that are handled are more around leading the public, great leaders doing this and that being hero's or seeing future clearly etc and quite a bit of (origins of?) religion thrown in there too.

      Futuristic environment just happens to be the setting of all this.

    • 

      toliman on 17/12/2022 - 19:37

      If you haven't read the book, the Apple TV series is probably a good introduction to the story. There are a handful (entire characters, entire plot lines, etc.) of changes made for TV, which I don't really mind, but it's fairly close. Gender swapping seems to be the cost of doing business in Hollywood, so it's a small price to have the kernel of the story left unmolested.

      Foundation is a SciFi "Empire" and time-spanning anthology/collection, built/written as a series of anecdote / short stories in a Post-Expansion Empire of humanity, a Galaxy Spanning civilisation of thousands of planets, that is at the peak of power and influence, facing the problems of the 'colonies' and their internecine problems of potentially hundreds of Trillions of people, who can't or won't care across the galaxy.

      And then it 'somehow' inevitably collapses, leaving the Reformation planned out by the Foundation (or rather, Hari Seldon's enigmatic plans) to take place in the ashes.

      Asimov does emulate the "Roman Empire" collapse, but most of the book is set in the Post-Roman / Post-Empire time period. It was probably the first Space Opera type novel.

      The name of the book, is based on a Organisation/Group/Cult/Commune of ~100,000 Scientists and historians, exiled to keep a copy of the recorded history and knowledge, Technology and Culture of the Empire of Humanity in case of a future Dark Age / Apocalyptic War that would destroy the Empire.

      The group is formed by Hari "Raven" Seldon, a Mathematician, gathering resources and people following his "Psycho-History", a form of predictive analytics of News, History and profiling of large groups of people in history to predict the signs and pitfalls of civilisation before they happen. Because Hari's predictions come true, either engineered or Cassandra-Like ignored or seen as causative, the Emperor holds Seldon, and his followers responsible. "Raven Seldon" after being arrested in a public safety lockdown, is charged with treason, as you might expect, and negotiates to reduce the Dark Ages from 30,000 years down to 1,000 years at most, and to preserve the memory of Empire and it's culture, "chooses" to have his followers exiled to protect the Empire's vulnerability, and is Banished from Empire.

      Which you then find out was the plan all along, started years prior. And this is pretty much all in the first episode/part of the book.

      The novels are stitched together by "revelations" i.e. Hari Seldon's Prophecies and warnings left for his followers for hundreds of years. As the books continue, Foundation moves from "Encyclopaedia production" into a society, into a Religious or Scholarly order, and act as Traders, Sages, and Doctors, sic. Spreading the values, but also the remnant knowledge of the Empire so that the new cultures evolve stably when technology is introduced or re-introduced.

      It's a good concept that other SciFi has emulated, Especially the "Cargo Cult" societies growing up in the shadow of machinery or technology they can't understand or operate, worshipping the ancient machinery, and being injured or killed by it.

      As a novel though, it is a bit weak. Perhaps because Asimov wanted to tell a certain kind of Morality/Culture tale in short stories, not sprawl into the wider "culture" of the empire's enormous population. Because it's largely set in the kind of 1930's optimism, they didn't have the kind of tropes and meme/concepts to illustrate the significance of how an empire of that scale would exist at the fringes or in the "suburbs". So the characters are a bit simple, there's no real action or drama, it's a mystery concept layered with dialogue and clever moments, and a lot of world building.

      • 

        EightImmortals on 18/12/2022 - 07:22

        Thanks for the detailed synopsis.
        I did actually try to watch the Apple TV show but only made it through about 3 episodes without literally falling asleep. :)
        I guess the book is better?

  • 

    clintdb on 17/12/2022 - 16:00

    That's precisely what I have liked about Asimov's work - it's about society and how it deals with technology, not just "there are lasers in the future, how cool is that".

    The Caves of Steel books were more of an "interesting story" compared to the Foundation series. But both considered societal behaviour in conjunction with the future tech.

  • 

    congo on 17/12/2022 - 16:14

    It was excellent for its times.

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  donm on 17/12/2022 - 11:20

  I loved the series. The first book was the least impressive, but it set things up for greater things in the sequels.

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  CrazySurfaNZ on 17/12/2022 - 20:14

  US1.78 on Amazon.com for those with a US based Kindle account https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B5WBFLT