I experienced these five books
through audio. I listened to them as I
was working on my latest cross-stitch project (The Kiss). I have been
dreaming of getting my hands on these books since high school (that was a long time ago) when I began
to fall in love with sci-fi and fantasy.
Of course the first name in sci-fi is Isaac Asimov. In the realm of sci-fi and fantasy (indeed, in all Literature) the man is a
GOD. Unfortunately I never did get a
hold of them (so many destitute hours spent scouring second-hand books for a
complete set because I couldn’t afford them brand new) and I despaired of ever
acquiring the whole series. Then through
the miracle of modern technology, I got myself the audiobooks. Hallelujah!
In this blog post I will not give
you a summary of these books anymore since there are any number of synopses and
summaries available elsewhere online (I know how terribly lazy that sounds but
what the heck), so allow me to simply share some of my thoughts as I journeyed
through this most spectacular and legendary series.
What I admired most about the whole thing was the continuity of the
story. Each ‘segment’ wherein the events
of the series unfold was supposed to be centuries and light years apart, and
yet it all seemed to make sense that the events were still related to each
other and affected one another in profound ways. It was just a hell of an IMAGINATION that put
all of it together in such a plausible, believable set-up. The cohesiveness astounded me. The
fact that it all melded and made startling sense attested to Asimov’s skill at
construction. And it wasn’t just that. The characters were alive and human, with human
strengths and equally human failings.
You learned lessons from them and they made you think on yourself and
your life and how you deal with other people just as human as you. It made you ponder deeply about the world and
why we are here; why we struggle so hard for unnameable unseen things, and why
we want to be free to live our lives as both individuals and as a society. I am awed by how deeply and how clearly
Asimov understood human nature and human struggle. I wonder how long the author took to come up
with ways to put all of it together. But
then, he was a genius. It probably took
all of five minutes.
I loved the voice of Larry McKeever.
He gave the story such life and the characters distinct
personalities. As I listened to him
narrate and dramatize, I could almost see the story unfold with my own
eyes. Nothing, but nothing beats a great
story told by a great story-teller.
Through his voice the series was given thrill, mystery, drama, and even
comedy at times. He pulled you in and
didn’t let you go until the last word. Listening to him was an absolute
pleasure.
Altogether I listened to five books: Foundation,
Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation’s Edge, and Foundation and Earth. While I found most every character engaging
and interesting, I had a few favorites here and there. First was Hari Seldon (of course!) – the Godfather
of the Foundation, the Big Daddy, the Mover and Shaker. He came up with the science of psychohistory,
which predicted the future by looking at the trends of mass motions. At the beginning of Foundation, he predicted the inevitable downfall of the Empire and
the virtual collapse of human society on a galactic scale. Thus began the events that enabled Seldon to
set up the Foundation in order to save mankind from itself – an effort that
will take thousands of years to reach full circle. Second favorite character was Bayta Darrell (Foundation and Empire). I love these strong, intelligent women with
enough heart to temper their coolness.
She was the one who prevented the Mule (major baddie) from discovering the
location of the Second Foundation, thus saving the galaxy from the tyrannical
rule of a slightly deranged megalomaniac with some extraordinarily impressive mutant
abilities. Third favorite was Golan Trevize (Foundation’s Edge, Foundation and Earth),
who staunchly refused the idea of all the galaxy becoming a “unified mind” or “a
unified organism” where all its constituents are constantly aware and connected
to each other. In other words, he didn’t
like the idea of eventually wiping out individuality. Even
though “unification” has it’s obvious advantages, he persisted on fighting
against the idea, going around the galaxy to find an explanation for this
dilemma, and trying to stand up for the individuality that he believed made
people “human.” Did he find the answers
he desperately searched for? Did Hari
Seldon manage to save the world? I leave
it to you to discover for yourself, and I wish you as much fun in the journey as
I had.
No comments:
Post a Comment