The Shrine

I have been reading a bit lately, I just finished another re-reading of. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I read the initial Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov for the first time, as well as I, Robot, The Caves of Steel, and The Naked Sun.

For those who haven't read these books, they follow multiple formats, some are thematically linked short stories in the same universe following a sequence of events over decades and centuries, similar to Tolkien's Silmarillion; others are novels. They are all in the same universe.

I, Robot is the initial book - it takes place in the near future, with recollection back to as early as the 1990's - although note that the books were written much earlier; technology has not gone the direction Asimov thought. The later portions of the book end in the later 21st century, with the development of the first FTL drives. These are short stories, linked to one and other and told through the framework of the life of Susan Calvin - so everything is linked one way or another to her. The stories are often about the logical puzzles of the three laws of robotics.

The Caves of Steel takes place 3000 years in the future. Robots are seen with extreme suspicion, and everyone lives in "cities" which we would today call Archologies; similar to Etrenank the capital of Solaris in Xenogears - except on the ground. The book follows the story of a murder investigation and uses that as a means of exploring society as a whole.

The Naked Sun, which I am currently reading, explores the clash of cultures between an Earthling and a dweller of a planet called Solaria - 20,000 humans only, but 30,000,000 robot servants who fill all roles of life. Humans live a life of extraordinary luxury, but also a lonely existance communicating typically by means of holographic MSN Messenger/video chat. It is not unusual for people to go years without any actual physical contact with other human beings. This is still in the 5000 AD time period.

Foundation takes place some 35,000+ years in the future. The time period is the beginning of the twilight years of the Galactic Empire, which spans across the Milky Way galaxy. It has reigned for some 15,000 years. The Foundation is started up by a prophet of sorts, who psychoanalyzes the entire population of the galaxy and predicts the fall of the Galactic Empire and a 30,000 year dark age. The story begins on Trantor, a planet completely covered in a giant mega-polis city; Trantor is the capital planet and city of the Galactic Empire.

The Foundation itself moves to a planet on the Periphery of the Milky Way, and most of the story takes place in this region of space.

The first book Foundation, and the first half of the second book - Foundation and Empire - are all short stories linked together through the framework of the rise of the Foundation during its first few hundred years. Also the crumble and collapse of the Empire. The second half of Foundation and Empire focuses on a new threat called "The Mule" who is a mutant, an Empath for Star Trek fans. He uses his Empath abilities to be very peruasive, an almost Hitler type figure, and creates a military empire of sorts. Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation (third book of the trilogy) are largely focused on the struggle between the Foundation and the Empire of the Mule. Without revealing too much.

In all, there are 16 books in this series - if you haven't read them, I highly recommend doing so. There are three major series in the Asimov Universe, starting the first book of any of those should be fine since they are all separated by thousands of years. In Foundation, it is briefly brought up that archaeologists believe in a theory that humans originated on a single planet, and are attempting to locate the planet it may be; they do not even suspect Earth is that planet. Given that the Robot series centers around early colonization, inhabiting 50+ nearby habitable planets, but with the gas majority of humans still living on Earth, there should be no spoilers in reading any of the series in any order, just as long as you start with: I, Robot, Foundation, or The Stars Like Dust (which I haven't read yet).

I've also started reading Asimov's guide to the bible, which I couldn't get on eBook, so I am using one of the old fashioned paper and hardcover books. I feel like leaving the fiction to the weekends is best, and the non-fiction to the week days.

It is a historical and academic approach to the development of the Bible and the stories within. It is fresh so far, as I find many modern atheist types seem to only care about writing debunking exercises, which are long winded, boring, and pointless. This book seems, so far, to be higher brow than those sorts. This one will probably take me significantly longer since I am also writing/note taking on the side.

For the record, on the weekend I finished The Naked Sun and got a good start into The Robots of Dawn

I've only ever read I, Robot. I think I read it right around the time the movie came out because I had heard how much the movie abused the source. I never did see the movie, but I loved the book.

I'll add some of these others to my very long "need to read" list.

Do you have a goodreads account, Seek?

I don't, but I can sign up.

You can share books that you've read or plan to read and all that. If you do sign up let me know.

So it took me months to pick up Asimov again, but I finally did it last week and I read the Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire. Now I have started on The Currents of Space. I must say, it is a very jarring shift in pace from Asimov's early style vs. his later style.

I do like Asimov's early story telling, but his writing skill was definitely not nearly as well developed yet. He reuses a lot of language, and his characterizations are very monotone. In the books he wrote later, even the robots had very distinct personalities, whereas I am finding the characters of The Currents of Space to be fairly unremarkable. Still, I'm going to continue to read through the Empire trilogy.

On Robots and Empire, I couldn't help but to feel that I got some spoilers for the later foundation books, it's a connection book, for certain, although not so much to his Empire series, but rather to Foundation.

So far, the order I would read the books in:

1. I, Robot or the original Foundation trilogy.
2. The other of the above.
3. The Empire series.
4. The Elijah Bailey series: Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn... If just for the stylistic progression.
5. The Foundation sequels - assumption
6. Robots and Empire
7. The Foundation Prequels - assumption.

I put Robots and Empire later than the Foundation sequels, largely because in Foundation there was a scene where Dorwin expressed interest in finding the origin of the human species, and had no idea where it was - and he was the Chancellor of the Galactic Empire. I suspect that I bumped into a spoiler for the Foundation sequels in Robots and Empire because there's an obvious missing link here... which I suspect was revealed in one of the Foundation sequels, and after reading a few threads on reading order, I believe I have confirmed this. I may change my tone when I actually get to the sequels, which I am reading after I finish the Empire series.

Reading the books chronologically is an option, but not the best option ion my opinion: aside from a stylistic approach, these are a web of sequels and prequels, and the prequels will spoil some of the story for books taking place in later time periods.

Chronologically:
1. I, Robot ~ 2000 to 2150 - birth of the positronic brain, hyperspace, and the beginning of colonization.
2. Elijah Bailey series ~5000 - Earth stands alone for regular humans, all living in arcologies. Around 50 Spacer worlds, heavily populated by robots and humans that live ~400 years due to genetic engineering and great health practice. The major problem among these stories is how to get humans to expand across the galaxy.
3. Robots and Empire ~5200 - Earth people begin recolonizing, political conflict between the Earth settler worlds and the Spacer worlds - they are almost two different types of human now.
4. Empire series ~25,000? - Rise of the Galactic Empire, Trantor expands its empire to cover the galaxy during this series.
5. Foundation prequels ~34,900? - I suspect the plan up to Foundation.
6. Foundation ~35,000 to 35,500? - The fall of the Galactic Empire, Trantor is a giant metropolis which covers the entire planet (think Coruscant from Star Wars, which is based on Trantor). Very much based on the fall of the Roman Empire, the Foundation is established so as to prevent a 30,000 year long galactic-wide dark age.
7. Foundation sequels ~35,500 to 36,000? - I suspect the birth of new Galactic Empire.

Funny that you posted this. I was just at lunch with some friends on Friday and one of them highly recommended the Foundation Trilogy. I added it to my list of "must reads" so I'm hoping to get to it soon. I've already ready I, Robot though it's been years.

I am almost finished the first book of the Empire trilogy now, and there're some things that may actually put it to after Foubdation and Earth, I am unsure at this point. So far it seems independent in all except setting except for one little detail I found towards the end.

Anyway, if you have the time to read, I would recommend the full series. The order is arguable, my preference is based around style and story revelation rather than chronology.

Funny weird Spaceballs thing in the book Pebble in the Sky: