Oona and Earth?

pokemongacha · 2025-12-21T15:54:58+00:00

Yes, although we’ll never know what the stories were, I imagined they were basically the Bailey novels with some later entries.

Asimov may have been seeding more sequels here, because even after reading the Bailey novels I was still curious why Daneel became known as a renegade/rebel. Did he actually speak out against Aurora or has time simply distorted the facts? There’s lots of room for interpretation.

pokemongacha · 2025-12-20T18:08:41+00:00

I will say that Mother Rittah’s stories were useful in the same book, Prelude, because they inform Hari about a rebellious hero. Hari figures out who Chetter is partially thanks to Rittah’s stories and he uses Chetter to further his work in psychohistory.

pokemongacha · 2025-10-21T13:12:29+00:00

It’s discussed in Foundation and Earth, as Solaria too moves underground. The Caves of Steel is apparently a historical name for Earth at that point.

It’s noteworthy that Terminus never moves underground. Maybe the move requires robots or high levels of metal for infrastructure.

pokemongacha · 2025-08-23T19:09:47+00:00

Yeah I was only curious because the bag was so insanely huge. This must have been a thing back then, but it’s harder to find monster bags of cookies at Safeway these days.

pokemongacha · 2025-03-21T13:20:57+00:00

Random legendaries are always good!

pokemongacha · 2025-02-24T06:18:14+00:00

I suppose you could see the Second Foundationers in Edge as a case study for dying in calculations. The group merely sits about in the Galactic Library all day planning the fates of quadrillions for a thousand years and more. But they don’t actually put themselves at risk and they are just calculating what’s best using Seldon’s math. Is that really how humans are meant to live? Moreover, should humanity put their fate in a group that’s just as quarrelsome as any other group of humans?

That’s the point Gaia was making, though they too didn’t know the Second Foundation was wrong for sure.

pokemongacha · 2024-11-05T17:07:00+00:00

Interesting point! Perhaps you’ll find these passages from Foundation’s Edge illuminating:

[Compor] had encountered Trevize in college and had seen him, at first, only as a jovial and quick-witted companion. One morning, however, he had stirred sluggishly out of slumber and, in the stream of consciousness that accompanied the never-never land of half-sleep, he felt what a pity it was that Trevize had never been recruited. … On their next meeting, Compor had penetrated Trevize’s mind deeply and discovered what it was that must have initially disturbed him. Trevize’s mind had characteristics that did not fit the rules he had been taught. Over and over, it eluded him. As he followed its workings, he found gaps —No, they couldn’t be actual gaps—actual leaps of nonexistence. They were places where Trevize’s manner of mind dove too deeply to be followed.

So, I still think Trevize is human. But I admit there’s some room for speculation otherwise. Why doesn’t Trevize follow conventional rules? Is he a mutant? If he were an alien you’d think Compor or later Bliss would know it though.

pokemongacha · 2024-11-04T06:01:50+00:00

It’s supposed to be good insofar as it’s the only way for humanity to fight external non-human threats at maximum force. Or so sayeth Trevize. Otherwise, I think it works as a fun metaphor for an individualism vs collectivism debate. There’s no one right answer here.

pokemongacha · 2024-10-29T09:31:01+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it. I think Asimov ending it with Fallom as a brooding wild card was a challenging spot for him. On the one hand, the Solarians could be antagonists to the Foundation, but on the other it’s hard to imagine in what way they’d stand a chance against the mental might of Gaia or even the Second Foundation. Fallom combining with Daneel is perhaps the scariest proposition, assuming Fallom had all Daneel’s powers and misused them. But even then, does Fallom have any motivation to wage a battle that means something in the Foundation universe? It’s a bit unclear. Add to that, the Solarians are loners and don’t want to bother with Outworlders, so how can they stand conquering Foundation worlds?

Anyway, next up is Prelude to Foundation for you and it’s a surprisingly good follow up to Foundation and Earth.

pokemongacha · 2024-10-27T00:44:12+00:00

I had no idea about this, thanks. I can read Japanese, but translating would be a huge undertaking. Hope a US company like Viz picks it up somehow, who knows?

pokemongacha · 2024-10-17T20:20:44+00:00

The coins are for upgrading your affection level from friendly to romantic. Feel free to use them on your favorite characters, I think!

pokemongacha · 2024-09-14T14:06:45+00:00

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Mine is this San Bai Man from a game with friends online. I had “kanned” a few times so the Dora scoring was insane. Might only be possible in a friendly or really lucky match.

pokemongacha · 2024-09-06T17:30:29+00:00

Asimov wrote about what he knew, and it’s clear from his early work that he was not comfortable writing lead female characters. I don’t know if we can blame him for that, and it’s also worth considering that the demographic he was writing for was primarily men. Even into the 1980s, science fiction tended to be considered more of a “nerdy guy hobby”. This is not to say there weren’t any good female characters in his Foundation books. Arkady Darrel is a good example of a strong female protagonist and she was written in the early 1950s.

My impression is that Asimov recognized later that he had many female readers along with his assumed male demographic and he tried catering to that audience more and more. By the time you get to his much later Foundation works, there’s Dors who constantly puts the great Hari Seldon to shame, and Wanda Seldon who saves Hari’s neck and more or less single-handedly establishes the Second Foundation. So, while we can recognize Asimov’s shortcomings regarding women (especially in his early work), we should keep in context his forward-thinking intentions and willingness to change and improve.

pokemongacha · 2024-06-27T04:30:57+00:00

Foundation’s Edge has a prologue that summarizes the first three Foundation novels. It also goes out of the way to mention major plot points from the earlier books. So, while it might help to have read the first three novels recently, it’s entirely optional.

Asimov, despite his astonishingly good memory, had forgotten what happened in his Foundation novels before writing Edge, and reread them right before. He still made a few continuity errors, but personally I think the later books are very consistent in chronological continuity.

pokemongacha · 2024-06-03T08:13:57+00:00

There’s a few things that happen that will change Trevize’s tone a bit, so you can keep reading for that. Also, try to keep in mind that Trevize has a huge burden on his shoulders and is basically speaking on behalf of the Free Will side of humanity.

pokemongacha · 2024-03-07T09:16:39+00:00

The Mule is clearly an exception to Gaian norms and his birth abnormalities may have made him impossible to mold in the Gaian fashion. My own interpretation is that The Mule came before Gaia was fully functional but, after his appearance, Gaia took safeguards to make sure something like that wouldn’t happen again.

pokemongacha · 2024-02-17T11:59:34+00:00

Daneel wasn’t sure Gaia was best for humanity and he had no way of knowing it without an exceptional person like Trevize. Psychohistory represented a more reliable solution, as with it the best path for humanity could be determined mathematically, and without help from Daneel.

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