Airframe is an interesting novel by Michael Crichton. It starts out with a normal flight returning back to Denver from Hong Kong when suddenly the whole plane starts to go haywire. The plane starts rapidly going out of control, and everything inside moves very rapidly, with passengers getting bounced around. And the plane declares a emergency off the California coast, and makes a rapid landing. A pretty horrific event. This starts the whole novel.
A typical event like this, which results in injuries and deaths to passengers will get investigated to the last bit of detail; after all, if there is a problem inside the type of plane, it needs to be found out so that the same thing can be avoided on other planes with other airlines. Part of the people who get affected by such an accident are the plane manufacturers, Norton Aircraft. They have to quickly figure out what went wrong, both to avoid scaring other airlines and to satisfy other stakeholders such as the media, shareholders, etc.

The person central to this novel is Casey Singleton, a divorced single mother who is currently the Quality Assurance Representative on the Incident Review team (the team who actually does these sort of investigations) at Norton Aircraft. She will also be the press spokesperson, a high pressure job. Unfortunately, for the investigating team, there are some constraints;
- The flight crew has already left the country
- There is a probable deal with the Chinese airlines for 50 aircraft, so this incident needs to be investigated accurately within a very short time
- The union has heard rumours about a vital transfer of technology to China, and is beginning to get hostile
AS the investigations start, Casey soon discovers that not everything is as it seems to be, and she could very well be the scapegoat. She also has to balance being a single mother on top of everything else. She is also getting attacked by a mediaperson out to get some sensational stuff. DOes she manage to do a good job and uncover the truth ?

The last review was the Volume 1 of this collection. This is the concluding review, taking on the stories in Volume 2 of this series. There are some great stories in this collection as well, and let’s get started on reading them.
Asimov has an incredible novel called ‘Nightfall’, about a society, not very advanced, that has 6 suns all around it, and does not know darkness. It’s scientists find out that the society has followed an unusual pattern, with society dying and taking rebirth every 2500 years, and almost at the same time, they discover the law of gravitation, and find that the 6 suns actually all go into an eclipse once every 2500 years, and the time for that is approaching. This society cannot stand darkness, and when the suns are all away, setting fire to society is the only response from the crazed crowd. Nightfall was developed from a short story, and this story is there in this Volume of short stories.
There are some very interesting stories - some stories about interaction with alien species such as ‘Green Patches’ - probably a form of precursor to the single super-organism concept used in his later novels; there is another moving story about conflict with an alien species in the story ‘Hostess’ - in fact, this is about a parasitic organism, ‘Breeds there a man’ is more about humanity being a lab species for a super species, C-chute is about the conflict with another species and the disparate group of people who get caught in this conflict, ‘In a good cause’ is a classic story where the focus is on inevitable conflict with another species and the different ways of getting humanity to focus on this conflict. ‘What is this thing called love’ is a humourous take at some of the same concepts.
‘What if’ deals with some what if scenarios in a relationship, and is a pretty intersting story, ‘The Ugly little boy’ is a story about the passion of motherhood and what it can make a person do, ‘Sally’ is an intersting story about a sort of robotics and how it can eventually seem scary, the same with ‘Nobody here but -’, ‘Its such a beautiful day’ is a great story about the wanting to escape from a closed society even when it is very comfortable. ‘Strikebreaker’ is a very moving story about the discrimination in a closed society and how they can make humanity veer off its basic sense of right and wrong,
In this second volume, Asimov was moving more towards a model of more conflict with other species, where eventually humans will strove to move into other worlds, and conflict is inevitable. It is possible that the basic nature of humanity being of a state of independence of thought, the possibility of humanity getting split is also possible.

Isaac Asimov is famous for his visionary science fiction works such as the Foundation series that take on a future galaxy side humanity and its search for peace and order as well as progress, and for his Robotic laws that seem like natural constraints on the actions of robotics experts. Besides these however, Asimov also wrote a number of short stories, and they find place in the 2 Volume Short Stories collection. This article takes on the first volume of this collection; the stories are an incredible mix of societal issues, future trends, and so on. There are some very interesting stories in this collection, and some that were somewhat not so interesting to me.
The best story of this collection, and one that appeals to me the most, is a story called ‘The Last Question’. This is a story that takes on a question, moves it along the ages, never answering it, while projecting the technological advances in the ages that follow until you end up in an age ten trillion years in the future, when the entire universe is dying; and then you get the story of the creation mixed up in this answer ‘Let there be light’. This story, while being a pretty short story, and without much complexity, is about the best blend of science and religion that I have seen.
There are numerous other stories that are particularly interesting stories, with the first one, ‘The Dead Past’, being a very direct reminder about the dangers of tinkering with some things that should not have happened, such as creating a machine capable of looking into the past. ‘Franchise’ talks about a future dealing with ability of machines to interfere in the political process that seems like fantasy, but it could have seemed realistic at some point of time. ‘Gimmicks 3′ is a delightful story about dealing with having sold your soul, and the way to get around that. ‘Kid Stuff’ is another interesting story about dealing with non-human creatures.
Some of the stories are more complicated such as ‘The living space’ about alternate probability patterns of existence. And we do have stories related to robotics, ‘Satisfaction guaranteed’ is a very interesting story dealing with robotics and human interactions, including the natures of self-confidence and jealousy. ‘Hell-Fire’ is a very short story about the dangers of atomic weapons, similary ‘The Last Thump’ is about the dangers arising from atomic weapons. ‘Jokester’ is a story that is very worrying, dealing with the problems about the existence of jokes and whether they are just a lab experiment. ‘Profession’ is a very moving story dealing with the need for future societies to encourage people to have new ideas for development of society; one reads this story, looks at the present, and is very happy that our society did not develop in such a manner (I would seriously recommend that this should be a story that should be part of general reading).
There are other stories such as detective story that would not be out of place in today’s stories - “I’m in Marsport without Hilda”. Asimov also wrote a few stories on the innate nature of humanity to fight wars and yet maintain their overall nature of independence, such as ‘The Gentle Vultures’. Asimov also could not really conceptualize the age of the personal computer, imaging the existence of centralized massive computing resources, and in the midst of this single large computer of his called ‘Multivac’, he wrote a story about the stress of all the troubles of the world on this computer, and the incredible urge of the computer to terminate itself, called ‘All the troubles of this world’. The story ends in this line, ‘I want to die’.

Movies that are based on science are sometimes successful (take Spielberg’s movies - Close Encounters.., ET, Back to the Future, etc), but many more are unsuccessful. All of these movies portray science as not very hostile, and then came in the hard science fiction movies, with Aliens and The Terminator being movies that were more action oriented, less warm and fuzzy, and very successful. For example, The Terminator cost around $6.5 million to make, and earned around $78 million worldwide. It was a critical success as well, and set the stage for sequels to be made. The movie also played a big part in making Arnold Schwarzenegger that super-star that he became.

The irony around this is that Schwarzenegger was not the first choice for the role, the role of the terminator was initially envisaged to be a small person, not particularly unremarkable. Schwarzenegger was first offered the role of the human from the future, but there was a realization that Schwarzenegger was better suited for the role of the terminator, and that automatically made the role of the terminator to be a big muscular man.
The movie is based on the concept of a future where the machines rule and the humans are fighting back, led by a brave and great hero, John Connor. The machines are able to plan a great deal, including creating robots with living tissue over a metal skeleton (cyborg) in order to better infiltrate the rebel humans, but are unable to score a clear victory. And then the machine leader, the intelligent network Skynet, thinks of a diabolical plan (although would be apparent to anybody in the age of time travel). A cyborg is sent back to 1984 to kill the mother of the rebel leader, Sarah Connor (based in Los Angeles). The humans are able to also send back a rebel soldier, Kyle Reese, to try and protect her.
And thus start the action. The cyborg is a robot, it cannot be reasoned with, it cannot be destroyed with small arms fire, and is ruthless. The robot starts with the phone book, where 3 Sarah Connors are listed. It kills the first 2, and is hunting for the third. When he is trying to kill the third, she is protected by Kyle, who explains his mission and who the cyborg actually is. He can only use current machinery since time travel did not allow him to get back superior weapons, a handicap against the cyborg, aka the Terminator.
When the terminator attacks again, there is a chase, where they are arrested. Typically, the police see a number of weirdos every day, and if you start to spin a story about a robot from the future trying to kill, then it is unlikely that you will be believed, especially if being examined by a shrink. And so their story is not believed. The terminator arrives at the police station and asks for Sarah and Kyle, but is thwarted. Then comes an epic one liner, “I’ll be back !”, and so he does, attaching the police station with a powerful vehicle.
A full scale attack on a police station ? The police fight back, but against a terminator incapable of being killed by their weapons, useless. The terminator kills 17 policeman, but Reese manages to escape with Sarah. They try to hide at a motel where Reese shows Sarah how to make pipe bombs. The scene turns a bit romantic, no doubt furthered by the close escape from the terminator, and they make love (ending up conceiving the future leader, John).
The Terminator manages to track them down, and the situation is now near the end-game. Reese is wounded in the attack, but are able to attack the terminator with a bomb, causing extensive damage to its metal skeleton. However, even the remaining shell of the skeleton is after them, and they escape into a factory. Reese manages to destroy the legs of the Terminator, but at the cost of his own life. It is Sarah who finally destroys the upper part of the skeleton in a machine press, where finally the terminator is killed / terminated / made inactive.
The movie ends with scenes showing Sarah preparing for the future, pregnant with Reese’s son (who will become John), traveling in Mexico, staring into an uncertain future.
The movie has a big cycle around time that could confuse you if you started thinking around it. The man who will save the rebel humans is John Connor, son of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. Reese in turn is a man from the future, who only came into Sarah’s life because he was sent back by John. This is a cycle, with no start and end.

Some years back, the quest to make limitless energy from the concept of cold fusion seemed like the answer to our energy ills; it was propounded as the next frontier in research - unfortunately, the entire research imploded in a drama of falsehood and accusations. The Saint, use the theme of cold fusion as the central scientific thread running through the movie. However, the movie is more than that. It gives the 2 main characters of Val Kilmer and Elizabeth Shue a good platform to display their acting abilities, and I liked Val Kilmer in this role.
The Saint is not a new concept, being based on the main characters of Simon Templar in the series of books (created in 1928) by Leslie Charteris; these books were published under the series ‘The Saint’. These series finally ended in 1983, and also found their way into multiple movies, a radio series of the 1940’s, a British television series starring Roger Moore, and others.

In a slight deviation from the original, this movie does not have the hero claiming to be the character from the book, but the name is instead combined from 2 names, Simon from Simon Magus, and Templar from the Knights Templar, a medieval sect of warriors. The movie also had an interesting twist; in the original version, the female lead, Dr. Emma Russell is killed and Simon Templar goes back to do battle, to avenge her, leading to a final climatic battle with guns, tanks, exploding oil, and so on. However, test audiences did not like this ending, and the movie ending had to be changed drastically, ending in the current form.
The movie has a fair amount of adventure and action, with some amount of unbelievability. To be able to get into the Russian President’s bedroom, bypassing his entire security, and that too without much external support seems somewhat difficult, but the Saint managed it without too much effort.
The movie is essentially about the scientific efforts of Dr. Emma Russell, who is developing the formula for cold fusion, and has achieved some success in it. On the other hand, there is Simon, who has been tormenting the British police with his various heists, committed under different names (each name being that of a different saint). He has one final heist left so that he can reach the $50 million mark. This comes to him in the form of a Russian oligarch, Ivan Tretiak, who wants to get the Presidency of the Russian Federation, and wants to hire The Saint to steal it. After some hesitation, when threatened with the death of Dr. Emma, Simon agrees to do it.
He woos Dr. Emma, steals it and then turns it overs to Ivan. It is however incomplete. In the meantime, Dr. Emma comes to Moscow after him; and Tretiak is now after both of them.
The action gets more heated up, and leads to the Russian President’s bedroom where Simon bursts in, and then Tretiak and his son comes in to capture both of them. Tretiak plans to expose the President’s wasteful expenditure in buying such a formula in a show trial. However, during this process, the missing part of the formula is released, and the experiment is shown to be a grand success. The President quickly resumes power. There is a final tease scene where The Saint shows himself to British police, and then meets Dr. Emma.

Asimov wrote almost all his science fiction with stories geared to the future. In some of them, his ideas fail spectacularly after a period of time (his concept of one giant computer and MultiVac), but it is his stories of the evolution of a society of a future that is much more realistic, and it would be very much possible to look a thousand years down and find a resemblance to the society that he has created. Asimov wrote some of his greatest works when detailing the interaction of humans in the future, and about the society that got developed. The Caves of Steel is a combination of 2 distinct ideas - one is about the development of human society, and the other is about the development of robotics as an ever present strain. It is incredible to read his future novels and see how he almost single-handedly develops the concept of robots as an integral part of society (whether liked or hated), as well as develops the ethical and moral dilemmas concerning robots.

It is in the depiction of the positronic brain being the base for the development of the truly thinking robot that was a great spark and made these novels special. A positronic humanoid robot is the evolution of robotics - strong like all robots, but capable of independent thought and action, and yet bound by another of Asimov’s great contribution to the field of making robotics a much more human friendly science (The three Laws of Robotics that form the basis for all robotic thought and action).
The Caves of Steel also develops 2 characters who play a role in many of Asimov’s future novels - the plainclothes detective Elijah Baley, and the humanoid robot R. Daneel Olivaw (who went to star in many of the other robots and foundation novels). This is the first novel in which they start working together, with Eijah being hesitant because of the taboos against robots in the society on earth at that point of time. It is not the best in the series, far from it, but it is worth reading because it is legitimately the first one in an incredible series (this does not mean that the novel is badly written, but that The Naked Sun is a better written work).
These 2 books (The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun) are also different from the others because these are stories set in the future with a very strong focus on detective work and investigation, the society forms more of a backdrop. The Caves of Steel actually refers to the vast cities on which a seething humanity, 8 billion strong lives. These are vast underground cities in which people hardly ever get a chance to see the sun, and in fact almost all of them would get disoriented and shaken on seeing the sun. As a contrast, human settlers on other worlds (50 of them) are a well settled financially dominant society, enjoying a much longer life and having a robot dominated life, with these robots making their life comfortable. Earth is dominated by these settlers (called Spacers) in terms of their power (although most Spacers would be uncomfortable being near the humans on earth).
With such a skewed power play, one of the prominent Spacers on earth is killed, and earth could face a major problem from the spacers unless the culprit is found. Finding the culprit is a thankless task, since failure could spell severe trouble for the detective incharge, and to Elijah falls the task of doing the investigation. In addition, he gets a Spacer to be his partner in the investigation, but this is not a normal spacer. This is an expensive state of the art humanoid robot, and Elijah has to overcome his own biases against robots, and at the same time, prevent Daneel from getting harmed by other humans during the investigation. Can he pull this off ?

A classic science fiction novel, Nightfall was first published as a short story in the September 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, written after some friendly persuasion by the editor of the magazine - John W. Campbell. The story was later adapted into a complete novel, and one that was acknowledged to be an incredible piece of science fiction (but it was not just science fiction, but a psychological look at a society when it suddenly encounters a very changed environment and raises questions about how humans respond to unknown stimulus). The influence and power of this story was such that it was declared in 1968 as the best science fiction short story ever written prior to the establishment of the Nebula Awards (the awards were established in 1965) by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

Nightfall has a pretty simple story. The story deals with human (like) society on an alien planet Lagash (Kalgash in the novel adaptation) that has a unique sky. It has a total of 6 suns all around it the stellar configuration (the various suns being Onos, Dovim, Trey, Patru, Tano, and Sitha). Because of these 6 suns, the planet is always in light and the inhabitants have not known darkness. They are so habituated to always having light that standing a time of darkness can be unnerving for most people. For example, a new amusement park ride that promises a time of total darkness has scared and traumatized many people.
The story has 3 main plots that all move to the same merger. There are the archaeologists who make the discovery that the ground strata of the planet seems to indicate that civilization builds up and then destroys itself, and that this has not happened once, but seems to keep on happening in a cycle. The researches are puzzled as to why such a thing keeps on happening, after all, most civilizations advance and maybe stagnate, but don’t keep on going through a repetitive cycle of advance and decline.
Similarly, physicists discover that the there are irregularities in the orbit of Kalgash around its primary sun Onos. After more studies, the conclusions that they keep on heading towards is a horrifying one. The discovery is that the planet has a so far unknown satellite that causes the irregularities, and plotting the orbits of the planet, the satellite and the 6 suns lead to a conclusion that just cannot be true. After all, everybody knows that the planet has always had sunlight, so how can there be a time of many hours when the suns and the satellite reach a position where there is no light on the planet. Such a situation can cause mass hysteria and madness.
And then there is the political angle. There is a group known as the Apostles of the Flames, that calls itself as an ancient society; their belief (like a religious belief) is that civilization dies out with the appearance of darkness and then the stars that unleash fire. They are trying to gain more authority and political power.
These 3 combine together to reach a conclusion - every 2,049 years, the sole sun on one side of the planet is eclipsed for half a day, and this is a time when society (never having experience darkness) will go through madness and anarchy, with fire and chaos.
The rest of the novel is about this time coming closer, and then what happens when that time appears. This is a fascinating propounding of the state of the human mind, its irrationality in believing weird faiths and religious fervor when faced with a new thing.

What happens when a writer, known so far for travel books and about history, and who tickles the funny bones in your body, decides to write about science. Writing books about science and making them interesting have broken many authors, so when I first picked up this book, I was a bit worried. Well, when I finished the book, I let out a sigh of relief. While imparting a fair amount of education about science (although not about explaining the complicated algebra and geometry), the book does convey a great deal and did so in a very entertaining way.
Of course, if you are a scientist, you would take away almost nothing from this book, since it hardly claims to propound a new version of the string theory; one thing anyone can learn from such a book is how to write books like this that will explain a large number of concepts while keeping the overall subject light; and at the same time, making things more life-like by explaining details about the scientists that hardly ever makes it out.

Typically when you read about a scientist, you will learn about the great inventions that the scientist did, and how great it was and how beneficial it was. Typically such inventors are treated in a very god-like manner, and way above reality. Bill Bryson explains a lot more about such scientists, including their failing and weaknesses, and make them seem more life-like.
You will get to feel about what the situation and surrounding environment was like for such great scientists such as Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and many others. And this is exactly the reason why this massive 500 page plus book was written. Like all of us, Bill Bryson learnt all the facts about science, but again like us, in a very dull manner. He wanted to understand the reasons as to why something was discovered, the motivation of the scientists, the environment around them, and so on; all these help in understanding the development of science in a much more understandable way. This works great - you learn as to how Newton was also an egoist and also responsible for sending many counterfeiters to the gallows in an official role; or how the great Cavendish was such a recluse that he would even communicate with his housekeeper through letters.
In addition to the part about scientists, you also learn about sizes in this universe, from the size of our planet to the size of galaxies, about the development of Homo Sapiens (us) and what separates us from our biological cousins (the chimpanzees) to whom we are more than 98% genetically similar. You learn a lot about such varied subjects such as fields of cosmology, astronomy, paleontology, geology, chemistry, physics and so on.
For writing this book, Bryson spent over 3 years, talking to various scientists and understanding things from them; as a result of his not being a scientist himself, there have been errors that have been pointed out in the book; but overall, I stick to my thought that this was a wonderful book that tried to explain how scientists and science learn about everything (and something that you never read about).

Back to the Future was another movie from the Steven Spielberg stable, this time not directed by him. The movie was directed by Robert Zemeckis, with Steve Spielberg being the producer. The movie had some struggle in getting made, because of 2 conflicting opinions. One studio felt that showing a possible relationship between a mother and son (even though the clash due to time travel could bring out such a situation) was undesirable, on the other hand, due to movies like Porky, other studios felt that this movie was not risque enough. Even the selection of Michael J Fox was not automatic, with some initial shooting happening with Eric Stolz, but after some time, with Michael J fox being able to devote time to the movie, he was made the main lead replacing Stolz.

The Back to the Future version 1 was so popular and money-making that sequels had to be made, and hence within a few years, versions 2 and 3 came out (not doing as well as the first Back to the Future, but still making around a $100 million apiece). However, they could not match the money-power of the first version, with the movie making over $200 million dollars on release (and becoming the most money-making movie of 1985) on a budget of $ 19 million.
Back to the Future was very popular, and there are multiple reasons for why the movie became so popular. The movie takes the popular stereotype of the eccentric professor, and delivers a crazy scientist who exactly fills the description; there is the use of the popular paradox of time travel where you can go to the past and kill yourself (what would happen then?) - in this case, if you prevent your parents from meeting, how can you exist; the characters (besides the mad scientist) are people you can relate to such as the young man wanting to have a good life, struggling to make it big and settle down with his girlfriend; with the concept of people bullying you and the fight to show the bully his place; and then the feeling of getting stuck in a different place and wanting to get home to the comfort of your family. Together, they are spun into a great tale, one that was greatly appreciated.
The movie starred primarily Michael J Fox as Marty McFly (a 17 year old living in California), Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown (the eccentric scientist), Lea Thompson (Lorraine McFly) and Crispin Glover as George McFly. Marty is a 17 year old aspiring musician wanting to make it big from his middle-class life, and eventually settle down with his girlfriend Jennifer (Claudia Wells). He is also friendly with Doc, who asks him to come over in the night. The same evening, he sees his father getting bullied by his supervisor, and his mother also tells him the tale of how she and his father met (her father hit George with his car).
When Marty meets the Doc, he sees what the Doc was working on. A car, the De Lorean DMC-12, which has been converted into a time machine. The car, when it reached eighty-eight miles per hour, goes to a programmed day and time, using plutonium. As an example, the Doc sets the time to November 5, 1955 (based on the date when he first conceived of the engine, the flux capacitor). This was not to be the final destination, but just then, 2 Libyan terrorists from whom the Doc had stolen the plutonium arrive and start shooting, killing the Doc. Marty escapes by using the vehicle, and promptly moves into the past when the vehicle reaches eighty-eight miles per hour.
Marty is now in 1955, with the surroundings reflecting the then culture. He soon finds his dad George, and saves him from being hit by Lorraine’s father’s car; this breaks the time loop since Lorraine is now infatuated with Marty rather than George. Marty realizes that he needs help, and the Doc (from thirty years earlier) is the only hope. He manages to convince the Doc that he is from the future, and soon they realize that the only hope to get back is to get immense power, from the soon-to-happen lightning strike on the clock tower.
Marty has to get this parents to meet and fall in love, and he arranges a situation where George appears to save Lorraine from a bully. The situation happens in reality, and George does defend her for real, knocking down a bully. They do start to fall in love, thus ensuring that Marty will exist. And now Marty can head back, trying to reach at a time 10 minutes before the Doc gets killed (so that he can save the Doc). Marty also tries to warn the 1955 Doc with a letter, but the Doc does not want to read it so that he can avoid knowing the future.
Marty does manage to head back, but the car stalls on landing, and he is unable to be there in time to prevent the shooting. However, the Doc had read the letter, and is wearing a bullet-proof vest that saves him from the shooting, and he is now alive. There have been other changes, with his parents becoming closer, and his father more confident. Marty and Jennifer re-unite, and soon see a Doc from the future, 2015 appear. They climb onto his time machine and head off into the sky.

In the 1940’s, a writer starting writing science fiction stories about a empire far in the future (and when we mean far, we mean so far in the future that no one remembers Earth). This is a mega-empire, controlling vast sections of the galaxy in a peaceful existence, enforced by the power of massive spaceships and the power of atomics (weapons as well as other equipment controlled by the power of atomic energy). And then imagine this entire galaxy wide power to be in a slow decline such that no one realizes that it is decaying but no one knows that, except for one man who has invented a new science/maths that is so complicated that very few people can figure it out. (This maths works at predicting the behaviour of people in a crowd, with the bigger the crowd, the more easy the prediction is to make. Conversely, it is impossible to predict what one person can do.) Using this maths, the person has calculated that this mega-empire that has held the peace for thousands of years will die out, and there will come a horrible period of anarchy, war and horror that will last for tens of thousands of years unless some steps are taken to reduce this time period. Asimov took a series of short stories he had written using this theory as a base, and made an epic novel out of this, itself the precursor to a series that won the Hugo Award in 1965. Asimov may have died in 1987, but his name lives on in this mighty series that he wrote.

I have always been a fan of Asimov, so I might be a bit biased, but I have always considered this book to be an incredible book. Part of the beauty of this book is that it does not go into details of what the future will look like in terms of development of machines or other such science, but concentrates on what the society of that time will be like. In many ways, it seems like a continuation of things you can see even now (or could see if you studied the rise and falls of the great empires); using the decay caused by flattery, by too much bureaucracy, and by the presence of weak people in the position of power. You can read about how politics plays a part in everything, and how the power of mass appeal can be used to seduce the masses. In fact, if you look further, you can even relate the use of organized religion (and the terms takes on a new meaning in the book) to be used to control an entire planet (seems similar to what you can see in terms of the influence of religion in large sections of the world ?)
The book starts from the perspective of Hari Seldon, a newly arrived mathematician to the city of Trantor, the heavily settled capital of the Galactic Empire that has been in operation now for 12,000 years. Trantor is a world that has been totally built over now (although modern climatologists will argue that such a doing would totally destroy the climate of the world) and is dependent on a large amount of resources from all over for its survival. He is already getting famous as the inventor of psychohistory, which can be used to predict the future (or more accurately, as he keeps on describing, is a tool that be used to calculate the future of large masses of people). The Emperor calls him, and is not satisfied, and ultimately he is hauled up in front of the court for predicting sedition.
He manages to turn the battle by defining some of the timeframes, and proposes that he can save the future by getting an Encyclopedia Galactica built using his team, and they are moved to a small mineral-less planet called Terminus on the edge of the galaxy. Their true mission is to eventually establish a Foundation that is the core of Seldon’s plan to bring order within a 1000 years. And so starts the story of the Foundation, growing out of this small set.
The story continues 50 years later with the planet being governed by the body writing the encyclopedia, not caring about what else happens. They get a visit from the neighboring provinces, one of the 4 neighboring provinces that have rebelled against the empire and become independent, but are low in technology, with no knowledge of atomics. Terminus is asked to pay tribute for protection (extortion on a planetary scale), and in lieu of minerals, to accept parceling out sections of the planet to the province and accept it as a feudal lord. A visitor from the empire is of no help. It is at the this time that Salvor Hardin, the largely powerless Mayor of Terminus shows his true skills, convincing the other provinces that the move by Anacreon is against them and winning this round. And to cement his triumph, Hari Seldon emerges in a 50 year hologram from the Time Vault and describes that the events were exactly as he expected, and that the concept of an Encyclopedia Galactica was a sham, with the true purpose being to setup the Foundation as the nucleus of a new power center.
3 decades later, the Foundation, using its vastly superior technology and knowledge of atomics, has taken over pseudo-control over the neighboring provinces through a system of science and technology transfer under the guise of a religion called Scienticism. People all over have accepted it as a valid religion, controlled by priests who are educated on Terminus and are capable of controlling the mobs on the various planets. But Terminus by itself does not have any military power of its own, instead depending on the religion to keep things under control. One person, Wiennis, the regent of Anacreon has seen through this and wants to defeat the Foundation militarily and get overall control. Towards this end, he even captures a derelict old massive Empire battleship and gets the Foundation to repair it, something that Salvator Hardin agrees to do. Hardin is under tremendous pressure from a section of his political opposition that does not like this appeasement, and they are enraged at this generosity of the Foundation. However, when Wiennis orders the attack, he finds out the true power of the religion that he endorsed. His ship, and every temple of the land is put under interdict, with the priests telling the population that Wiennis is committing blasphemy and his rebellion is defeated. However, at the end, in another emergence of Hari Seldon in the time vault, he comments about how the religion is enough for defense, but not for expansion.
These were the 2 most interesting chapters of the book, and the remaining chapters of the book talk about how the Foundation now spreads through the power of its technology and through the Merchant Princers, traders who spread the influence of the Foundation through the neighborhood, beating attempts to control this influence from spreading through means of hook or crook. The last section has an interesting story about how, when a society is hooked onto convenient and useful machines in every section of life, a war can be controlled by just denial of such machines to households in the planet.
For true science fiction adherents, this is such a book worth keeping that even buying a hardbound edition will be useful.