Foundation’s Fear – Gregory Benford

Title: Foundation’s Fear Genre: Science Fiction Author: Gregory Benford

Well, when you try to follow up an incredible, genre-impacting series like Asimov’s Foundation Series you’re just asking for trouble, if you ask me. This is actually the first of a trilogy of books which were actually encouraged by the estate of Asimov, if I understand things correctly. Since I’ve only read one book of the trilogy the jury is still out on whether or not this was worth the effort.

This particular book takes place right when Hari Seldon steps in to be the First Minister, which is what happens following the climax of the book. I think Benford has done an incredible job maintaining the characters of Hari, Yugo, Dors, and Daneel. The only thing I really missed was Hari’s history of being a Twister, which I thought might have been relevant to a few of the situations Benford had Hari going through. On the other hand, though, Benford might have not really had a good idea what a Twister was (as I do not due to Asimov’s lack of exposure of the subject) and therefore decided to not address it at all rather than using that aspect wrongly. I can respect that.

The first thing to note is that Benford doesn’t write like Asimov – and it’s probably be pretty rough if he did. But he does do an excellent job writing and he keeps this story moving along pretty good. I was a little annoyed with his exploration of Simulations (AI based upon an historical figure) and their fight for existence, so to speak. It was integral to the story he told, but I found myself time and again wishing I were reading about Hari and Dors rather than what the sims were up to.

The one thing I kind of regret is an inclusion of reference to and basis for alien life in the Foundation’s universe. The lack of alien reference or life was something which I really appreciated and enjoyed in Asimov’s entire timeline of books. Probably because so many other sci-fi books I’ve read have gotten bogged down in the details of either relating to or being hostile with alien life-forms.

But, in reading the author’s afterward I understand more completely what he was attempting to do when he wrote this book and am actually interested in reading the other two books to see how they develop some of the themes hinted at in this one.

So do I recommend this book? Yeah, but make sure you read at least Asimov’s Foundation Series, if not as many other of his books from that timeline that you can get your hands on. That way you’ll really be able to recognize and enjoy this as more a postulation upon Asimov’s universe, rather than an addition to.

Worldview: Atheistic.

Recommended Age: late Middle School; the language isn’t very bad, and though there are some insinuated sexual situations, nothing explicit

Additional links:

NNDB author bio
Foundation’s Fear
Wikipedia Page