Title: Prelude to Foundation

Author: Isaac Asimov

Publisher: 1988

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 405

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual - NPR Scifi

It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall—those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.

Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire . . . the man who holds the key to the future—an apocalyptic power to be known forever after as the Foundation.

Oooh. This is a good one. Right away I was sucked into this story following Hari Seldon’s adventures around Trantor. The pace is propulsive. The characters are intriguing. The adventures are illuminating. And the twists caused me to gasp out loud. I rarely gasp out loud at twists, but I did with this book. We get so much information about the state of the Empire and specifically Trantor in this story. It’s a nice bridge from the Robots and Empire books and the Galactic Empire books to the Foundation series. I can’t wait see what happens next.

Next up on the TBR pile: