Foundation series facts for kids
The Foundation series is a group of seven science fiction books written by Isaac Asimov. These stories are connected and follow each other in a grand adventure.
Contents
The First Three Books
The Foundation story began as eight short stories. They were published in a magazine called Astounding Magazine between 1942 and 1950. Asimov said his idea for the series came from a book about the fall of the Roman Empire.
Asimov wrote the first three books: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. He wrote them between 1950 and 1952. These books introduce a special idea: the Foundation. It's a big research project that uses advanced ways to predict and plan for the future of society.
Hari Seldon and Psychohistory
The Foundation's ideas come from a character named Hari Seldon. He created something called "psychohistory." This is a special type of mathematics that can predict what will happen in the future, but only for very large groups of people. Seldon uses psychohistory to see that the huge Galactic Empire, which covers the entire Milky Way galaxy, is about to fall apart. He predicts a "dark age" that will last 30,000 years before a new, great empire rises.
The Fall of the Empire
The book Foundation and Empire tells how the old Empire was destroyed. The Foundation then tries to take over what's left, using its social science methods to bring peace. But then, something unexpected happens. A mysterious person appears, known only as the Mule.
The Mule is a mutant. This means he has special powers. He can sense and control what other people feel, often making them afraid. He uses this power to take over planets near the Foundation. Soon, he conquers a large part of the Galaxy.
The Second Foundation
Second Foundation is about the Mule trying to find the Second Foundation. This secret group is hidden in a very hard-to-find part of the galaxy. As the Mule gets closer to finding it, the mysterious Second Foundation finally shows itself. It is made up of the smartest people in the galaxy.
Using their powerful minds, the Second Foundation slowly weakens the Mule. They change his destructive attitude into a peaceful one. He then returns to rule his kingdom calmly for the rest of his life. He no longer tries to conquer the Second Foundation.
The Later Stories
About 30 years after the first three books, Asimov wrote two more books that tell what happens later in the story. Then, he wrote two books that explain what happened before the original stories.
The books, in the order of their story, are:
- Prelude to Foundation
- Forward the Foundation
- Foundation
- Foundation and Empire
- Second Foundation
- Foundation’s Edge
- Foundation and Earth
The Story Begins
The story starts 10,000 years in the future. All humans in the Galaxy live under a huge empire, ruled by an Emperor from the planet Trantor. Dr. Hari Seldon, a brilliant mathematician, comes to Trantor to give a talk. He has an idea that the history of humans can be predicted using mathematics. But the problem is too big for him to solve alone. Seldon can see that the empire is going to fall, and he wants to save human knowledge and science.
With help from friends like Dors Venabili and Yugo Amaryl, Seldon spends his life creating a 'Foundation'. This Foundation is a colony of scientists on Terminus, a lonely planet far from Trantor. Their job is to become the start of a new empire. Seldon also gets help from Eto Demerzel, a high government official who is secretly a very old robot named Daneel Olivaw. Seldon also asks his granddaughter, Wanda, who has special mental powers, to help create a secret Second Foundation.
After Seldon dies, the people on Terminus create new and powerful technology. They take over nearby planets and start trading with others. The Foundation fights the empire's armies when they attack. Just as Seldon predicted, the empire's armies are defeated.
The Mule's Arrival
A mysterious man, known only as the Mule, starts taking over planets that belong to the Foundation. No one has seen him, and no one knows how he conquers them so easily. Ebling Mis, a scientist, believes he has found the answer: the Mule has mental powers that make his enemies loyal to him. Mis also discovers where the Second Foundation is, but he dies before he can tell anyone.
The leader of the secret Second Foundation, who also has strong mental powers, meets the Mule. This leader changes the Mule's mind so he will not conquer anymore and will leave the Foundation alone.
Searching for Earth
Golan Trevize, a politician from Terminus, travels by spaceship with Janov Pelorat to find the Second Foundation. They visit many planets but find no sign of it. Pelorat thinks it might be on the planet known as Earth.
Meanwhile, Stor Gendibal, an important member of the Second Foundation, finds out that people with mental powers – called Mentalics – exist. These Mentalics are as powerful as the Mule was, and even stronger than the Second Foundation.
Trevize and Pelorat discover a planet called Gaia. This planet is home only to Mentalics. Trevize is asked to decide what the future of the galaxy will be. Gaia plans to bring the entire Galaxy together into one shared mind. Gendibal is sent back home to the Second Foundation, which is secretly located on Trantor.
Trevize and Pelorat continue their search for Earth with a person from Gaia named Bliss. They search for a long time and finally find Earth. But Earth no longer has any people living on it. They travel to Earth's moon, known as the Moon. There, they meet the robot Daneel Olivaw.
Olivaw explains that he has been guiding human history for thousands of years. He helped Seldon set up the original Foundations. This is why Seldon's plan has stayed on track. Olivaw tells them that his electronic brain is dying and he needs to combine his mind with a human mind before he dies completely.
Isaac Asimov planned to write more stories, but he couldn't finish them. However, other authors have written new stories to continue the adventure.
Images for kids
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Asimov (right) was inspired by the Future History stories of Heinlein (left).
See also
In Spanish: Serie de la Fundación para niños
