David Brin does a good job of unifying the Robot and Foundation novels by explaining many of the contradictions which come up if we assume every book written so far is to be viewed as in the same universe. One of the nagging questions which bothered me while reading the series is, “How did 25 million worlds get settled in just 20,000 or so years?” Brin explains this and many other things throughout the novel. At some points it seemed that he was reaching very hard to explain every single little detail linking the other novels together. Overall the book was enjoyable, but I think that the last one was significantly better.

The book starts out with Hari Seldon repeating the phrase “I am finished” over and over in his mind. Hari, bound to a wheelchair and cared for by Kers Katun, seems ready to curl up and die, as his doctors have told him he does not have long to live. After a long life full of adventure and intrigue he finishes his final task of recording the infamous Seldon Crisis videos for the Time Vault which will be installed on Terminus. He feels that everyone’s attitude toward him changed once he was done with the final message, like they have no more use for him.

Hari latches onto an opportunity to join a research project with a soil expert named Horis Antic. Horis has a theory to predict the occurrence of Chaos Worlds which uses soil composition analysis. Hari is intrigued because he always thought that something was missing from his own equations. He sneaks out of Trantor along with his guardian and Horis Antic. Very soon the entire crew of their survey ship, which is supposed to help confirm the correlation of Hari and Horis’s theories, is ambushed by some rebels from a the chaos world of Ktlina led by a woman who seems somewhat familiar to Hari. She turns out to be Sybl, the female programmer that resurrected the Joan of Arc sim. She had escaped to Ktlina from Trantor after the debate fiasco between Joan and Voltaire in Foundation’s Fear.

Throughout the rest of the novel so much time is spent examining the origins of ‘chaos’ that it seems this book should have been named Foundation and Chaos instead of the previous one. Hari finds himself used as a pawn yet again, in a way I won’t mention because it would spoil too many surprises. He is caught between the Calvinian and Giskardian robots, as well as the humans from the Ktlina. While all of this happens Dors Venabili is called to a meeting on Panucopia by rogue robot Lodovic Trema. After receiving a disturbing present from Lodovic, Dors begins to question her loyalty to Daneel. Reluctantly, she agrees to set aside her differences and work with this rogue to try and save Hari.

One of the main themes in this book is the danger of too much knowledge. I found it disturbing at times to see how Hari Seldon referred to ancient vaults of information as “horrors”. This seems to be the opposite of Google’s mission “to organize the world’s [galaxy’s] information and make it universally accessible and useful”. I think it would be a shame if we let our knowledge of history be censored on the same level that happens in this series. Of course, I understand there is a need to suppress information in order to keep robotics from being rediscovered. It seems pretty obvious that in order for humanity to flourish, it needs to be without robot intervention. Daneel’s reveals his final plan, so that he can finally rest, which foreshadows the events of Foundation’s Edge and Foundation and Earth.

Possibly my biggest disappointment in this book was that we never get to see Dors visiting Hari before he dies. There must have been at least 5 or 6 passages in the novel referring to Daneel’s promise that Dors would return to Trantor to be with Hari before his death. I can understand why the ended played out as it did though. It was much more uplifting than seeing Hari die, as we did in Forward the Foundation. Still, the book was good in that it answered the many questions that the Second Foundation Trilogy created, and tied up a few things from all of the previous novels.

For those that read my previous review on Foundation’s Fear, you will be pleased to find that Greg Bear manages to save this series with his masterful work in Foundation and Chaos. If there were ever two books on the same subject that could be so different as to compare night and day, the first two parts of the Second Foundation Trilogy are it. While the first volume kept putting me to sleep with rambling on about simulated minds and aliens, Foundation and Chaos goes back to the roots more in line with the universe Asimov made me fall in love with.

I never really liked the subplot with the sims and meme entities, and was glad to see that Greg Bear minimized their role as much as he could. Also, he worked worm holes out of the picture rather masterfully, however I’m not sure if Benford had planned this ahead of time or not. Either way, I think that adding worm holes was a mistake. Another significant difference is the smooth flow between plot lines, rather than spending up to 100 pages in one setting. I found myself plowing through this book faster than normal, as the action was always there or just around the corner. The last 100 pages, comprising one fourth of the total book, went by in a flash of constant action.

A main point that many others have noted as a flaw in this book is that this is more of a Robot novel rather than a Foundation novel. One of the main plot lines involves a battle between robots loyal to Daneel (Giskardians), and robots which reject the Zeroth Law (Calvinians). There is more dialogue between robots here than possibly every other Foundation novel combined. I enjoyed the Robot Series immensely, so this became one of my favorite books in my project written by someone other than Asimov.

The main story arc revolves around the preparation for Hari Seldon’s trial for treason. He has been brought up on charges for declaring that the Trantor will fail within 500 years, followed by the rest of the Galactic Empire. I’ve you’ve read Forward the Foundation or the original Foundation, you know Hari is cleared of all charges, and the Foundation project Encyclopedists are sent to Terminus to begin working on the Encyclopedia Galactica. This book goes behind the scenes to show exactly how this all came to be.

Lodovik Trema, a humaniform robot working for Daneel, turns out to be one of the more interesting characters in this book. The book opens with him on a rescue mission headed for a planet which is about to be destroyed by a supernova shockwave. Something goes wrong with the hyperspace Jump and they pop out in the middle of a concentrated neutrino wave. Somehow he feels different but doesn’t immediately know what is wrong. Plenty of interesting questions and situations revolve around this particular change.

I can’t really explain in words how much better this novel is than Foundation’s Fear. I think I will probably seek out other works by Greg Bear once my project is complete. I hope that the next novel will do the series as much justice as this one did.

The Second Foundation Trilogy is a venture initiated by Asimov’s Estate. Gregory Benford was approached to work on the project, and eventually Greg Bear and David Brin finished the series. I remember from my previous experience with Foundation’s Fear back in 2000 or so that I didn’t like it. I made a point of keeping track of details that bugged me throughout the novel so that I could provide some constructive criticism. I tried to do my best to keep an open mind, but it wasn’t long before I remembered why I didn’t like this novel. There will be minor spoilers, but hopefully they will help you save some time reading this 597 page (paperback) monster.

1. Worm Holes: There is a vast network of wormholes that appears to be part natural and part artificially created and maintained which links the Empire together. This is completely new concept which is added, apparently from out of the blue. Where were these worm holes in the rest of the series by Asimov? Benford makes no attempt to reconcile this inconsistency. Asimov himself would always apologize after the fact after technologies or theories he integrated where found to be impossible, but I don’t see why there is a need to ADD technology a series that is so well established.
2. Tiktoks: robots with simple minds are used for labor. These are not seen or mentioned by Asimov at this point in the timeline. Mechanical beings are taboo. Benford makes the leap and associates the taboo only to the mental function, to the appearance. I don’t think Asimov would have approved.
3. Sims: I was bugged by the Joan of Arc and Voltaire sim story arc the first time I read this, and this hasn’t changed. Sims are also taboo in the same category as Robots. Essentially 150-200 pages are dedicated to character exposition for these two sims and the question of whether digital life is ‘alive’ or posses souls. I’ve seen reviews that suggested the novel is much better by just skipping this section, and I’d have to agree. If you like theological dialogue which has no real bearing on the overall story, go right ahead and read it.
4. Panucopia: This section is approximately 100 pages, but I think that the ideas could have been presented much more concisely. However, this was probably the fastest 100 pages of text throughout the whole novel. Benford definitely kept me interested, as I read the whole section in one sitting, which is unusual for me especially for this novel.
5. Errors: Dors Vanabili should be spelled Venabili. If you are continuing the works of a grand master such as Isaac Asimov, at least double check the character names! This reminds me of Mark W. Tidemann’s switching of Ariel Welsh (formerly Katherine Burgess) to Ariel Burgess in Mirage.
6. Everything Else: There is new technology constantly being introduced and overly explained throughout the book. It was only about page 30 or so that I noted this first. It makes the Empire seem much more advanced and not as much in decline.
7. Other: There are several other spoiler filled inconsistencies which bug me, but I won’t list. The fact that Benford doesn’t try reconcile these new ideas is the main thing that bugs me.

In general, the book reads very slow most of the time. Aside from the Panucopia section, I rarely read more than a few chapters at a time without breaking it up with some other activity. The novel begins right after Cleon I announces he wants Hari Seldon for First Minister. The rest of it involves the many assassination attempts on Hari and his attempt to win over the council so that he can be approved as First Minister. Intertwined between these adventures Hari tries to advance his understanding of psychohistory through technology ranging from ancient personality sims, immersion in primitive beings, and virtual reality.

As I’ve said earlier, much of the technology is explained to the point of tedium, and much of it can be skimmed over. As a completist for this project, I forced myself to read this again, but I doubt I will ever return to it now that I have my notes and personal review completed. I can only recommend reading this with attention paid to what can be skimmed, as it forms the foundation (sorry bad pun there) for the next two novels in the series. From what I remember, and other reviews they are far better than the first of this series.