Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear

Foundation and Chaos book cover

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.

1 thought on “Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear”

  1. I would suggest Eon, The Forge of God, Blood Music, Moving Mars and Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear

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Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died today at age 76Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died today at age 76

When I learned that Stephen Hawking died, I have to admit my reaction was a bit selfish. I was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to continue contributing to science, and that the world would be a worse off place without him. I didn’t think about how his close friends and family would be impacted. I was surprised about how sad I felt as well. I can’t say I’ve ever really felt a true pang of sadness upon learning of a celebrity death. Nobody should be surprised that he died, given his long history of health problems, but nevertheless, it was shocking. So why did I react this way now? I browsed through numerous news articles and posts throughout the day today without much reaction, but I felt sad again while reading through BBC’s article on his death, and again writing this post. 

Maybe it has to do with recently reading the article “The Beginning of Time” that recently popped up in my news feed. I don’t think I could truly fully understand all of his theories, but I think his explanation here was clear enough to get a good idea. I’ve had The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe audiobook on my backlog to listen to. I guess I’ll have to bump it up to next in my queue. I was already thinking about taking a break from Sci-Fi / Fantasy soon, so this makes my decision really easy.

Goodbye Stephen! Whatever the reasons, I’m truly sad you’re gone. I’m sure you will be never be forgotten by humanity, assuming we don’t destroy ourselves.

2016 year in review2016 year in review

Ok, so as I posted earlier, I didn’t do any reviews this year, but I consumed a ton of content. Some may be from 2015, but it is hard to remember. I’m going to provide a list with some highlights and recommendations

  • Audiobooks
    • Elantris – Brandon Sanderson: Good stanalone book, one of his earlier works. Interesting premise – people get a disease and are forced to live in the remnants of a once great city. They cannot be killed, but also cannot heal. Each injury never heals, and never stops hurting.
    • Mistborn Trilogy (1-3) – Brandon Sanderson: One of my favorites this year, very unique set of magic systems
    • Alloy of Law / Shadows of Self / The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn novels)- Brandon Sanderson: continuation in a different time period, also very good
    • The Rithmatist – Brandon Sanderson: Another unique magic system, aimed more at the YA audience, but I enjoyed it.
    • Pandora’s Star / Judas Unchained – Peter F. Hamilton: Second favorite series of the year, be warned, some explicit adult situations
    • Lock In (Amber Besson’s narration) – John Scalzi: unique premise, police procedural
    • Android’s Dream – John Scalzi: another unique premise, enjoyable
    • Redshirts – John Scalzi: must read for any Star Trek fan! won 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel
    • Agent to the Stars – John Scalzi: I didn’t really care for this one, too much focus on talent agency politics, interesting premise though.
    • Fuzzy Nation – John Scalzi: Good book, reboot of “Little Fuzzy”
    • The Dispatcher – John Scalzi: Novella, another interesting premise by Scalzi
    • Ready Player One – Earnest Cline: One of my favorite standalone novels of the year – must read for anyone that grew up in the 80’s
    • Armada – Earnest Cline: Lackluster followup, skip it. Cline doesn’t dodge the fact that he ripped the premise off of “The Last Starfighter” movie from the 80’s.
    • Undying Mercenaries Book 1-4 – B.V. Larson: Sci-Fi Military fiction. Lots of violence, a little sex. I got these super cheap at $1.99 a pop, would not recommend spending a full Audible credit on them.
    • Year Zero – Rob Reid: I read this in book format back in 2012. Premise is that aliens unwittingly pirate enough music from Earth to bankrupt the galaxy. The solution? Destroy Earth! Remeinds me a bit of The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy
    • Altered Carbon / Broken Angels – Richard K. Morgan: Great audiobooks, a couple of my favorite from this year. Lots of violence and a little sex, so be warned. I’m finishing up reading the 3rd book Woken Furies as the narrator changed and didn’t bother to read up on how to pronounce the main character’s last name.
    • Alien: Out of the Shadows (An Audible Original Drama – Full Cast) – Tim Lebbon & Dirk Maggs: Free from Audible, OK if you like the Alien universe
    • American Gods (Full Cast) – Neil Gaiman: Maybe the best standalone audiobook of the year. The performances were perfect and the story engaging. This is soon to be made into aTV series on Showtime I think.
    • Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman: Decent book, narrated by Gaiman himself
    • Hyperion (full cast) / The Fall of Hyperion / Endymion / The Rise of Endymion – Dan Simmons – ABSOLUTE FAVORITE SERIES OF THE YEAR. I cannot count how many times I caught myself thinking back on the stories. I’ll definitely be listening to these again in the future. A good amount of violence and some sex as well, so be warned.
    • The Fountains of Paradise – Arthur C. Clarke: decent book that introduced the idea of the space elevator
    • Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke: ending literally gave me shivers up my spine – The Syfy TV miniseries was just loosely related to the book. Skip that and read this!
  • Books
    • Old Man’s War series (Book 1-6) – John Scalzi: Very interesting premise. Each book seemed to have a new perspective, not like a continuation of the previous ones. I’ll try to explain it a bit more if I have time to go back and review the books individually.
    • Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue – Hugh Howey: YA related, checked it out and it really wasn’t for me
    • Beacon 23: The Complete Novel – Hugh Howey: guy stuck on the edge of the galaxy, a bit of a psychological thriller toward the end
    • Stories of Your Life and Others – Ted Chiang: good collection of stories
  • Short Story
    • Paper Menagerie – Ken Liu – ending gave me shivers up my spine as well, very good story

That’s it for now. I don’t think I have time to list TV. maybe next year!

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