From: utzoo!watmath!bstempleton Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Title: Re: Speculation about FOUNDATION sequels (possible spoiler) Article-I.D.: watmath.4170 Posted: Mon Jan 3 19:35:43 1983 Received: Tue Jan 4 00:16:59 1983 References: sdchema.339 I must admit (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) that I was surprised to find Asimov leaving loose ends in Foundation's Edge. After all the noise he made about how much he did not want to write more science fiction and in particular more Foundation, I was amazed to see him write a book that demands a sequel. As those of you have read it know (and will find out if you ignore my SPOILER warning) Earth is mentioned a lot in the book. As soon as I heard mention of this, I thought for sure that the people of Earth, with enhanced minds, were the secret foundation keeping the Seldon plan under control. The fact that all Earth records had been wiped from the Trantor library was a certain clue, and even more interesting was the statement that the Synapsifier experiments were a failure. If you read Pebble in the Sky, they were NOT, and Earth's plan was to set up a secret council of smart guys using the device. Clearly they have done so. Having read the foundation series, and knowing Asimov's habit of pulling surprises like who the mule was and who the Second Foundationers were, it was obvious to me that the Trantorian woman was not what she seemed. I was sure she was an Earthwoman, however, so Asimov did fool me in that respect. My bet is that somebody in that fray (perhaps the guy from the sirius sector) is in fact from Earth. I thought that the Gaia affair was a side-track, but I did find the planet fascinating, and one of the best examples of a group-conciousness I have read. You have to hand it to old masters like Asimov, they did not get their reputations for nothing. I must also stronly suggest people read 2010. It is a fine book, perhaps better written than Foundation's Edge. It leaves few loose ends, so there is less to talk about.