We talk about chapters 4 to 6 of Foundation and Earth.
“There is a Kind of Free-Masonry Among Podcasts”
There’s almost a framing sequence for this part of Foundation and Earth, “On Comporellon,” “Struggle for the Ship,” and “The Nature of Earth.” At the outset, Trevize had bulldozed his way onto Comporellon by implying that Bliss and Pelorat are involved in illicit activities that can’t be allowed to get back to the wife Pelorat does not have. By the end, it’s Trevize who’s plied a woman for information and favors with his masculine wiles.
In the interim, we see what has become of Baleyworld, the first drop of the second wave of galactic colonization. Frigid, puritanical, authoritarian, and gray, it’s an uninviting place until we’re allowed entry into the private world of Mitza Lizalor, and we learn what we need to continue the search for Earth.
Join us as we take it all apart, and then put it back together again! Let’s go!.
We’re diving into Foundation and Earth with Chapters 1 through 3.
“You Cannot Have a Reasonable Civilization Without Podcasts of Some Kind”
The story so far:
When last we checked in, Golan Trevize had deduced that the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of Life, The Interregnum, and Everything was “Galaxia” and not “The Seldon Plan” or “42” as we had previously been led to believe.
But still, he has his doubts. Like a proper mathematics student, he’s uncomfortable unless he can show his work. And so, he and his two ape-descended companions, Pelorat and Bliss, have begun a quest to find out what the actual question was.
Thus, they search for Earth, the biggest, most powerful computer ever built, even bigger than the Milliard Gargantubrain at Maximegalon. They will find it, learn the actual question, and all will be right with the galaxy. Unless the telephone sanitizers have anything to say about it.
Or something like that. Join us for Chapters 1 through 3 of Foundation and Earth, “The Search Begins,” Toward Comporellon” and “At The Entry Station.” We’ll be sure to get it sorted.
It’s our final podcast on Foundation’s Edge as we discuss chapters 17 to 20!
“Once This Podcast is Attained All Sighs Become Sighs of Ecstasy”
My Mom, an unabashed fan of Joseph Campbell, frequently counseled me to “find my bliss.” I think I’ve done pretty well.
Collectively, though, we may have found our Bliss as we reach the closing chapters of our novel, “Gaia,” “Collision,” “Decision,” and “Conclusion.” Our heroes have arrived at Gaia, and all our principal characters are on the scene. Stuff is finally happening! This is as action-packed as an Asimov story can be!
And we finally, through Golan Trevize, learn the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Interregnum, and Everything! Spoiler alert: it isn’t “42.”
It’s been a while since we’ve done an installment of “Foundational Readings” or of “Next Time on Stars End.” I used those two columns to share the art that originally accompanied the stories we were reading. There’s a bit of unfinished business there, but today we have a bit of a surprise.
I remember what a big deal this was: the first Foundation novel in thirty-two years! But here’s something I didn’t remember or, more likely, wasn’t aware of at the time. Unsurprisingly, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine thought it was a pretty big deal too. So much so that the centerpiece of their December 1982 issue is the first two chapters excerpted from the book.
On Saturday, we’ll release Stars End, Season 5, Episode 5. It’s our last installment about Foundation’s Edge; we’ve reached Gaia and the book’s climax.
But there’s lots more! There are two additional pieces of writing by the Great and Glorious Az himself, an editorial entitled “Susan Calvin” and a short essay entitled “The Story Behind the Foundation” under the masthead “Viewpoint.” I’ve read the latter before, although maybe not all at once; it is repurposed in an abbreviated form as a foreword (with the same title) to Foundation and Earth. The editorial, though, was new to me; I’ve never seen it anywhere else.
There are also commentaries from some of the biggest names in Science Fiction lauding the advent of a new Foundation novel, including Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, and Larry Niven. Those alone were worth tracking down a copy. Here’s a sample.
But of course, the main attraction here is the artwork: like the novel, these are the first Foundation illustrations in decades. Unlike the novel, these were not all that available in the subsequent forty-one years.
There are three nice images drawn by Vincent Di Fate. The first is the opening two-page spread of the excerpt.
The other two take up an entire page of the magazine each.
Two additional images reuse elements of images 2 and 3 above. This is lovely stuff, and as I’ve said on our companion site, JosephFranké.com, great art deserves to be seen.
You can find out about Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine online at www.asimovs.com. I scored my copy on eBay for a reasonable price.
We talk about chapters 13 through 16 of Foundation’s Edge.
“The Podcast is a Powerful Dispenser of Odors”
We’re finally up to the episode where we reveal that Apple TV’s Foundation has been renewed for season 3! Not exactly ripped from the headlines.
Also, the Great and Glorious Az wants us to know that, like spaceships, other planets have their own distinctive odors.
It’s true! Captain Kirk could have faced the Gorn on the Moon as astronauts tell us that moondust smells like gunpowder. The atmospheres of Venus and Mars contain hydrogen sulfide, which smells of rotten eggs. Ew. Lucky for you if you took off your helmet on either planet you’d be too busy suffocating or bursting into flames to notice the stench. You get the idea.
Still, I’m just happy that this olfactory dissertation doesn’t overlap with the exhaustive explorations of restrooms.
So we talk about “University,” “Forward,” “Gaia-S,” and “Convergence” from Foundations Edge. There’s a nice bit about The Five Sisters, a pentagonal constellation as seen from Sayshell, that plays an important part in the plot. It reminded Joseph of “Constant as the Northern Star” one of Asimov’s science essays from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It was collected in Of Matters Great and Small. And we go on a bit of a lengthy, but fun. digression.
Stars End: A Foundation Podcast 