' The Foundation Series' was originally a series of 3 books written in the early 1950. It was later on expanded with sequels and prequels after nearly 40 years of the original series' end.
I believe it is a hallmark series of science fiction, and millions of people in many generations were entertained and influenced by its storylines, technological predictions and underlying themes.
In fact, having read the very first book 'Foundation', I was surprised and embarrassed at not having read it earlier. Here I am attempting a re-telling of the story purely from memory, and I might miss or mix up things, and SPOILER alert for those plan to read this soon...
The story starts off in the city/world of Trantor, which is the capital of the now dying Empire. We are not given much context of when in the future of human race these events are set, but it is made to seem quite advanced into the future. The surprise is that human beings still seem to be the dominant species and have long colonized and settled multiple worlds(planets) across the Milky Way galaxy.
The Empire seems to be the central ruling power for almost every world in this realm, in spite of various political aspects involved. We are also introduced to the Harri Seldon, a psychohistorian who states that the empire is in a state of decay and that he was working on a plan to revive it sooner than it would be if he didn't interfere.
He set up what later comes to be known as the Seldon Plan ( known only to a secretive group of scientists ), and sends out young scientists to a fringe world, which gets named the Terminus.
Eventually, after many years, this fledgling planet (known as Terminus) is just a library of sorts that needs massive support of all neighbouring worlds. The only resource this planet is rich in, is the scientific findings and inventions based on Atomic energy which only Terminus controls. Soon this prosperity gets it into conflict zone with its neighbours and thereby triggering the series Seldon crises.
The first of this crisis comes in the form of a neighbouring world Anacreon trying to annex Terminus to gain the Atomics. This crisis is successfully mitigated by an internal power shift and external alliance with other neighbours to prevent any one world being stronger by huge margins.
After many years, the crisis repeats itself with a much stronger Anacreon planning an attack with more sophisticated weapons acquired from the dying empire. By now, the Foundation has made itself a religion by forming a religious hierarchy for its technological advancements, and expecting strict obedience and reverence of the Foundationers. Using this influence on the soldiers and common folk, the Foundation manages a spectacular last minute victory by turning this fear of defiling the gods against the rulers of Anacreon.
The next crisis boils over once all other worlds become wary of the missionary power of the Foundation and either bans them altogether or in completely under its sway with no way to claw out. It is in this wiggle space that a conflict looms ahead, and Foundation defeats it by the charms of a Trader. This begins the deviation of Foundation from a scientific religion to a purely trading power. The aggressor Korell is purely restrained by the threat of an embargo of trade goods.
to be contd..
