BOTM: I. Asimov, Foundation (1951)*
A. Arudpragasam, A passage north (2021)
I. Asimov, Foundation and Empire (1952)*
ꟷꟷꟷꟷ, Second Foundation (1953)*
E.F. Benson, Queen Lucia (1920)
J. Cameron, An Indian summer (1974)
D. Galgut, The promise (2021)
P. Lively, Judgement day (1980)
J.G. Williamson, Trade and poverty: when the third world fell behind (2011)
In my mind, I have a broad understanding of history in all periods and can understand all full length treatments easily based on my general knowledge. Williamson was enthralling, but blew that belief away. It turns out A-level economics is not enough to dive in to pages of data. Part of me wants to dig much deeper; part of me doesn't. Quite a few of the others were underwhelming on their own merits. I thought I would love Benson, but I found it a slog. I thought Galgut would be harrowing, but profound, but instead it was easy, too easy, and managed to tell the story of the betrayal of a promise to a black woman by erasing her voice. I'm sure it was deliberate, but I didn't feel it worked.
That 'not working' was an issue for me too in the later, and much beloved, Foundation novels too. By the time we get to the Second Foundation, I feel Asimov has lost track of his central conceit. Instead of psychohistory being about mass movements and probabilities, it relies on a shadowy cabal of psychics to fix the outcomes. If he could secure a millennium-long magician elite, the probabilistic aspect feels a bit pointless. My other complaint, though this really applies across the whole thing, is that he gets the maths wrong. And every time he talks about the capital world of the galaxy, all I can think of is that he doesn't know how big a billion is.
Having said all that, it's still magisterial. Yes, psychohistory is total nonsense; yes, it's ridiculous to imagine that a galaxy-wide polity could exist in a meaningful way in the manner described; no, there are no women at all in the first book. But it's fantastically imaginative, broad in scope, and little sounds cooler than a universal Galactic Empire. I also like its openness and its cleverness. Asimov wasn't afraid to poke holes in his own model: the Mule is a wildcard so that breaks the prediction, Foundation inhabitants think about their destiny and so that undermines it too. These come later, but the unfolding of the original concept is still the best bit - and that's captured economically and brilliantly in the opener.
Apple better not mess this up.
