El triunfo de la Fundación

Second Foundation Trilogy #3

by David Brin, Rafael Marín Trechera (translator)

David Brin ha abordado con éxito la tarea de continuar la mítica serie asimoviana de la Fundación, uno de los hitos indiscutibles de la ciencia ficción de todos los tiempos. A través de diversas peripecias de la vida de Hari Seldon, nos acercamos a los turbulentos días del final de Imperio Galáctico,cuando finaliza el complejo establecimiento de la psicohistoria. la única ciencia capaz de predecir el comportamiento de las sociedades humanas y la base del llamado Plan Seldon.
En El triunfo de la Fundación, un anciano Hari Seldon empieza a sospechar que tal vez ni la Primera ni la Segunda Fundación sean la solución definitiva ante la amenaza del Caos y el grave peligro que representa para la civilización humana. El enfrentamiento entre robots calvinianos y giskardianos, planetas que "renacen" para sucumbir bajo el caos, robots con libre albedrío sin estar sometidos a las leyes de la robótica, la Tierra y su nueva población, son algunos de los complejos elementos que han de ayudar a un anciano y agotado Hari Seldon en su descubrimiento definitivo.
David Brin culmina con éxito la actualización del más complejo y ambicioso proyecto de la ciencia ficción del siglo XX. El triunfo de la Fundación es una obra que hubiera satisfecho al mismísimo Isaac Asimov.
Se incluye una cronología del universo de los robots y la Fundación.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera, Fantasy, Space, Adventure

389 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

David Brin is a scientist, speaker, and world-known author. His novels have been New York Times Bestsellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. At least a dozen have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Existence, his latest novel, offers an unusual scenario for first contact. His ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming, cyberwarfare and near-future trends such as the World Wide Web. A movie, directed by Kevin Costner, was loosely based on his post-apocalyptic novel, The Postman. Startide Rising won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel. The Uplift War also won the Hugo Award.

His non-fiction book -- The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? -- deals with secrecy in the modern world. It won the Freedom of Speech Prize from the American Library Association.

Brin serves on advisory committees dealing with subjects as diverse as national defense and homeland security, astronomy and space exploration, SETI, nanotechnology, and philanthropy.

David appears frequently on TV, including "The Universe" and on the History Channel's "Life After People."

Full and updated at:

http://www.davidbrin.com/biography.htm

Reviews

[Trish · Rating 2 out of 5]

*sighs* This second trilogy really was a waste of time, no matter how prolific the authors might be.

Hari is an old man in this third book. He leaves on a yacht to other planets on the invitation from a bureaucrat because he sees a parallel between certain soils on other planets and psychohistory. If you're raising your eyebrows now, welcome to the club. What was even worse, though, was that the yacht is overtaken by rebels who are then overtaken by robots - the rebels introducing Hari to ancient ships and data capsules that are subsequently destroyed by the robots, which all left me asking WHY?!
The next part in the book has Dors as the main character. Yes, at this point it's no spoiler that she has been reconstructed. Why? Good question. Here, she meets a robot whose three laws have been erased. This robot also has the head of Giskard (the robot who, with Daneel, formed the zeroth law). For some reason and somehow (and I never much liked that concept being introduced despite how it shows the robots' evolution), they came up with the law but without consulting a single human being. So this part ties back into the examination of how good the zeroth law actually is for humanity. The biggest problem I had with this part (apart form the premise) is that Dors, who was Hari's wife if you'll remember, becomes a rebel and fights for cyborgs in the end.
The third part is a conversation between Daneel and his possible successor.
In the fourth part, all factions come together on Trantor. The actual conflict then is the fight against the Calvinist robots (we know they are defeated because the trilogy has to integrate back into Asimov's original trilogy). Afterwards, Hari and Daneel have quite a longwinded philosophical discussion about whether or not Galaxia will dominate the Second Empire or if there will be an equilibrium between it and the two Foundations.

The writing style was definitely the best of the three but I gotta be honest with you: I still think it was a mistake that the Asimov Estate allowed or even commissioned these books. To me, it feels like a money-grabbing scheme by Asimov's heirs. And it's a shame!

Maybe it was meant to give further insight and/or new perspectives, but it just doesn't work.

This was definitely the best out of the three so technically I should give this 3 stars, but I gave that same rating to Forward the Foundation and this was not as good as that one. Thus, this gets 2.5 stars, which GR won't let me show. But just so you guys know in case you're considering reading these.

Alas, only Asimov's own works coming up now so while I'm really frustrated and unhappy, I will read the entire Foundation cycle now.

[Ethan I. Solomon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that giving two stars to any of the books from this trilogy is actually being very generous, and is mostly because of the names involved and thus the quality they brought to the books. Nevertheless the books are a complete failure despite being set in Asimov's universe. The authors attempted to bring some of Asimov's genius to the table but were unable to convey their ideas in the gloriously simple and direct fashion that Asimov could. As a result the entire trilogy is extremely convoluted and despite exploring interesting topics in a familiar setting is nearly impossible to follow.

The trilogy was a good idea but unfortunately I believe it's execution proved to be too difficult even for the authors involved.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm of two minds on this book as well. If I were to only judge it within the framework of the Foundation series that Asimov wrote, it would probably drive me nuts. But judging it based on the fundamentals that Benford and Bear wrote about in the Second Foundation Trilogy books, with all the simulated minds, the many robots, their factions, and the hint that Chaos really would be a character, itself, then this book is actually rather interesting.

It still doesn't do it for me in Asimov's universe, despite the inclusion of Hari Seldon, Dors, and a very, very old robot. If it had been an original novel written for its own sake, released from the constraints of ALL other works, then I honestly think it would have been pretty great.

A point in its favor: massive galactic empire being overwhelmed by waves of telepathic machines destroying organics. This kind of thing always gives me a thrill. Of course, the theme is fairly common, but the real joy comes from the way it is developed. And Brin has a cool style.

But constrained as this is, this got somewhat hard to get through, hurting my enjoyment of Asimov's originals while making me annoyed because I almost always enjoyed Brin's work.

Hence, conflicted.

Even so, there were a number of cool bits, so it wasn't a complete wash.

Would I recommend Foundation fans to read this secondary trilogy? Nah. Not really. Not unless you REALLY want a dilution of great psychohistorian ideas and Robots.

[Daniel McGill · Rating 3 out of 5]

By far the best of the "new foundation trilogy" but I do not recommend reading the series, the guy who wrote the fist book did so much damage to the story to the point of not even using Asimov's physics that between them even Brin and the guy who wrote the middle book couldn't undo it all. Only read if you're a fanatical completionist.

[Gosh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brin has some very interesting ideas in this book, but I think overall it's very poorly executed. He turns Daneel into a crazed megalomaniac and makes the robots responsible for the entire course of human history, and he attempts to explain Asimov's other books in terms of this robot theory, which is an interesting concept, but I think Asimov would be rolling in his grave. This was also just really difficult to get into, and confusing to try to keep track of who was on which side when, who was betraying whom, etc. The second book is the best in this series, but I don't think it was worth reading the whole series, unless you're just really curious (which I was).

[John Derderian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the best of the 3B trilogy, and the only one that felt at all in the spirit of Asimov's originals. You probably have to read the other two to really appreciate this one, and I can't really recommend that.

[Phil Giunta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isaac Asimov's classic Foundation series comes to a conclusion in a trilogy of novels each written by different noted SF authors. David Brin adequately delivers the final entry, Foundation's Triumph, with similar pacing and style as Greg Bear's Foundation and Chaos. Like Bear, Brin minimizes story elements introduced in Gregory Benford's opening book, Foundation's Fear. I was grateful for that, since Benford's 600 page sleeper was a disappointment and could have been trimmed by half.

I described Brin's book as "adequate" mostly due to an ending that, to this reader, seemed like a chapter of exposition disguised as a philosophical discussion between aging protagonist Hari Seldon and the mysterious puppet-master, robot Daneel Olivaw. Both of these characters had been present from the very beginning of the Foundation series, with Olivaw then disguised as the galactic Emperor's right hand man, First Minister Eto Demerzel. Olivaw then vanished and re-appeared sparingly until the very end when elements threatened his grand plan for the future of humanity.

We learn in Brin's novel some startling facts about Olivaw's involvement in Hari Seldon's childhood years when the brilliant "mathist" began to show promise, alluding to the possibility that Olivaw had guided the burgeoning genius toward his career-defining discovery of "psychohistory"--a complex set of mathematical formulas for defining the future of the galactic Empire.

In the first half of Foundation's Triumph, Brin also picks up on Bear's introduction of "mentalics", humans with varying levels of telepathic abilities. It is clear that Seldon had not accounted for these elements in his psychohistorical equations and adapts to this by forming a secretive Second Foundation elsewhere in the galaxy. However, about mid-way through Brin's tale, the mentalics seem to fade into the background and the robots take the forefront. We learn more about the different sects of robots, some who follow Olivaw's teachings, others that oppose it, and yet more who fall somewhere in between.

Treated a bit more lightly by Brin are Seldon's robotic wife, Dors Venabili, and the emancipated robot Lodovik Trema. Sometime between Benford and Bear, Dors had faked her own death when she was recalled by Olivaw to be reassigned elsewhere. Trema was introduced in Foundation and Chaos as a robot once loyal to Olivaw but whose positronic brain was altered by a surge of neutrinos. This unexpected event caused Trema to question the Three Laws of Robotics set forth by Olivaw. Eventually, Trema decides that he is no longer bound by them and acts on his own volition.

Brin restricts Trema and Dors to the sidelines in Foundation's Triumph, at one point leaving them stranded in outer space for several chapters aboard one ship. Rather than completely abandoning them, however, Brin uses their predicament to soften Dors distrust of Trema. Shortly into the story, Dors is already questioning the motives of her master, Daneel Olivaw as a result of ancient robotic records given to her by Trema. By the end, Dors wants nothing more than to return to Hari Seldon's side one last time before he dies--a scene which Brin denies us. It never happens.

We'll never know if this is what the late Isaac Asimov intended for his beloved Foundation series. At the same time, I can appreciate the challenges faced by authors who undertake projects based in another writer's universe, especially when they are denied the benefit of that writer's consultation.

[Jeremiah Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was better than the previous two in this trilogy, but that isn't saying much.
Brin's writing is far superior to the other two authors, but I still couldn't get into the story. To his credit, they didn't leave him anything good to work with.
I am very torn over the notion that the robots were in charge of everything that happened throughout the Empire's history. While it makes sense and is believable, it doesn't seem like it is true to what Asimov's vision for the universe was.
The characters were decent, but at times it was difficult to keep track of all the changing factions and alliances.

[Pablo Fern�ndez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Formas de estropear una saga. Luego esto.

[Henry Herz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third installment of a post-Asimov Foundation trilogy. Consider the honor bestowed on Dr. Brin - being entrusted with this revered sci-fi classic. And he delivers the goods. He expands upon the Foundation universe in seamless fashion - I could easily have believed this was a newly discovered Asimov manuscript. The writing is smart and heartfelt. I found myself moved by the relationship between Hari and Dors. And I shared the characters' frustration when enormous archives of knowledge had to be destroyed. This is one more reason why Dr. Brin is in the pantheon of living sci-fi writers.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brin's a good writer and I really liked Asimov's Foundation Trilogy when I read it in college, but I didn't particularly like this extension of the original. I guess utopias have lost their appeal. I didn't realize how devoid of action the original foundation books were. And this book was mostly conversations and theory. The omnicient computers run the universe and humans just have to follow their dictates. They've determined that some humans must be eliminated for the majority to be happy. Not exactly free will, and not easy to fight. It should have been a great battle, but it was strangely uninspiring.

[Jeff Koeppen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Foundation’s Triumph David Brin wraps up all the loose ends of the prior two installments in the Second Foundation Trilogy, and fills in details of Asimov’s first Foundation novel.

I liked how Brin took a deep dive in to the technology and engineering which kept super planet Trantor going. He certainly expanded the science behind some of the advanced technology which Asimov didn't bother to do in his (much shorter) Foundation Trilogy. But while he fleshed out many of the ideas Asimov hinted at or glossed over in his novels I think there were just too many threads here, and the plot felt like it was being dragged all over the place rather than moving forward.

Another positive was that Brin included a sweeping timeline which collected all the events in Asimov’s galactic empire, robots, and Foundation novels and laced them together with the second Benford, Bear, Brin novels. This was helpful to understand how these many novels fit together in the overall timeline. Despite feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to keep the storyline straight and and not agreeing that some of the events in this novel reconciled with Asimov's novels I did really like the ending. I thought the author did tie things together between Foundation main characters Hari and Daneel and there were hints of a grand finale but Brin left the ending open ended. In the Afterword, Brin stated that there was more to this story that another writer could take up someday. (I see on Brin’s website he’s posted a page to his possible sequel, and I find it very intriguing).

As I noted in my previous two Second Foundation Trilogy reviews I was again put off by the re-appearances of the insufferable holograms of the ancient Joan of Arc and Voltaire. Again, what business do these over 20,000 years in the future? They would be just as forgotten or more forgotten as Richard Nixon or the Beastie Boys. I didn’t get the point of these two characters, whom Benford introduced in the first novel.

The plot that interested me most was the adventure with Hari Seldon who, nearing the end of his life, decides to explore some planets with a fellow who has come up with an interesting theory which relates somewhat with Hari's psychohistory. Discoveries are made - ancient ships and artifacts - and danger is encountered. Hari’s adventures take him to some planets which I was surprised to read about since these visits are never mentioned in Asimov’s original books despite the importance of the locations. I felt like this was inconsistent with Asimov’s Seldon’s life.

Other plots involved Dors meeting up with the Lodovik Trema, who played a major role in the second installment of this trilogy; and, Daneel’s continued behind-the-scenes meddling with events of the galaxy. They reminisced about all things robot, all the way back to the events of Asimov’s original robot novels and Giskard.

While I enjoyed the way Brin ended the novel, everything came together at the end in a way involving events I thought again were inconsistent with what Asimov wrote. If these major events had happened in Asimov’s universe I think he certainly would’ve mentioned them in one of his novels as they would have occurred in the original Trilogy's past for the most part.

Overall I did enjoy the Second Foundation Trilogy but I’m questioning if I should have even read this series. I feel like my some of my memories of the original seven Foundation books have been tainted. I feel somewhat the same way about the Apple TV series which I am not going to continue watching.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just fine. Adds some depth to ideas already explored which is fun, but doesn't really move anything forward or add anything new or to justify its existence. This trilogy is very skipable, even for completionists.

[Jean Corbel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neither the (dated) perspective and style of Asimov nor the challenging universe of the Uplift universe of Brin. All in all, very desapointing and verbose - for a master like Brin.

[Víctor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally, I'm done with the last book of this trilogy and I just want to forget I ever read it. Foundation's Triumph is the kind of book that gets better the more time has passed after reading other Asimov books and the more you've forgotten about the Robot and Foundation series because it's very boring otherwise.

Foundation's Triumph takes place about two years after Foundation and Chaos and you better forget you ever read the Epilogue to Forward the Foundation. Because it's a trilogy and there most be some sense of continuity I imagine Gregory Benford telling David Brin "Remember to add Voltaire and Joan and Panucopia so the trilogy makes sense" and Brin rolling his eyes and replying "Fine! I'll add them!" I also imagine Greg Bear telling Brin to "add Klia and Brann, and Lodovic" and Brin replying "You know what? No, I won't, they're here only to make babies, and Lodovic will do nothing with his freedom."

The first few parts (about 3.5 out of 6) consist of summarizing the Robot and Foundation series. Here, most of the chapters involving Hari Seldon consist of exposition about the past or the future to come. You know, the future we already know and read in Foundation and he's all doom and gloom. It gets old really fast. The exposition of the past is to introduce plot holes that we don't need such as "A Children's Book of History" gifted to Hari by Daneel and written in a dead language that requires a special translator device. The chapters involving Daneel are pretty much the same, exposition about the past, explaining everything to a robot named Zun Lurrin and some more exposition about the future of the events to come after Foundation and Earth. It also gets old really fast but it's done to add "a layer of chaos" that didn't exist in the Asimov universe and to link different books and novels such as Pebble in the Sky.

Of the dumbest ideas I've read in this trilogy is the space elevator that takes you from Trantor to a space station where you can grab a taxi through a wormhole. That's up there along with the Voltaire and Joan of Arc sims. Hari Seldon is of course all doom and gloom about not wanting to be near the elevators in 30 or so years into the future. He'll be dead anyways. You know what I don't need in my life? Depressed Hari Seldon.

However, characters assassinations are not complete until this book is done with Daneel and Hari who turns out sabotaged the Galatic Empire and doomed it to fail. Hari also orchestrated the upcoming crisis in Anacreon. Psychohistory is a sham and will become useless/obsolete in 500 years. What the hell?

Part 4 is when the book picks up and there's not so much summary but actually starts to focus on the present. You know, the events you're actually willing to read to see how Brin expanded the Foundation universe. And now we can appreciate his writing style in full force: adds exclamation marks randomly for whatever reason, has the need to describe and repeat several times over the character descriptions that were introduced a few pages ago, and forgets about describing certain words never used in the trilogy before such as "zombies" or "cyborg."

We all know what a cyborg is but if it's the first time it's introduced in the trilogy, then maybe it's a good idea to define it instead of repeating all the other descriptions. "I wish I had brought my cyborg arms" muttered Lodovic Trema. What do you mean by that?! Because "cyborg woman" is clear enough but "cyborg arms" not so much.

The Zeroth Law
A robot must act in the long-range interest of humanity as a whole, and may overrule all other laws whenever it seems necessary for that ultimate good.

OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!! You know what this one should be called? The Fourth Law because it in no way precedes the First Law but sounds like you need to know the three laws in order to overrule them. And this is a very different definition from the one found in, I don't know, Foundation and Earth, a book in the Foundation series where you don't need to know anything about the Robot series.

Overall, I don't hate this book, I just thoroughly dislike it. This is not a Foundation book, this is a Robot book that some Foundation characters happen to participate in.

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOILERS AHEAD; SKIP IF YOU'RE PLANNING TO READ THIS AND DON'T WANT TO KNOW. This is the third book in the new Foundation trilogy, and it's quite an interesting addition. Hari Seldon, now old, isolated from what's left of his family by the exigencies of the Plan, and no longer a major object of suspicion for the Imperial security forces, decides to pursue a minor mystery brought to him by a minor bureaucrat who has been working at the mathematics of psychohistory as a hobby. The mystery concerns "tilling", the fact that nearly every human-inhabited planet was subjected to a major churning and grinding of the soil, making it suitable for agriculture, before humans arrived--in an expanding wave just ahead of the wave of human colonial expansion, in fact. There are exceptions, though, worlds where the process didn't happen, and substantial amounts of life unlike the life on most human worlds still survives. What do these anomalies mean? Why do they appear to track so well with the distribution of "chaos worlds", the worlds that experience a runaway outbreak of advancing science, art, and technology, before collapsing into equally runaway disaster?

Hari quickly discovers he's on the trail of something very important to psycohistory and the Plan, and Daneel, the Calvinian robots, imperial security, and several other forces are in hot pursuit of him. All fairly standard, except for where Brin takes this. Put simply, not only is psychohistory wrong, in the sense of inaccurate and inadequate to the job Hari's trying to do with it, but the goal is wrong. Hari's Plan rests on certain assumptions about human nature and human capacity that are not correct, based on facts which are incomplete and which have been subjected to seriously flawed analysis by Daneel and Giskard, which have never been checked against the wishes and opinions of humans. And Daneel has deliberately deceived Hari Seldon about these facts. He has done it from the best of motives, but he's wrong. He's concerned only with taking the safest path for the human species, not the best path; because of the Three Laws, and the Zeroth Law, he can't really distinguish between the two. Hari's plan is really Daneel's plan, and it's a mistake. At the end, it appears that Daneel's plan is triumphant; the hope for a genuinely human future--and perhaps a future where humans may finally be able to run the risk of meeting intelligent aliens--is that Hari's Foundation will be more robust than Hari or Daneel have believed, and prevent Daneel's rather horrifying, but very safe, Gaia plan from coming to fruition.

Altogether, a rather darker and more interesting book than I expected.

[Eric Korpela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I look at this as a work of fan fiction, and I don't mean that as an insult. It's clear that David Brin knows and loves Asimov's work and that he has studied it in great detail. No doubt he's qualifies as a fan. And bringing all of the inconsistencies and loose threads of Asimov's works in one place must have required a huge amount of study. I'm talking years Ph.D. thesis level study. As such this may possibly be one of the greatest works of retroactive continuity (retcon) to ever be published. Its certainly the best I've read. Even in the straight jacket of a predefined start and ending position, I had a lot of episodes where I was thinking "I hadn't remembered that," or "That's a neat way to solve that inconsistency," or "that would have been cool if it happened, but then ending already exists." I think this book could have been a whole trilogy of its own, given the number of possibilities considered.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is it! I have finished my Asimov Foundation challenge. It only took me two years!

Foundation's Triumph picked up right where Foundation and Chaos left off. Hari Seldon isn't yet dead, though he really ought to be at this point. Hari doesn't have any real strategic plot importance other than to bear witness to the actual planning that would be/is revealed later-in-time-but-earlier-in-series-reading-order in Foundation and Earth. Since you are supposed to have read that novel first, it should come as no surprise that Hari learns of the plans for Galaxia, and "always right" human, and the location of Earth.

It should come as no surprise, given how much page real-estate our maligned SIMs occupied in Foundation's Fear, but they once again make a cameo. Now that the new trilogy is finished, I can once again reiterate my opinion that the SIMs are superfluous to the plot. Read or skip any parts that contain them; you won't miss or gain anything.

As Phil Giunta said in a different review,

"Isaac Asimov's classic Foundation series comes to a conclusion in a trilogy of novels each written by different noted SF authors. David Brin adequately delivers the final entry, Foundation's Triumph, with similar pacing and style as Greg Bear's Foundation and Chaos. Like Bear, Brin minimizes story elements introduced in Gregory Benford's opening book, Foundation's Fear. I was grateful for that, since Benford's 600 page sleeper was a disappointment and could have been trimmed by half."

Not much more I can add to that.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a favourite author writes in a favourite universe, you hope the results will be awesome. Unfortunately it was just "meh". Asimov's Hari Seldon molded the future of the galaxy and mankind as he knew it into his own vision of perfection. Brin's Seldon refuses to do the same. The situations, backgrounds and major players keep setting up to be special and repeatedly fall short.
Don't get me wrong, Brin doesn't slight Asimov's work, he just takes it in a direction that doesn't work for me. Maybe if I'd read the other two books in the Second Foundation trilogy by Benford and Bear I would have been more in tune with this one.
Foundation lovers likely can't resist another book in the same universe they love so well, just don't expect another Asimov Foundation novel and you won't be setting yourself up for disappointment.

[Nickolai · Rating 1 out of 5]

После прочтения первой книги трилогии, я думал, что хуже написать нельзя. Но Дэвид Брин меня удивил. По сути, он не только развил самые бредовые идеи двух предыдущих романов, но также добавил множество собственных перлов, таких как киборги, битва роботов, вирус хаоса, минус первый закон робототехники, путешествия во времени, раса негуманоидов и т.д. и т.п. У меня нередко возникало ощущение, что три автора решили сыграть в поддавки и выяснить, кто из них сможет написать самое бредовое и неинтересное произведение, которое максимально противоречит идеям Азимова, но вместе с тем происходит в созданной им Вселенной. И победителем, несомненно, является Дэвид Брин, написавший самый ужасный фанфик к творчеству гениального писателя.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a lot of problems with this book. Instead of building upon the first two books, it's like David Brin said, "Oh my gosh! I have to use everything Asimov has ever written to prove I've read his books!" There were so many story details and lines that were utterly irrelevant. It was really, really poorly done. Thanks to Brin, I think I understand Asimov's Foundation universe less than when I began! A massive disappointment.

On a side note, I was really troubled by his regular use of the phrase, "master race." Granted, humans are literally the masters of robots, but it's an ugly phrase, one best avoided.

[Christopher Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was pretty annoying to see that every time the author referenced who as speaking or what not he had to explain who they were or why they were significant, every single time. I don't recall if it was this way in the in the entire book, but it definitely was in the second half. Pay attention to when he references Sybil, or Joan, the repeated description/details of characters that we are well aware of drove me nuts.

[Szymon Myalski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gathers amazing collection of loosely connected threads from many Asimov's book, stitch them together and makes it all consistent and logical. It is a great achievement. David Brin finally made all Asimov's stories I know into one big and detailed history of over 20 000 years. And explained how difficult, demanding but also despotic was R. Daneel Olivaw's role in it.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of the Second Foundation Trilogy, picking up a number of the threads - or, as a prequel, putting them in place - that Asimov deployed in the original trilogy and the follow-up books; and, I'd have thought, pretty in line with the way Asimov developed the series after the first trilogy.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hated every one if the three books in this trilogy Glad it's finally over and I can return to Asimov-written material.

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foundation’s Triumph by David Brin is the third and final book of the Second Foundation Trilogy based on the works of Isaac Asimov. Again, focusing on Hari Seldon’s life (the major driving force in Asimov’s original trilogy).

In this final volume Dr Brin does a decent job of lassoing a very big story and bringing it to a satisfying conclusion that involved two other authors (Gregory Benford & Greg Bear).

The protagonist, Hari Seldon, has completed (as much as he can) his science of psychohistory that allows him to model mankind’s future and its galaxy spanning empire. His goal is to shorten an unavoidable collapse of civilization. The long-term plan was kicked off in the second volume, which now leaves Hari without much to do. He knows his plan is not perfect, but it was the best he could come up with.

In this book Hari is spirited away and finds himself in the middle of a conflict with many competing factions. All the groups have some legitimate ideas of what should happen to help humanity. But they are all at odds. In a nice example of science fiction being a genre of ideas, the story has many layers of, well talk. Conversations of pros and cons of the interests for humanity and other players in the galaxy. Some known and some only whispered about. I think David Brin handles it well as his original work follows along the same line. For me, ideas and discussions can be as exciting as fleets engaging in battle.

I felt this book left me with a richer feel of this world created by Asimov. There is so much more bubbling under the surface. Not every action is good, I found myself not agreeing with each decision. This let me feel engaged because of that. One had to ask, while this solution may not be perfect, does it at least help more people even in failure over another? Is it ethical to avoid engaging with some factions if it leaves them in the shadows and off stage?

It’s always difficult to play in another’s universe, especially a complicated one that asks some big questions. I think this “new” trilogy did as well as can be expected without Isaac. The authors here definitely leveraged all his books in this universe and tried to stay true to what was charted out as they covered this previously unknown chapter of the history of this “world.”

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I appreciate the work that Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and David Brin put into writing the Second Foundation Trilogy and making sure it didn't conflict with anything Asimov himself wrote in this genre, I honestly think they shouldn't have gone to the trouble. Yes, the books do fill in some details of Hari Seldon's life (as well as the lives of some others whom I will not name because of spoilers), and they do serve to more closely unify the original Foundation trilogy with Asimov's later Foundation books as well earlier, seemingly unrelated novels (Pebble in the Sky, The Stars Like Dust, etc.); but Asimov had already done that pretty well himself in his later Foundation novels. This Second Foundation trilogy interjects a number of episodes and adventures into Seldon's later life that makes him seem almost like a superhero and not "just" the brilliant academic that Asimov, to my reading, intended.

I really didn't care for the "sims" that were introduced in this trilogy; but there's discussion of some philosophical differences between groups of robots that is kind of interesting--largely because the three authors made it clear how the schism came about, and both sides make perfect sense. They also explain a little more about the early doings (I almost said "foundations") of the Second Foundation and the humans with psychic powers who would become so influential in the later books of Asimov's original works.

In terms of reading enjoyment, I probably liked this volume best of the three in this trilogy, followed by the middle book Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear (in that book and this one, "chaos" really does deserve prominent mention); Benford's Foundation's Fear I liked least and was a struggle to get through.

There are still a number of other "successor" books by other authors, set in the Foundation universe, that I have challenged myself to read. I hope they hew a little close to what I think was Asimov's original intentions for this series of stories.

[EvilGeniusKant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aunque el libro es demasiado caotico y la historia no es gran cosa tampoco (En parte debido al daño residual que Benford dejó en la primera novela). Sí hay un par de cosas que si me gustan de esta trilogía:

1- La visión más oscura de Daneel Olivaw: El robot es presentado como una entidad manipuladoras dipuesto a cometer diversas atrocidades en nombre de su ley cero. En ningún momento se llega a cuestionar sinceramente si su intervención ha sido perjudicial a largo plazo o si por el contrario está cometiendo el mismo error de someter a la humanidad a la dependencia robótica como ocurría en los mundos espaciales. Cosa que Giskard consideraba un factor perjudicial.

2- Lodovik Trema: Es interesante ver a un robot que se opone a los planes de Olivaw, aunque la idea de que esté libre de las 3 leyes no se elabora ni se explota correctamente. Aunque sus partes en el segundo libro y como se va relacionando con los robots disidentes son entretenidas.

3- Trevize es una farsa: Trevize es el peor protagonista de toda la serie. La idea de un hombre que nunca se equivoca es ridícula. En esta novela Daneel revela que Trevize es sólo otra de sus manipulaciones, destinada a engañar a los robots que se le oponen, para que acepten su plan Galaxia.

Por lo demás hay muchos conceptos que no hacen sentido alguno. El caos parece más un recurso barato para justificar las acciones de Olivaw, las simulaciones no tienen nada que hacer, las entidades meméticas (que podrían haber hecho mucho sentido) se desaprovechan por completo, etc y etc.

Si van a leer algo de esta trilogía, lean el final del tercer libro. Seldon lanzando un desafío a Olivaw, profetizando el triunfo de su fundación sobre Galaxia es una parte que me gusta.

[José Luis Valenciano]

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), fue un escritor increiblemente prolífico y razonablemente coherente al crear el conjunto de su obra, sobre todo la saga de La Fundación. Sin embargo, dado que los títulos que integran dicho universo se escriben a lo largo de más de cuatro décadas y que, lamentablemente, Asimov falleciera antes de tiempo, no resulta extraño que quedaran flecos sueltos y preguntas sin respuesta: ¿Hay otras civilizaciones alienígenas? ¿Cómo es posible que la humanidad haya colonizado tantos mundos, aptos desde el inicio para sostener la vida tal como la conocemos? ¿Cómo es posible que la existencia de los robots sea secreta y, en una sociedad que permite el vuelo interestelar, ninguno de los 25 millones de mundos habitados los haya vuelto a crear?
Estas y otras cuestiones son las que buscaron responder la Segunda Trilogía de la Fundación,encargada por los herederos de Asimov a Gregory Benford, Greg Bear y David Brin.
Con una acción situada en diferentes etapas de la vida de Hari Seldon, creador de las matemáticas de la psicohistoria, estos tres autores responden a los enigmas planteados de modo competente, al tiempo que recogen lo mejor del estilo narrativo de Asimov.
Habiendo terminado por fin "El triunfo de la Fundación", me quedo con la misma sensación del último libro de ese ciclo escrito por Asimov "Fundación y Tierra", un sentimiento de nostalgia por el pasado y esperanza en el futuro; un futuro abierto en que no hay nada decidido.
R. Daneel Olivaw juega un papel esencial en todos estos acontecimientos, teniendo que tomar decisiones difíciles que, en conjunto, van incluso más allá de la Ley Cero de la robótica, pero que muestran un sincero deseo de asegurar la supervivencia de la humanidad.

[Darwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for all 3 books, not just this last one of the trilogy.

I love the main Foundation series and have read it through multiple times now. I was very interested in this trilogy, as it is written by three of my favourite sci-fi authors.

I think the second novel by Greg Bear was my favourite. It had a very good story arc, lots happening, and just enough esoteric discussions about The Plan(s), human evolution, 20K years of history and the plight of robots to give the book good depth.

The first and third novels though contained exhausting amounts of discussions and analysis, the first being the worst, almost gave up on the series, but managed to make it through. By the end of the series I had lost track how many times various significant historical events were discussed and analyzed by various different characters, or the belief structures of various robot divisions and the endless analysis on how they impacted human civilization, or repeated descriptions of how the all-knowing Daneel Olivaw manipulated both mankind and robots over the 20K years for his Plan, and then his future Second and Third (!!) Plans to defeat Chaos...

By the middle of the 3rd book it just all became very redundant, as each author felt they needed to expound on these story points again and again, sometimes the same point discussed multiple times from different viewpoints. The end of the 3rd book was actually a full and complete review of all the various possible futures that had already been discussed, analyzed, chopped and filleted to death throughout the novels. The ending should have been where Hari met Dors again, he deserved that much.