''Foundation's Triumph'' (1999) is a science fiction novel by American writer

David Brin Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American scientist and author of science fiction. He has won the Hugo,Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and ...

's ''Foundation'' universe. It is the third book of the Second Foundation trilogy, which was written after Asimov's death by three authors, authorized by the Asimov estate. Brin synthesizes dozens of Foundation-Empire-Robots novels and short stories by

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and ...

Roger MacBride Allen Roger MacBride Allen (born September 26, 1957) is an American science fiction author. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and grew up outside of Washington, D.C., graduating from Walt Whitman High School. He graduated from Boston Universit ...

, and authorized others into a consistent framework. '' Foundation's Triumph'' includes an appendix chronology compiled by Attila Torkos.

Plot summary

''Foundation’s Triumph'' starts with

Hari Seldon Hari Seldon is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' series. In his capacity as mathematics professor at Streeling University on the planet Trantor, Seldon develops psychohistory, an algorithmic science that allows him to predi ...

who reviews his life and has to accept the fact that his “purpose” is completed. One day he meets a bureaucrat, Horis Antic, who explains his theory about the correlation of certain

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ...

s on

planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...

and

psychohistory Psychohistory is an amalgam of psychology, history, and related social sciences and the humanities. Its proponents claim to examine the "why" of history, especially the difference between stated intention and actual behavior. Psychobiography, chil ...

. Seldon agrees to take a trip to some of the planets which fit Antic's theory. Hari and Horis travel to Demarchia, where they rent a yacht. Parallel to Seldon's story,

Dors Venabili This is a list of characters in Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' series. Through the centuries-spanning nature of the ''Foundation'' series, the lives of its various characters are limited to one or two of its nine episodes. In spite of the great su ...

starts out on the planet Panucopia to meet Lodovik Trema, a

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

whose

Three Laws of Robotics The Three Laws of Robotics (often shortened to The Three Laws or known as Asimov's Laws) are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story " Runaround" (included in the 1950 colle ...

have been erased. Lodovic gives her the head of R. Giskard Reventlov, an important robot who founded the Zeroth Law with

R. Daneel Olivaw R. Daneel Olivaw is a fictional robot created by Isaac Asimov. The "R" initial in his name stands for "Robot," a naming convention in Asimov's future society during Earth's early period of space colonization. Daneel is introduced in '' The Caves ...

. She finds out that Giskard and Daneel never consulted a human while founding the Zeroth Law. Later Trema meets a faction of

cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

s and joins them. After Dors has become a rebel, she fights for the cyborgs as well. The third plot of the novel takes place on the planet Eos. Daneel talks to his possible successor Zun Lurrin. All chapters with Olivaw as the main character are printed in a different typeface. In Seldon's story, during the flight to the first planet the yacht is taken over by rebels, who are from the renaissance or chaos planet Ktlina. They show Seldon ancient spaceships with many data capsules from the human past. Robots take over the yacht and destroy the data capsules and the ancient ships with the permission of Seldon. During the flight back to

Trantor The Galactic Empire is an interstellar empire featured in Isaac Asimov's ''Robot'', '' Galactic Empire'', and '' Foundation'' series. The Empire is spread across the Milky Way galaxy and consists of almost 25 million planets settled exclusively ...

, a rebel, Gornon Vlimt, turns out to be another robot from a faction of Calvinians, who want to send Hari into the future. At last all factions meet on Earth. The Calvinians are stopped by Daneel and

Wanda Seldon This is a list of characters in Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' series. Through the centuries-spanning nature of the ''Foundation'' series, the lives of its various characters are limited to one or two of its nine episodes. In spite of the great su ...

. Old friends Seldon and Daneel meet one final time, to discuss philosophy. Despite the apparent eventual dominance of Galaxia, Seldon confides his belief that the second Galactic Empire will include both the two Foundations, following the Seldon Plan, and Galaxia. "Will there be an

Encyclopedia Galactica The ''Encyclopedia Galactica'' is the name of a number of fictional or hypothetical encyclopedias containing all the knowledge accumulated by a galaxy-spanning (Type III in Kardashev scale) civilization. The name evokes the exhaustive aspects of ...

a thousand years from now," asks Seldon, betting that if his belief is correct, there will be regularly updated editions of it. Since most Foundation novels use the Encyclopedia as a framing device for its chapters, this implies that Seldon correctly predicted the successful synthesis of the two Foundations and Galaxia.

Possible sequel

Brin stated in his book that he could well imagine to write a sequel to ''Foundation's Triumph'', or that another author might. He refrained from giving any details on what was on his mind, but also noted that he might release a rough start one day, which he later did on his website, titled "Denouement".

Reviews

*Review by Curt Wohleber (1999) in Science Fiction Weekly, 26 Apr 1999 *Review by Mark L. Olson (1999) in Aboriginal Science Fiction, Fall 1999 *Review by Nigel Brown (1999) in Interzone, #149 November 1999 *Review by Gary Wilkinson (1999) in Vector 208 *Review by Steve Jeffery (2000) in Vector 211 *Review by Russell Blackford (2002) in The New York Review of Science Fiction, March 2002

Footnotes

{{Foundation series Foundation universe books 1999 American novels 1999 science fiction novels Novels by David Brin