The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov, is one of the seminal classics of science fiction literature. In the eighties, Asimov wrote two sequel novels to the trilogy, "Foundation's Edge" and "Foundation and Earth". "Earth" ended without significant resolution of many plot lines. Asimov then wrote two more novels, "Prelude to Foundation" and "Forward the Foundation", both prequels to the original trilogy. After Asimov's death, his wife commissioned Benford, Bear and Brin to write the Second Trilogy, which were also prequels. It has been 23 years since "Foundation and Earth" was published, and there has yet to be any resolution to the story.
Several years ago, I decided to try my hand at writing a sequel to "Foundation and Earth" that would advance or wrap up existing plot threads, both those from Asimov's work and from the Second Trilogy. I reread through the series, making notes of things that were worthy of further exploration. I decided to try to simplify things, instead of making them more complex. I have added no significant characters that did not previously exist in the series, and all events grow directly out of events in previous books. I believe I have developed a story that holds true to many Asimov themes, provides resolution to several threads, advances several others, and generally sets a clearer way forward for the series as a whole.
I've been working on this book off and on for about five years now, and it is finally nearing completion. The book as it stands is approximately 55,000 words long; this is, by most estimates about 220 pages in paperback. I've edited most of the book for style and consistency, and am pretty happy with the result. I need to rewrite the prologue and the end of one chapter, and I'll be ready to distribute the book to a small group of readers for feedback.
After the closed beta stage, I will incorporate the best suggestions, and then submit my book to agents and publishers. I realize there will likely be complications with the fact that this is a sequel to an established series. Normally that kind of thing goes to someone who's, y'know, had something published before. ("A Memory of Light" and "And Another Thing..." come to mind.) Legal issues may arise. But under any circumstances, whether by Tor or by Lulu, I will see to it that I have this book, bound in hardback, on my shelf, and I want it to be as good as it can be when that happens.
I'm looking for two things. First, is anyone interested in reading this book and giving me feedback? I'm looking for a range of people. Those who are deeply familiar with Foundation, those who are passingly familiar, unfamiliar genre fans, genre virgins, anyone interested will do. So long as you agree not to distribute the book without my permission, I'll consider including you. The audience will be limited, though, so if you're interested, speak now.
Second, does anyone have any feedback on the potential difficulty of getting a book like this published? I haven't any clue.
Thanks. Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Well, you'll definitely have to go through the copyright holders- the same people that published that trilogy to do exactly what you propose (I think).
I only know that David Brin wrote one and Greg Bear another....no idea who wrote the third.
You could easily write a good novel placed during the aftermath of the Mule's eventual death- and whatever legacy the Mule might have laid plans for (as he could not have a dynasty through lineage).
I always thought that was a big gap in the narrative.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
The Second Trilogy was written by Benford, Bear and Brin. Benford's was eminently skippable, so you future readers, just disregard "Foundation's Fear", but the other two are worth reading.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
I actually found Brin's to be the "George Harrison" of the group. IIRC he introduced the 'pans' and from that point I had a difficult time disassociating the Uplift novels from the back of my mind.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I'm reasonably certain that's the one you mean.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon:
You could easily write a good novel placed during the aftermath of the Mule's eventual death- and whatever legacy the Mule might have laid plans for (as he could not have a dynasty through lineage).
I always thought that was a big gap in the narrative.
IIRC, the Mule did have a successor. There was this one guy who tried to assasinate the Mule, but was thwarted and brainwashed by him. I believe in the third book of the trilogy, they mention him as the ruler of the Mule's crumbling empire after the Mule's death.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I for one was pretty satisfied with the ending we got so far, with the main character looking hopefully ahead at the future living Milky Way galaxy organism (Galactium, was it?), but showing distrust towards the hermaphrodite orphan and fearing it would be the vanguard of the future Enemy.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Galaxia it was called, though there's was always a hint that even that wasn't the ultimate answer for humanity.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
That ending always struck me a somewhat wishy-washy. Better that humanity re-invent itself than to simeply accept a role as part of some eventual "Galaxia".
Also, Galaxia was a video game and so anything with that name might as well be called "Dig-Dug".
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Yeah, don't know that I would want to be part of a galactic hippie commune.
And Galaxia was the shit, so was Galaga.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Asimov did intend to continue the story, so he definitely considered it unresolved. He just had no idea how to. It's only the Second Trilogy, written and published after his death, that makes the direction I take things clear.
I've gotten a couple partial reviews thus far from people who seem to like my style, if nothing else. The general consensus is that the Asimov estate will almost certainly not give a damn about my book. If I can be reasonably certain that that is the case, I will post it online, get one printed for my bookshelf, and call it a day. Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
I'm up for reading it - I likely read the original books before you were born!
I did discover somewhere another fan-made sequel, published on a blog, which seemed to be an ongoing thing. It seemed to basically be a stand-alone adventure featuring Golan Trevize on Comporellon, with little reference to the Galaxia proposal as it was left at the end of F&E.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I've seen that, I think it's also posted at fanfiction.net, though it may be another story entirely. It's easily the longest fanfic I've seen, at 20,000 words, but the style made it hard for me to stick with it. Maybe I should try again some time, just for comparison purposes.
Thanks for your offer to read my book, I've sent a copy to your gmail account.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Got it! Just so long as you don't expect too much from my limited skills of literary criticism.
I was thinking about this last night, I seem to remember reading that Asimov had no idea where to go next after F&E. Because really his resolution to that novel does render a lot of the preceding Foundation series irrelevant. Those passages from the Encyclopaedia Galactica that are often quoted at the start of indivdual stories, dated after the thousand-year Interregnum, will probably never be written.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
The Second Trilogy addresses that to some degree. There's a cute little scene towards the end where Hari Seldon and Daneel Olivaw are discussing Daneel's plans. Hari makes a bet that humanity will still be using books in a thousand years, because Galaxia won't be dominant like Daneel expects. Very thinly veiled reference to those encyclopedia entries.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Really? I've never read any of the non-Asimov Foundation books, never saw the point! Oops. But, hey, I'll give it a go. Er, does your book require any familiarity with the non-Asimovs?
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
A good number of the characters in my book, maybe a third of them, originate in the Second Trilogy novels, but I don't think you really need to read them to understand the story. (If you do, I need to know that so I can fix it!) You might wonder where some of the more esoteric characters come from, in which case you can read the Second Trilogy to find out. Only two originate in Foundation's Fear, though, and that book is widely considered inferior to the others, so you might limit that one to a skim. But Foundation and Chaos introduces most of the rest, and that one and Foundation's Triumph are both definitely worth the read.
Posted by Joshua Bell (Member # 327) on :
Three things:
* I agree that Bear and Brin's books are more in fitting with the themes that Asimov was exploring than Benford's. That said, the copyright holders approached Benford first about a sequel, and he recommended the other "Killer B's" to write a trilogy, so variety was desired. Brin's book is perhaps too full of "cute" call outs, but the overarching themes are a solid attempt to repair the gaping plot holes in Asimov's work. They certainly leave the reader with a different and more realistic assessment of R. Daneel Olivaw.
* Are you aware that Brin wrote an short, unofficial epilogue to Foundation's Triumph? He posted it to the brin-l mailing list back when I was a member (just after the books came out). You can find it here (SPOILER ALERT): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg18281.html - although it probably won't make any sense unless you close attention to Foundation's Triumph and had a "WTF?" moment in the middle. I have a printed copy of that signed by Brin tucked away inside my copy of FT (also signed by Brin; fun story that, involving baby sniffing).
* Lastly, I also took a stab at writing a post-Foundation and Earth story that would wrap up the loose ends there and tie in the Foundation's Triumph revelations. Unlike Omega, I never got through the first chapter. But I sketched the plot outline and dumped what I wrote here: http://inexorabletash.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!3FC59671BAEE20E9!1087.entry - Omega: you have my EXPLICIT PERMISSION to re-use any and all concepts, themes, text or dialogue from that snippet and the preamble. No attribution necessary, do with it what you will.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I was aware of Brin's epilogue. I didn't much care for it, really. Seldon didn't need to become a crutch, without whom humanity could solve nothing. Some of your plot outline points are not dissimilar to my own, though I do get there significantly differently. Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
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