Foundation and Chaos


Foundation and Chaos is a science fiction novel by Greg Bear, set in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe. It is the second book of a trilogy written after Asimov's death by three authors, authorized by the Asimov estate.

Plot summary

The novel is the second part of the Second Foundation Trilogy and takes place almost entirely in the same time frame as "The Psychohistorians", which is the first part of the novel Foundation. In addition to telling a more expanded version of Hari Seldon's confrontation with the Commission of Public Safety, it also interweaves R. Daneel Olivaw's struggle against a sect of robots who oppose his plans for humanity.
While covering the same period as in Asimov’s "The Psychohistorians", Foundation and Chaos focuses more on paternal super-robot R. Daneel Olivaw than on Hari Seldon. Olivaw’s 20 millennia of machinations and contrivances are questioned by “Calvinian” robots who do not observe Olivaw’s Zeroth Law developed in Asimov’s Robots and Empire. Olivaw’s actions dampen human intellectual growth and variation until the human species matures.
Foundation and Chaos portrays the rise of mentalics such as Wanda Seldon and Stettin Palver, who will form the Second Foundation. Powerful Public Safety Commissioner Linge Chen again plays a prominent role as the true Imperial power behind fatuous playboy Emperor Klayus. Reconstructed super-robot Dors Venabili also appears.

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