Love Letters to Terry Pratchett


Last week I raved about Terry Pratchett, one of my very favorite authors. Okay, perhaps I didn’t so much rave as worry about his long-term place in the annals of literature. Since I’ve started on that track let me mention that today I finished reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. It was so much better than Strata. One of the things Pratchett likes to do is take a story and satirize it in the Discworld. This story was the Pied Piper of Hamelin. He’s also done some Shakespeare, and The Phantom of the Opera. Maskerade, his version of Phantom, I especially liked.

But this isn’t going to be another post about Terry Pratchett, though if necessary I could probably write a series of essays on his work that would essentially function as hero-worship love-letters. No, tonight I want to write about one of my favorite Science Fiction authors. And by favorite I mean he’s basically the only science fiction author I read. To whom could I possibly be referring? Isaac Asimov of course! Interestingly, I choose to do this by talking about a book he didn’t write.

If you haven’t noticed I can be rather obsessive about things. Steve Perry,  and Terry Pratchett just to name two. As a further example, I’ll tell you I’ve never seen the last two Lord of the Rings movies the whole way through, and then promptly point out to you exactly where the movies diverge from the books. Most of them I’m okay with as they’re simply functions of movie time constraints or whatever. The one that really grates is Faramir taking Frodo to Minas Tirith, which unless I’m greatly mistaken Tolkein wrote could not happen.

With that as your backdrop you can probably understand why I might have some issues reading a novel set in Asimov’s universe of the Foundation written by another. Which brings us to Foundation’s Fear by Gregory Benford. Now, I understand that the Asimov estate basically commissioned this novel and the two others making up the Second Foundation Trilogy. I just, don’t feel another novel, especially what was essentially another prequel covering Hari Seldon’s life was necessary, especially given the content. I was able to buy in somewhat more after reading the afterword, which ironically I read before I finished the book. I can understand having the scientific contradictions between books as Asimov alters things to match the current science. Hence I’m basically okay with travel via wormholes instead of Jumps, though it still seems weird. But the main thing around which the story revolves is the existence of aliens living in Trantor’s internet. As far as I know Asimov’s Foundations books never had storylines that contradicted each other.  The Alien’s in this book flat out contradicts Foundation and Earth in which Golan Trevise makes the choice of Gaia over Foundation because Seldon’s psychohistory equations were made with the assumption of no intelligent alien life, an assumption Seldon wouldn’t have made if the events of this book had taken place. Maybe I’m just nitpicking. Whatever. What I’m really saying is I don’t see the need for this novel, especially seeing as the main elements here didn’t really exist in the others and Forward the Foundation ended on what I consider to be the strongest emotional point in the series.

Wow, this has actually been a fairly straightforward post. It was meant to be long and rambling, covering diverse topics like the Eagles, Rebecca Black, deconstructivism, and teachers I used to hate and why. This is what I get for letting my mind ramble at work before I write instead of while I’m writing. I didn’t even mention John Scalzi! What’s wrong with me? Oh, well, my loss is your gain. Enjoy J

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