One of the things about the umpty-’leventh time through Isaac Asimov’s Foundation was noticing the short story-ness of the short stories. You know what I mean? When I started the series, reading it in a hardback omnibus of the three “novels” in existence at that time, I was aware that the stories were written separately for separate consumption, but still the whole thing hung together as one book. This time, not so much.
In particular, I think the initial short where we are introduced to Gaal Dornick and the concept of psychohistory, where we are informed that the whole point is the collapse of the Empire, and where we find out about Trantor is, despite being quite a nice little story, a Bad Thing as an introduction to the series. I think, insomuch as I can imagine it, that the first story published (called “Foundation” or “The Encyclopedists”) is essentially ruined if you go into thinking the Empire is collapsing!. It must have been tremendously evocative to learn about the Empire from the point of view of a stubbornly loyal outpost, blinding itself to imperial dissolution and dissipation. Sal Hardin’s whole outburst (in regrettably Asimovian dialogue) loses its bite because we see only his recognition of a factor we have long known. And, of course, the magical appearance of the Hari Seldon sim is too much explained when you have met the man earlier.
One problem with this part of the series, the first, say, book and a half, is that the Empire is just going to collapse, and there’s nothing really the Foundation can do to slow it or speed it, and really there’s nothing they can do to blow their own millennial future either. Which is the point. Oh, it’s a mix of Great Man and Great Movement views of history, and for the purposes of having a plot (yay! plot!) it’s terribly important that Hober Mallow or Sal Hardin do just the right thing at just the right time, or rather avoid screwing everything up, but really, even if they did screw it up, the Foundation would blunder through to a key position anyway, simply because it’s set up that way. Which, again, is the point.
Which makes the drama less dramatic. What works, I think, is the first bit, where you don’t know that the whole thing is set up to make that point, where for all you know the story could be about something else altogether. And the introductory short story scotches that.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.