Isaac Asimov - Foundation and Earth

Foundation and Earth picks up almost immediately after the events of Foundation’s Edge: Foundation councilman Golan Trevize, historian Janov Perolat and their new companion Bliss, head off in search of Earth, a mythical planet where it is suggested that human life originated. They hop from planet to planet, mostly hostile, in search for clues to the location of the planet that most people think does not even exists. That’s really the plot. Eventually, they end up on Earth and we learn what happened to it many millennia before.

This is one of the books that Asimov wrote in exchange for a dump truck full of money, and somehow it feels like he phoned it in. It wasn’t a terrible book by any extent, but at the same point, it didn’t feel like he was trying to add mystery and intrigue to the book. It felt very much like straight line the characters went in to reach Earth.

Also, I think that some time in the 1980s Issac Asimov must learned about sex, because he wrote about it quite a bit in this book. Asimov is good at many things, but should not be writing about sex. It just doesn’t fit his style, or the tone of the previous books in this series.

If you don’t feel like reading 500 pages, here is a re-creation of the book, in under 100 words:

Planet X: No, we don’t know where Earth is, but we do know about Planet A.
Foundationers: Well, let’s go to Planet A.
Planet A: No, we don’t know about Earth, but have you heard about Planets B and C?
Foundationers: Let’s try Planet B.
Planet B: GRRR! WOOF! (it was full of feral dogs)
Foundationers: Eek! Let’s go to Planet C.
Foundationers: (on planet C) hey look, there’s a carving that has the coordinates of 50 worlds. Let’s go to the first one!
Planet D: Let’s have sex! I don’t know what you’re asking us about.
Foundationers: Let’s go look at that star, it’s close to here.
Foundationers: Hey, look it’s Earth. Let’s ask that person over there what’s going on.
Earthman: Welcome to Earth. How may I help you?

Obviously, other stuff happened on the planets they visited, but it mostly felt like filler.

My verdict: Stop with the original trilogy and then read the robot books. I’m going to read the prequels, but only because we already own them.

But my luck is about to change. I have all the veggies cut up for tonight’s stir fry, Alan’s on his way home, and today is our soon-to-be anniversary. So hopefully we have a fun night of laundry and hanging out. Maybe we shall play some Trivial Pursuit and celebrate the end of the week with the addition of alcohol to smoothies.

This weekend, I think we have the following plans:

• Grocery Shopping
• Pizza Stir Fry and Laundry night
• Read a chapter of my Zend book
• Hang out with Brad and Lem
• Write a review of American Gods (finished it yesterday
• PI DAY!

Alan just walked in. He brought me a present. It’s in a brown paper bag. Happy weekend everybody!

Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend In A Coma

This book is divided into three parts: The first part talks about the time between Karen going into her coma and her return from the coma. The second part talks about Karen’s reintegration into the world, especially regarding the relationships between her and her daughter Megan, and her and Megan’s father, Richard. The third part talks about the group’s lives after the apocolypse, an event Karen predicted weeks earlier, where the rest of the citizens of earth simply fell asleep and died.

I really like Douglas Coupland’s writing, and this book was not an exception. Though it is bleak at times, it is very funny as well, and he does an excellent job with his characterizations.

• clean out car – yep, I cleaned my car.
• go grocery shopping – yeah, I totally did that
• go swimming – no swimming. I did have a bath, but it’s not exactly the same
• read – indeed, I am literate. Currently reading Arthur C. Clarke’s The City And The Stars
• find something fun to do in Hamilton – We totally went to the recycling drop off. It was sorta fun.
• get rid of at least 2 monitors – as of last night, we got rid of all three
• clean computer room – well, we got rid of monitors… that sort of counts
• take over the world – yeah, I wasted a lot of time doing so… must remove this game
• cook something awesome – we made chicken lasagna which was great, a chili that was good, and some cookies that were pretty good.

8 out of 9 aint bad. Alan also let me win at Scrabble

• clean out car
• go grocery shopping
• go swimming
• read
• find something fun to do in Hamilton
• get rid of at least 2 monitors
• clean computer room
• take over the world
• cook something awesome