Foundation Book Club Questions
Welcome to the Buddy Book Club – we have a light-hearted comedic podcast that covers a variety of books. We have always been big fans of science fiction and the 1951 classic, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, really set the… Foundation for all science fiction material. It definitely isn’t the easiest of books to follow, and for someone that sticks mainly in the YA section of the book store this one was difficult, but still an interesting read. Plus, knowing that this book helped inspire Star Wars gives it instant credibility. We spent a whole podcast trying to figure out what actually happened if you’re interested.
Our book club questions try to be a little more outside the box/comedic than your typical book club questions – hopefully you enjoy them.
Book Club Questions – Foundation by Isaac Asimov
-> How would you describe this book to prospective readers?
It’s hard to really nail it down. We compared it to Dune + Cloud Atlas + The Game Civilization
-> With so many characters and somewhat similar sounding names, did you have trouble keeping track of everything?
Worst things for me was initially getting a grasp on the difference between Hari Seldon vs. Salvor Hardin and Tranton vs. Terminus
-> Do women exists in the future? There were plenty of characters in this book, just seemingly not many women…
Tough look for women in the future, who would of thought a mere 70 years after this book was written things would have changed so drastically.
-> This book places a lot of value in individual leaders like Seldon and Hardin, do you think there are really many selfless leaders that would do what is best for the greater good?
Personally there is no way I’m moving to some deserted planted to help prevent an issue that won’t happen for 1,000 years.
-> The original plan was to create an encyclopedia – luckily we already have Wikipedia – are there any other major inventions or tools you think will be valuable 50/100/1,000 years from now?
I don’t think I would have understood anything that happened in this book without the Wikipedia summaries so I’m thankful. I have to imagine it will strong staying power, I bet in the future we’ll get a chip that allows our brains to be connected to a version of Wikipedia, which will allow us to instantly access any information we need.
-> Do you feel like this book needed more of a central character? Or was the point of the book is that, the characters don’t really matter?
I figured Gaal Dornick from the first story would have been the main character. I do think it’s easier to understand what is going on when you have someone experiencing something for the first as well (like Gaal was when he landed on Trantor).
-> What were your thoughts on psychohistory? Do you think it’s a realistic math/science in the future?
Chaos Theory (discussed heavily in Jurassic Park) would some what dismiss this, however, my guess is that psychohistory took every possible theory into account, and spat out accurate probabilities.
-> Of the 5 stories which was your favorite?
#3 “The Merchant Princes” was the clear winner for both of us, seems like it had the most going on and more of a true plot.
-> Would you recommend this book to a friend?
I think only to some that is a lot smarter than me (granted this isn’t too hard to find) and someone that really enjoys all things Sci-Fi, otherwise unlikely.
-> Did you see any similarities between this book and Star Wars Phantom Menace?
Cool, cool we didn’t either.
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