Foundation and Earth

Foundation and Earth (original title in English: Foundation and Earth) is a science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov, published in 1986 by Doubleday publishing house. It was first published in Spanish in 1987 by Plaza & Janes. It is the fifth novel in the Foundation series, and picks up where the previous novel The Limits of the Foundation (1982) left off.

Structure

The book was conceived in parts, as were most of the series, but these were not published separately in any magazine.

1. Part One: Gaia
2. Part Two: Comporellon
3. Part III: Aurora
4. Part Four: Solaria
5. Fifth part: Melpomenia
6. Sixth part: Alpha
7. Seventh part: The Earth

Plot

The councilor Golan Trevize, the historian Janov Pelorat and Bliss from the planet Gaia (they all met in the book The Limits of the Foundation) start a journey in which they want to find the planet where began the human species, the Earth. The purpose of the trip is to resolve the doubt that Trevize has about the decision he had to make in the previous story of the series, The limits of the Foundation .

The first planet they arrive at with their ship, which allows them to visit any point in the Galaxy in an instant, is Comporellon, which claims to be the oldest currently inhabited planet. Although other planets also claim to be the oldest planet, the original planet, Comporellon has a very long history which makes it likely. When they arrive, they are arrested, but they escape. On this planet they find the coordinates of 3 space planets. Spacers are Earth's first settlers in space so these planets should be close to the original planet Earth.

The first planet the spacers visit is Aurora, where they are almost killed by a pack of wild dogs, they are the descendants of domestic dogs that have turned into wild wolf-dogs after the disappearance of the spacers from the planet. They manage to escape when Bliss manipulates the emotions in the animals' minds causing them to regress.

Then they go to Solaria, where they find Spacers still exist. They have evolved to become hermaphrodites, so they do not need contact with other people to reproduce. The inhabitants of Solaria have no physical contact with each other. They have also developed the ability to mentally channel large amounts of energy with transducers in their brains that allow them to control all of the robots in their charge. Solarians intentionally avoid contact with each other and only reproduce when they need to replace someone who has died. Bliss, Pelorat, and Trevize are welcomed by a Solarian named Bander to their quarters made up of miles of rooms and tunnels. He almost kills them and Bliss has to kill him in Trevize's defense. Upon death, the energy of all your complex and robots disappears. While escaping they come across a boy, who hasn't developed all of his transduction abilities. He is Bander's son, Fallom. When trying to escape, they find a group of robots that inform them that when Bander dies and Fallom is not developed, they are going to kill him and replace him with another Solarian. Bliss can't help but feel protective and insists on taking him with them.

The next planet they visit is Melpomenia, the third and last space planet they know the location of. They find that their oxygen atmosphere has disappeared. They visit a city in their space suits and arrive at the bookstore, where they find a statue with the coordinates of all the space worlds. Using them they deduce that the location of the Earth is in the center of those space worlds as it is the center of colonization. As they exit the hostile environment of Melpomenia, a fungus that feeds on carbon dioxide infects the spacesuits and spacecraft, which they are rid of by the heat produced by Trevize's blaster firing at minimum power.

They visit Alpha Centauri and meet the remnants of Earth's inhabitants, who after many millennia were established on that planet after an environmental disaster. The natives are very friendly, and Bliss, Trevize, Pelorat, and Fallom (who is learning to use his powers) decide to have some rest and relaxation. A woman who has taken a certain sympathy with them warns them that the natives are trying to kill them by transmitting an artificially designed virus to which the population of the planet is immune but the outsiders are not. They manage to escape at night, before the virus can be remotely activated. Discovering that Alpha Centauri is not humanity's origin system, they head to the missing system, the Sun.

When approaching the Earth, they detect that it is highly radioactive, cannot have life and they themselves cannot spend more than half an hour on its surface. They see its satellite, the Moon, which is disproportionate in size to the satellites they know of inhabited worlds, and they decide to visit it. As they descend, guided by an unknown force, they find R. Daneel Olivaw, who explains that he has been manipulating humanity for thousands of years in order to protect it. He caused the colonization of Alpha Centauri, the creation of Gaia and the creation of psychohistory (as can be read in Prelude to the Foundation and To the Foundation ). He also somewhat manipulated Trevize in his search for Gaia (Foundation Limits ), though not in the decision he made.

Trevize confirms the decision he made as the experiences he has had on the planets they have visited on their journey confirm to him that the creation of Galaxia, a collective consciousness, is the right choice. Daneel goes on to explain that since the beginning of civilization, man has been divided. This was the reason why he brought about the creation of psychohistory and Gaia. The need to understand humanity as a whole and not as the sum of individualities is his motivation.

The book ends with a conclusion from Trevize in which he reasons that in the entire Galaxy they have only found the intelligence of humanity, no other alien-type civilization has faced it to our knowledge. This situation could continue for a few centuries, little more than one thousandth of the existence of human civilization and we could be sure of the threats of other extragalactic civilizations that could divide and dominate us. 'After all' - and here Trevize felt a sudden apprehension that he forced himself to ignore - 'it's not as if we already have the enemy among us. And he didn't lower his gaze so as not to meet Fallom's reflective eyes (hermaphrodite, transducer, different) that were staring at him, unfathomable.

Characters

• Golan Trevize, advisor to the First Foundation in exile, who by his gift of reaching the correct conclusion from insufficient data has been subreptically attracted to the planet/collective consciousness Gaia, where he makes the decision on behalf of the human species on the future to follow for it.
• Janov PeloratCyncuenton historian, Trevize travel companion. He is an expert in legends and folklore on the mythical planet Earth, supposed origin of humans, subject to which he has dedicated his life. She has a sentimental relationship with the Bliss gaiana.
• Bliss, beautiful young man of the planet/collective consciousness Gaia and current sentimental couple of Janov Perolat.

Bibliographic reference

• Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Earth. Editorial Debolsillo: Barcelona, 2003. ISBN 84-9759-922-5