Lots of Contradictions in Foundation Series

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-01-04 01:44pm

I was reading Prelude to Foundation, and Forward the Foundation, and I noticed a lot of odd things. They contradict Foundation quite a bit, and, what's more, all three books are written by Aisimov himself.

1) In Prelude, Cleon I is Emperor, and Seldon meets him. However, in Foundation, it states that Cleon I died centuries ago, before Seldon's time.

2) In Forward, Cleon II is Emperor, and Seldon serves under him. However, in Foundation, it states that Cleon II didn't come to power until long after Seldon's death.

3) In Prelude, one of the Wyans remarks that Cleon I is an Entun and thus has no claim to the throne. However, in Foundation, it states that the Entun dynasty was ended when Cleon I was assasinated centuries ago.

4) In Prelude and Forward, blasters do nasty things to the insides of a person, and the effect is invisible. In Foundation, they rip apart atoms and quite visibly destroy the person.

WTF is going on?

The Nomad · Post by **The Nomad** » 2003-01-04 04:48pm

4°) Evolution in technology. In the 2 last books, blasters are microwave lasers IIRC, they make the target's blood boil and explode, they do not rip atoms apart.

Well, for 1, 2 and 3 I'd say that Asimov had a problem with genealogy.[/i]

Moonstone Spider · Post by **Moonstone Spider** » 2003-01-04 05:40pm

That's really not much of a set of contradictions. Names of a couple of emperors, well a lot of them have the same names "Thus numbers" and it's easy to rationalize things by saying somebody was playing with revisionist history.

There are a lot of different kinds of Blasters, some were brightly colored and caused atomic disruption, some could penetrate shields, some were very pale and vaporized, some were invisible and were microwave beams that caused your body to explode like a balloon hit by a shotgun. All of them were nasty, though.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2003-01-05 01:14am

Moonstone Spider wrote:That's really not much of a set of contradictions. Names of a couple of emperors, well a lot of them have the same names "Thus numbers" and it's easy to rationalize things by saying somebody was playing with revisionist history.

There are a lot of different kinds of Blasters, some were brightly colored and caused atomic disruption, some could penetrate shields, some were very pale and vaporized, some were invisible and were microwave beams that caused your body to explode like a balloon hit by a shotgun. All of them were nasty, though.

Well, if you want to be blunt about it, Asimov screwed up and needed a better editor, or an editor with more guts, to correct his technical and genealogical errors like that. Everyone does of course; the man was not God.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-01-05 01:24am

Another thing is that a lot of that information from Foundation comes from Encyclopedia Galactica articles. If any of the contradictions come from that, remember that the Encyclopedia wasn't finished for generations, and thus the information within it may not be totally accurate.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-01-05 06:00am

I never noticed any of those, except for the "two Cleons" blooper.

Demiurge · Post by **Demiurge** » 2003-01-05 03:42pm

The Encyclopedia Galactica/Britannica was anothermistake.