Series: Book 2 in the Second Foundation series
Rating: Not rated
Tags: Science Fiction, Lang:en
Summary
Isaac Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy"
pioneered many of the familiar themes of modern SF, and the
sheer sweep of his "future history" shaped many if not most
of the writers who followed him. With the permission - and blessing -
of the Asimov estate, three of today's bestselling SF
writers, Gregory Benford, Greg Bear and David Brin, have
conspired to complete the epic saga the beloved Grand Master
left unfinished. The acclaimed Second Foundation
Trilogy continues with Greg Bear's "Foundation and Chaos",
the gripping new novel about a galaxy-wide power struggle
within the ranks of the robots that have served and protected
humankind for 20 centuries. Hari Seldon, frail and full of years,
is on trial for daring to predict the Empire's fall, and the
time has come for the long-anticipated migration to Star's
End. But R. Daneel Olivaw, the brilliant robot entrusted with
this great mission, has discovered a potential enemy, even
deadlier than the figurehead Emperor's brutal minions.
One of his own. Humaniform robot Lodovik Trema is the
only survivor of a bizarre insterstellar accident. Exposed to
a neutrino storm, his positronic brain has apparently erased
the holographic template of the Three Laws of Robotics. If
this is true, Lodovic's service to humankind is no longer a
question of destiny, but of will, and therefore, no longer
absolute. Daneel needs Lodovic, so he sends him to Eos, the
legendary secret planet where the robots perfect their
service to humankind. And Lodovic says he is healed. Yet, can
he be trusted, when stirrings of discontent are arising all
over the galaxy? Other robots are questioning their mission -
and Daneel's strategy. Hidden in the steel caves of Trantor,
sought by loyalist and rebel alike, is an obscure heatsink
worker's daughter, a girl whose amazing mental powers are
also the result of disaster: the deadly human malady known as
Brain Fever. Young Klia Asgar's awesome but unwanted psychic
abilities promise to join man and robot in a common
destiny... or a mutual destruction.