Saturday, 2 August 2014

Foundation And Guardians Of Time

(i) Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is nine stories collected in three volumes whereas Poul Anderson's Guardians Of Time is four stories collected in one volume. Both series were later extended.

(ii) Foundation replays the Fall of the Roman Empire as the Fall of the Galactic Empire whereas Guardians... puts time travelers into real Roman and other historical periods.

(iii) When an unpredictable mutant diverts history from Seldon's Plan for a Second Empire, the hidden Second Foundation restores the Plan whereas, when Neldorian time criminals divert history form the Patrol-protected path towards the Danellians, surviving Patrollers restore the preferred history.

(iv) Guardians... is better written with strong characterization, detailed historical knowledge, well realized past periods and clever presentation of time travel paradoxes.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

And I still wonder why I was so fascinated by Asimov's original Foundation stories as a boy, reading and rereading them first in paperback and then the omnibus hardcover edition. Because, not long afterwards, I came to be so dissatisfied with those stories. Because Asimov dealt with big ideas in ways which SEEMED striking to my inexperienced mind?

I was reading the works of Poul Anderson at the sametime--and more and more he displaced Asimov and Heinlein in my esteem.

Sean