Now on to “Dune.” The book is everything “Foundation” isn’t: There’s a glittering, hierarchical society wracked by intrigue and warfare, a young hero of noble birth who may be a prophesied messiah, a sinister but alluring sisterhood of witches, fierce desert warriors and, of course, giant worms.Īnd yes, it’s fun. Pretending that this series has anything to do with the “Foundation” novels is fraudulent marketing, and I’ve stopped watching.

These aren’t necessarily bad things to include in a TV series, but they’re completely antithetical to the spirit of Asimov’s writing. There are indispensable heroes, mystical powers, even a Death Star. What it does instead is remake “Star Wars” under another name. So how does the Apple TV+ series turn this into a visually compelling tale? It doesn’t.

But after each crisis, Seldon’s prerecorded hologram appears to explain to everyone what just happened and why the successful resolution was inevitable given the laws of history. The story spans centuries in each episode everything appears to be on the brink, and it seems as if only desperate efforts by the protagonists can save the day. It mostly involves people talking, and its narrative inverts the hero-saves-the-universe theme that burns many acres of CGI every year. I wanted to be Hari Seldon, the brilliant mathematician who leads the effort this economics thing was as close as I could get. For those who’ve never read it, it’s about social scientists who use their knowledge to save galactic civilization. The “Foundation” trilogy had a huge impact on my teenage self. release of a wonderful, satisfying film version of “Dune” - the first movie I’ve seen in a theater since the pandemic began.īefore I get there, however, a word about the new “Foundation” TV series, which is being released one episode a week on Apple TV+. For example, quite a few experts on international relations who I know are fanatics about the TV version of “ The Expanse.” I think it’s because good science fiction involves building imaginary worlds that are different from the world we know, but in interesting ways that relate to the attempt to understand why society is the way it is.Īnyway, that’s my excuse for devoting today’s newsletter not to the latest scary developments in politics and economics but to a much happier event: the U.S. Many social scientists, it turns out, are science fiction readers.

Well, I was a bookish 14-year-old, but my touchstones were two different novels: Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” and Frank Herbert’s “Dune.” The blogger John Rogers once noted that there are two novels that can shape the lives of bookish 14-year-olds: “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Lord of the Rings.” One of these novels, he asserted, is a childish fantasy that can leave you emotionally stunted the other involves orcs.

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