1.
Isaac Asimov
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Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. He was known for his works of fiction and popular science. Asimov was a writer, and wrote or edited more than 500 books. His books have published in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification. Asimov wrote hard science fiction and, along with Robert A. Heinlein, Clarke, he was considered one of the Big Three science fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimovs most famous work is the Foundation Series, his major series are the Galactic Empire series. The Galactic Empire novels are set in earlier history of the same fictional universe as the Foundation series. He wrote hundreds of stories, including the social science fiction Nightfall. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French, Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction. Most of his science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies, Asimov was a long-time member and vice president of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly, he described some members of that organization as brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs. He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association, the asteroid 5020 Asimov, a crater on the planet Mars, a Brooklyn elementary school, and a literary award are named in his honor. His exact date of birth within that range is unknown, the family name derives from a word for winter crops, in which his great-grandfather dealt. This word is spelled озимые in Russian, and азімыя in Belarusian, phonetically, both words are almost identical because in Russian О in the first unstressed syllable is always pronounced as А. Accordingly, his name originally was Исаак Озимов in Russian, however, he was known in Russia as Ayzek Azimov. Asimov had two siblings, a sister, Marcia, and a brother, Stanley, who was vice-president of New York Newsday. His family emigrated to the United States when he was three years old, since his parents always spoke Yiddish and English with him, he never learned Russian, but he remained fluent in Yiddish as well as English. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five, after becoming established in the U. S. his parents owned a succession of candy stores, in which everyone in the family was expected to work
2.
Galactic Empire (series)
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The Galactic Empire series is a science fiction sequence of three of Isaac Asimovs earliest novels, and extended by one short story. The title was a misquotation of Robert Brownings Rabbi ben Ezra and it was rejected by Startling Stories on the basis that the magazines emphasis was more on adventure than science-heavy fiction, and again by John W. Campbell, Asimovs usual editor. In 1949, Doubleday editor Walter I, grow Old With Me was later published in its original form along with other draft stories in The Alternate Asimovs in 1986. The Stars, Like Dust was originally serialised under the title Tyrann in Galaxy Science Fiction from January to March 1951, and was published as a novel by Doubleday later that year. The first paperback edition was an Ace Books double novel along with Roger Dees An Earth Gone Mad, The Stars, the novel was reprinted in with the Foundation Trilogy, The Naked Sun and I, Robot in a hardback selected works edition in 1982 by Littlehampton Book Services. The Currents of Space was originally serialised in Astounding Science Fiction from October to December 1952 before being published by Doubleday as a novel the same year, after the publication of The Currents of Space in 1952, all three novels were collected into an omnibus titled Triangle. They were republished again as a volume, The Empire Novels. Blind Alley was published before any of the novels, written in 1944, it was accepted by John W. Campbell later that year and published in Astounding Science Fiction in March 1945. It has never been published together with the novels, as it is connected only on the basis of being set during the Galactic Empire, after the Robot stories and before the Foundation series. These stories are set in the future as the Foundation series. The tie is not close, and they are loosely connected to each other. Another connection was established with Robots and Empire, where Asimov revealed how Earth became radioactive. Some sources further this argument by asserting that The Stars, Like Dust takes place one thousand years following the events of Robots. Also, the used on spaceships in The Stars, Like Dust is the same that the Spacers introduce Lije Baley to in The Robots of Dawn. Asimov later integrated them into his all-engulfing Foundation series, some contortion was required to explain how the robots of the Robot series are almost completely absent from the Galactic Empire novels. In reality, this is because Asimov wrote the original Robot, 15-Book Reading Order as Suggested by Asimov Edited from the Authors Note of Prelude to Foundation Doubleday 1988 hardcover edition Pebble in the Sky at Worlds Without End
3.
Doubleday (publisher)
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Doubleday is an American publishing company founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 that by 1947 was the largest in the United States. It published the work of mostly U. S. authors under a number of imprints, in 2009 Doubleday was merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. The firm was founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday, one of their first bestsellers was The Days Work by Rudyard Kipling. Other authors published by the company in its early years include W. Somerset Maugham, theodore Roosevelt, Jr. later served as a vice-president of the company. In 1900, the company became Doubleday, Page & Company when Walter Hines Page joined as a new partner, in 1922, the founders son, Nelson Doubleday, joined the firm. In 1910, Doubleday, Page, and Co. moved its operations, the Doubleday company purchased much of the land on the east side of Franklin Avenue, and estate homes were built for many of its executives on Fourth Street. In 1916, company co-founder and Garden City resident Walter Hines Page was named Ambassador to Great Britain, in 1927, Doubleday merged with the George H. Doran Company, creating Doubleday, Doran, then the largest publishing business in the English-speaking world. In 1946, the company became Doubleday and Company, Nelson Doubleday, Jr. resigned as president, but continued as chairman of the board until his death on January 11,1949. Douglas Black took over and was president from 1946 to 1963, by 1947, Doubleday was the largest publisher in the US, with annual sales of over 30 million books. In 1980, the company bought the New York Mets baseball team and it defeated the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series in 1986 in a classic 7-game contest. The company had offices in London and Paris and wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with joint ventures in the UK and the Netherlands. Doubleday sold the company to Bertelsmann in 1986, and teamed up with minority owner Fred Wilpon to buy the Mets in his own name. In 1988, portions of the firm part of the Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. In late 2008 and early 2009, the Doubleday imprint was merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, image Books, Catholic Books—still a Doubleday unit as part of Doubleday Religious Publishing Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, a literary imprint established in 1990. Talese, the publisher and editorial director, is a senior vice president of Doubleday
4.
Robots and Empire
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Robots and Empire is a science fiction novel written by the American author Isaac Asimov and published by Doubleday Books in 1985. It is part of Asimovs Robot series, which consists of short stories. Robots and Empire is part of Asimovs consolidation of his three series of science fiction stories and novels, his Robot series, his Galactic Empire series. In the novel, Asimov depicts the transition from his earlier Milky Way Galaxy, the galaxy of his earlier trilogy of Robot novels is dominated by the blended human/robotic societies of the fifty Spacer planets, dispersed over a wide part of the Galaxy. While the Earth is much more populous than all of the Spacer planets combined, its people are looked down upon by the Spacers, for a long time, the Spacers have forbidden immigration of people from the Earth. But Asimovs later Galactic Empire is populated by many quadrillions of human beings on hundreds of thousands of habitable planets, even the technology to maintain and upgrade robots exists on only a few out-of-the-way planets. Therefore, Asimovs novel attempts to describe how his earlier Robot series ultimately connects to his Galactic Empire series, the Earthman Elijah Baley, has died nearly two centuries earlier. During these two centuries, Earth-people have overcome their agoraphobia and resumed space colonization, using faster-than-light drive to distant planets beyond the earlier Spacer worlds. Their inhabitants, calling themselves Settlers rather than Spacers, revere Earth as their mother-world, baleys memory remains in the mind of his former lover, Gladia Delmarre, a Spacer. It is discovered that Solaria, the homeworld of Gladia, Gladia is accompanied by the positronic robots R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov, both the former property of their creator, Dr. Han Fastolfe, who bequeathed them to Gladia in his will. At the same time, Daneel and Giskard are engaged in a struggle of wits with Fastolfes rivals, R. Daneel and R. which prevents them from direct attack on Amadiro. Daneel, meanwhile, has formulated an additional Zeroth Law of Robotics, A robot may not injure humanity, or through inaction, which might enable them to overcome Amadiro. When Vasilia accuses Giskard of telepathy Giskard is compelled to manipulate her mind to make her forget about his telepathic powers, the two robots locate Amadiro and Mandamus on Earth, at the site of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. After Amadiro admits their plans, Giskard alters Amadiros brain, but in so doing, under the stress of changing the course of humanity, R. Giskard himself suffers a soon-fatal malfunction of his positronic brain, and confers his telepathic ability upon R. Daneel. On the other hand, his editors at Doubleday Books - his hardcover book publisher - encouraged Asimov to do what deep-down he wanted to do, from then on, Asimov proceeded with his plans for unifying the two series. Asimov wrote Robots and Empire in a nonlinear fashion, flashbacks by the major characters alternate with the present-time storyline. The story starts on the Spacer planet Aurora, where the heart of Amadiros conspiracy against Settler civilization is developing, meanwhile, aboard a starship, Gladia, Daneel, and Giskard visit the planets Solaria and Baleyworld before reaching the Earth, where this novels climax takes place. Asimov used this planet-hopping itinerary most notably in most of the volumes of the Foundation series from Foundation, then, the robots have only moments to spare in terminating Amadiros evil plan for a quick death to all Earthlings
5.
The Currents of Space
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The Currents of Space is a science fiction novel by the American writer Isaac Asimov. It is the second of three books labeled the Galactic Empire series, though it was the last of the three he wrote, the story takes place in the backdrop of Trantors rise from a large regional power to a galaxy-wide empire, unifying millions of worlds. This story occurs around the year 11,000 AD, when the Trantorian Empire encompasses roughly half of the galaxy, the independent planet Sark exploits the planet Florina and derives its great wealth from kyrt, a versatile and fluorescent fiber that can only be grown on Florina. Attempts to break the Sark monopoly and grow kyrt on other worlds have thus far been unsuccessful, meanwhile, Trantor would like to add these two worlds to its growing empire. There is an irony in Sarks dominion over Florina, clear parallels to the American South growing cotton with slave labor. The Florinians are one of the people in a galaxy where racial categories seem to have been forgotten. One of the characters, Dr. Selim Junz, comes from Libair, a planet with some of the galaxys darkest-skinned people, also, Asimov chose the name of kyrt to be rather similar to cotton, and he explains that it contains cellulose. The possible destruction of Florina is predicted by Rik, a spatio-analyst, when Rik gradually starts remembering his past, it produces a political crisis involving Sark, Florina, and Trantor. It is also revealed at long last that the special energetic wavelength of light that is being emitted by Florinas sun is what causes the very high-quality kyrt fiber to grow there. This is the explanation why kyrt cannot be grown on other planets – since stars going nova are really quite rare, because losing Florina would mean losing the only source of its vast wealth, there is strong resistance from Sark to accept the message. However, when it is explained that the wealth is already lost since the conditions that enable kyrt to grow can be easily duplicated anywhere now that they are understood, when Trantor offers to buy out the entire planet for a very high price, the offer is readily accepted. Even though there is not yet a full Galactic Empire, Trantor does control the now largely radioactive Earth, the idea of evacuating Earth is mentioned, but that is strongly rejected by Rik. He insists that it is the planet of the human race. Galaxy reviewer Groff Conklin described the novel as one of Asimovs lesser efforts, the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy
6.
Galaxy Science Fiction
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Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L. Gold, who rapidly made Galaxy the leading science fiction magazine of its time, in 1952, the magazine was acquired by Robert Guinn, its printer. By the late 1950s, Frederik Pohl was helping Gold with most aspects of the magazines production, when Golds health worsened, Pohl took over as editor, starting officially at the end of 1961, though he had been doing the majority of the production work for some time. Under Pohl Galaxy had continued success, regularly publishing fiction by such as Cordwainer Smith, Jack Vance, Harlan Ellison. However, Pohl never won the annual Hugo Award for his stewardship of Galaxy, in 1969 Guinn sold Galaxy to Universal Publishing and Distribution Corporation and Pohl resigned, to be replaced by Ejler Jakobsson. Under Jakobsson the magazine declined in quality, by the end of the 1970s the gaps between issues were lengthening, and the title was finally sold to Galileo publisher Vincent McCaffrey, who brought out only a single issue in 1980. A brief revival as a magazine followed in 1994, edited by H. L. Golds son, E. J. Gold. At its peak, Galaxy greatly influenced the science fiction field and it was regarded as one of the leading sf magazines almost from the start, and its influence did not wane until Pohls departure in 1969. Gold brought a sophisticated intellectual subtlety to magazine science fiction according to Pohl, SF historian David Kyle agrees, commenting that of all the editors in and out of the post-war scene, the most influential beyond any doubt was H. L. Gold. Kyle suggests that the new direction Gold set inevitably led to the experimental New Wave, the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, appeared in 1926. By the end of the 1930s, the genre was flourishing in the United States, in the late 1940s, the market began to recover. From a low of eight active US magazines in 1946, the field expanded to 20 just four years later, Galaxys appearance in 1950 was part of this boom. With the advent of the war, Gold left publishing and went into the army, but in late 1949 he was approached by Vera Cerutti, Cerutti was now working for an Italian publisher, Edizione Mondiale, that had opened an office in New York as World Editions. She initially asked Gold for guidance on how to produce a magazine, World Editions took a heavy loss on Fascination, its first attempt to launch a US magazine, and Cerutti returned to Gold asking for recommendations for new titles. Gold knew about The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, a digest launched in the fall of 1949, World Editions agreed, hired Gold as the editor, and the first issue appeared in October 1950. The novel series subsequently appeared as Galaxy Science Fiction Novels, Gold initially suggested two titles for the magazine, If and Galaxy. For the first issue, Gold obtained stories by several authors, including Isaac Asimov, Fritz Leiber
7.
Horsehead Nebula
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The Horsehead Nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, which is farthest east on Orions Belt, the nebula was first recorded in 1888 by Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming on photographic plate B2312 taken at the Harvard College Observatory. The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 1500 light years from Earth and it is one of the most identifiable nebulae because of the shape of its swirling cloud of dark dust and gases, which bears some resemblance to a horses head when viewed from Earth. The dark cloud of dust and gas is a region in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex where star formation is taking place. It is located in the constellation of Orion, which is prominent in the evening sky in the Northern Hemisphere. This stellar nursery, as it is known, can contain over 100 known kinds of organic and inorganic gases as well as dust, some of the latter is made up of large and complex organic molecules. The red or pinkish glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, magnetic fields channel the gases leaving the nebula into streams, shown as streaks in the background glow. A glowing strip of hydrogen gas marks the edge of the cloud. The heavy concentrations of dust in the Horsehead Nebula region and neighbouring Orion Nebula are localized, resulting in alternating sections of nearly complete opacity, the darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust blocking the light of stars behind it. The lower part of the Horseheads neck casts a shadow to the left, the visible dark nebula emerging from the gaseous complex is an active site of the formation of low-mass stars. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebulas base are young stars just in the process of forming, the Horsehead-Nebula and neighboring structures in a classical view The Horsehead Nebula on interactive astro-photography survey at Wikisky. org The Horsehead Nebula at Constellation Guide
8.
Mongols
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The Mongols are an East-Central Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia and Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They also live as minorities in other regions of China, as well as in Russia, Mongolian people belonging to the Buryat and Kalmyk subgroups live predominantly in the Russian federal subjects of Buryatia and Kalmykia. The Mongols are bound together by a heritage and ethnic identity. Their indigenous dialects are known as the Mongolian language. The ancestors of the modern-day Mongols are referred to as Proto-Mongols, broadly defined, the term includes the Mongols proper, Buryats, Oirats, the Kalmyk people and the Southern Mongols. The latter comprises the Abaga Mongols, Abaganar, Aohans, Baarins, Gorlos Mongols, Jalaids, Jaruud, Khishigten, Khuuchid, Muumyangan, the designation Mongol briefly appeared in 8th century records of Tang China to describe a tribe of Shiwei. It resurfaced in the late 11th century during the Khitan-ruled Liao dynasty, after the fall of the Liao in 1125, the Khamag Mongols became a leading tribe on the Mongolian Plateau. However, their wars with the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty and the Tatar confederation had weakened them, in the thirteenth century, the word Mongol grew into an umbrella term for a large group of Mongolic-speaking tribes united under the rule of Genghis Khan. In various times Mongolic peoples have been equated with the Scythians, the Magog, based on Chinese historical texts the ancestry of the Mongolic peoples can be traced back to the Donghu, a nomadic confederation occupying eastern Mongolia and Manchuria. The identity of the Xiongnu is still debated today, although some scholars maintain that they were proto-Mongols, they were more likely a multi-ethnic group of Mongolic and Turkic tribes. It has been suggested that the language of the Huns was related to the Hünnü, the Donghu are mentioned by Sima Qian as already existing in Inner Mongolia north of Yan in 699–632 BCE along with the Shanrong. Mentions in the Yi Zhou Shu and the Classic of Mountains, the Xianbei chieftain was appointed joint guardian of the ritual torch along with Xiong Yi. These early Xianbei came from the nearby Zhukaigou culture in the Ordos Desert, where maternal DNA corresponds to the Mongol Daur people, the Zhukaigou Xianbei had trade relations with the Shang. In the late 2nd century, the Han dynasty scholar Fu Qian wrote in his commentary Jixie that Shanrong, againm in Inner Mongolia another closely connected core Mongolic Xianbei region was the Upper Xiajiadian culture where the Donghu confederation was centered. After the Donghu were defeated by Xiongnu king Modu Chanyu, the Xianbei, tadun Khan of the Wuhuan was the ancestor of the proto-Mongolic Kumo Xi. The Wuhuan are of the direct Donghu royal line and the New Book of Tang says that in 209 BCE, the Xianbei, however, were of the lateral Donghu line and had a somewhat separate identity, although they shared the same language with the Wuhuan. In 49 CE the Xianbei ruler Bianhe raided and defeated the Xiongnu, killing 2000, the Xianbei reached their peak under Tanshihuai Khan who expanded the vast, but short lived, Xianbei state. Three prominent groups split from the Xianbei state as recorded by the Chinese histories, the Rouran, the Khitan people, besides these three Xianbei groups, there were others such as the Murong, Duan and Tuoba
9.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
10.
Foundation series
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The Foundation series is a science fiction series of books written by American author Isaac Asimov. For nearly thirty years, the series was a trilogy, Foundation, Foundation and Empire and it won the one-time Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series in 1966. Asimov began adding to the series in 1981, with two sequels, Foundations Edge, Foundation and Earth, and two prequels, Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation. The additions made reference to events in Asimovs Robot and Empire series, the premise of the series is that the mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology. Using the laws of mass action, it can predict the future, Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting 30,000 years before a second great empire arises. Seldons calculations also show there is a way to limit this interregnum to just one thousand years and he also establishes a second foundation of psychohistorians, of which little is known, to build on his work further and to keep the better known first foundation on its intended course. Foundation was originally a series of eight stories published in Astounding Magazine between May 1942 and January 1950. Campbell, with whom he developed the concepts of the collapse of the Galactic Empire, the civilization-preserving Foundations, Asimov wrote these early stories in his West Philadelphia apartment when he worked at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. The first four stories were collected, along with a new story taking place before the others, the remainder of the stories were published in pairs by Gnome as Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation, resulting in the Foundation Trilogy, as the series is still known. In 1981, Asimov was persuaded by his publishers to write a fourth book, four years later, Asimov followed up with yet another sequel, Foundation and Earth, which was followed by the prequels Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation. During the two-year lapse between writing the sequels and prequels, Asimov had tied in his Foundation series with his various other series, the basic link is mentioned in Foundations Edge, an obscure tradition about a first wave of space settlements with robots and then a second without. In this same book, the word psychohistory is used to describe the nascent idea of Seldons work, some of the drawbacks to this style of colonization, also called Spacer culture, are also exemplified by the events described in The Naked Sun. Note, This plot is listed in the chronological order of the stories in the series. The series itself was left as a trilogy for many years, comprising Foundation, Foundation and Empire, the two novels set chronologically earlier than the original trilogy, and the two which follow it, were later added to the series. Prelude to Foundation opens on the planet Trantor, the capital planet. Several parties become aware of the content of his speech, Seldon is hounded by the Emperor and various employed thugs who are working surreptitiously, which forces him into exile. Throughout their adventures all over Trantor, Seldon continuously denies that psychohistory is a realistic science, even if feasible, it may take several decades to develop. Hummin, however, is convinced that Seldon knows something, so he continuously presses him to out a starting point to develop psychohistory
11.
Golden Horde
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The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it became a functionally separate khanate and it is also known as the Kipchak Khanate or as the Ulus of Jochi. After the death of Batu Khan in 1255, his dynasty flourished for a century, until 1359. The Hordes military power peaked during the reign of Uzbeg, who adopted Islam, the territory of the Golden Horde at its peak included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the Danube River, and extended east deep into Siberia. In the south, the Golden Hordes lands bordered on the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the khanate experienced violent internal political disorder beginning in 1359, before it briefly reunited under Tokhtamysh. However, soon after the 1396 invasion of Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire, at the start of the 15th century the Horde began to fall apart. By 1466 it was being referred to simply as the Great Horde, within its territories there emerged numerous predominantly Turkic-speaking khanates. These internal struggles allowed the northern state of Muscovy to rid itself of the Tatar Yoke at the Great stand on the Ugra river in 1480. The Crimean Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate, the last remnants of the Golden Horde, in any event, it was not until the 16th century that Russian chroniclers begin explicitly using the term Golden Horde to refer to this particular successor khanate of the Mongol Empire. The first known use of the term, in 1565, in the Russian chronicle History of Kazan, applied it to the Ulus of Batu and its left wing was referred to as the Blue Horde in Russian chronicles and as the White Horde in Timurid sources. Western scholars have tended to follow the Timurid sources nomenclature and call the left wing the White Horde, the khanate apparently used the term White Horde to refer to its right wing, which was situated in Batus home base in Sarai and controlled the ulus. However, the designations Golden Horde, Blue Horde, and White Horde have not been encountered in the sources of the Mongol period. At his death in 1227, Genghis Khan divided the Mongol Empire amongst his four sons as appanages, Jochi was the eldest, but he died six months before Genghis. In 1235, Batu with the great general Subedei began an invasion westwards, first conquering the Bashkirs, from there he conquered some of the southern steppes of present-day Ukraine in 1237, forcing many of the local Cumans to retreat westward. The military campaign against the Kypchaks and Cumans had started under Jochi, by 1239 a large portion of Cumans were driven out of the Crimea peninsula, and it became one of the appanages of the Mongol Empire. The remnants of the Crimean Cumans survived in the Crimean mountains, moving north, Batu began the Mongol invasion of Rus and for three years subjugated the principalities of former Kievan Rus, whilst his cousins Möngke, Kadan, and Güyük moved southwards into Alania. Using the migration of the Cumans as their casus belli, the Mongols continued west, raiding Poland and Hungary and culminating in the battles of Legnica, in 1241, however, Ögedei Khan died in the Mongolia homeland. Batu turned back from his siege of Vienna to take part in disputing the succession, the Mongol armies would never again travel so far west
12.
Pebble in the Sky
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Pebble in the Sky is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1950. This work is his first novel — parts of the Foundation series had appeared from 1942 onwards, in magazines, the original Foundation books are also a string of linked episodes, whereas this is a complete story involving a single group of characters. The title was a misquotation of Robert Brownings Rabbi ben Ezra and it was rejected by Startling Stories on the basis that the magazines emphasis was more on adventure than science-heavy fiction, and again by John W. Campbell, Asimovs usual editor. In 1949, Doubleday editor Walter I, grow Old With Me was later published in its original form along with other draft stories in The Alternate Asimovs in 1986. In Before the Golden Age, Asimov wrote that Pebble in the Sky was influenced by the short story Proxima Centauri by Murray Leinster. The book was adapted for radio by Ernest Kinoy for Dimension X as Pebble in the Sky, first broadcast in 1951 it was released as a download in 2007 by Radio Spirits. The book begins with a tailor from the mid-20th Century. By then, Earth has become radioactive and is a part of a vast Galactic Empire. There is both a mystery and a power-struggle, and a lot of debate and human choices, the originality of the S. F. work is the choice of a very ordinary man as the storys protagonist, rather than the more typical space opera hero. This book takes place in the universe as the Foundation series. Earth is part of the Empire of Trantor, later the setting for Hari Seldons invention of psychohistory, Asimov returned to the radioactive-Earth theme in The Stars, Like Dust, The Currents of Space, and Foundation and Earth. He would explore it most fully in Robots and Empire, Pebble in the Sky has been grouped along with The Stars, Like Dust and The Currents of Space as the so-called Galactic Empire series. However, these are loosely connected, occurring between the era of the Spacers and the Foundation Series, but not otherwise overlapping each other in time, location. In this work, unlike The End of Eternity, the travel is one-way. It might be a use of the same technology — Asimov hints at a connection in Foundations Edge. One element of the novel Asimov was particularly fond of was the inclusion of a scene of exposition conducted over the course of a game of chess between two of the characters. By recounting all the moves, Asimov reacted against the tendency of novelistic portrayals of chess games to neglect the action on the board. The game that he chose to present was a victory by Grigory Levenfish over Boris Verlinsky in Moscow in 1924, one which gained the victor a brilliancy prize
13.
Nuclear warfare
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Nuclear warfare is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is used to inflict damage on the enemy. In contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can produce destruction in a much shorter time-frame, some activists had claimed in the 1980s that with this potential nuclear winter side-effect of a nuclear war, almost every human on Earth could starve to death. So far, two nuclear weapons have been used in the course of warfare, both by the United States near the end of World War II, on August 6,1945, a uranium gun-type device was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium device was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. These two bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 120,000 people, in 1974, India, and in 1998, Pakistan, two countries that were openly hostile toward each other, developed nuclear weapons. Israel and North Korea are also thought to have developed stocks of nuclear weapons, the Israeli government has never admitted to having nuclear weapons, although it is known to have constructed the reactor and reprocessing plant necessary for building nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons have been detonated on over 2,000 occasions for testing purposes, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the resultant end of the Cold War, the threat of a major nuclear war between the two nuclear superpowers was generally thought to have declined. Since then, concern over nuclear weapons has shifted to the prevention of localized nuclear conflicts resulting from nuclear proliferation, the possibility of using nuclear weapons in war is usually divided into two subgroups, each with different effects and potentially fought with different types of nuclear armaments. The first, a nuclear war, refers to a small-scale use of nuclear weapons by two belligerents. This term could apply to any use of nuclear weapons that may involve military or civilian targets. The second, a nuclear war, could consist of large numbers of nuclear weapons used in an attack aimed at an entire country, including military, economic. Such an attack would almost certainly destroy the economic, social, and military infrastructure of the target nation. Some Cold War strategists such as Henry Kissinger argued that a nuclear war could be possible between two heavily armed superpowers. Some predict, however, that a war could potentially escalate into a full-scale nuclear war. Even the most optimistic predictions of the effects of a nuclear exchange foresee the death of many millions of victims within a very short period of time. However, such predictions, assuming total war with nuclear arsenals at Cold War highs, have not been without criticism. The authors of the study estimated that as much as five tons of soot could be released, producing a cooling of several degrees over large areas of North America. The cooling would last for years and could be catastrophic, according to the researchers, either a limited or full-scale nuclear exchange could occur during an accidental nuclear war, in which the use of nuclear weapons is triggered unintentionally
14.
Robot series (Asimov)
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The Robot series is a series of 38 short stories and 5 novels by science fiction author Isaac Asimov featuring positronic robots. Most of Asimovs robot short stories, which he began to write in 1939, are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration. The stories were not initially conceived as a set, but rather all feature his positronic robots—indeed, there are inconsistencies among them. They all, however, share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots, some of the short stories found in The Complete Robot and other anthologies appear not to be set in the same universe as the Foundation Universe. Victory Unintentional has positronic robots obeying the Three Laws, but also a non-human civilization on Jupiter, lets Get Together features humanoid robots, but from a different future, and with no mention of the Three Laws. The multiple series offers a sense of completeness, because all of its works are interconnected in some way, the first book is I, Robot, a collection of nine previously published short stories woven together as a 21st-century interview with robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin. They are set thousands of years after the stories. Mirror Image, one of the stories from The Complete Robot anthology, is also set in this time period. Another short story, Mother Earth, is set about a thousand years before the robot novels, one source of inspiration for Asimovs robots was the Zoromes, a race of mechanical men that featured in a 1931 short story called The Jameson Satellite, by Neil R. Jones. It was the Zoromes, then, who were the ancestors of my own positronic robots, all of them. Asimov later integrated the Robot Series into his all-encompassing Foundation series, the Stars, Like Dust states explicitly that the Earth is radioactive because of a nuclear war. This work is regarded as part of the Empire series. One character, however, is seen with a visi-sonor, the musical instrument that is played by the clown Magnifico in Foundation. Based on details from the novel, such as Earth still being mostly habitable, not all of these stories are entirely consistent with the Asimov stories. The anthology also included Strip-Runner by Pamela Sargent, set in the era of the Elijah Baley novels, there is also another set of novels by various authors, loosely connected to the Robots Series, but containing many inconsistencies with Asimovs books, which are not generally considered canon. More recently, the Asimov estate authorized publication of another trilogy of mysteries by Mark W. Tiedemann. These novels, which place several years before Asimovs Robots and Empire, are Mirage, Chimera. These were followed by yet another mystery, Alexander C
15.
Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
16.
Transmitter
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In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which generates a radio frequency alternating current. When a connected antenna is excited by this current, the antenna emits radio waves. The term transmitter is usually limited to equipment that generates radio waves for communication purposes, or radiolocation, such as radar and navigational transmitters. Generators of radio waves for heating or industrial purposes, such as ovens or diathermy equipment, are not usually called transmitters even though they often have similar circuits. The term is used more specifically to refer to a broadcast transmitter. This usage typically includes both the proper, the antenna, and often the building it is housed in. A transmitter can be a piece of electronic equipment, or an electrical circuit within another electronic device. A transmitter and a receiver combined in one unit is called a transceiver, the term transmitter is often abbreviated XMTR or TX in technical documents. The purpose of most transmitters is radio communication of information over a distance, the transmitter combines the information signal to be carried with the radio frequency signal which generates the radio waves, which is called the carrier signal. The information can be added to the carrier in several different ways, in an amplitude modulation transmitter, the information is added to the radio signal by varying its amplitude. In a frequency modulation transmitter, it is added by varying the signals frequency slightly. Many other types of modulation are used, the radio signal from the transmitter is applied to the antenna, which radiates the energy as radio waves. The antenna may be enclosed inside the case or attached to the outside of the transmitter, as in portable devices such as phones, walkie-talkies. In more powerful transmitters, the antenna may be located on top of a building or on a tower, and connected to the transmitter by a feed line. The first primitive radio transmitters were built by German physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1887 during his investigations of radio waves. These generated radio waves by a high voltage spark between two conductors, beginning in 1895 Guglielmo Marconi developed the first practical radio communication systems using spark transmitters. These spark-gap transmitters were used during the first three decades of radio, called the wireless telegraphy or spark era, vacuum tube transmitters took over because they were inexpensive and produced continuous waves, which could be modulated to transmit audio using amplitude modulation. This made possible commercial AM radio broadcasting, which began in about 1920, experimental television transmission had been conducted by radio stations since the late 1920s, but practical television broadcasting didnt begin until the 1940s
17.
United States Constitution
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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government, Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government. Article Seven establishes the procedure used by the thirteen States to ratify it. In general, the first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty, the majority of the seventeen later amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government processes and procedures, Amendments to the United States Constitution, unlike ones made to many constitutions worldwide, are appended to the document. All four pages of the original U. S, according to the United States Senate, The Constitutions first three words—We the People—affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. From September 5,1774 to March 1,1781, the Continental Congress functioned as the government of the United States. The process of selecting the delegates for the First and Second Continental Congresses underscores the revolutionary role of the people of the colonies in establishing a governing body. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States and it was drafted by the Second Continental Congress from mid-1776 through late-1777, and ratification by all 13 states was completed by early 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation, the governments power was quite limited. The Confederation Congress could make decisions, but lacked enforcement powers, implementation of most decisions, including modifications to the Articles, required unanimous approval of all thirteen state legislatures. The Continental Congress could print money but the currency was worthless, Congress could borrow money, but couldnt pay it back. No state paid all their U. S. taxes, some paid nothing, some few paid an amount equal to interest on the national debt owed to their citizens, but no more. No interest was paid on debt owed foreign governments, by 1786, the United States would default on outstanding debts as their dates came due. Internationally, the Articles of Confederation did little to enhance the United States ability to defend its sovereignty, most of the troops in the 625-man United States Army were deployed facing – but not threatening – British forts on American soil. They had not been paid, some were deserting and others threatening mutiny, spain closed New Orleans to American commerce, U. S. officials protested, but to no effect. Barbary pirates began seizing American ships of commerce, the Treasury had no funds to pay their ransom, if any military crisis required action, the Congress had no credit or taxing power to finance a response. Domestically, the Articles of Confederation was failing to bring unity to the sentiments and interests of the various states
18.
H. L. Gold
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Gold was an American science fiction writer and editor. Born in Canada, Gold moved to the United States at the age of two and he was most noted for bringing an innovative and fresh approach to science fiction while he was the editor of Galaxy Science Fiction, and also wrote briefly for DC Comics. Gold was Jewish, and there are claims that he at first had to write under pseudonyms because publishers feared the readers potential antisemitism and he was drafted in to the US Army during the Second World War, serving in the Pacific theater of Operations. His marriage to Evelyn Stein ended in divorce in 1957, Gold, writing under the pen name Floyd C. Gale, was the book reviewer for Galaxy from 1955-1963. Gold is an artist, writer, musician and one of the oldest online gamers, during the 1930s, Gold unsuccessfully wrote stories for pulp magazines. The day he was fired from his job because his boss believed that a writer should not work as a busboy. Beginning with Inflexure in Astounding Science Fiction, Gold later worked for Standard Magazines, Fawcett Comics and he used the Campbell pen-name for his first half-dozen or so stories in 1934/35. When he resumed his career in 1938 he took the billing Horace L. Gold. Golds most noted stories tended more toward fantasy, like his Trouble with Water, in 1939-41 he was an assistant editor on a trio of science fiction magazines -- Captain Future, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories. His 1939 novel, None But Lucifer in Unknown was a collaboration with L. Sprague de Camp and he was drafted in 1944, although he was Canadian, flatfooted, overage and had a newborn child. He returned on leave to be at his dying father Henrys bedside in Fall River. He had been offered directorship of Armed Forces Radio postwar, which he declined, after serving, he returned to New York City, where he scripted for comic books and radio programs. Gold often found story ideas in newspaper clippings, Gold is perhaps best known as a leading magazine editor during the American post-World War II science fiction boom. In 1949 he began in that direction, and launched Galaxy Science Fiction in 1950, with Galaxy Gold created a different kind of science fiction magazine by focusing less on technology, hardware and pulp adventures. Instead, he introduced themes leaning toward sociology, psychology and satire and he paid more than was common at the time and had the advantage that several talented authors had become alienated from John W. Campbell due to his enthusiasm for Dianetics. Gold also edited several anthologies related to the magazine, but health concerns began to overwhelm him, Gold suffered from increasing agoraphobia, and as a result, retired from Galaxy in 1961 due to his health problems. He lived the rest of his more or less in seclusion, though he published occasional short stories
19.
Groff Conklin
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Edward Groff Conklin was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of fiction, one of mystery stories. From 1950 to 1955, he was the critic for Galaxy Science Fiction. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Conklin was educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard University and he drifted restlessly through a series of jobs in the 1930s and 1940s, working for several government agencies during WWII. He was also a scientific researcher for the N. W. It was as an editor of fiction that Conklin found his niche, four years later, Conklin and Burton Rascoe published The Smart Set Anthology, the first collection of stories from that literary magazine. Conklins interest in short fiction continued with the 1936 publication of The New Republic Anthology, 1915-1935, the following year, he married the former Lucy Tempkin on October 1. During the next decade, he wrote books about subways, rental libraries and home construction, in addition to poetry, Conklin didnt grow up a reader of science fiction, but came to it later in life. It had an effect on me. A roommate from 1930 provided him with bound volumes of tear-sheets of early weirds, fantastics and scientifictions from the old Argosy, All-Story and others. After his first science fiction anthology, The Best of Science Fiction, weighing in at 785 pages, he followed with A Treasury of Science Fiction. Readers soon began to seek out books with his unusual and exotic name on the cover—The Science Fiction Galaxy, The Big Book of Science Fiction. The prominent display of Conklins huge hardcover anthologies in the New Titles section of libraries led many readers to science fiction during the genres early 1950s boom. In the Grip of Terror was a collection of horror tales, and he collaborated with Lucy Conklin on The Supernatural Reader in 1953. Four years later, he married Florence Alexander Wohlken and his book review column, Galaxys Five-Star Shelf, was a key feature in Galaxy Science Fiction from its premiere issue until October 1955. The Weather-Conditioned House is not science fiction but a discussion of methods involved in weather-conditioning a house. The book was authoritative enough that it was reissued with an update in 1982, in the last three years of his life, Conklin was the staff science editor for The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. He lived in New York at 150 West 96th Street, at the age of 63, he died of emphysema in his summer home at Pawling, New York
20.
Floyd C. Gale
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Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L. Gold, who rapidly made Galaxy the leading science fiction magazine of its time, in 1952, the magazine was acquired by Robert Guinn, its printer. By the late 1950s, Frederik Pohl was helping Gold with most aspects of the magazines production, when Golds health worsened, Pohl took over as editor, starting officially at the end of 1961, though he had been doing the majority of the production work for some time. Under Pohl Galaxy had continued success, regularly publishing fiction by such as Cordwainer Smith, Jack Vance, Harlan Ellison. However, Pohl never won the annual Hugo Award for his stewardship of Galaxy, in 1969 Guinn sold Galaxy to Universal Publishing and Distribution Corporation and Pohl resigned, to be replaced by Ejler Jakobsson. Under Jakobsson the magazine declined in quality, by the end of the 1970s the gaps between issues were lengthening, and the title was finally sold to Galileo publisher Vincent McCaffrey, who brought out only a single issue in 1980. A brief revival as a magazine followed in 1994, edited by H. L. Golds son, E. J. Gold. At its peak, Galaxy greatly influenced the science fiction field and it was regarded as one of the leading sf magazines almost from the start, and its influence did not wane until Pohls departure in 1969. Gold brought a sophisticated intellectual subtlety to magazine science fiction according to Pohl, SF historian David Kyle agrees, commenting that of all the editors in and out of the post-war scene, the most influential beyond any doubt was H. L. Gold. Kyle suggests that the new direction Gold set inevitably led to the experimental New Wave, the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, appeared in 1926. By the end of the 1930s, the genre was flourishing in the United States, in the late 1940s, the market began to recover. From a low of eight active US magazines in 1946, the field expanded to 20 just four years later, Galaxys appearance in 1950 was part of this boom. With the advent of the war, Gold left publishing and went into the army, but in late 1949 he was approached by Vera Cerutti, Cerutti was now working for an Italian publisher, Edizione Mondiale, that had opened an office in New York as World Editions. She initially asked Gold for guidance on how to produce a magazine, World Editions took a heavy loss on Fascination, its first attempt to launch a US magazine, and Cerutti returned to Gold asking for recommendations for new titles. Gold knew about The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, a digest launched in the fall of 1949, World Editions agreed, hired Gold as the editor, and the first issue appeared in October 1950. The novel series subsequently appeared as Galaxy Science Fiction Novels, Gold initially suggested two titles for the magazine, If and Galaxy. For the first issue, Gold obtained stories by several authors, including Isaac Asimov, Fritz Leiber
21.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
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Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science-fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. The first issue, titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science, was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton, Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith. At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaines supervision, the period beginning with Campbells editorship is often referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction. By 1950, new competition had appeared from Galaxy Science Fiction, in 1960, Campbell changed the title of the magazine to Analog Science Fiction & Fact, he had long wanted to get rid of the word Astounding in the title, which he felt was too sensational. At about the same time Street & Smith sold the magazine to Condé Nast, Campbell remained as editor until his death in 1971. Ben Bova took over from 1972 to 1978, and the character of the magazine changed noticeably, Bova won five consecutive Hugo Awards for his editing of Analog. The title was sold to Davis Publications in 1980, then to Dell Magazines in 1992, Crosstown Publications acquired Dell in 1996 and remains the publisher. Schmidt continued to edit the magazine until 2012, when he was replaced by Trevor Quachri, in 1926, Hugo Gernsback launched Amazing Stories, the first science-fiction magazine. Amazing was very successful, quickly reaching a circulation over 100,000, Clayton was unconvinced, but the following year decided to launch a new magazine, mainly because the sheet on which the color covers of his magazines were printed had a space for one more cover. He suggested to Harry Bates, a newly hired editor, that start a magazine of historical adventure stories. Bates proposed instead a science-fiction pulp, to be titled Astounding Stories of Super Science, Astounding was initially published by Publishers Fiscal Corporation, a subsidiary of Clayton Magazines. The first issue appeared in January 1930, with Bates as editor, Bates aimed for straightforward action-adventure stories, with scientific elements only present to provide minimal plausibility. In February 1931, the original name Astounding Stories of Super-Science was shortened to Astounding Stories, the magazine was profitable, but the Depression caused Clayton problems. Normally a publisher would pay a printer three months in arrears, but when a credit squeeze began in May 1931, it led to pressure to reduce this delay. The financial difficulties led Clayton to start alternating the publication of his magazines, some printers bought the magazines which were indebted to them, Clayton decided to buy his printer to prevent this from happening. As it turned out, enough stories were in inventory, and enough paper was available, to one further issue. In April, Clayton went bankrupt, and sold his titles to T. R. Foley for $100, Foley resold them in August to Street & Smith. Science fiction was not entirely a departure for Street & Smith, the first Street & Smith issue was dated October 1933, until the third issue, in December 1933, the editorial team was not named on the masthead
22.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
23.
The New York Times Book Review
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The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry, the offices are located near Times Square in New York City. The New York Times has published a review section since October 10,1896, announcing. Associated with news of the day, the target audience is an intelligent, general-interest adult reader. Each week the NYTBR receives 750 to 1000 books from authors and publishers in the mail, Books are selected by the preview editors who read over 1,500 advance galleys a year. The selection process is based on finding books that are important and notable, self-published books are generally not reviewed as a matter of policy. Books not selected for review are stored in a discard room, as of 2006, Barnes & Noble arrived about once a month to purchase the contents of the discard room, and the proceeds are then donated by NYTBR to charities. Books that are actually reviewed are usually donated to the reviewer, as of 2015, all review critics are freelance, the NYTBR does not have staff critics. In prior years, the NYTBR did have in-house critics, or a mix of in-house, for freelance critics, they are assigned an in-house preview editor who works with them in creating the final review. Freelance critics might be employees of The New York Times whose main duties are in other departments and they also include professional literary critics, novelists, academics and artists who write reviews for the NYTBR on a regular basis. In addition to the magazine there is an Internet site that offers content, including audio interviews with authors. The book review publishes each week the widely cited and influential New York Times Best Seller list, pamela Paul was named Senior Editor in spring 2013. Sam Tanenhaus was Senior Editor from the spring of 2004 to spring 2013, each year, around the beginning of December, a 100 Notable Books of the Year list is published. It contains fiction and non-fiction titles of books previously reviewed,50 of each, from the list of 100,10 books are awarded the Best Books of the Year title, five each of fiction and non-fiction. Other year-end lists include the Best Illustrated Childrens Books, in which 10 books are chosen by a panel of judges. In 2010, Stanford professors Alan Sorenson and Jonah Berger published a study examining the effect on sales from positive or negative reviews in the New York Times Book Review. They found all books benefited from positive reviews, while popular or well-known authors were negatively impacted by negative reviews, lesser-known authors benefited from negative reviews, in other words, bad publicity actually boosted book sales. A study published in 2012, by university professor and author Roxane Gay, Gay said, The numbers reflect the overall trend in publishing where the majority of books published are written by white writers
24.
Open Library
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Open Library is an online project intended to create one web page for every book ever published. It provides access to public domain and out-of-print books, which can be read online. Its book information is collected from the Library of Congress, other libraries, if books are available in digital form, a button labelled Read appears next to its catalog listing. Links to where books can be purchased or borrowed are also provided, tens of thousands of modern books were made available from four and then 150 libraries and publishers for ebook digital lending. Open Library began in 2006 with Aaron Swartz as the engineer and leader of Open Librarys technical team. The project was led by George Oates from April 2009 to December 2011, Oates was responsible for a complete site redesign during her tenure. In 2015, the project was continued by Giovanni Damiola and then Brenton Cheng, the site was redesigned and relaunched in May 2010. The site uses Infobase, its own database framework based on PostgreSQL, the source code to the site is published under the GNU Affero General Public License. The website was relaunched adding ADA compliance and offering over 1 million modern, under certain provisions of United States copyright law, libraries are sometimes able to reproduce copyrighted works in formats accessible to users with disabilities
25.
Internet Archive
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The Internet Archive is a San Francisco–based nonprofit digital library with the stated mission of universal access to all knowledge. As of October 2016, its collection topped 15 petabytes, in addition to its archiving function, the Archive is an activist organization, advocating for a free and open Internet. Its web archive, the Wayback Machine, contains over 150 billion web captures, the Archive also oversees one of the worlds largest book digitization projects. Founded by Brewster Kahle in May 1996, the Archive is a 501 nonprofit operating in the United States. It has a budget of $10 million, derived from a variety of sources, revenue from its Web crawling services, various partnerships, grants, donations. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California, where about 30 of its 200 employees work, Most of its staff work in its book-scanning centers. The Archive has data centers in three Californian cities, San Francisco, Redwood City, and Richmond, the Archive is a member of the International Internet Preservation Consortium and was officially designated as a library by the State of California in 2007. Brewster Kahle founded the Archive in 1996 at around the time that he began the for-profit web crawling company Alexa Internet. In October 1996, the Internet Archive had begun to archive and preserve the World Wide Web in large quantities, the archived content wasnt available to the general public until 2001, when it developed the Wayback Machine. In late 1999, the Archive expanded its collections beyond the Web archive, Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software. It hosts a number of projects, the NASA Images Archive, the contract crawling service Archive-It. According to its web site, Most societies place importance on preserving artifacts of their culture, without such artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. Our culture now produces more and more artifacts in digital form, the Archives mission is to help preserve those artifacts and create an Internet library for researchers, historians, and scholars. In August 2012, the Archive announced that it has added BitTorrent to its file download options for over 1.3 million existing files, on November 6,2013, the Internet Archives headquarters in San Franciscos Richmond District caught fire, destroying equipment and damaging some nearby apartments. The nonprofit Archive sought donations to cover the estimated $600,000 in damage, in November 2016, Kahle announced that the Internet Archive was building the Internet Archive of Canada, a copy of the archive to be based somewhere in the country of Canada. The announcement received widespread coverage due to the implication that the decision to build an archive in a foreign country was because of the upcoming presidency of Donald Trump. Kahle was quoted as saying that on November 9th in America and it was a firm reminder that institutions like ours, built for the long-term, need to design for change. For us, it means keeping our cultural materials safe, private and it means preparing for a Web that may face greater restrictions
26.
Isaac Asimov's Utopia
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Isaac Asimovs Utopia is a science fiction novel by Roger MacBride Allen, set in Isaac Asimovs Robot/Empire/Foundation universe. Utopia takes place five years into the reign of Alvar Kresh as the governor of Inferno, the re-terraforming effort is doing fairly well, but many believe it is still doomed to failure. The plot centers around a plan created by an Infernal named Davlo Lentrall to use a comet, named comet Grieg after the old governor, to dig a channel creating a northern sea. Norlan Fiyle, who has working as an intelligence broker, found out about this plan early and informed the Settlers, the Ironheads. The issue is complicated by the fact that the calls for the comet to land essentially on top of the new law robot city of Valhalla. Tonya Welton, the leader of the settlers on Inferno, is upset by this plan having seen similar plans fail in the past and she orders her security people to grab Davlo and destroy his work. Unfortunately, the location of comet Grieg is lost, Davlo and Fredda Leving attempt to extract this information from Kaelors memory, but he ends up killing himself rather than release the information which might cause harm to humans. Davlos guilt over the death of his robot eventually leads him to oppose the comet plan altogether, eventually the information is retrieved when Jadelo Gildern, who had previously stolen the data from Davlos office, provides Governor Kresh with the missing data. While trying to decide whether to implement the plan, Kresh pays a visit to the terraforming control system. The system consists of a unit, called Unit Dee, working with a non-sentient Settler unit, Unit Dum. Significant care must be taken to ensure that Dee does not learn the truth, Dee confirms that Davlos plan, if successful, stands a good chance of repairing Infernos ecology. The comet project is given the go-ahead and work commences to evacuate the areas near the impact site. On the way though, Simcors aircar is attacked, his robots killed. Kreshs robot Donald, who heard of this incident, is forced by the First Law to act and he contacts robots in the area, who begin performing a search, and tells Dee that she is being lied to about the simulation. This causes Dee to shut down, leaving the people on the ground with few options for the steering of the comet. Meanwhile, Devray tries to find Beddle and he tries putting money in the account mentioned in the demand and finds that it is automatically transferred to one of Gilderns accounts. Devray brings in Gildern, and also questions Fiyle, from whom he learns about Beddles plan to destroy the New Law robots, the three talk while in jail, and Caliban manages to deduce what has happened to Beddle and rushes off to save him. While flying there, Caliban sends out a message to tell the other robots that are searching to go back
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The Positronic Man
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The Positronic Man is a 1992 novel by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, based on Asimovs novelette The Bicentennial Man. It tells of a robot that begins to display characteristics, such as creativity, traditionally the province of humans, the film Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams, was based both on the original story and the novel. In the twenty-first century the creation of the brain leads to the development of robot laborers. Yet to the Martin family, their household robot NDR-113 is more than a mechanical servant, Andrew has become a trusted friend, a confidant, and a member of the Martin family. The story is told from the perspective of Andrew, an NDR-series robot owned by the Martin family, robots and Mechanical Men of leasing robots. Andrews initial experiences with the Martin family are replete with awkward moments which demonstrate his lack of socialization, however, he is much better with inanimate objects and animals and begins to display sentient characteristics traditionally the province of humans. He is taken off his mundane household duties, for which he was intended, succeeding generations of the Martin family assist him in his quest for humanity, but each is limited to what degree they are prepared to acknowledge Andrews humanity. In The Positronic Man, the trends of fictional robotics in Asimovs Robot series are detailed as background events, no more robots in Andrews line are developed. There is also a movement towards centralized processing, including centralized control of robots, only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to decay, thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he declared a human being. This event takes place on the anniversary of his creation, hence the title of the novella. This story is set within Asimovs Foundation universe, which includes his earlier Susan Calvin positronic robot tales. S
28.
The Caves of Steel
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The Caves of Steel is a novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is essentially a story, and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated. The book was first published as a serial in Galaxy magazine, a Doubleday hardcover followed in 1954. A television adaptation was made by the BBC and shown in 1964, in June 1989, the book was adapted by Bert Coules as a radio play for the BBC, with Ed Bishop as Elijah Baley and Sam Dastor as R. Daneel Olivaw. More recently, Akiva Goldsman has been hired to produce a movie, in this novel, Isaac Asimov introduces Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw, later his favorite protagonists. The Spacer worlds are rich, have low density. Meanwhile, Earth is overpopulated, and strict rules against robots have been passed, Asimov imagines the present days underground transit connected to malls and apartment blocks, until no one ever exits the domes, and most of the population suffer from extreme agoraphobia. Even though the Robot and Foundation series were not considered part of the fictional universe until much later. The books central crime is a murder, which takes place before the novel opens, the victim is Roj Nemmenuh Sarton, a Spacer Ambassador who lives in Spacetown, the Spacer outpost just outside New York City. For some time, he has tried to convince the Earth government to loosen its anti-robot restrictions, one morning, he is discovered outside his home, his chest imploded by an energy blaster. However, Earthmen would first need to overcome their antagonism of robots, to this end, they have established habitations on Earth through which they hope to introduce humanoid robots to Earth. New York City Police Commissioner Julius Enderby is secretly a member of the Medievalists, a subversive anti-robot group which pines for the olden days where men did not live in the caves of steel. He uses his position to engineer meetings with Spacer Dr. Sarton under the guise of further cooperation, furthermore, Daneel rules out Enderby as the murderer as his brain patterns show him incapable of deliberately killing. The novel follows Baley and Olivaw as Baley begins to suspect Olivaw but is proved wrong twice, Olivaw gradually learns more about Earth humans and starts to display curiosity in aspects of human behaviour and Earth technology. Baley is converted to the cause of spreading humanity throughout the galaxy, below is a list of all the major and minor characters in the book, in order of appearance, with plot detail. Elijah Lije Baley A plain-clothes police officer who works on Earth and he is called to solve the murder. Vince Barrett A young man whose job was taken over by R. Sammy, R. Sammy A robot assigned to the Police Department Julius Enderby New York Citys Commissioner of Police, who assigns Baley to the murder case. Jezebel Jessie Navodny Baley Baleys wife, Roj Nemennuh Sarton A spacer roboticist murdered with a blaster
29.
The Naked Sun
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The Naked Sun is an English-language science fiction novel, the second in Isaac Asimovs Robot series. Like its famous predecessor, The Caves of Steel, this is a whodunit story, the book was first published in 1957 after being serialized in Astounding Science Fiction between October and December 1956. He is again partnered with the humanoid robot R. Daneel Olivaw, the book focuses on the unusual traditions and culture of Solarian society. The planet has a rigidly controlled population of 20,000, people are taught from birth to avoid personal contact, and live on huge estates, either alone or with their spouse only. Face-to-face interaction, and especially impregnating a woman, when replacement of a decedent is necessary, was seen as unavoidable, in contrast, when viewing each other, they are free of modesty, and have no problem if an interlocutor sees the others naked body. For communication they use holography, then the subject of experiments by physicists, a two-way teleconference allowed the participants to hear and see each other, but in 3D, almost unheard of among the public at the time, for whom color television was a novelty. Baley insists on face to face conversations, traveling in a vehicle because of his own agoraphobia. Normally the prime suspect in a murder would have been Delmarres wife Gladia and she claims to have no memory of what happened, nor is there any sign of the object used to beat Rikaine Delmarre to death. The only witness is a house robot that has suffered damage to its positronic brain because it allowed harm to be done to a human. Baleys first encounter with Gladia is thru viewing, at which point he discovers that Solarians have no taboo about nudity when viewing, thereafter he develops a relationship with Gladia in face to face contact. She does not like all Solarian customs, and was on bad terms with Rikaine, the situation becomes more complex when Hannis Gruer, the Head of Security on Solaria, is poisoned while viewing with Baley. Baley, unable to intervene physically, has to call on Gruers robots to save him, Baley is able to prevent the house robots from cleaning up the scene, destroying evidence. He realizes that the thing happened after Delmarres death. Ultimately, it is revealed that Delmarres neighbor, roboticist Jothan Leebig, was working on putting positronic brains in spaceships. This would negate the First Law, as such ships would not recognize humans, Delmarre was one of his opponents, as were other Solarians who were horrified by the prospect of robots that could actually harm them. Leebig poisoned Gruer by tricking his robots, using his knowledge of positronic brains, Daneel goes to arrest Leebig, who kills himself in Solarian fear of human contact, not knowing that Daneel is a robot. It is assumed that he engineered the murder of Rikaine Delmarre. Baley conceals Gladias role on the grounds that her emotional breakdown was under the pressure of the Solarian way of life, Leebig had instructed the Delmarre house robots to detach an arm and give it to Gladia in the heat of an argument
30.
The Robots of Dawn
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The Robots of Dawn is a whodunit science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1983. It is the novel in Asimovs Robot series. It was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1984, Jander Panell, a humaniform robot identical to R. Daneel Olivaw, has been destroyed by a mental block. The robots inventor, Han Fastolfe, has admitted that he is the person with the skill to have done this. Fastolfe is also a prominent member of the Auroran political faction that favors Earth, wherefore, en route to Aurora, Baley again is partnered with R. Daneel Olivaw, and introduced to R. Giskard Reventlov. On Aurora, he interviews Gladia Delmarre, R. Janders former owner, following that, Baley interviews Santirix Gremionis, an Auroran who, with both Gladia and Vasilia, committed the Auroran taboo of offering himself repeatedly after rejection. Gremionis denies involvement in the murder, and says he has reported Baley to the Chairman for slander, but realizes, upon questioning, on the way from the interview with Amadiro, Baleys airfoil is forced to stop. The air compressor has been sabotaged, Baley, suspecting Amadiro, orders Daneel and Giskard to flee. When several robots catch up with the car and question Baley, Baley tells them that he ordered Daneel back to the Robotics Institute, Baley flees the car into the thunderstorm outside, where his agoraphobia renders him unconscious. He is recovered by Gladia and Giskard, and taken to Gladias house, while logically consistent, Baleys unsupported accusation cannot stand against a formal denial by an Auroran as prominent and respected as Amadiro. Amadiro says he may have heard it from someone, but cannot remember whom, Baley then states that only one Auroran could have told Amadiro about the relationship, Jander himself. Then, he gives the solution to the mystery, that in Gladias absence, Daneel was part of Fastolfes establishment, and thus well guarded, but Jander was at the house of the much less skilled Gladia, thus questioning him for reverse engineering purposes was much easier. Gremionis was encouraged to court Gladia because they tended to take walks together. The sabotage to the car was intended to capture Daneel and complete the analysis, when Baley states that these experiments might have accidentally led to Janders deactivation, Amadiro snaps and inadvertently admits he was working with Jander. Baley, however, confronts Giskard, who admits that Vasilia unknowingly gave him telepathic abilities during experiments, using knowledge derived from Han Fastolfes mind, Giskard shut down Jander, to thwart Amadiros attempt to build humaniform robots. Giskard allows Baley to retain knowledge of his abilities, but prevents him from revealing the secret, below is a list of all the major and minor characters in the book, in order of appearance, with plot detail. Elijah Baley A Plainclothesman who works on Earth and he is called to solve the case on Aurora. Gladia A woman Baley met on Solaria, who is now living on Aurora and she borrowed from Fastolfe the now-destroyed Jander Panell
31.
Prelude to Foundation
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Prelude to Foundation is a novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1988. It is one of two prequels to the Foundation series, for the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psychohistory and the intellectual hero of the series. The novel was nominated for the Locus Award, prelude to Foundation is set in the year 12,020 G. E. during the rocky reign of the Emperor Cleon I. It starts with Seldons presentation of a paper at a mathematics convention detailing how practical use of psychohistory might theoretically make it possible to predict the future, the Emperor of the Galactic Empire learns of this and wants to use Seldon for political gain. He is taken by Hummin to Streeling University, one of the top ranked of the Empire, Hari and Dors narrowly evade capture at Streeling University, and Hummin arranges for them to be sheltered in the reclusive Mycogen sector, which supposedly values its ancient history. Seldon and Venabili are welcomed by Sunmaster Fourteen, the leader of Mycogen, Seldon and Venabili face execution when Seldon insists on entering the Mycogenian temple, the Sacratorium, in disguise in hopes of interviewing a robot supposed housed there. They are easily detected, but Hummin arrives in the nick of time to save them, the action then shifts to the Dahl sector, where Seldon and Venabili rent rooms from a middle-class family. While in Dahl, they meet a guttersnipe named Raych, whom Seldon later adopts. Also in Dahl, they are told by an old woman that the Aurora of the Mycogenians is not the original world. Towards the end of the novel, Seldon, Venabili, and Raych are kidnapped and taken to Rashelle, the Mayor of Wye, Rashelle and her father have long been plotting to overthrow the Emperor and take his place. Seldon has the revelation that he could to try to develop psychohistory using Trantor itself as a test case because of the cultural diversity of its sectors. Rashelle launches her coup attempt, but it quickly collapses due to Demerzels skillful subversion of Wyes forces, the finale reveals that Hummin is actually Eto Demerzel. Seldon then gets Demerzel to admit he is a robot, Demerzel is in fact R. Daneel Olivaw and he wants the development of psychohistory to help him better protect humanity, as per The Zeroth Law Of Robotics. Seldon also suspects that Venabili is a robot, too and this theme would later be picked up in Forward the Foundation. Below is a list of all the major and minor characters in the book, in order of appearance, Hari Seldon is the protagonist of the story. He develops the theory of psychohistory, Cleon I is the Emperor of the Galactic Empire, who lives on Trantor. Eto Demerzel, First Minister to the Emperor, is sly, has connections everywhere, Chetter Hummin is a reporter who helps Seldon numerous times, setting him up at various sectors to avoid Imperial detection. Dors Venabili is a professor at the University recruited by Hummin to protect Seldon
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Forward the Foundation
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Forward the Foundation is a novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published posthumously in 1993. It is the second of two prequels to the Foundation Series and it is written in much the same style as the original novel Foundation, a novel composed of chapters with long intervals in between. Both books were first published as independent short stories in science fiction magazines, critics such as Josh Wimmer and Alasdair Wilkins have regarded many of the opinions and viewpoints expressed by Seldon in this book as autobiographical. Thus, a reading of Forward the Foundation can shed light on Asimovs inner thoughts at the end of his life. Like other previous science fiction works by Asimov, the book was a commercial success, Forward the Foundation continues the chronicles of the life of Hari Seldon, first begun in Prelude to Foundation. The story takes place on Trantor, and begins eight years after the events of Prelude to Foundation and it depicts how Seldon develops his theory of psychohistory from hypothetical concept to practical application. After the Emperor is assassinated, a military junta takes over for a disastrous decade, Seldon steps down from his government position and resumes leadership of the psychohistory project. Gradually, Seldon loses all those who are close to him, Seldons consort Dors is killed in an internal plot by an ambitious member of Seldons own group. His adopted son Raych emigrates with his wife and a daughter to Santanni, yugo Amaryl, the second best psychohistory researcher, dies in middle age, worn out by his work. Except for his granddaughter Wanda, Seldon is alone in his fight to keep the project going in the face of the Galactic Empires accelerating decline, Wanda turns out to be what Seldon calls a mentalic, someone who can read minds and actually influence people. They are able to find a few other mentalics, enabling Seldon to set up a second guardian for the Seldon Plan, eventually, he sends Wanda and the others to another star system to establish the Second Foundation in secret. While the public First Foundation concentrates on the sciences, the hidden Seconds psychohistorians will develop the mental ones
33.
Foundation (Asimov novel)
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Foundation is the first novel in Isaac Asimovs Foundation Trilogy. Foundation is a cycle of five interrelated short stories, first published as a book by Gnome Press in 1951. Collectively they tell the story of the Foundation, an institute to preserve the best of galactic civilization after the collapse of the Galactic Empire. Four of the five stories had been published in Astounding Magazine between 1942 and 1944, and a fifth story was added when they first appeared in book form. The original four stories appeared in 1955 as part of Ace Doubles novel series as D-110 under the title The 1. Two further books, each consisting of two novellas, were published shortly after, decades later, Asimov wrote two further sequel novels and two prequels. Later writers have added authorized tales to the series, the Foundation Series is often regarded as one of Isaac Asimovs best works, along with his Robot series. The Psychohistorians opens on Trantor, the capital of the 12, though the empire appears stable and powerful, it is slowly decaying in ways that parallel the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Using psychohistory, Seldon has discovered the nature of the Empire, angering the aristocratic members of the Committee of Public Safety. The Committee considers Seldons views and statements treasonous, and he is arrested along with young mathematician Gaal Dornick, the skeptical Committee, not wanting to make Seldon a martyr, offers him exile to a remote world, Terminus, with others who could help him create the Encyclopedia. He accepts their offer, prepares for the departure of the Encyclopedists, the Encyclopedists begins on Terminus, which has almost no mineral resources but one region suitable for the development of a large city, named Terminus City. The affairs of Terminus City itself are handled by the citys first Mayor, Salvor Hardin, Hardin succeeds in diverting Anacreon from its initial goal and furthers his goal of the establishment of a stable political system on Terminus. Hardins efforts, however, are still resisted by the Board of Trustees and its chairman, the next day in the Time Vault the holographic video of Hari Seldon in his wheelchair appears. He reveals that the Encyclopedia Galactica is actually a distraction intended to make the creation possible. The true purpose of the Foundation is to form one nucleus of a Second Galactic Empire and shorten the period of chaos to a mere thousand years. After the video ends, the Encyclopedists admit, to Hardin, to having been wrong, Hardin knew that this victory would give him the leverage he needed to gain significant power and thus assume actual government by removing the figurehead status from his Mayoral office. He also knew that Anacreons forces would be arriving soon to take the Foundation. Salvor Hardin had guessed the solution, and as Hari Seldon said, exercising its control over the region through an artificial religion, Scientism, the Foundation shares its technology with the Four Kingdoms while referring to it as religious truth
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Foundation and Empire
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Foundation and Empire is a novel written by Isaac Asimov that was published by Gnome Press in 1952. It is the book published in the Foundation Series. It takes place in two halves, originally published as separate novellas, the second part, The Mule, won a Retro Hugo Award in 1996. Foundation and Empire saw multiple publications—it also appeared in 1955 as Ace Double D-125 under the title The Man Who Upset the Universe, the stories comprising this volume were originally published in Astounding Magazine in 1945. Foundation and Empire was the book in the Foundation trilogy. Decades later, Asimov wrote two sequel novels and two prequels. Later writers have added authorized tales to the series, the Foundation Series is often regarded as one of Isaac Asimovs best works, along with his Robot series. The first half of the book, titled The General, tells how the experienced General Bel Riose of the Galactic Empire launches an attack against the Foundation. The Empire still retains far more resources and personnel than the Foundation, in their attempts to contact the emperor, Devers and Barr attract the attention of Trantor law enforcement and are forced to flee the planet. In the end, the emperor decides that Riose is a threat to his status and to the balance of the Empire, afterwards, members of the Foundation attempt to analyze the struggle for power between generals and emperors within the old Empire using the principles of psychohistory. The characters of Emperor Cleon II and Bel Riose in this story are based on those of the historical Roman Emperor Justinian I, the General was first published in the April 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction under the title Dead Hand. The second half of the book, titled The Mule, takes approximately one hundred years after the first half. The Empire has ceased to exist, Trantor has undergone The Great Sack, having been sacked by a barbarian fleet, most of the Galaxy has split into barbaric kingdoms. The Empire itself has entered into a more rapid phase of decline. The Foundation has become the dominant power in the galaxy, controlling its regions through its trading network, the leadership of the Foundation has become dictatorial and complacent, and many outer planets belonging to the Traders plan to revolt. An external threat arises in the form of a man who is known only as the Mule. The Mule is a mutant, and possesses the ability to sense and manipulate the emotions of others and he uses this ability to take over the independent systems bordering the Foundation, and has them wage a war against it. In face of this new threat, the provincial Traders join with the central Foundation leaders against the Mule, as the Mule advances the Foundations leaders assume that Seldon predicted this attack, and that the scheduled hologram crisis message appearance of Seldon will again tell them how to win
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Second Foundation
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Second Foundation is the third novel published of the Foundation Series by American writer Isaac Asimov, and the fifth in the in-universe chronology. It was first published in 1953 by Gnome Press, Second Foundation consists of two previously published novellas originally published in Astounding Magazine between 1948 and 1950, making this the third volume in Asimovs Foundation series. Decades later, Asimov wrote two sequel novels and two prequels. Later writers have added authorized tales to the series, the Foundation series is often regarded as one of Isaac Asimovs best works, along with his Robot series. The term also describes the organization by name which is the focus of the book. The organizations existence had been revealed in Foundation, searched for in Foundation and Empire and it would not be described in detail until Foundations Edge. Part I, Search By the Mule is about The Mules search for the elusive Second Foundation, the executive council of the Second Foundation is aware of The Mules intent and, in the words of the First Speaker, allows him to find it—in a sense. Channis reveals his suspicions about the Second Foundation being located on the planet Tazenda and they first land on Rossem, a barren planet controlled by Tazenda, and meet with its governor, who appears ordinary. Once they return to the ship, Pritcher confronts Channis and believes him to have been too successful with the search, the Mule, who had placed a hyper-relay on their ship in order to trace them through hyper-space, appears, and reveals that Channis is a Second Foundationer. Pritchers emotional bonds to the Mule are broken in the exchange between Channis and the Mule, and is euthanized. With only the two of them left, the Mule reveals that he has brought his ships to Tazenda and has destroyed the planet. He forces Channis to reveal that Rossem is actually the Second Foundation, Second Foundation agents are headed to Kalgan and the Foundation worlds to undo the Conversions of the Mule, and his fleet is too far away to prevent it. Search by the Mule was originally published in the January 1948 issue of Astounding Science Fiction under the title Now You See It—, part II, Search By the Foundation takes place 60 years after the first part,55 years after the Mules death by natural causes. Foundationists and many believe that the Second Foundations protection guarantees the success of the Seldon Plan despite crises. The ensuing war is won by the Foundation, and is listed in the Encyclopedia Galactica as the last major conflict before the rise of the Second Empire. Some Foundationists, however, distrust the Second Foundation and its members Mule-like mental powers, after inventing a device that can jam telepathic abilities and cause telepaths great pain, the Foundation finds and kills about 50 telepaths on Terminus. The planet, the capital of the Foundation, is on the edge of the Milky Way, since, as Arkady Darell puts it, a circle has no end, then by tracing the disc of the galaxy around its edge, one would come back to Terminus. The Foundationists believe that, with the Second Foundation destroyed, the Seldon Plan will proceed without interference from telepaths, the Second Foundation is actually located on Trantor—the former capital of the Galactic Empire—in the center of the galaxy
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Foundation's Edge
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Foundations Edge is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the Foundation Series. It was his first novel to ever land on The New York Times best-seller list, Foundations Edge won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1983, and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1982. Golan Trevize, a officer of the Navy and now a member of Council. He attempts to question the existence of the Seldon Plan during a Council session. So, she orders Trevize to leave Terminus to search for the Second Foundation, as a cover, he is to be accompanied by Janov Pelorat, a professor of Ancient History and mythologist, who is interested in the location of Earth, the fabled homeworld of humanity. They are provided a highly advanced computer-controlled gravitic ship with which to carry out their mission, Branno also sends out Munn Li Compor in another similar vessel to follow and monitor Trevize. Indeed, the Second Foundation still does exist, but rather than being in control, as the First Foundation fears. Gendibal concludes that Trevize is a lightning rod sent out to locate and his ideas are not well received by the other Speakers, but he has the support of Shandess. Trevize never intends to go to Trantor, believing that, once at the famous huge Galactic Library there, Trevize and Pelorat discuss Pelorats interest in Earth and its legends, and Trevize realizes that Seldons phrase at the other end of the Galaxy could mean Earth. His logic was that at the time of Hari Seldon, Terminus was the last planet to be inhabited and, by definition, however, there is no planet named Earth in the galactic table of planets. Pelorat, through his previous research, established characteristics that Earth must have, a 24-hour day, a 365-day year, once again no planet on file has these characteristics, but the galactic table of planets is missing a lot of information about a lot of planets. He mentions having heard of a planet called Gaia, whose name he discovered to mean Earth in some ancient language. Its exact coordinates are unknown, but it is known to be somewhere in the Sayshell Sector, Trevize decides that they must go there to follow up on this lead. He believes this to be the Anti-Mules and that they have an agenda with the Second Foundation as their unwitting pawn. Gendibal and Novi are sent to track Trevize and to determine the goals of the Anti-Mules, on Sayshell, Trevize and Pelorat meet a scholar called Professor Quintesetz, who is able to give them the co-ordinates to the mysterious planet known as Gaia. Gendibal is met by a First Foundation warship, commanded by Mayor Branno, as Gendibals mental powers stalemate with Mayor Brannos force shield, Novi reveals herself as an agent of Gaia. Once she joins the stalemate, the three are locked until Trevize can join them, bliss explains to Trevize that he had been led to Gaia so that his untouched mind, a mind with remarkable intuition, can decide the galaxys fate. Trevize decides upon Gaia, and through mental adjustments, Gaia makes Branno and Gendibal believe they have won minor victories, and that Gaia does not exist
37.
Foundation and Earth
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Foundation and Earth is a Locus Award-nominated science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series. It was published in 1986, four years after the first sequel to the Foundation trilogy, several centuries after the events of Second Foundation, two citizens of the Foundation seek to find Earth, the legendary planet where humans are said to have originated. Even less is known about Earth than was the case in Foundation, the story follows on from Foundations Edge, but can be read as a complete work in itself. Councilman Golan Trevize, historian Janov Pelorat, and Blissenobiarella of the planet Gaia set out on a journey to find humanitys ancestral planet—Earth. The purpose of the journey is to settle Trevizes doubt of his decision, at the end of Foundations Edge, first, they visit Comporellon, which claims to be the oldest currently inhabited planet in the galaxy. Upon arrival, they are imprisoned, but negotiate their way out, while there, a historian gives them the coordinates of three Spacer planets, surmised to be fairly close to Earth. The first Spacer planet they visit is Aurora, where Trevize is nearly killed by a pack of wild dogs and they escape when Bliss manipulates the dogs emotions to psychologically compel a retreat, while Trevize uses his neuronic whip on them. They have also given themselves a natural ability to channel great amounts of energy. The Solarians intentionally avoid ever having to interact with other, except by holographic apparatus. Bliss, Pelorat, and Trevize are nearly killed by the Solarian Sarton Bander, the crew now visit Melpomenia, the third and final Spacer coordinate they have, where the atmosphere has become reduced to a few thousandths of normal atmospheric pressure. Wearing space suits, they enter a library, and find a plaque listing the names and coordinates of all fifty Spacer worlds. On the way back to the ship, they notice a moss has begun to grow around the seals of their space suits, thus, they are able to eradicate the moss with a blaster and heavy UV-illumination so that no spores are unintentionally carried off the planet. They then plot the Spacer worlds on the map, which form a rough sphere. This area turns out to have a star system. They arrive on Alpha Centauri, which is all ocean except for an island 250 km long and 65 km wide on which live a small group of humans. The natives appear friendly, but secretly intend to kill the visitors with a microbiological agent, to prevent them from informing the rest of the galaxy of their existence. They are warned to escape before the agent can be activated, there, they find R. Daneel continues to explain that human internal warfare or parochialism was the reason for his causing the creation of psychohistory and Gaia. Trevize then confirms his decision that the creation of Galaxia is the correct choice, orson Scott Card remarked favorably on the novel, noting that it was all talk, no action -- but Asimovs talk is action
38.
Lucky Starr series
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Not to be confused with Lucky Star. Lucky Starr is the hero of a series of fiction books by Isaac Asimov, using the pen name Paul French. On 23 March 1951, Asimov met with his agent, Frederik Pohl, Bradbury, then the science fiction editor at Doubleday & Co. who had a proposal for him. Pohl and Bradbury wanted Asimov to write a science fiction novel that would serve as the basis for a television series. Fearing that the novel would be adapted into the uniformly awful programming he saw flooding the television channels, Asimov began work on the novel, David Starr, Space Ranger, on 10 June. He completed it on 29 July, and it was published by Doubleday in January 1952, although plans for the television series fell through, Asimov continued to write novels in the series, eventually producing six. A seventh, Lucky Starr and the Snows of Pluto, was planned, with no worries about being associated with an embarrassing televised version, Asimov decided to abandon the pretense that he was not the author. He brought the Three Laws of Robotics into Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury, eventually, Asimov used his own name in later editions. Some cover pages bear his name only, while others credit Isaac Asimov writing as Paul French and these novels have a long and varied publishing history. They came out in hardcover with Doubleday in its first edition, Bantam was the latest, in 1993, to bring out the series in 3 volumes, publishing pairs of titles together. In 2001 the Science Fiction Book Club came out all six novels at the same time in one volume under the title The Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr. The British editions of all six novels omitted the prefixes altogether and were titled Space Ranger, Oceans of Venus, the first book was translated to French in 1954 under the title Sur la planète rouge with the original pseudonym, Paul French. It was published in the Anticipation science fiction imprint of Fleuve noir and it was later adapted as a comic book twice, in 1975 and 1992. Three books were published in Dutch. Fawcett 1982 ISBN 0-449-23461-4 Science fiction Book club ISBN 0-7394-1941-2 Bantam ISBN 0-553-29166-1 Lucky Starr series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
39.
David Starr, Space Ranger
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David Starr, Space Ranger is the first novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was written between 10 June and 29 July 1951 and first published by Doubleday & Company in January 1952, since 1971, reprints have included an introduction by Asimov explaining that advancing knowledge of conditions on Mars have rendered some of the novels descriptions of that world inaccurate. David Starr, Space Ranger introduces the setting and the main characters. The novel is set around A. D.7,000, the most powerful organization in the Solar System is the Council of Science, which suppresses threats to the Systems people. On Mars, Starr meets John Bigman Jones, a pugnacious 5-foot, when his former boss Hennes orders Jones out of the Farm Employment Building, Starr intervenes, and gains positions for both himself and Bigman. Hennes subsequently has Starr and Bigman stunned, Benson suggests also that intelligent native Martians living below the planets surface are poisoning the food in order to drive humanity from Mars, possibly through bacterial infection. Makian offers to let Starr join a survey of the farmlands, Bigman warns him that Hennes will attack him during the survey, but when Starr decides to take part anyway, Bigman joins him. He then confronts Griswold, who in the falls into the crevasse. The next day, Benson makes Starr his assistant, to him from Hennes. When Bigman receives his references from Hennes and takes his leave, Bigman agrees, then admits that he has recognized the pretended Williams as David Starr of the Council of Science. When Starr meets Bigman that night outside the dome, he reveals that he believes in Bensons Martians, and that the crevasse into which Griswold fell is an entrance to their caverns. They give Starr the name Space Ranger, because he travels through space, after Benson leaves, another of Hennes minions tries to shoot Starr. Later, Hennes accuses Starr of poisoning the food, Bigman enters with Dr. Silvers of the Council of Science, who announces that the government has declared a System Emergency and that the Council will take control of all the farms on Mars. If the mystery is not solved by the time the deadline expires, all Martian food exports to Earth will stop, Starr arranges with Silvers to be publicly removed from the Makian farm, then allowed to secretly return. Disguised by his mask, he confronts Hennes, who blinds himself firing a blaster at him, Starr searches Hennes and, once undisguised, persuades Silvers to meet with Makian, Hennes and Benson the next day. At the meeting, Starr appears in disguise and reveals that Benson poisoned the food while pretending to take samples of it, following Bensons confession, Bigman reveals that despite the disguise of the Martian mask, he recognized Starr by his uniquely colorless black-and-white boots. As John H. Jenkins has noted, Asimovs novels typically are set either on Earth, the major exceptions to this rule are the Lucky Starr novels, all of which take place among the familiar worlds of the Solar System. David Starr, Space Ranger is the only Asimov novel set on Mars, the Martian atmosphere is one-fifth as dense as Earths and is unbreathable by humans due to lack of oxygen
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Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids
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The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in November 1953. A year has passed since the events in David Starr, Space Ranger, because Starr harbors a personal dislike of the pirates for their murder of his parents, he sneaks aboard the Atlas to take revenge. When captured, Starr tells the leader, Captain Anton, that his name is Williams. Starr wins the duel, but remains a prisoner aboard Atlas while it is brought to an anonymous asteroid, the asteroid is home to a hermit named Joseph Patrick Hansen, and the pirates leave Starr in Hansens care. Starr admits his identity, and Hansen convinces him to pilot them to Ceres. On Ceres, Starr plans to send his friend Bigman to infiltrate the pirates, Starr and Bigman take their own spaceship Shooting Starr to search for it and eventually land on its surface, where Starr is captured by Dingo, the pirate he beat in the duel. Dingo takes him inside the asteroid, revealing a hyperatomic engine used to move it, a fight with Dingo ends when Starr is struck with a neuronic whip and loses consciousness. Starr wakes to find himself in a spacesuit on the surface of the asteroid, whereupon Dingo straps him to a catapult and he uses his oxygen reserve to reverse his course and return to the asteroid, where he and Bigman defeat some of the pirates. As they leave the asteroid, they learn that a pirate fleet is attacking Ceres. Although Anton has a 12-hour head start, Starr passes him to Ganymede by skimming the Shooting Starr past the Sun, wearing the Martian Space Ranger mask to ward off the heat and radiation. When Anton makes for Ganymede, Starr threatens to ram his ship, the ships are ten miles apart when Hansen kills Anton and orders Antons crew to surrender to Starr. It is then revealed that while Starr was intercepting Antons ship, writing in The New York Times, Sidney Lohman praised Pirates as grand science fiction for all ages. Reviewer Groff Conklin described the novel as almost entirely conceived in the straight gee-whiz adventure technique that is the pattern for teenage adventure stories. Astounding reviewer P. Schuyler Miller described it as fast-moving space opera of a type we all know, Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids is a transitional novel in the Lucky Starr series. The novel also contains the first hints of an overpopulated Earth facing the hostility of the worlds of the Galaxy. From Chapter 6, The food was good, but strange and it was yeast-base material, the kind only the Terrestrial Empire produced. Nowhere else in the Galaxy was the pressure of population so great, the billions of people so numerous, that yeast culture had been developed. This was the seed of the background Asimov would create for his novel, The Caves of Steel
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Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
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Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus is the third novel in the Lucky Starr series, six juvenile science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1954, since 1972, reprints have included a foreword by Asimov explaining that advancing knowledge of conditions on Venus have rendered the novels descriptions of that world inaccurate. I had to rewrite in such a way as to things from the reader in a subtler fashion. Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus was written in the mid-1950s, when little was known about Venus apart from its mass, volume, orbital characteristics, asimovs Venus has a human population of six million living in some fifty domed cities on the ocean floor. The largest Venusian city is Aphrodite, with a population of a quarter million, the chief exports are fertilizer made from the native vegetation, and animal feed derived from cultivated yeast. Afterwards, the pilots have no memory of the event, upon reaching the Venusian city of Aphrodite, Starr and Bigman meet Dr. Morriss believes they are being telepathically controlled by an unknown enemy. Evans was sent to Venus to investigate, but was found with stolen data concerning a secret strain of yeast, when Starr confronts him, Evans admits to having stolen the data, but refuses to explain further. While Starr is questioning him, word reaches them that a man is threatening to open an outside airlock, which will allow the ocean to flood Aphrodite. Starr, Bigman, and Morriss go to the airlock to deal with the crisis, where they meet the chief engineer, Lyman Turner. Evans further reveals that the V-frogs have trapped himself and the other protagonists beneath an enormous deep-sea orange patch, Starr, in response, leaves the submarine and uses an electric shock to destroy the orange patchs heart, killing it. He then returns to the submarine, and pilots this to the surface of the ocean, on the surface, the V-frogs communicate telepathically with him, telling him they intend to take over the minds of the humans on Venus. Initially they keep him away from the radio, but he is able to distract them, Bigman destroys the computer and Starr captures Turner, hoping to re-create his computer in the interest of reforming Turner himself. In Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus, Asimov returned to a theme of his work — the use of mental powers to influence or control the actions of others. As far back as Half-Breeds on Venus in 1940, Asimov was writing about telepathic Venusians mentally controlling a native sauropod. The character of the Mule from the 1945 Foundation story of the same name, later, Asimov would introduce the mind-reading robot R. Giskard Reventlov in the 1983 novel The Robots of Dawn, and the telepathic world-entity Erythro in the 1989 novel Nemesis. Asimovs science-fictional mentor, John W. Asimov also created a number of creatures to populate his Venusian ocean. Asimovs works usually centered on the interactions of sentient beings, usually humans or robots, or occasionally intelligent aliens, with his fictional worlds serving only as backdrops. In his anthology Before the Golden Age, Asimov wrote that Oceans of Venus was an imitation of the spirit of Weinbaums 1935 story Parasite Planet
