Foundation’s Fear
{4.5/5} “Hari felt in his soul that unpredictability was bad — for humanity, for his mathematics. But it was inescapable. This was the secret the Emperor and others must never know. That until he could rule chaos — or at least peer into it — psychohistory was a fraud.”
Foundation’s Fear by Gregory Benford, published in 1997
Emperor Cleon has asked Hari Seldon to be First Minister but the Council has other things to worry about first. Seldon is trying to perfect psychohistory. He thinks some sims might help, but they’re illegal. People he’s working with have sims of Joan of Arc and Voltaire — who think they’re real people on Earth of the past.
I found the parts with Joan and Voltaire slightly less interesting than the parts with Hari and Dors. The former parts sometimes felt like a bit of a detour, and they were a bit science-y.
On the other hand, the parts with Hari and Dors were delightful, and felt like a Foundation story. I loved when they downloaded their brains into chimpanzees.
This is the 1st book of Benford’s that I’ve read.
I previously reviewed Forward the Foundation.