The base trilogy is huge, except for E.E. in the early 1930s. Outside Smith and before Asimov, no one dared to care about such a masterpiece. Smith's "Crystal Man" series published in popular magazines in 1930s was also written in the form of short stories, but Asimov's works far exceeded it.

The galactic empire has a long history of 12 thousand years, but now a mathematician has made an amazing prediction: the empire is about to fall apart, and the whole galaxy is doomed to ruin, and the dark period will last for 30 thousand years!

Issa kasimov (1920- 1992) is a Russian-American Jewish writer, a super master of science fiction literature in this century, and a world-famous all-round popular writer. Ai Shi, whose works are transcendental, writes everything, but his sci-fi novels, especially his sci-fi epic "Base", which he has been running for half a century, are still his heartfelt love, both for himself and for loyal readers all over the world.

The seven-volume series of Base includes the trilogy of Base in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as two prequels and two sequels written by Ai in his later years. According to the sequence of the stories, the complete bibliography is as follows: Prelude to the Base, Trilogy to the Base, Base and Empire, and Second Base, and sequels to the Edge of the Base and Base and Earth, among which the trilogy consists of nine short stories, and Walking to the Base includes four novellas (due to the sudden death of Ai, the first in the plan)

The inspiration of the base series originated from the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, so the exhausted galactic empire occupies a very heavy weight in the story structure. This space-time background has already become an important prototype of science fiction.

"psychohistory" is the central fantasy factor of this epic, and the most important figure running through it is naturally hari seldon, the master of psychohistory and the father of the base. In the trilogy, Seldon is already a legend without a head. Therefore, the author takes his later years as the protagonist, and describes Seldon's life and the establishment of psychohistory and the base in detail with two prequels. Intriguingly, in his later years, Asimov seems to agree with this figure more and more, and he really has a far-sighted compassion and care for human civilization like Seldon.

"If you are not a hundred years old, you are always worried that you are a thousand years old", which is the best portrayal of the master's mind.

Dr. Asimov reads widely and never works behind closed doors. His scientific fantasy is somewhat unique. For example, psychohistory is a synthesis of gas movement theory (physics), popular psychology (psychology), historical determinism and group dynamics theory (history); The "Seldon Crisis" that stimulates the base to grow sturdily is based on the theory of "Challenge and Response" of the historical philosopher Tomby.

Because the factors affecting human behavior are too complicated and human beings have free will, personal behavior is absolutely unpredictable. However, when many individuals gather in groups, they will show some laws, just as gas must follow the laws deduced by statistical methods on the macro scale. Ai's popularization of these facts, with the help of Seldon, a rare genius in his works, made psychohistory develop into a superb realm and become an abstruse science to explore the macro trend of the future world.

Through psychohistory's second vision, Seldon foresaw the tragic future of mankind: the galactic empire, which is in full swing, will go to extinction step by step, and the whole galaxy will experience a wild and tragic anarchy for 30,000 years, before another unified "second empire" will emerge.

If the above development can't be changed at all, since everything is doomed, there is nothing dramatic. The story is fascinating because Seldon further discovered that although it was too late to stop the collapse of the empire, it was still possible to shorten this long transition period. So Seldon began to turn the tide and turn Gankun around, trying to shorten the turbulent years of 30,000 years to 1000. In order to achieve this goal, he spent the rest of his life building two strongholds for scientists: the first base (referred to as "base", composed of physical scientists)

And the second base (hidden behind the Milky Way stage, composed of psychohistory's family).

After special calculation, the positions of the two bases are located at "the two distant ends of confrontation in the Milky Way" (if this sentence is mysterious, the book "The Second Base" will be derived). In the next thousand years, many preset historical events will occur one after another, thus promoting the early realization of a stronger, more stable and better Second Empire. The main line of the base series is how the first base overcomes one periodic crisis after another and stimulates infinite potential; How can the second base help each other in the dark, so as to gradually realize the Millennium Seldon Plan?

However, "Qi Zheng" is the master's specialty. In a given plot, he always has a way to write variations again, which makes readers sigh that people are not as good as heaven. One of the variations of the trilogy is the emergence of a heterogeneous "mule" with strong spiritual power for no reason, which swept the whole galaxy with lightning speed; Variation 2: After the "Mule Chaos" became history, the two bases fought!

The trilogy ends at the end of the second variation, leaving an open ending. Thirty years later, under the long-awaited appeal of sci-fi fans all over the world, Asimov resumed the base series, and his sequel was the third change.

This change is amazing, even the Seldon plan has been subverted! But only through this last variation, Base and Robot (another important sci-fi series of Ai, including four novels and more than 30 short stories).

Only in this way can they echo each other from a distance, and the two series can be integrated into a seamless whole and become a future history of the Milky Way with a distance of 20,000 years and a vertical and horizontal length of10,000 light years.

(Originally published in the May issue of Vision magazine 1998)

Basic series general catalogue

Base prequel

Base overture

Chapter 1 Mathematicians

Chapter II Escape

Chapter III Universities

Chapter IV Library

Chapter v above

Chapter VI Relief

Chapter VII Mai Qusheng

Chapter VIII Japanese lords

Chapter 9 Micro-farm

Chapter X Ancient Books and Records

Chapter 11 The First Temple

Chapter 12 Elder Pavilion

Chapter 13 Hot Lu

Chapter 14 Umbilical eye

Chapter 15 Underground Organization

Chapter 16 Police officers

Chapter 17 He Wei

Chapter 18 Subversion

Chapter 19 Doris

Toward the bottom

The first article, Itu Damocles

The second article Cleon I

The third article Doris Vannabiri

The fourth article Wanda Seldon

The fifth article hari seldon

(Note: This article is after the first article in Base)

Base trilogy "Base"

The first article psychohistory's home

The editor of the second encyclopedia

The third mayor

The fourth article Shang Hong

The fifth commercial prince

Base and imperial wedge

First general

Chapter 1 Looking for a magician

Chapter II Magician

Chapter III Ghost Hands

Chapter IV The Emperor

Chapter v end of the war

Chapter VI minions

Chapter VII Bribery

Chapter VIII Sailing for Sichuan Tuo

Chapter 9 Sichuan Tuo

Chapter 10 The Last Battle

The second mule

Chapter 1 XI Bride and Groom

Chapter XII Captain and Mayor

Chapter 13 The Captain and the Clown

Chapter 14 Mutation Heterogeneity

Chapter 15 Psychologists

Chapter XVI General Assembly

Chapter 17 Acousto-optic Piano

Chapter 18 Base Fall

Chapter 19 Looking for the beginning

Chapter 20 Rebels

Chapter 21 Starry episode

Chapter 22 Soul Broken New Sichuan Tuo

Chapter 23 Chuantuo Site

Chapter XXIV Revolver

Chapter 25 The death of a psychologist

Chapter 26 Finding the End Point

Second base wedge

The first article is looking for mules.

Chapter 1 Two Men and a Mule

first episode

Chapter II Two People Without Mules

Second set

Chapter III Two People and Farmers

Episode 3

The fourth chapter two people and their elders

The fourth episode

Chapter V A Man and a Mule

Chapter 6 The last episode of a man, a mule and a third party

The second article is looking for a base.

Chapter VII Ai Jia TIA

Chapter VIII Seldon Plan

Chapter IX Conspiracy

Chapter 10 is imminent

Chapter 11 stowaways

Chapter XII Command

Chapter 13 Lady

Chapter 14 Worried

Chapter 15 Highlight the tight encirclement

Chapter XVI End of War

Chapter 17 War

Chapter 18 Ghost World

Chapter 19 The Last Battle

Chapter 20 "I know ┅ ┅"

Chapter 21 Satisfied answers

Chapter 22 The real answer

Basic sequel "Basic Edge" Wedge

Chapter I Members of Parliament

Chapter II Mayor

Chapter III Historians

Chapter IV Space

Chapter V Speakers

Chapter VI Earth

Chapter VII Farmers

Chapter VIII Peasant Women

Chapter 9 Hyperspace

Chapter X Round Table

Chapter 11 Cecil

Chapter 12 Agents

Chapter 13 University

Chapter 14 Forward!

Chapter 15 Gaia Yang

Chapter 16 Focus

Chapter 17 Gaia

Chapter 18 Collision

Chapter 19 Choice

Chapter 20 Ending

Base and Earth

The first article Gaia star

The first chapter to find the beginning

The second chapter is the first journey of Campolong.

The second article Kang Fuxing

Chapter III Entering the Space Station

Chapter iv camplong

Chapter V The Battle of Spaceships

Chapter VI The Real Face of the Earth

Chapter VII Farewell to Kan Bronn

The third article Aurora Star

Chapter VIII Taboo World

Chapter 9 Facing wild dogs

The fourth article solari Yaxing

Chapter 10 Robots

Chapter 11 Underground world

Chapter 12 See the light of day again

The fifth article Minami Menia star

Chapter 13 Away from solari and Asia

Chapter 14 The Death Star

Chapter 15 Moss Chapter 6 Alpha Star

Chapter 16 The Center of the External World

Chapter 17 New Earth

Chapter 18 Music Festival Article 7 The Earth

Chapter 19 Radioactivity?

Chapter 20 The Neighboring World

Chapter 21 Finding the End Point

The Scientific Spirit in the trilogy "Base"

As far as my feelings after reading it are concerned, apart from pure story fabrication, the most valuable thing in the novel is probably the scientific spirit revealed in it. After all, the author is also a scientist, and this scientific spirit may not be the main purpose of his writing, but as a literary work, this spirit is not common, especially in fantasy novel.

The second base, a mysterious place in the story, holds the future and destiny of human society. Spokesman, planner of the second base, prophet with strong spiritual strength, supervisor and executor of the legendary Seldon plan. In addition to long-term education, training and ability development, there is also a requirement to find out and correct the loopholes or mistakes in the mathematics system of Seldon Plan. Not superstitious about authority is one of the core contents of scientific spirit.

When communicating with the chief speaker, it is required to ban theoretical language and use daily sentences with the same meaning. Simplify the complex, science needs to be understood, and only those who truly understand and master a certain theory can skillfully report scientific truth without theoretical tools.

Mule, a gifted and powerful conqueror, can easily destroy a relatively prosperous planet under his space fleet, but it only poses a threat to the second base without causing any substantial damage. Five ordinary scholars and a little girl dug up 50 latent second base personnel. Although things are arranged, their efforts are also an indispensable condition for implementation. Science will not yield to arrogance, it will only obey the orders of wisdom.

For the civilized future world, the people in the second base can sacrifice everything. Scientific dedication is the most precious feature of human beings. The books related to the author's base series are his Imperial Trilogy and Robot Trilogy.