Review: Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury

I'm an Asimov fan, or more specifically, a Foundation fan, though you can hit me with a pile of bricks as I haven't read the Robot or Empire series even though I do plan to in the near future.

As my first review, I'll start off with Psychohistorical Crisis, a book which I recently finished reading. In general, I consider the Foundation series to be light reading, compared to most stuff that is released today. Though, maybe that isn't a fair comparison since when the Foundation series was started, the average size of books clocked in at around 200 pages. Psychohistorical Crisis by comparison clocks in at 512 pages, making it a denser read. More of that in a moment.

There are have been many tries at being successors to Asimov's writing, where by much opinion, have heartily failed. I'm of course talking about the Second Trilogy penned by the 3 B's of Science Fiction. So how does this one fare, being that it is not an official book sanctioned by the Asimov estate? It fares very well in my opinion.

Eron Osa, the main protagonist of the book finds himself guilty of a crime he didn't commit. Or maybe he did. The problem is, he's been sentenced, stripped of his personal familiar ( a device that Donald Kingsbury created which amplifies brain use, and a technological advancement of the mind control device used by The Mule), unable to perform with his fam. So, while being sentenced, the fam is stripped and destroyed. Since the personalities and functions of that individual are stored on the fam, the soul and the brain are essentially dead. Unless that individual tries to actually use his brain for himself. Eron Osa does, and the book follows through on his quest to discover just what exactly he's done that deserved having his fam stripped of him. The book switches back and forth between the present and the past, child and adult. We see him finally making the journey as a Psychohistorian, only to.... Well, I won't spoil it.

What I can say though is that this book splendidly pulls off the Asimov vibe , while Donald Kingsbury adds enough to the book to make it original enough to be his. It really works, considering this book is set a thousand years into the future since the formation of the Second Foundation.. While not being an officially sanctioned book, it does mean that some liberties have to be taken, like in the names of things. For example, take Hari Seldon. In the book, he's not referred to with that name, but rather The Founder. Rith is Earth, Splendid Wisdom is Trantor, Faraway is Terminus, Cloun the Stubborn is the Mule, and so on. It's a shame that it wasn't published as an official book.

Donald Kingsbury tried to make Psychohistory more mathematically believeable, enough to add depth to the concept, and while I'm nowhere being a math genius, he was convincing enough that it actually started to make sense in my little brain. It might not make any sense to those with more mathematical knowledge, but I think what's important in a story like this is making a believable sci-fi story, and he pulls it off brilliantly while adding lots of depth to it.

And while having lots of depth to it, it is also a very dense book to read. This is not a light read by any means, but it is very satisfying. But then again that might just be me since I do tend to like dense reads that tend to take me a long time to read as I like to get a long of bang for the buck.

I was very impressed with this book and If I had to recommend it to Asimov fans, I wouldn't hesitate. And with that said, I do recommend it, even if you're not an Asimov fan. You might even gain appreciation for his work through this.

Author: Donald Kingsbury
Pages: 512
Publisher: Tor Books (2001)