The Stars Like Dust, The Currents of Space and Pebble in the Sky are set a long time before the Foundation stories, when Earth is still inhabited but less and less people remember it was the human homeworld.
The Brother Day/Dusk/Dawn scenes of the Foundation TV series are by far the most popular part of the show, to both Book Readers and non-Book Readers. The fact that Cleon 1 was only four hundred years before the "Now" of the series made it seem unlikely that any Cleon could be a part of Empire stories, but something has just occurred to me:
What if Cleon 1 was himself a clone, of a much earlier dynasty of Emperors? Probably unknown even to him. I could easily see Demerzel deciding to bring back a long-dead line of Emperors. It would even explain why Cleon is an anagram of Clone.
So the way it could work is there could be a line of Emperors named, say, Frankenn, using the exact same Dawn/Day/Dusk system thousands of years earlier, and played by the same actors as in Foundation. They play the part of the decision-makers in the stories of the Empire trilogy. Obviously in this telling The Stars Like Dust would have the Trantorian Empire as the opponent, rather than Tyrann. The fact that the Empire is much more bloodthirsty in the TV series will make that an easy switch.
Thousands of years later Demerzel is struggling to find good leaders, so gets hold of Frankenn's DNA and clones it to make Cleon 1.
Perhaps it could work as a series of stand-alone spinoff streamed Movies? What does everyone think?
I've watched the whole series, and followed the discussions pro and con on this and other subs and podcasts. My conclusion is this: take out Lee Pace's magnetic performance as Cleon, the whole show is an epic failure. Lee Pace as Cleon is the only thing that's keeping this thing alive. Even the Empire part of the show, which everyone agrees is the better part, wouldn't be as good w/o Lee Pace. So that's it for me, I don't see the point of wasting any more of my time on this. Although I am interested in delving into the books and getting the real story.
If your option is "other", please comment.
His cadence when delivering the Anacreon/Thespis sentence in Ep2 is downright poetic. It really brings out how charismatic the Cleons can be. He basically turns his lines into song and it really pulls you in. He also uses it when talking to Hari in Ep1 and to Tivole in Ep4.
You can almost see it in Terrence Mann’s synchronized conversation with Ambassadors Xandem and Shae Un Shae, but it’s definitely less “sung” than Pace’s delivery.
I only ask because it's not like he's unknown, he's had minor roles in two other big franchises and a lead in a major network tv show that, while was cancelled, still had a cult following. (As an aside is Pushing Daisies any good?)
(Also fix the damn automod I added the 'meta" flair I don't need to mark spoilers I've posted this 3 times already)
The Waypoint Radio crew welcomes Motherboard senior editor Jordan Pearson onto the show to talk about gaming NFTs. We discuss how some of the current trends portend a grim future, the NFT games that already exist and how they operate, and what a AAA developer might do with this technology. Come along and listen as we collectively stare into the abyss! After the break, Rob, Patrick, and Cado talk about two recent sci-fi epics: Foundation and Dune, and how they both tackle the way empires oppress people on different timescales.
Discussed: Games and NFTs 5:19, Foundation and Dune 53:00
I was reading https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a37706311/lee-pace-foundation-coats/ and was overjoyed to read this:
> Lee Pace and I have formed a sci-fi book club. His idea. Without anyone intending it, dinner at a Japanese restaurant in Brooklyn has turned into our club’s unofficial first meeting. There’s The Lord of the Rings and Dune, of course, which the actor has read more times than he remembers. He also sings the praises of his favorite writer, Ursula K. Le Guin, and the universe-rattling Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu. He pulls out his Kindle to show me the Bobiverse series, which he’s currently reading, and to download a couple books I suggest (Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice and Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire). I have no doubt he’ll read them immediately... Pace strikes me as not just a fan but a scholar of sci-fi.
There is perhaps no work more relevant to the adaptation of Foundation than A Memory Called Empire (Amazon link), which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel last year. And if you're a fan of the show and of written sci-fi, you should absolutely read it too.
Like Foundation, Memory revolves around the spacefaring history-steeped Teixcalaan empire that seems (but perhaps only seems?) infinite and indomitable, and revolves around that core question of empire: how can a leader project their influence and consciousness across future generations? And should a leader project their influence and consciousness across future generations?
Into this world comes a plucky Gaal-esque ambassador from a newly-annexed space-station culture, one that has developed a secret and groundbreaking technology (no spoilers, this is from the very first pages): a neurological implant that allows a person to see the memories of, and consult with, the predecessors for their job or role. No doubt this would be gamechanging in the context of Foundation's Empire, and in Memory the myriad consequences, intrigues, and culture shocks of the worldviews of these colliding civilizations are explored with vivid detail, massive worldbuilding, and incredibly empathic writing.
Of course, nothing is quite as it seems. What happens when the barrier between oneself and one's predecessors starts to break down? Is an individual truly an individual? It should go without saying that Lee Pace is perhaps the single best person to read a book like this in the entire world.
Foundation's adaptation is a bel
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Episode 3 of Foundation has a very Bobiverse scene. Three versions of the empire have a conversation. Pretty neat
