Not sure how much further you plan on taking this one, TF, but I figure links to the extensive articles at the main wikipedia will probably suffice. TR 20:48, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
Funnily enough, I saw a copy of Foundation's Friends in the Public Library just today but decided not to borrow it. ML4E 02:27, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
Why do we always talk about the "main wikipedia" as if we were a satellite thereof? I don't like the idea of letting those bully boys do the work. Plus, those articles would have a lot of unnecessary (from our perspective) stuff about the main Foundation story and probably nothing on TF. Doing little thumbnails doesn't seem such a bad thing. Turtle Fan 05:21, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
- Because our playground is in their backyard (or servers) and is subject to all legal restrictions namely general copyright law and the GFDL rules. Doing little thumbnails here is fine but links to the Asimov article(s) conveniently gives background info to those who are interested. ML4E 01:57, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
- We may use their servers but I like to think of this as a completely independent project. Witness the fact that we make and enforce our own rules that give those jerks conniptions. For one thing, ever try uploading a picture there? You've got maybe a one-in-a-hundred chance that it will successfully upload. For another, we're much more tolerant of noobs' edits, providing it isn't useless shit like, say, the assessment of the real Husband Kimmel. Plus, we deal with completely different subject material from the "main" people. Turtle Fan 03:37, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
If it will be links, I'd rather use an Asimov Wikia. Likely to be much more thorough. I don't know of one but I'm sure it exists. Turtle Fan 05:21, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
- If you find an Asimov wiki that isn't a stub like the Stirling one then go ahead and change the links but I suspect the articles on the main wiki are the more extensive. How thorough was this wiki before we got busy? ML4E 01:57, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
- I see you did and it isn't. Good enough. ML4E 02:05, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
- It doesn't have many articles but the ones it does--including the four we needed--are good and are also set in-story/in-universe like ours. I realize that most Wikia aren't as good as this one but then again most deal with subjects of equal or lesser general interest than us. Asimov is a more famous, more influential, more widely-read author and that makes it more likely that his Wikia would attract fans who will get the project off the ground.
- My one complaint is that I had to make the hyperlinks as footnotes instead of linking to the words, but it will do. Turtle Fan 03:37, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
As for how far I intend to go, that all depends on whether I can find Foundation's Friends easily and decide to give TF a read. Turtle Fan 05:21, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
- Hyperlinks are gone. So much better. TR 17:49, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
- Yes, that is good. Thank you. Turtle Fan 07:38, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
I just looked for Foundation's Friends at the library and came up blank. I don't want to buy it because from the reviews I've read only two or three stories interest me. It is a used book, which means I should be able to find at least a few copies that are cheap as hell. Turtle Fan 20:50, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
I've had Foundation's Friends on the back burner for quite some time and I've finally come into possession of it. I read a few pages of "Trantor Falls" last night. I think we'd do well to write real articles about it, rather than have a few links to the Asimov page.
- Ok. The Asimov wiki doesn't appear to have grown a whole heck of a lot since I posted those links, anyway. TR 22:50, November 13, 2009 (UTC)
- I take it back--their Wiki has grown fairly well. TR 23:01, November 13, 2009 (UTC)
- Has it? I haven't looked at it in ages. Turtle Fan 01:04, November 14, 2009 (UTC)
It's got a lot of characters Turtledove created himself, either ex nihilo or based on nothing but a name. So far the only character he's borrowed that Asimov actually wrote is Dagobert VIII, the doddering old fool who'd lost touch with reality and kept asking Bayta Darrell how his subjects in Anacreon Province are doing even though Anacreon Province had been lost to the Empire centuries before his reign. You may recall he would spontaneously ramble on about how much he hated Gilmer, and assure his "subjects" that he intended soon to retake Trantor from him; naturally, Gilmer is a major character in TF, but in F&E, again, he's just a name.
- I have not read Foundation. Don't hit me. TR 22:50, November 13, 2009 (UTC)
- Oh no? It's excellent. Good sci fi, and good socio-political fiction. Asimov originally pitched it as "a historical novel about the future," and it delivers on both counts. Turtle Fan 22:55, November 13, 2009 (UTC)
It's a good story, actually.
And it got me thinking: Considering how many open questions Turtledove leaves in all his work, I wouldn't mind seeing a "Featherston's Friends" anthology. Seems to be quite the tradition among SF and Fantasy writers to compile tributes to their elders. Maybe we'll get our fill-in-the-blanks there in a way that is reverent, as opposed to satiric and sarcastic. It would be hard to build on the crap stories at all without being satiric and sarcastic, so I'm not expecting a tale in which Churchill or someone watches Chamberlain survive his votes of no-confidence or anything. There would be plenty of stuff in TL-191, though, and in Worldwar, too; I might even get my pipe dream of a story about the ancient Race. Turtle Fan 20:36, November 13, 2009 (UTC)
- Indeed. In the grand scheme of things, I care not a fig for what came after 1945 in 191. But I am very curious indeed as to what happened between '62-81 and '82-'14. I've often thought a story about the U.S. frantically trying to keep Germany and Russia in the Reinsurance treaty, while predictable in its outcome, would be an interesting piece, and definitely add some texture to the story.
- I agree, fuck the postwar 191. Well, maybe a story where the discovery of the carcinogenic properties of tobacco leads to a decline in smoking rates, which in turn leads to ever fewer conversations.
- I'd appreciate an explanation for why Russia went from inclining toward the US to inclining toward the CS. I assume they eventually decided they just couldn't have anything to do with a German ally anymore.
- The tensions over the building of a canal through Central America, and the decision by both parties not to do so, would also be interesting. I have few complaints about the GW books but I've always thought that had HT had WWI start over an American issue rather than a European one, and especially over the exact same European one as OTL with a few minor details moved around, it would a) feel more like a proper alternate history; and b) break down the rather galling feeling that America was Europe's bitch.
- I also think there were so many untold stories during the period that was covered by the books, and the untoldness of those stories was particularly problematic in SA. Maybe someone could try to salvage Potter's lost unresolved moral tension by weaving through the events of TG the thread of an entirely off-screen series of meeting between him and Forrest, in which he tells Forrest he's not interested and Forrest continues his plotting.
- And, while the Mama Featherston story is quite the inside joke these days, I truly would enjoy an exploration of Jake's early life. I think there's lots of potential there, if done skillfully. Turtle Fan 01:04, November 14, 2009 (UTC)
- Hell, just a list of the presidents of both countries would be swell. Same with Worldwar. TR 23:34, November 13, 2009 (UTC)
- Yes, that was a delightful story. I'll get some articles up this weekend. The ending is a bit of a groaner, though. Turtle Fan 22:47, November 13, 2009 (UTC)
Lit Comm and See Also[]
Revisiting this because. with the Apple TV series finally plodding onto the horizon, I'm on a small Foundation kick. Now that I'm looking at the article for the first time in years, I think the Lit Comm and See Also should both go. The former is a long, convoluted tangent launched by something already said much more succinctly in the main body, and the latter--hoo boy. People generally give Foundation credit for inspiring every space opera that includes a galactic empire, but beyond that. the stupid hamster story has fuck all to do with anything. Turtle Fan (talk) 22:33, 16 July 2021 (UTC)