Psychohistorical Crisis

Donald Kingsbury

2001

Welcome to Splendid Wisdom, once more the capital of a galaxy wide empire! This time ruled by the prescriptions of psychohistory that had rendered the need for the huge navies and armies of the past pointless. However, the Psychohistorians of Splendid Wisdom exist in a state of dilemma; they are well known as the rulers and, in outline, it's known what they do but the inner workings of psychohistory must be kept hidden otherwise almost anyone could run their own Psychohistorical analysis to the detriment of the Founder's Design.

In practice, this meant that mathematics was virtually a non-existent branch of knowledge in this Brave New Empire!

Eron Osa had defied all the pressures against him and studied as much maths and history as he could in order to become a member of this select band of men.

One of those dead set against his chosen career was his tutor, but his tutor had reasons that were hidden even from the tutor, deep in his fam* where his true personality could guide the one that was visible to the world.

Once in the society of Psychohistorians, Eron initially found it to be as exciting as he had first thought, even if the personalities were extremely... unusual!

As he penetrates deeper into the mysteries of the ruling clique, Eron realised that all were as blind as each other, even Hahukum Konn, known as 'The Admiral' for his diligence in seeking out threats. For Eron had worked out a new method of dealing with the Psychohistorical formulas and these showed that Splendid Wisdom was facing a Second Sack!

But before he could prove his theories, he was taken prisoner and charged with the capital crime of publishing his work amongst the general public. Rendered famless, could Eron even survive in the bewildering civilisation that they allowed?

This is a brilliant book, on it's own merits alone, but it's main claim to fame is that it is an answer to what would happen to Asimov's Foundation after the Second Empire had been created. Many of the worlds in the Foundation books get a sideways mention here, but there are new worlds with their own histories to make it far more than just a simple(!) extrapolation. In particular, Mr Kingsbury has presented some interesting comments on a society where the ways in which the rulers actually make their decisions are kept secret.

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*Fam is short for familiars, which are electronic additions to the brain that add extra senses, and processing power not to mention oodles of additional storage space. Now it was literally possible to remember every event since you had been fitted with that fam. The downside was that each fam was precisely calibrated to it's user, so swapping them about was pointless as data would be inaccessible to the new user. Or so it was thought...

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