Donald E. Palumbo. Chaos Theory, Asimovs Foundations and Robots, and Herberts Dune: the Fractal Aesthetic of Epic Science Fiction.(Book Review): An article from: Utopian Studies
by Donald Palumbo
Category: Literary Criticism

Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert remain two of the most popular and influential science fiction writers of the 20th century. Each is a master structuralist whose works succeed in large part through the careful mirroring of concepts at every narrative level. Because these works are grounded in scientific premises, an appreciation of their literary structure depends on an understanding of the scientific concepts informing them. This book examines Herbert's Dune series and Asimov's Foundation trilogy and robot stories from the perspective of chaos theory to elucidate the structure of their works.