Novel - Prelude to Foundation (published in 1988) - Written by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was one of the most prominent writers of science fiction; but he was not just a writer of science fiction, but wrote a lot about science and other subjects, writing a large number of books overall. He was born in the Soviet Union in late 1919 (or early 1920) and moved to the United States with his family when he was just 3 years old and settled in the Brooklyn area of New York. In the United States, at an early age he became fascinated with science fiction and was selling his stories to magazines when he was as young as 19. He continued writing books and articles for the rest of his life, finally dying at the age of 72 in 1992.
He is now mostly known for the books dealing with Robotics (primarily his enunciation of The 3 laws of robotics; which were meant to provide a rulebook for robots so that they would remain under human control) and for his Foundation Trilogy. The Foundation Trilogy was a series of 3 books that described a future galaxy under the control of a Galactic Empire which is decaying, but only one man believes that he knows this. This man is Hari Seldon, who finally created the science of psychohistory, which would enable the foretelling of the future of large groups of people. The idea of Hari Seldon was to prevent the 30,000 years of turmoil and conflict that would emerge at the end of the Galactic Empire and through the creation of 2 Foundations, change this 30,000 year period to a 1,000 year period at which a Second Galactic Empire will create peace in the galaxy.

Prelude to Foundation was a book that Asimov wrote long after he had written the original Foundation Trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation), these 3 having been written in the early 1950's, and then Asimov wrote 2 more books called Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth in 1982 and 1986. However, Prelude to Foundation was supposed to be a prequel, providing more detail about Hari Seldon and his background, and also about his growth of the study of psychohistory, how he developed it. The books does not have any ground-breaking revelations, it just shows how Hari Seldon moved to different parts of Trantor while trying to figure out how to develop psychohistory.
The book starts with Seldon presenting a paper concerning the basics of psychohistory and how it could be used. This brings him to the attention of the emperor Cleon I, but when Hari cannot promise instant revelations, Cleon dismisses him. And then he meets the people who will be most significant to him - he meets a reporter called Chetter Hummin, who scares Hari by claiming that the all powerful first minister Eto Demerzel is trying to catch him, and he needs to escape. Chetter then introduces him to Dors Venabili (his future wife) and they start on a run through the different sections of the planet, with different societies, on the run from Eto while Hari is trying to determine a section of society that can form the base for his research. He moves through different sections of Trantor in his flight, meeting very different societies, and even ending up with a powerful sector that is forever looking to replace the emperor. Who is Eto, why is Chetter helping him ? All of these are powerful questions for which Hari Seldon gets answers at the end of the novel.