Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury
Twelve people showed up for this discussion at the home of the Brothers Siros. Our topic, Donald Kingsbury’s Psychohistorical Crisis, is a far-future novel about mathematicians who try to predict the future. Many of the ideas discussed in this book were major elements of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, which Kingsbury acknowledges as his inspiration. Seven of us started Psychohistorical Crisis but only four finished it. Two of us had read prior Kingsbury works, and all but one had read Asimov’s Foundation books.
Many of us were intrigued by the idea of psychohistory, and we thought Kingsbury explored it well. This book was full of big ideas and first rate science. The depiction of mathematicians at work seemed genuine. We found this book’s