NP - Isaac Asimov and David Mitchell

[David Morris]

Asimov’s “Foundation” Netflix adaptation is into week/episode 2.  It has an
inherent flaw in that it focuses on a set of characters in a discreet time
period, as opposed to the novel’s huge sweep across a vast sequence of eras
(which is the point of the book).  Foundation’s contrivance was a
mathematical model predicting many civilizations’ rises and falls over many
eras, so particular character’s stories are irrelevant.

I think Cloud Atlas attempted a similar vast sweep of time, but developed
different incarnations of characters and societal values development over
those vast time sweeps.  I suspect he was consciously attempting to fix
Foundation’s inherent fiction-writing flaw.  It worked really well in the
movie.

David Morris