"Foundation's Edge" by Isaac Asimov

This is the fourth book in the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, and the first after the original trilogy, published several decades later. The Foundation is in its 500th year of the Foundation Era, the Seldon plan is going great, the second foundation is destroyed, and a new empire is to rise in 500 years from the Terminus core. But is it all so great? Trevize, a councilor on Terminus thinks that the second foundation still exists and guides the Seldon plan, and exactly because the plan has been so successful, he shows it as a proof that the second foundation is influencing it. The mayor of Terminus exiles him to act as a bait for the second foundation, along with a historian searching for the mystical Earth, Janov Pelorat. At the same time on Trantor, the traditional seat of the very alive Second Foundation, Gendibal, the youngest but the most ambitious Speaker at the table shocks the council by saying that there is another force that makes sure that the Seldon plan goes as planned and maybe wants it for some own purpose. He shows a changed mind of a Hammish woman, Novi, which was beyond the skill of anyone in the Second Foundation.

Gendibal follows Trevize and Pelorat in their search for Earth, which they think is the planet Gaia, in the Seyshell sector. It turns out Seyshell sector was settled directly from Earth, by humans who hated robots, which were used in all the earlier extraterrestrial settlements. They formed a planet Gaia, by working on their telepathic abilities and becoming one conscious being, together with all the humans on the planet, all the animals, life forms and inanimate objects like the planet itself. Here Travize has to decide a stalemate among the first foundation, second foundation and Gaia, on which will depend who will rule the universe. Travize decides on Gaia, mostly because that was the only reversible choices, the other two including a destruction of Gaia. Towards the end Travize discovers that some of the humans on Gaia may actually be robots from the pre-imperial past of humanity, who, now thousands of years old, are still trying to guide humanity as helpers and teachers.

"Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson

This is the first novel by Neal Stephenson, his second being "Diamond Age" which I already reviewed some time ago. "Snow Crash" does the same for virtual environments and language development as "Diamond Age" did for nano-technology and social identity. It is a very in-depth and ingenious follow through of current trends into a possible future. The book is centered around the hacker Hiro Protagonist, half african-american, half japanese, and his sidekick, skateboard courier, the 15 year old Y.T. (yours truly). The world of tomorrow is a world where nation states fell apart and the US government sold most of its property and army, and is only holding on to few buildings with ridiculous bureaucracy. The mafia is a franchise of Pizza parlors and pizza delivery is an extreme job. The world has its virtual meeting place, The Street, a VR world that Hiro helped create, in the center of which is the hacker pub the "Black Sun".

Hiro learns that one of the most powerful people on the planet, owning the main religious franchise is using Summerian technology from 8,000 years ago to give the people knowledge of the universal language that all people spoke, before Enki, Summerian god, created the language virus that created the many different languages in order for other language viruses which could be used to control people don't spread. Add to this surveillance-technology wearing "gargoyles" and an Aleutian native american with low urge control and a nuclear warhead in his motorbike whose fuse is connected to ECG signals from the Aleutian and you have a complex mess that is a pleasure to untangle. Oh, and don't forget the enormous "Raft" anchored by a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and consisting of thousands interwoven vessels transporting people from poor Asian countries to the US.

"Minority Report" by Philip K Dick

This is more of a short story than a novel, but was still the base of the Tom Cruise movie. Luckily, the book is quite different from the movie, for the better. There is not emphasis on technology like in the movie, but instead Anderton is the top cop (Police Commissioner) in the city who came up with using deformed mutant pre-cogs to form the pre-crime unit, where crimes are seen before they happen. Anderton is extremely successful with the project, almost cleaning all crime in New York City (the movie is in Washington DC), where the action happens. He gets assigned a "helper" from the headquarters whom Anderton suspects is after his position. Soon Anderton receives a note from the pre-cogs that he is going to kill an army general that he never met.

Anderton tries to find the general, after escaping from his house, thinking his wife is in on the conspiracy. The "helper" becomes the Police Commissioner and there is a search organized to find Anderton. The general finds Anderton and persuades him that indeed there is a conspiracy against him. Anderton goes back to the police station and finds the minority reports on his future murder act, and realizes that all three reports differ. When escaping with a helicopter from the roof he realizes that the three reports are sequential, showing different potential future. He also finds out that the army general organized the whole thing trying to discredit the pre-crime and get more funding for the army.

Anderton goes to a public event for the general the next day and kills him, proving the original majority report right, and sacrificing himself to save pre-crime. He realizes the paradox, that he as a Police Commissioner had access to the future information and thus can modify his actions. This would not be valid for any other person and pre-crime could continue to function properly.