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From: "Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Two stories containing search for thumb on scales
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:41:50 -0500
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On 11/06/2025 02.58, Charles Packer wrote:
> A recent thread mentioned the "Foundation" character Arkady Darell.
> That brought to mind Jean Morrel in A.C. Clarke's "Childhood's
> End." Both women are instrumental in locating the home bases of
> totalitarian powers that orchestrate events. (Their names even
> have a similar ring: Darell/Morrel.) This raises the question:
> Is there anyplace else in SF literature besides Asimov and
> Clarke that feature remote, vaguely-defined powerful entities the
> sussing out of which are a preoccupation of some of the characters?
> I guess this could be considered a subset of stories that
> feature any type of decoding of mysteries.

Michael Flynn features an organization similar to the Second Foundation
in _In the Country of the Blind_[1], which I quite enjoyed.

A couple of differences:
- They're based in San Francisco rather than on Genagbe
- Their mathematical modeling technique was developed at about the time
   of the Glorious Slaveholders' Revolt, not in the far future.
- They turn out to be "a bumbling, babbling band of baboons", with
   constant infighting and bickering.


[1] <https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?18017>
-- 
Michael F. Stemper
Why doesn't anybody care about apathy?