In
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
's
Foundation SeriesThe Foundation Series is an epic science fiction series by Isaac Asimov which covers a span of about 500 years. It consists of seven volumes that are closely linked to each other, although they can be read separately...
,
Dors Venabili is a good friend, protector and later wife of
Hari SeldonHari Seldon, a fictional character, is the intellectual hero of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series. In his capacity as mathematics professor at Streeling University on Trantor, he developed psychohistory, allowing him to predict the future in probabilistic terms...
, the primary character of
Prelude to FoundationPrelude to Foundation is a Locus Award nominated 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is one of two prequels to the Foundation Series. For the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psychohistory and the intellectual hero of the series.-Plot...
and
Forward the FoundationForward the Foundation is a novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is the second of two prequels to the Foundation Series. It is written in much the same style as the original novel Foundation, a novel composed of chapters with long intervals in between...
. At face value, Dors is an attractive woman, two years younger than Seldon. She tells Seldon that she is a historian from Cinna, and, before her involvement in
The FlightPrelude to Foundation is a Locus Award nominated 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is one of two prequels to the Foundation Series. For the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psychohistory and the intellectual hero of the series.-Plot...
, Dors taught history classes at Streeling University on
TrantorTrantor is a fictional planet in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and Empire series of science fiction novels.Trantor was first described in the 1940s when the Foundation Series first appeared in print . Asimov described Trantor as being in the center of the galaxy...
.
Dors is probably one of the strongest and most developed female characters of the Foundation Series.
She has been assigned the task of protecting Hari Seldon by
Chetter HumminR. Daneel Olivaw is a fictional robot created by Isaac Asimov. The "R" initial in his name stands for "robot," a naming convention in Asimov's future society...
who takes an initial interest in Hari Seldon's
psychohistoryPsychohistory, a fictional science in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe, combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make exact predictions of the collective actions of very large groups of people, such as the Galactic Empire....
research.
In
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov , was an American author and professor of biochemistry, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books...
's
Foundation SeriesThe Foundation Series is an epic science fiction series by Isaac Asimov which covers a span of about 500 years. It consists of seven volumes that are closely linked to each other, although they can be read separately...
,
Dors Venabili is a good friend, protector and later wife of
Hari SeldonHari Seldon, a fictional character, is the intellectual hero of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series. In his capacity as mathematics professor at Streeling University on Trantor, he developed psychohistory, allowing him to predict the future in probabilistic terms...
, the primary character of
Prelude to FoundationPrelude to Foundation is a Locus Award nominated 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is one of two prequels to the Foundation Series. For the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psychohistory and the intellectual hero of the series.-Plot...
and
Forward the FoundationForward the Foundation is a novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is the second of two prequels to the Foundation Series. It is written in much the same style as the original novel Foundation, a novel composed of chapters with long intervals in between...
. At face value, Dors is an attractive woman, two years younger than Seldon. She tells Seldon that she is a historian from Cinna, and, before her involvement in
The FlightPrelude to Foundation is a Locus Award nominated 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is one of two prequels to the Foundation Series. For the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psychohistory and the intellectual hero of the series.-Plot...
, Dors taught history classes at Streeling University on
TrantorTrantor is a fictional planet in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and Empire series of science fiction novels.Trantor was first described in the 1940s when the Foundation Series first appeared in print . Asimov described Trantor as being in the center of the galaxy...
.
Dors is probably one of the strongest and most developed female characters of the Foundation Series.
She has been assigned the task of protecting Hari Seldon by
Chetter HumminR. Daneel Olivaw is a fictional robot created by Isaac Asimov. The "R" initial in his name stands for "robot," a naming convention in Asimov's future society...
who takes an initial interest in Hari Seldon's
psychohistoryPsychohistory, a fictional science in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe, combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make exact predictions of the collective actions of very large groups of people, such as the Galactic Empire....
research. Over the course of
Prelude to FoundationPrelude to Foundation is a Locus Award nominated 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is one of two prequels to the Foundation Series. For the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psychohistory and the intellectual hero of the series.-Plot...
and
Forward the FoundationForward the Foundation is a novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is the second of two prequels to the Foundation Series. It is written in much the same style as the original novel Foundation, a novel composed of chapters with long intervals in between...
she shows an obsessive concern for his safety and earns the nickname "The Tiger Woman" for the ferocity with which she is willing to defend him, and her accuracy, reflexes, and skill (all thought to be superhuman to the point of feline). Despite that, throughout her lifetime protecting Seldon, she was always reluctant to harm opponents in the course of protecting her husband. This is a result of her being bound by the
Laws of RoboticsIn science fiction, the Three Laws of Robotics are a set of three rules written by Isaac Asimov, which almost all positronic robots appearing in his fiction must obey...
.
Toward the end of
Prelude to FoundationPrelude to Foundation is a Locus Award nominated 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is one of two prequels to the Foundation Series. For the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psychohistory and the intellectual hero of the series.-Plot...
, Hari reveals his suspicion that Dors is an
androidAn android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human. The word derives from ανδρός, the genitive of the Greek ανήρ anēr, meaning "man", and the suffix -eides, used to mean "of the species; alike" . Though the word derives from a gender-specific root, its usage in...
working with
R. Daneel OlivawR. Daneel Olivaw is a fictional robot created by Isaac Asimov. The "R" initial in his name stands for "robot," a naming convention in Asimov's future society...
on his mission to protect mankind. (Clues that reveal Dors' true nature include her learning to master a weapon skillfully and immediately after watching a gangster use it just once.) This suspicion has no apparent effect on Hari's love for Dors. In fact, Seldon only finally admits to himself that his wife is a robot at the time of her death, and even then is unperturbed by that fact. At the point of Seldon's death, he thinks of his protectress and wife in love, not in anger over her deception.
Together they raise
RaychRaych Seldon is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series. Raych is the adopted son of Hari Seldon and Dors Venabili, the primary characters in the first two books of the series...
, whom they encounter as a 12 year old boy while in the Dahl sector of Trantor.
Dors reappears in The Second Foundation Trilogy after her apparent death, having been repaired by Daneel. She is originally assigned new duties, but has difficulty adapting to them. Having been built for the specific purpose of caring for Hari Seldon, her absence from his life and her knowledge of his impending death give her new perspective on Daneel's orders. Eventually, she leaves his service entirely, and it is implied that she takes up with the robot Lodovik Trema, but only after one final visit to her husband, whose last recorded word was her name.