Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Empire, Library Binding

Foundation and Empire is the second book in the Foundation trilogy. Essentially, the Foundation series is a retelling of the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the modern world, in a futuristic sci-fi setting. It is an ambitious trilogy and widely regarded as Asimov's best work.

The reality

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for me has been a little different. Foundation was a fine novel, but wasn't the bastion of science fiction I expected it to be. Foundation and Empire, the second novel, is where Asimov hits his stride. I can tell exactly where I began to buy the Foundation books as among the finest examples of science fiction. At the end of Part 1, Asimov switches the story from an almost academic writing style, to a real story with a plot, and characters we come to care about. And it's a superior plot, with a lot of unexpected moments. Asimov is still telling his story, but he found a way during this novel to tell it through plot. In Foundation and Empire, the trilogy truly becomes the great work of science fiction.

If you've read Foundation and have considered abandoning the series, don't. Foundation and Empire is a rare example of a sequel surpassing the original. I hope Second Foundation can bring the trilogy to a satisfying conclusion.

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The premise of the Foundation series is that even if the behavior of individuals isn't predictable that of large groups of people is. The great Psychohistorian Harri Seldon uses this to to create a Foundation that will tighten the gap between peaceful eras in mankind's history and provide a second

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Empire after the first has inevitably fallen.

The only problem is that the first Empire hasn't quite fallen quite yet, and Empires are not in the habit of welcoming their replacement with open arms. Luckily for the Foundation, Seldon's predictions remain true, and they survive against a complete bombardment by one of the Empire's brightest generals.

Fast forward a few generations. The Empire has finally died and the Foundation is on the verge of Civil War. This has all been predicted by Seldon. But then something strange happens. The war never happens, and into the picture comes a mutant capable of twisting one of the fundamental assumptions of Psychohistorical analysis, that the psychological makeup of mankind will remain relatively the same. Much of the book is spent on the struggle against this new threat.

Compared to some of Asimov's stuff I find the writing in the Foundation series to be a little dry. There are some good turns of phrases, and the characters are always fun to read, but I was not blown away as I have been by some of Asimov's shorts. The identity of the Mule was obvious from the beginning, though I forgot I had known all along by the end and was surprised when it was revealed for a moment. I didn't expect the -method- Asimov used to reveal this secret.

Part one and Part two of Foundation and Empire were initially published separately. They're lackluster alone, but work very well together. The assumptions that Asimov builds up in the first half are all torn down in the second. I am certainly eager to see if Seldon's science prevails in Second Foundation, or if the Mule is the one thing that can destroy it.

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I'm sorry if I sound like a sci fi traitor, but this book sucks. And this series sucks. I have no idea how it won a one time Hugo for best sci fi/fantasy trilogy of all time, beating Lord of the Rings, but the idiots who gave it to Asimov were complete morons. First of all, this book is

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unbelievably stupid. It's divided into two parts. In the first, a young general of the fading Galactic Empire comes to invade Foundation. With 10 warships, only eight of which work. And it turns into a 10 year war. Somehow. I have no idea how Asimov figures that. In David Weber's space battles, hundreds of ships are destroyed in seconds in his books and that's how I picture things to be. You don't go "invade" a world with eight ships, nor would it take 10 years. That's just stupid. And when Foundation defeats him, they somehow have defeated the Galactic Empire too, even though it encompasses thousands of planets and Foundation has invaded none of them, so that makes literally no sense. The second half of the book is about a mutant called "the Mule," which is an utterly stupid name, who is anti-Foundation and who has arisen from nowhere to take over a planet without firing a shot, whom no one has really seen, who there are only rumors about, who all of a sudden is taking over all sorts of planets, and who attacks Foundation for some reason. It's mind numbingly stupid. The second thing that makes giving this book part of the best trilogy of all time stupid is, like the other Foundation books, the writing is utterly atrocious. Asimov can't write. It's like he got three degrees in science and decided he could write novels, so he did, but he actually can't. Compare that to me. I have three degrees in English and writing. What if I decided I wanted to go dabble in science? I would have no validity to do so, but isn't that the same thing Asimov is doing? I like his robot books, to a certain degree, but frankly, the more I read of him, the more horrified I am at his total lack of writing skills. For instance, the man has never heard of transitions. Never. One minute a character is talking to someone, telling him he'll go to another planet to talk to someone else, and the next sentence he's talking to that other person, but you don't know that because there's been no transition letting you know that. There's been no goodbyes said, no space travel, no landings, no travels on a new planet, no setting up meetings with a new person, nothing. Just the next sentence, the character is talking to the new person and it just magically happens. Terrible writing. Then try this on. This is a one sentence paragraph opening chapter 16. It's unreal.

"When the twenty-seven independent Trading worlds, united only by their distrust of the mother planet of the Foundation, concert an assembly among themselves, and each is big with a pride grown of its smallness, hardened by its own insularity, and embittered by eternal danger -- there are preliminary negotiations to be overcome of a pettiness sufficiently staggering to heartsicken the most persevering."

What the HELL is that about? What does that even mean? It's just gibberish! It's trash! And that's how Asimov writes. He writes like crap. Who taught him how to write? Did he ever take any writing classes, let alone creative writing classes, in college? And his dialogues are typically wooden and unbelievable as well. Just atrocious. Bad, bad, bad. He mixes 1950s casual colloquialisms with formalities and pseudo-technical gibberish to make it even worse. It hasn't aged well, that's for sure.

When I read the first Foundation novel a little while ago, I was disappointed, but I thought it was somewhat original, so even though I thought it was a three star book, I gave it a four star review. This one isn't sliding by. I didn't even finish it, I was so disgusted. And I have the next one, the next two actually. Somehow I doubt I'll read them now. I can only think they'll be massive disappointments to me. For the life of me, I have no idea how many people can give this book a five star rating. Clearly they have few standards as far as quality of writing goes. Call me a snob, but I think there are many, many more sci fi writers out there with infinitely better writing skills -- and ideas -- than Asimov. I just started a huge book of his early stories which has a very high rating on Goodreads. I hope I'll like it and I actually think I might. But this book? Not recommended at all.

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The trilogy of books of which this is the middle novel are among the best Asimov ever wrote among his science-fiction works and among his most influential. The trilogy begins in Foundation, where Hari Seldon, a "psychohistorian" predicts the fall of a galaxy-spanning empire within a few centuries

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and establishes the "Foundation" to manipulate history to shorten the dark ages to follow. That novel was episodic, and just not as strong. Foundation and Empire is a more unified novel and features one of Asimov's most complex and compelling characters, "the Mule," as well as a strong female character, Bayta, and a clever twist. I think this is a novel that just gets stronger as it goes along. Asimov was an author I found more notable for mind-bending ideas than rich characterizations--so I found the poignancy with which he imbued the Mule striking.

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This is the second of Asimov's original Foundation trilogy, which I am re-reading now that they have at last been released in Kindle format in the UK. This is very much a book of two parts - the first third concerns the attempt by the last great Imperial general to conquer the Foundation and is

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competently told but fairly unmemorable. The bulk of the book is the much more gripping story centred around the rise from nowhere of the mysterious being known as The Mule, who sweeps all before him, including the Foundation itself. It is also noteworthy for being the story of the first proper female character in the series as originally written, Bayta Darrell, whose role turns out to be crucial. This part of the book is really the first section of the series written in a more modern thriller/quest narrative and echoing the later books of the series penned by the author in the 1980s and early 1990s. Brilliant stuff.

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The Foundation created by Hari Seldon has come through three crises and several social changes, but now it must face off against forces of Empire. Foundation and Empire, the second book of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, follows how the Foundation and its citizen responded to threats from

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Empire—one it’s decaying predecessor and one from a budding conqueror.

Unlike like Foundation with its several short stories, Asimov’s second book featured two novellas entitled “The General” and “The Mule”. The first followed the Imperial war against the Foundation led by the titular general Bel Riose who looked to restore the rule of the Empire, but was stopped short by the Emperor who believed him to be using the war to build up himself as a usurper. The fallout of the war leads the Foundation citizenry to believe during its war with the warlord “The Mule” that eventually something will happen for the Foundation to win. But the Foundation falls to the Mule’s forces as its leadership learns that its next crisis was to be civil war. A small ship filled with Foundation survivors makes its way towards the old Imperial capital to find a way to stop the Mule and find that the Second Foundation might be the key.

Although some might believe the two novellas a better format than the several short stories of the first book, I am of a different opinion. The longer length of the stories unfortunately exposed Asimov’s characters as very flat and his writing somewhat formulaic, especially when it came to the identity of “The Mule”. Yet I have to admit that of the two stories, “The General” was the best because it only took up a third of the book thus protecting the characters from being over exposed. “The Mule” became tedious as the reveal of titular character took its sweet time, even as Asimov attempted to show the decay of the Galactic civilization.

While Foundation and Empire was not as good as the first book of the trilogy, there are still some nice passages and ideas that Asimov has written. Though I was intrigued to find out more about the Second Foundation after finishing the book, it was a long slog to get to that point.

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This books is the middle of the original Foundation trilogy. The book is divided into two distinct parts.

In the first half of the book, the Foundation confronts the remmnants of the Galactic Empire, whose forces are commanded by the brilliant general Bel Riose. While in decline, the Empire is still

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a match for the Foundation, requiring some subtrefuge to deflect. The Foundation manages to drive a wedge between Bel Riose and his emperor Cleon II, resulting in Bel Riose's execution, averting the threat. Everything seems to be following Seldon's plan.

The second part of the book titled "The Mule" is where the rubber hits the road so to speak. The Foundation itself has become corrupt, leading to dissatisfaction and potential revolt. However, a new force appears led by the Mule, a mutant telepath who conquers the Foundation. The Foundation's emmebrs complacently assume that Seldon has a solution for the Mule. When Seldons hologram appears, he mentions nothing of the Mule, or the political situation, and instead talks about the aborted revolt. In other words, the plan has gone awry. Psychohistory is the sience of predicting the behaviour of large groups of people, and the Mule is only one man, and his special powers allow him to drive the political agenda in unpredicted ways. This is a huge shock to the members of the Foundation, and a significant change in the direction of the books - instead of confidently following a predetermined path to success, now the plan is no longer a useful guide.

Meanwhile, the Mule, disguised as a circus clown, travels with two Foundation citizens Toran and Bayta and a psychologist named Ebling trying to locate the hidden (and possibly imaginary) Second Foundation, that was supposedly set up at the opposite end of the galaxy from Terminus. With the Mule's assistance, Ebling discovers the location of the Second Foundation, but is killed by Batya before he can reveal it, leaving the Mule to run his newly conquered Empire, but the Second Foundation as yet undiscovered to plan a counterattack.

The predictability of Foundation and the first half of Foundation and Empire which was in danger of becoming stale, is disrupted by The Mule, which introduces uncertainty into what would have otherwise been a boring march of inevitability to the restoration of the second Galactic Empire. While the first half of Foundation and Empire is a good story, without The Mule and the final book of the trilogy, the Foundation series would not have been nearly as compelling a story. However, without establishing the validity of Seldon's predictions through the first portion of the trilogy, the about face brought on in The Mule would not have been particularly interesting. By combining the two sides of the story, Asimov created a powerful story that is rightly regarded as one of the best works of science fiction.

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Like the first Foundation book, I like it a lot but have no idea why. The endings of the stories are anticlimactic, and in the case of the second, longer story (of two), predictable. But rather than being disappointing, it left me wanting more. Whatever the failings of the individual stories, it's

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what they have to say about the history of this universe that really matters.

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Much better than the first...or perhaps I just got used to the writing style. I liked the fact that we got a strong female protagonist, even if I knew how it was going to end about 30 pages out.

Much better than the first...or perhaps I just got used to the writing style. I liked the fact that we got a strong female protagonist, even if I knew how it was going to end about 30 pages out.

I love Bayta and the Mule, and their interactions are probably my favourite parts of all the Foundation books. I think I can get such satisfying re-reads out of this series because it's so damn convoluted I don't remember all the ins and outs so easily.

Picks up right where Foundation left off. I liked this second volume somewhat better, perhaps because there was a longer continuous story to it.

Reviewed March 1998

Unlike "Foundation" this book gives you real characters you can follow throughout. And finally you are given your first woman character who acts on her own with power (or does she?). The character of the Mule is predictable and I guessed his identity immediately, his reasons are

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textbook. The Sheldon Plan has been waylayed because of the Mule and only a few can see it. I enjoy that it isn't the responsibility of the characters to get it back on track but to understand what is happening and why.

9-1998

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Enjoyable but not as much once the character of Hari Seldon ends and the future of the foundation becomes the central part of the series

This is the second of Asimov's Foundation trilogy and it takes a different tack than the first volume, Foundation. While the first volume was, to me at least, an odd (but enjoyable) amalgamation of Gibbon, Tolstoy, Marx, and Comte, Foundation and Empire looks at the possibility that human agency

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may, after all, destroy human scientific certainty. The book centers around two main tales -- that of Imperial Bel Riose's attempts to conquer the Foundation as well as the struggles between the Foundation and the Mule.

Some critics will point out that Asimov's prose is a bit pedestrian and his character development is somewhat stilted. I'd add that his selection of character names never quite works for me as well -- Hober Mallow is a just plain stupid name. Where's his sister Marsha? But granting all that, I'd still say that this is an amazing book. The scenes and imagery he invokes and the settings Asimov develops are unforgettable. The late Imperial general desperately trying to save the empire, much as Aetius did in late Rome; the ruins of the devastated imperial capitol of Trantor; the Phillip II-like mayor of the Foundation.

All of this is to say that Asimov meshes together historical knowledge with his own
imagination into an interesting narrative. As literature, I see all the criticisms, but as a piece of imaginative name-dropping and historical parallels, this piece is unmatched. Reading the books, I am always drawing historical comparisons and I always walk away with vivid images, largely because so many of them are transposed from history.

I'm hesitant to draw the comparison to Tolkien, but what the heck? Tolkien fused his knowledge of early Medieval philology, literature, and history into an entirely believable alternate reality. There are times when his literary abilities are stretched a bit thin (at least in my opinion -- the Shire often makes me cringe, as do some of the Elvish stuff). Still, the whole creation is so damned believable, that one suspends criticisms because the overall vision is so compelling. Similarly, I think the Foundation books do something similar, albeit in a far more modest fashion. Tolkien takes his knowledge of the past and constructs another past. Asimov takes his knowledge of the past and constructs a future.

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This is my second time through the classic foundation series. The first time around I found the books incredibly boring and the writing quite unremarkable. This time the writing is still unremarkable and the plot is mostly non-existent. However, on the plus side -- I now read all the classic robot

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books and the prequels which are vastly better -- Isaac improved with age. In light of these and as part of the series as a whole, Foundation and Empire is not a bad book. But I can't wait to go on to the later written sequels Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth.

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Seven out of ten.
The Foundation survived the greed and barbarism of its neighboring warrior-planets. Yet now it must face the Empire, still the mightiest force in the Galaxy, even in its death throes. When an ambitious general determined to restore the Empire's glory turns the vast Imperial fleet

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toward the Foundation, the only hope for the small planet of scholars and scientists lies in the prophecies of Hari Seldon.

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Of the three I've read, this second book of the original trilogy started out a little slow. However it did come around to an interesting plot and tight conclusion.

[Foundation and Empire] is the second of the Foundation Novels. While the first installment described four or five tales surrounding the creation and early survival of the Encyclopedia Foundation, the second installment deals with only two. These two, however, are far more serious a pair of threats

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to the foundation than anything in the first book. Part 1 of [Foundation and Empire] describes the inevitable coupling of a strong general and a strong emperor that lead to an military assault on the Foundation - one that was doomed to failure. Although, I'm sure that several members of the Foundation who risked everything in attempt after attempt to sabotage the Imperial forces would have appreciated the knowledge that Dr. Seldon was more than capable of predicting the assault and failure and that the actions of individual men are inconsequential when examined in terms of the Foundation.

Unfortunately for the citizens of the Foundation, the threat described in the second part of the book was NOT forseen by Dr. Seldon. In fact, the mysterious Mule was completely unaccounted for by the very makeup of the Foundation - providing a kind of Achilles' heel that threatened to subvert all the work of the Foundation and plunge the entire Galaxy into the very Darkness of anarchy that Seldon and the original Encyclopedia Foundation were working to avoid.

I thought the first part was the better of the two parts - probably because I was immediately aware of the "shocking revelation" so for me, most of the book was spent trying to reconcile my intuition with the story that seemed hell-bent on maintaining internal consistency, but still not revealing the "shocking revelation" until the very end. I was also somewhat disappointed that the end of the second part is not the end of a book, but the end of a chapter... I like my endings to be more tied up in a nice bow.

Read 12/2007

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I have already written about Asimov in the review of the first book of this series. The second book is based on other interesting ideas from the realm of science, and in particular complexity theory.

I found this book broke up the simple "calculability" suggested by the first book by throwing a

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curveball that history tends to, in the form of unique, history-changing characters. And, again in Asimov fashion, the story is resolved in style.

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Book 2 of the trilogy that is the best science fiction of all time.

Last read this trilogy as a teenager, it has aged well both in terms of the passage of time and, hopefully, slightly more mature tastes on my part. Although I don't find it a particularly profound meditation on free well, the law of large numbers, and the great man theory of history. Not sure if is

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intended to be, but it is a great story.

The trilogy really picks up with the introduction of the Mule in the second half of this book. It runs at a fast pace through the end of Second Foundation. At some point it has a slightly Scooby-Doo feel as successive masks are pulled off characters/plots. And ultimately it is a bit dehumanizing. Except for social psychologists (who seem a lot like economists) who end up in charge of the galaxy. Only fair.

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Better than the first, as after the first section there is a cohesive story throughout. Looking forward to the next one.

Things get hairy for the Foundation as it clashes first with remnants of the Empire then with the psychic mutant known only as the Mule. But the plot of the book itself seems very detached from the actual going ons.