Foundation and Empire (Foundation #2)

Author: Isaac Asimov

Rating: 2/5

The Empire has fallen! And, oh no! So has the Foundation! It’s all thanks to this mutant named Mule.

Spoilers ahead.

Detailed Summary

The Galactic Empire is, like, really screwed. There’s this guy called Bel Riose who’s executed. Some stuff about an emperor. I didn’t really get it. So whatever.

Anyway, after, like, a hundred years, the Foundation (on Terminus) is super powerful and controls stuff. But the leader of the Foundation is this weakling so they’re kind of screwed too. The rest of the story is about Bayta and Toran, a newly-wed couple. So they’re on this planet (Kalgor? Kalgar? No, Kalgan, just double-checked). And they’re walking around and then there’s this crappy clown who comes their way, pursued by someone? But Toran beats the crap out of the guy (I think). And the three escape. The clown’s name is Magnifico and he used to work for the Mule and is terrified of him. They wander around space with a psychologist named Ebling Mis to defeat the Mule.

They get caught by these people but Magnifico plays something and kills the prince. And then they run away again and then they meet Han Pritcher who apparently works for the Mule? Then, um, stuff happens (it’s kinda blurry like my vision. Ha, that was a good joke). And Ebling Mis’ health is deteriorating and deteriorating. And Magnifico seems to have spent an awful lot of time with him. So finally, he’s on his death bed (Mis, not the clown) and is about to reveal the location of the Second Foundation because the first Foundation (the one on Terminus) has been compromised and the Mule runs the show now. Bayta shoots Mis before he can say anything. She tells Toran that it’s because Magnifico is the Mule. Magnifico goes into this stupid monologue about how he’s a mutant (but not part of the X-Men, I’m afraid) and has been manipulating everyone’s emotions but not Bayta’s because she liked him for being himself. Then he goes away. And everyone’s on their way to the Second Foundation! If it exists, that is. We know it does, the characters are unsure.

So the mutant is someone Hari Seldon didn’t take into account while doing his calculations. So there’s a chance that the Mule may actually wreck Seldon’s carefully-developed plan.

Plot and Pacing: I almost gave this book a 3/5. But then I realised I would have been employing the peak-end bias which is when either the peak or the ending of an event influences your overall evaluation of it. Honestly, the whole book sucked. I liked the prologue. It was very dramatic. And I liked the last chapter because I did not see the Mule thing coming. At all. I think I would have seen it coming if I’d actually paid closer attention to the book but it was just really boring. What else? I think this book could have been condensed into a very interesting, fast-paced, action-packed one-hundred-page novel with ginormous font.

I was still pretty lost and when I compared my summary to that of the Wikia, well, I have missed out on a lot of details which I didn’t understand. But I’ve started the third book and it’s not that bad.

Characters: Why are all the characters so similar in speech? I can barely tell them apart! Sometimes, I had to count the paragraphs to keep track of who was talking. Also, the clown apparently has a beak for a nose. Or was that a metaphor for how big his nose was? I have no idea. Bayta was decent. I liked that she was smart but this series, so far, is seriously lacking strong female characters. Well, it’s lacking strong characters full-stop. I’ve yet to meet a really well-developed character in this series. Okay, Hari Seldon is the exception and he remains my favourite character although he didn’t make much of an appearance in this book (since he’s dead).

Writing Style: Asimov seems to have gotten the hang of writing a good ending and a decent beginning. Too bad a book consists of a middle portion too.