Foundation and Empire • Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Empire was first published in 1951 and is the second book in the Foundation series. Foundation and Empire is split into two distinct parts titled The General and The Mule.
Fiction Review CriteriaV1
C1 PLOT
C2 SETTING
C3 PERSPECTIVE
C4 STYLE
C5 CHARACTERS
C6 THEME
C7 ORIGINALITY
C8 IMPRESSIONS
C9 IMMERSION
Full explanation of the Fiction Review CriteriaV1 can be found here.
Review Summary
Foundation and Empire was first published in 1951 and is the second book in the Foundation series. Foundation and Empire is split into two distinct parts titled The General and The Mule. The General follows one of the last remaining generals of the Galactic Empire, Bel Riose, as he seeks to neutralize the Foundation as he perceives it as a threat to the Empire. We additionally learn of Lathan Devers, an independent trader and agent of the Foundation who tries to stop Riose from achieving his goal.
It is the invariable lesson to humanity that distance in time, and in space as well, lends focus.
The second part, The Mule, picks up about a century after The General, and follows Toran and Bayta Darell, psychologist Ebling Mis, and a clown Magnifico Giganticus, as they escape the Mule and his forces in pursuit of the Second Foundation. Their journey culminates on the Trantor, which is now laying in ruins after the fall of the Galactic Empire, where they finally confront the Mule.
Foundation and Empire, at least the first part thereof, comes as a logical sequel to the first book. The Foundation is still frames as essential to humanity and virtually invincible by either internal or external forces. Of course, in typical Asimov fashion, and just like the Galactic Empire itself, the Foundation’s struggle with dark forces may indeed spell out its end.
I’m being accused of modesty, a horrible and thoroughly unnatural crime.
Asimov draws inspirations from the historic accounts of the falls of empires to explore the themes of humanity’s constat struggle with the darkness, and the magnitude of the effect a few determined yet seemingly unimportant individuals can have its outcome.
Foundation and Empire
Isaac Asimov
This international paperback edition by Harper Collins printed in 2016 features an illustration of a standard model of an atom, apparently Beryllium. This is an edition of the book I own and would recommend.
Foundation and Empire
Isaac Asimov
This US paperback edition by Del Rey printed in 2008 features a geometric pattern line art. Similar cover can be found on the mass-market paperback editions.
Foundation and Empire
Isaac Asimov
This is an unabridged audiobook on Audible.com (purchasable through Amazon.com) narrated by Scott Brick. The length of this audio is 9 hours and 33 minutes.
Detailed Review
C1 PLOT
The introduction of the Mule is undoubtedly one of the biggest strengths of Foundation and Empire as the Mule represents a necessary wild card in otherwise omniscient Hari Seldon’s plan. Asimov’s brilliant idea to introduce an anti-hero (I would not classify the Mule as a villain per se) throws the Foundation’s reliance on psychohistory into chaos and creates a compelling antagonist. His unpredictable nature due to his mutant mental superpowers, which are also not well understood or explicitly stated for a good part of the novel, derail the Foundation’s course, creating genuine tensions and raising the stakes for the protagonists. The mule represents the inherent, “within-universe” limitation of psychohistory as a metaphysical and epistemic phenomenon.
In general, the novel further explores the power dynamics of the falling Empire and, later, the post-Empire landscape, as it probes the complexities of power, showing how it can corrupt and how even well-intentioned leaders can make questionable choices. In a typical Asimov fashion, there are numerous instances of complicated political maneuvering and shifting alliances throughout the novel, in both of its parts. The complex political landscape of the Empire in its late stages, accompanied by the unpredictable nature of the Mule, forces the characters and the reader to confront the possibility that Seldon’s plan, however brilliant and apparently infallible, might fail after all. Such a streak of vulnerability and flaw in Seldon’s plan creates compelling drama and intellectual engagement with the novel.
Foundation and Empire is a novel presented in two distinct parts: the General and the Mule. In the first part, General Bel Riose of the crumbling Galactic Empire discovers the growing power of the Foundation and seeks to conquer it. Riose believes that the Foundation poses a threat to the Empire’s stability and seeks to eliminate it before it becomes too powerful. He gathers information about the Foundation and its plans, and he launches a military campaign to conquer it. The second part introduces the Mule, a mutant with the ability to somehow make his enemies give in and give up before the battles even begin. This mysterious power results in the Mule’s victory and the Foundation’s uncertain future.
While generally well executed, the Foundation and Empire‘s plot is not without flaws. The Mule’s sudden appearance, extraordinary abilities, and ease with which he disrupted the very powerful and established rules of the Foundation’s universe come across as an abrupt and somewhat contrived plot device, a sort of antagonistic deus ex machina. Presumably, Asimov felt the need for the disruption to avoid excessive repetitiveness and staleness in the plot, and to be fair, his future novels provide some important background on the Mule, but in this novel specifically, Mule’s spontaneous synthesis as an unbeatable enemy does feel a bit forced at times. Asimov’s writing of the Foundation’s end comes across as anticlimactic, but he does make it up with a twist at the end that leaves us somewhat satisfied as we wait for the story’s resolution in the next novel.
C2 SETTING
Just like in his first novel, Foundation, Asimov primarily focused the story on the Foundation and its immediate surroundings, along with a few key locations within the remnants of the Galactic Empire. While this focus serves the plot well and keeps the novels relatively short and concise, it does not allow for taking full advantage of exploring (nor capturing) the vastness and diversity of a galaxy-spanning civilization. There is a general feeling of a lack of exploration of the broader galactic landscape and its diverse cultures and societies. This is often further exacerbated by Asmov’s tendency to limit vivid sensory details, atmosphere, and descriptions of various planets, ships, and other locations. This is also true for cultures, which appear to be mostly homogenous across the vastness of space. Asimov, in general, shies away from a deeper exploration of social, cultural, and political dynamics at a macro level, which contributes to confusion with respect to the mechanics underlying the function and organization of these societies, and how individuals interact with them.
The novel also portrays a civilization and a galaxy where technology seems somewhat stagnant. While there are mentions of advanced devices, there is very little sense of ongoing technological progress or innovation. The Foundation is supposed to be a culture of physical scientists and technologists, and one would think that such a culture would be booming in scientific and technological innovation. Instead, the Foundation is riddled with a lack of dynamism contributing to Foundation and Empire‘s overall less futuristic and exciting feel in terms of setting.
C3 PERSPECTIVE
The novel is written in the third person, but not quite omniscient or limited. While Asimov skillfully narrates the events, providing sufficient detail to move the story forward, he intentionally leaves some crucial details obscured to give the novel the overall feeling of suspense and permits literary devices like plot twists to make the novel more dynamic. Asimov still provides a fairly comprehensive view of the key events and allows for a deeper understanding of the various factions and individuals involved in the storyline. This further helps convey the grand scale of the story and the sweeping historical forces at play while focusing on specific events, without exclusively hyperfocusing on specific individual characters.