Finally, we are introduced to Cleon II, who was wise but in failing health: \u201ccomplications in this that I don\u2019t penetrate. There may be more importance in it than would seem.\u201d All of the characters are either personifications of Asimov\u2019s ideas or mouthpieces for them. It would be an interesting literary exercise to have someone who is excellent with characters try to fill in the backstory. They read like history book descriptions of great men and great actions, though not fleshed out as humans. The minor characters get scarcely more than a line (\u201cunimaginative enough to face danger without fear, he was strong and agile enough to face it successfully\u201d) and exist only to fulfill their purpose in the plot. He requests a man with loyalty for the front and Broadrig, the exact opposite (\u201che lacks even the fundamental honesty of honorable corruption; he doesn\u2019t stay bribed; not for any sum\u201d), is sent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The buildup is wonderful, but the payoff pales. It feels like Asimov is a little too content to let history be his guide rather than make a more compelling tale. Riose completes his enclosure military maneuver and tension mounts as he takes system by system, eventually reaching one of the four kingdoms, Loris. The situation looks even more dire when Riose reveals he knows both Barr and Devers have been playing him (\u201cAre you the only sensible man then? You neither fight nor flee, but turn traitor without urging. You are unique, amazingly unique\u2014in fact, suspiciously unique.\u201d). We have reached the apex of the named conflict Foundation and Empire<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
But then it collapses suddenly. Barr bashes in the general\u2019s head and the pair escapes. They have a half-baked plan to go to Trantor (Devers: \u201cthe whole busy, unheeding life of a world-metropolis cast him into the horrible gloom of isolation and pygmyish unimportance\u201d) and talk to the Emperor, but even the readers know this is futile. Barr advocates doing nothing, putting his faith in psychohistory, which leads to a confrontation between Barr and Devers where Devers accuses Barr of not caring. But Barr retorts: \u201cIt is on a Foundation victory that Siwenna\u2019s hopes depend. It is for a Foundation victory that my sons are sacrificed. And Hari Seldon does not precalculate the inevitable salvation of Siwenna as he does that of the Foundation. I have no certainty for my people\u2014only hope.\u201d They try to bribe their way into the capital only to be arrested and barely escape in swashbuckling fashion. During their run from Trantor, they see a paper with the resolution that Riose and Broadrig were arrested and the war is over. Devers had given Broadrig some fake story about how he told Riose about a metal transmuter that would allow him to control the Empire\u2019s economy so Broadrig threw his lot in with Riose instead of the Emperor, unbeknownst to Riose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In the end, there\u2019s exposition between Forell, Devers, and Barr, not dissimilar from an Agatha Christie novel:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\u201cIt never penetrated earlier, but once it was over and I could . . . well . . . look at the answers in the back of the book, the problem became simple. We can see, now, that the social background of the Empire makes wars of conquest impossible for it. Under weak Emperors, it is torn apart by generals competing for a worthless and surely death-bringing throne. Under strong Emperors, the Empire is frozen into a paralytic rigor in which disintegration apparently ceases for the moment, but only at the sacrifice of all possible growth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\u201cA weak general could never have endangered us, obviously. A strong general during the time of a weak Emperor would never have endangered us, either; for he would have turned his arms towards a much more fruitful target. Events have shown that three-fourths of the Emperors of the last two centuries were rebel generals and rebel viceroys before they were Emperors.<\/p>\n
So it is only the combination of strong Emperor and strong general that can harm the Foundation; for a strong Emperor cannot be dethroned easily, and a strong general is forced to turn outwards, past the frontiers.<\/p>\n
But, what keeps the Emperor strong? What kept Cleon strong? It\u2019s obvious. He is strong, because he permits no strong subjects. A courtier who becomes too rich, or a general who becomes too popular is dangerous. All the recent history of the Empire proves that to any Emperor intelligent enough to be strong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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On the one hand, it\u2019s the pinnacle of the Foundation<\/em> books: this feels like the conflict we have been building to since the beginning. It\u2019s easy to criticize this as more of the same, a warming over of Roman history, and pulpy action. But that\u2019s selling it short. The buildup is brilliant and the characters, while still mostly flat, are much more memorable than previously in the series.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
However, it feels a little clumsier than it should be. Is it sequelitis? The story is longer than any of the previous ones. There wasn\u2019t really a need to tie into Siwenna or Onum Barr \u2013there was time to adequately give characterization. It feels a little contrived now after not doing it in the first book, when it would have helped more. Similarly, there\u2019s some playing fast and loose with the idea of psychohistory as noted above.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In the first book, there was a delicate sense of scale as the problems seemed large enough but not too large. This is the first time the resolution hasn\u2019t quite felt as satisfying. I didn\u2019t feel cheated, per se, but it didn\u2019t feel as satisfying as before. This wasn\u2019t the idea of \u201cdoing nothing\u201d that won the day in the final book of Foundation<\/em>: that by doing something, they were actively working against the dead hand of Hari Seldon. And Seldon, himself, has taken an almost exaggerated saintly quality, not just in the fictional universe (\u201cHari Seldon\u2019s dead hand wins the opening round\u201d \u201cYour Seldon wins nothing.\u201d) but also in the exposition itself (\u201cBut in that short period, it proved itself the most powerful instrument ever invented for the study of humanity\u201d). He and his mythology have become larger than life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
While the writing is Asimov\u2019s best to date, it fizzles out. The idea of psychohistory is becoming too fatalistic and hard to dramatize properly. The Foundation\u2019s worst took out the Empire\u2019s last best in less than 200 years. That overshadows much in this excellent story – it\u2019s my favorite in the entire trilogy. In the closing words Forell muses \u201cThere are no more enemies\u201d. Barr suggests \u201cThere\u2019s a Second Foundation\u201d but Forell dismisses it as centuries away. Devers suggests \u201cinternal enemies\u201d. But, really, it feels like these are all the worlds that the Foundation was meant to conquer. I think that\u2019s where the second book comes in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Characters:<\/strong> Terminus Federation citizen Bayta and Haven Trader Toran, Psychologist Ebling Mis, Intelligence officer Han Pritcher, clown Magnifico Giganticus\/mind controlling mutant The Mule<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Seldon Crisis:<\/strong> Civil War; External: War between Independent Traders and Central Aristocracy; Internal: Democratic underground and inefficient and ineffective bureaucracy; Resolution: democratic reform; Crisis did not occur due to unforeseen mutant Mule\u2019s attack<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Plot\/Notes: The Foundation is well on its way to establishing a pre-ordained second empire and is behaving as such. The central oligarchs are consolidating their power with some democratic resistance while the independent trading worlds are the rebelling periphery. Newly married, Bayta is from the former while Toran from the latter. As part of the democratic underground, they are sent to investigate a mutant known as the Mule on Kalgan. There they rescue the clown Magnifico Giganticus from a mob and barely escape the planet with Foundation intelligence officer Han Pritcher, who had been investigating The Mule. The Mule retaliates against the Foundation, winning surprising victories. Psychologist Ebling Mis realizes they are in the middle of a Seldon Crisis, and the elite, led by ineffective bureaucratic mayor Indbur III, go to the Time Vault to see Hari Seldon. Only he had predicted a civil war, not the rise of a mind-controlling mutant. The Mule takes over The Foundation that day. Toran, Bayta, Mis, and Magnifico barely escape, traveling to Haven, Neotrantor, and then to Trantor. They continue to barely escape calamity, finding the sacked ruins of Trantor and letting Mis study at the Great Library, which is still intact. A dying Mis reveals that the Second Foundation, their final hope, is one of psychologists rather than physicists. Right as he is about to reveal where the Second Foundation is, Bayta shoots him. She realized that Magnifico was The Mule and she couldn\u2019t reveal their only hope to him.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
This is much longer than any other story so far in the Foundation<\/em> trilogy and reads more like a standalone novel. The Toran and Bayta character introduction is that of characters perfectly placed on a representative world, throwing you straight into the crisis and giving you all the exposition you need. It doesn\u2019t feel contrived as, so far, Asimov has always used the characters for plot devices so it\u2019s expected. By the end of the book, this is no longer the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
The outer trading worlds want to rebel against the Foundation, but they know they cannot in a point\/counter-point discussion between the \u201ckids\u201d, Toran\u2019s father, Fran, and uncle Randu (to Fran): \u201cWhen you listen to the little thoughts deep inside you, you know he is. But they\u2019re uncomfortable thoughts, so you drown them out with that roar of yours. But they\u2019re still there.\u201d Against: \u201cNo, not a chance. There\u2019s not one of those generals who doesn\u2019t know that an attack on the Foundation is suicide. Bel Riose of the old Empire was a better man than any of them, and he attacked with the resources of a galaxy, and couldn\u2019t win against the Seldon Plan. Is there one general that doesn\u2019t know that?\u201d For: \u201cNot every man with sufficient ability and sufficient ambition would believe in Hari Seldon and his laws of psychohistory.\u201d In contrast to the previous book, Seldon is no longer a mythical figure, but his ideas are concrete facts, believed by all in the Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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As such, the Foundation has moved from the jet-setting, quick-thinking teenagers of the galaxy who do everything by the seat of their pants to the stodginess of the Empire in the 100-odd years since we\u2019ve last seen them (\u201cwe could take advantage of such a crisis to force a compromise with the despots of the Foundation\u201d). The independent traders are now depicted as men of action while the leaders of the Foundation are feckless bureaucrats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The intros of Mayor Indbur III and Captain Han Pritcher, intelligence officer, are similarly textbook to Toran and Bayta\u2019s: Indbur is described through exposition while Pritcher is described by Indbur reading his military record. Even more is revealed in that exchange as their behaviors are contrasted and their beliefs in this conflict puts their dominant characteristics at odds: \u201cin my administration, nothing is left to chance. Order! System!\u201d vs \u201cExcellence, I have been told all this. But as servant of the State, I must serve faithfully\u2014and he serves most faithfully who serves Truth… I am not a tax collector to be sent on a child\u2019s errand.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Toran and Beyta go to Kalgan to gather intelligence on The Mule and instead run into a situation with the clown Magnifico Giganticus. There, they offend the guards of the mule (\u201cThe dark man spoke with the dangerous softness that meant he had little need of shouting to enforce his whims\u201d) and attract the attention of Pritcher. We see the Foundation\u2019s new reputation as Toran merely has to say that he is a citizen of the Foundation to get out of trouble: \u201cThe Mule\u2019s name might excite fear, but it was, after all, a new name and scarcely stuck as deeply in the vitals as the old one of the Foundation\u2014that had destroyed the Empire\u2014and the fear of which ruled a quadrant of the Galaxy with ruthless despotism.\u201d It\u2019s an obvious reference to being a Roman Citizen and callback to how much this epic owes to the fall of the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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They escape easily enough but start seeing newscasts about how The Mule is going to retaliate against the Foundation for the theft of his clown and curiously, he begins winning against them. But the Foundation knows their manifest destiny is to eventually turn the tide and win when the time is right, as Hari Seldon predicted. Toran adds to the mystery of the mule: \u201cThe Mule is a shrewd operator\u2014far too shrewd not to realize the advantage of the magnetism and glamour of personal leadership. If he gives that up, it\u2019s for a reason. That reason must be the fact that personal contact would reveal something that is of overwhelming importance not to reveal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Back on Terminus, we are introduced to Ebling Mis and he is glorious to listen to:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\u201cThere was reason to the fact that the element known as \u2018pure science\u2019 was the freest form of life on the Foundation. In a Galaxy where the predominance\u2014and even survival\u2014of the Foundation still rested upon the superiority of its technology\u2014even despite its large access of physical power in the last century and a half\u2014a certain immunity adhered to The Scientist. He was needed, and he knew it. Likewise, there was reason to the fact that Ebling Mis\u2014only those who did not know him added his titles to his name\u2014was the freest form of life in the \u2018pure science\u2019 of the Foundation. In a world where science was respected, he was The Scientist\u2014with capital letters and no smile. He was needed, and he knew it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
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He\u2019s not necessarily vain in his self-importance but he doesn\u2019t suffer fools or bureaucracy and feels like reading one of the characters of the \u201cold\u201d Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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He tells the all-powerful mayor to \u201cshut up\u201d and knows he can do so because he knows about the impending Seldon crisis. Indbur accuses him: \u201cThis is treason!\u201d and he blows right by it: \u201cIt certainly is but what are you going to do about it?\u201d He\u2019s a psychologist, the best since Seldon, and he\u2019s been trying to re-discover psychohistory, studying the vault and putting his scientists to work on \u201clittle unconnected piece(s)\u201d. He realizes the fifth Seldon crisis is only a couple of months away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The scene shifts back to a meeting between the independent trading worlds. Randu meets with the two other strongest fleets and tries to get the traders to join the fight on the side of the Foundation, viewing The Mule as a greater threat (though he \u201cfrowned and despaired at the cobweb texture of his argument\u201d). By the end of the meeting, The Mule has also attacked their world and Randu foreshadows: \u201cI am afraid a monster is grown that will devour all of us. Yet we must fight him.\u201d We also got a brief sidetrack with the Visi-Sonor, something more akin to a 70s device, and inspiring Futurama\u2019s<\/em> Holophonor. It serves a minor purpose in the book but is iconic so the disproportional time used makes it memorable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
There are some religious parallels here, intentional or not, with The Mule getting his start at age 30 and being a bit of a savior, upsetting the current order of the day. Asimov has obliquely played with religious themes throughout the series, but never allegorically. Also, Heinlein echoed some of these ideas a decade later in Stranger in a Strange Land <\/em>(published in 1961 but coming from a 1948 brainstorming session; Foundation and Empire<\/em> was published in 1945 – so maybe there was just something in the zeitgeist of the time). The Mule shares some similarities to Valentine Michael Smith and Ebling Mis to Jubal Harshaw. But they are in distinctly different settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
The scene in the time vault is a (semi-predictable) twist worthy of a mid-season finale for a television show. The incompetent Indbur and other rulers of The Foundation, certain in their psychohistorical destiny, show up expecting an answer from Hari Seldon. Instead, he tells them about the civil war with the independent traders they should have just solved and the room is thrown into chaos. The power goes out and The Mule takes over Terminus. There is still drama as the reader was reminded a couple of times that the people controlling the foundation are not The Foundation. Just because the Indbur government falls doesn\u2019t mean Seldon\u2019s plan failed or that the Foundation won\u2019t live on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Asimov finally found a way to break free of the structure that had made him increasingly frustrated with writing The Foundation<\/em> story. The story loses some speed as 4 months pass at the chapter break: the Foundation has fallen and independent trading worlds put up only token resistance. The mood of the book quickly changes as our heroes in the Foundation flip from being part of the new empire to being the rebellion. There\u2019s a little war-is-hell in some scenes on Haven, where our protagonists escaped, and there\u2019s even Bayta\u2019s glib: \u201cDon\u2019t you know it\u2019s fashionable to be patriotic?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Bayta\u2019s the first major female character (and only the second total), and she\u2019s strong and competent. She looks very different from most female literary characters in the 1st<\/sup> half of the 20th<\/sup> century. Maybe this is the result of women in the workplace during the war – better literary critics and historians could probably say. There\u2019s a great exchange where Toran says \u201cStirs your mother-complex, Bay, that\u2019s what he does. Someday we\u2019ll have a baby, and then you\u2019ll forget Magnifico.\u201d Without missing a beat, Bayta responds: \u201cStrikes me that you\u2019re all the stirring my mother-complex can stand.\u201d That witty banter between a male and female as equals is more of a 90s or modern character exchange than something of the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
The novel doesn\u2019t completely escape its previous structure. As the Seldon plan fails, it\u2019s revealed that all didn\u2019t believe it. One of the ideological mouthpieces, Han Pritcher : \u201cWe\u2019ve been blinded by Seldon\u2019s psychohistory, one of the first propositions of which is that the individual does not count, does not make history, and that complex social and economic factors override him, make a puppet out of him\u201d. Some conspirators, including Pritcher, set up a plan to assassinate The Mule, but it was predicted and failed. It\u2019s as if Asimov is wrestling between the psychohistory literary device that the novel was built on and the idea that an individual cannot do much against overriding systems beyond their control. Really, though, it was a clumsy plan, and The Mule is too strong to be beaten by such a simple plan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The pace of the novel drags after Terminus falls. Our main characters escape Terminus, but it\u2019s off-screen. Haven falls, but it\u2019s off-screen. The assassination attempt fails. All seems lost. Toran, Bayta, and Mis hold onto the hope that they can find the Second Foundation and it doesn\u2019t suffer the same fate. They\u2019re stopped by a ship (\u201csix men and six blasters are eloquent arguments\u201d), they stop at NeoTrantor, and then they go to Trantor itself to study, their final goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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There are valuable-ish plot points along the way. But, dramatically, it just emphasizes the hopelessness of the situation: they really have no idea how to beat The Mule. The stop by the ship gives another clue to who The Mule is and provides a little Pritcher characterization, but is mostly superfluous. The stop on Neotrantor shows you just how far the empire has fallen. In particular, the scene with the senile Dagobert IX is just sad. You see the treachery of other weak rulers. We come full circle as the almighty Trantor is reduced to what the four kingdoms of the periphery were way back when they were beaten by the fledgling Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The scenes at Trantor again bring the reader back to the books\u2019 Roman origin: \u201cThe huge, metal world was in jagged splinters. The towering thrusts of the multitowers from the single world-girdling base were torn and empty\u2014still bearing the original blast-holes and firegut\u2014shards of the Great Sack of forty years earlier.\u201d The Roman Empire has fallen and they even talk of the Great Sack. The completely metal world has grass again and, fortunately, the university is untouched, kept as a relic of the older age.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The chapter title \u201cDeath of a Psychologist\u201d gives away the fate of the wonderful Ebling Mis. But not before he encapsulates the meta-conflict facing the galaxy. It feels more modern than science fiction of that era: \u201cYes. If the Mule\u2019s descendants inherit his mental powers\u2014You see? Homo sapiens could not compete. There would be a new dominant race\u2014a new aristocracy\u2014with homo sapiens demoted to slave labor as an inferior race. Isn\u2019t that so?\u201d And while the slavery is the direct threat, it\u2019s the fear of the evolution of the human species.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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He is clearly dying of an unknown ailment, but making progress on finding the Second Foundation. Later, in explaining what was going on, we get some more about how this really is the best of the dark ages, but nothing compared to great men during a great empire (\u201cEbling Mis was the bull\u2019s-eye. His potentialities were high, and I needed him\u2026 With his mind at high efficiency, he might possibly have duplicated the work of Hari Seldon\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n