Foundation and Empire

After how much I liked the first book in this series, I expected this to be a slam dunk, and I was disappointed that it wasn't. I think this may have been because I never really got into the book - every time I picked it up for a (short) reading session, I felt like I was starting over from zero. Why was this? The characters were completely, totally unmemorable for me. Except for Magnifico, the clown, I had trouble remembering who was who. Many reviews also called this out, but said it was better than the first book, since there were only two major episodes here, vs. five for the first book, but I actually felt that made it worse. Whereas for the first book I was able to plow through the tighter narrative of the shorter stories quicker, this book dragged on, and I would often jump back into the middle of the book having no clue where I was. Surprisingly, after a long slog, the end was good (although I sorta guessed the twist) and I felt that I wanted to continue on in the series, so I'll try to be better about really immersing myself when I read the next installment.