Foundation and Empire

I found this to be a little inconsistent when compared to the first book, but I still really enjoyed the overall ideas and the last ~10% of it had me pretty hooked.

I'll take a break from Foundation for now, but I'm pretty sure I'll come back to the series.

FALSE

The first one was much better. This one was boring.

Good story, although predicitable at times. Sets things up for part 3 of the series in a solid second book in a trilogy, in the same ways you'd expect from a part 2.

Good story, although predicitable at times. Sets things up for part 3 of the series in a solid second book in a trilogy, in the same ways you'd expect from a part 2.

It's really rare that I like a second book more than the first, but I found Foundation and Empire much more gripping than Foundation itself. Probably, it has to do with the fact that I get two longer stories instead of 5 short ones. I had more more time to attach myself to characters. I loved Riose as a villain in the first chapter and Bayta as a hero in the second. Part of what kept me from adoring the first book was a lack of any real woman character. I understand that books are a piece of the time they are written in, and I wouldn't have held it against Asimov for not including any, but the presence of Bayta really shows how well he mapped out the evolution of human society. The Mule is a powerful force too, and the ending is pushing me right into the third book.

This is the second book in the Foundation series and like the first book, the beginning is dry. After The Mule story line starts the book becomes very enjoyable. I'm all already to start the next book, [b:Second Foundation 29580 Second Foundation (Foundation, #3) Isaac Asimov http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168033540s/29580.jpg 64823]. Although this book was published in 1952 original, the Foundation series continues to be one of the greatest science fiction series of all time.

In the end, this book had more variety than its predecessor Foundation. Nevertheless, the ending is weak, strongly suggesting a reliance on at least another book to complete the series. However, a successor does not alone justify Foundation and Empire's existence. I will read the third book, Second Foundation, but any satisfaction that book gives will never repair the reading of this one.

So Asimov is supposed to be the best science fiction author out there. I have never read anything by him other than this and the previous book in the series. They are solid, but not especially noteworthy. I guess I like my sci fi focused more on something else. I will have to read the third in the series to be sure.

In this book, the Foundation has to fight two empires: first, the declining but still strong Galactic Empire from which it was born; second, the new empire created by the Mule, a mutant with a special power of his own.

The first part is essentially a continuation of the previous book: the Foundation faces another threat anticipated by Seldon, although this time it suffers real damage and loss of life in the encounter.

In the second part, Asimov has come up with an interesting and imaginative way to rupture the Seldon Plan, and in principle I suppose this is the most inventive book of the trilogy.

However, the second part involves yet more damage and loss of life, and so it's a rather melancholy book, and I find it subjectively less enjoyable. The people of the Foundation were brought up to think themselves winners, blessed by Seldon's Plan; they didn't anticipate that the way ahead would be so hard.

In the first part, I dislike wasting time on the unnecessary journey to Trantor, although I understand why it was included: to show people trying hard to avert disaster, and not just relying on Seldon's Plan to save the Foundation. They decided, reasonably enough, that the Plan reckoned on people taking intelligent steps to save themselves.In the second part, the Mule himself is a good creation, but all the doom and gloom among his opponents give the story a downbeat feel. His aim, to bring about a second Galactic Empire earlier than Seldon's Plan could have achieved it, seems a worthy one; and yet his empire is held together only by himself, and after his death it disintegrates. So he disrupts Seldon's Plan without achieving anything useful, and in the process the Foundation becomes more aware of the existence of the Second Foundation, which causes further problems as explained in the next book.