Although small and seemingly helpless, the Foundation had managed to survive against the greed of its neighboring warlords. But could it stand agai...
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Oct 17, 2010
blake
rated it: 
Less episodic than the first, which was a plus. But it makes all the more apparent Asimov's complete inability to create memorable or sympathetic characters. This means that each of the two halves read like over-long short stories. Part I is a suspense-thriller, solved by a ridiculous and anti-climactic deus ex machina, while Part II telegraphs its twist-ending so far in advance that the last few chapters are simply redundant.
There's no arguing the brilliance of Asimov's ideas -- More...
There's no arguing the brilliance of Asimov's ideas -- More...
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Jan 26, 2012
Prashanth
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Jan 11, 2012
Ben
rated it: 
Foundation and Empire is made up of fewer stories than Foundation and, perhaps misleadingly, the shorter of the two stories is the only one really about the Old Empire. It's clever and thought-provoking, but ends with a whimper. The second story is more fully-developed and I've heard that Asimov favored it among all his Foundation stories. It was originally called the Mule and it's very clever. Perhaps most importantly, it introduces doubt into the narrative as the threat of civil war is the
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Jan 01, 2012
Ricky
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Jul 03, 2011
Greg
rated it: 
It's been a long time since I actually finished a book I hated through and through as much as I hated F&E, but I was determined that if I was going to give this a bad review I had to go ahead and read the entire thing to justify the rating in the face of those who feel one has to read an entire novel to have a valid opinion of its quality. Normally when I know after ten pages that I'm going to genuinely dislike a book I don't read much further.
I was hoping this would be better than F More...
I was hoping this would be better than F More...
Jun 17, 2011
Pamela
rated it:
I didn't like the first novel in this series, Foundation, at all. It was fragmentary at best, mind-numbingly boring at worst. I am surprised that people say that these are the novels that turned them on to science fiction--if it were me, I would have run screaming in directly the opposite direction.
Please don't take this to mean that I don't like and admire Asimov--I do! I really enjoyed the collection of stories in I, Robot (and yes, okay, I loved the movie too, and a lot of that More...
Please don't take this to mean that I don't like and admire Asimov--I do! I really enjoyed the collection of stories in I, Robot (and yes, okay, I loved the movie too, and a lot of that More...
Mar 19, 2011
Alex
rated it:
The second of the first Foundation trilogy, Foundation and Empire was originally published in 1952. Originally published as two novellas in Astounding Science Fiction, “The General” and “The Mule” cover the next two periods when the Foundation receives its first full-force attacks.
In “The General,” the Galactic Empire is well on its way to its inevitable end, but under the command of General Bel Riose, an attack is planned against the Foundation. Bel Riose has gone mad with power and More...
In “The General,” the Galactic Empire is well on its way to its inevitable end, but under the command of General Bel Riose, an attack is planned against the Foundation. Bel Riose has gone mad with power and More...
Feb 18, 2011
Benjamin
rated it:
Dear Kenny,
After I wrote you about Foundation, and mentioned the pre-destination aspect that was troubling me, you said to keep reading, that the author would deal with it in due course. I’m beginning to see how that happens, and I think I like it.
In Asimov’s story, where the future has been mapped by a genius who is now dead and who has erased his future-predicting discipline from the world (as far as we know, but are there hints…?), are all people subject to a rigid determi More...
After I wrote you about Foundation, and mentioned the pre-destination aspect that was troubling me, you said to keep reading, that the author would deal with it in due course. I’m beginning to see how that happens, and I think I like it.
In Asimov’s story, where the future has been mapped by a genius who is now dead and who has erased his future-predicting discipline from the world (as far as we know, but are there hints…?), are all people subject to a rigid determi More...
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Aug 24, 2010
Gio
rated it:
Being summer, I've been digging into sci-fi like a duck who heads south for the winter - it's second nature. And having dug the first entry to the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, I expected this second installment to continue the good speculative fiction that I found in the first. I'm glad that some of that was there, but sadly not enough.
Asimov started each chapter with a narrative about place so as to set up the scenes that followed. Often times when I ran into these set-ups I w More...
Asimov started each chapter with a narrative about place so as to set up the scenes that followed. Often times when I ran into these set-ups I w More...
Dec 18, 2009
Annie
rated it:
I am liking the Foundation series overall so far, but I have trouble keeping up with all of the names. I have to get used to a saga spanning centuries. The second book you can't read without the first, whereas in the 'Dirk Struan' James Clavell novels, you can read in any order and each can be its own self-contained story, only enriched by its preceding and its following books.
When a story spans centuries, such as this one, there must be a central theory or thread that ties them all More...
When a story spans centuries, such as this one, there must be a central theory or thread that ties them all More...
Jun 20, 2009
Steven
rated it:
"Foundation and Empire," the second in a trilogy of classic science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, is a must read for historians of science fiction. For those who like science fiction itself, this volume is also valuable. Asimov can madden, especially in his early novels, but his imagination is wonderful. His strength is conceptualizing systems (whether empires or cultures) and he often plays with big ideas.
I first read the trilogy while in college, and was fascinated. Th More...
I first read the trilogy while in college, and was fascinated. Th More...
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Dec 20, 2011
Frank
rated it:
While it doesn't have the brevity of the first book or the unique feel to it. Foundation And Empire brings the second set of stories in the Foundation series into a single book. It feels a bit longer while not necessarily being so, this is probably due to the fact it is two stories, instead of four. It is a reasonably quick read however.
The first story is not the best in my opinion. While it has one of the best characters, the character in the story is outside of the main Found More...
The first story is not the best in my opinion. While it has one of the best characters, the character in the story is outside of the main Found More...
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Oct 10, 2010
S
rated it:
I have to say, I am really enjoying my foray into the land of science fiction. This is another great installment in the Foundation series.
After almost three centuries of domination in the periphery of the Galaxy, the Foundation is in danger of being taken over by a mysterious conqueror call The Mule. In fact, even Hari Seldon - the brilliant mathematician whose science of psychohistory predicts that the Foundation will be the seed of a new, peaceful Galactic Empire - seems to have mi More...
After almost three centuries of domination in the periphery of the Galaxy, the Foundation is in danger of being taken over by a mysterious conqueror call The Mule. In fact, even Hari Seldon - the brilliant mathematician whose science of psychohistory predicts that the Foundation will be the seed of a new, peaceful Galactic Empire - seems to have mi More...
Jan 09, 2012
Roger
rated it:
I liked the first book better. This one was a bit melodramatic. Certainly the resolution of the first crisis in the book felt almost like a cop-out. I get the point Asimov was trying to make but he could have made it less annoyingly.
The second crisis was a bit obvious, except the revelation of the purpose of the second foundation at the very end. This plot too had plenty of holes, the largest among them of course was the mule. The very existence of the mule is the first real deviat More...
The second crisis was a bit obvious, except the revelation of the purpose of the second foundation at the very end. This plot too had plenty of holes, the largest among them of course was the mule. The very existence of the mule is the first real deviat More...
Jan 18, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
With each Foundation book I finish the more surprised I am at myself for not reading them sooner. They are pretty light reads to be honest. I got through the 386 pages of this one in maybe 7 hours total. And it was as captivating from start to finish as the first. But the scale of his stories are massive, spanning several universes and encompassing multiple facets of the societies contained within those universes. Asimov says volumes with very few words, which goes to show that the success
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Jun 15, 2010
Roger
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I started reading this series because I needed to read 'The Mule' for my personal goal of reading all of the Hugo Award Winning Novels. While I enjoyed this story, and while the Mule one the Retro Hugo for 1945, and while Asimov himself has claimed 'The Mule' to be his favourite, I don't think I enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed reading the first Foundation book. Oh it was still quite good, but I think the novelty may have, to an extent worn out toward the end of the story concerning Gener
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Apr 13, 2010
Almak
rated it:
Foundation and Empire is the second novel in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and picks up approximately a half century after Foundation.
Asimov's writing style is not one that creates "eye candy" visuals or dwells on the minutiae of future technology; quite to the contrary it is cerebral and the future "technology" is somewhat dated (nucleics). The strength though lies in the excellent way he delivers his premise and shows how the foretold Galactic Empire's demis More...
Asimov's writing style is not one that creates "eye candy" visuals or dwells on the minutiae of future technology; quite to the contrary it is cerebral and the future "technology" is somewhat dated (nucleics). The strength though lies in the excellent way he delivers his premise and shows how the foretold Galactic Empire's demis More...
Dec 31, 2011
Luke
rated it:
What freaky twists there are in this one! Best twist, hands down, is the reveal of just WHO the mysterious Mule is. I didn't see that one coming, although in retrospect, I must be a card carrying moron for being tricked so easily. It's a classic sleight of hand, straight out of Christie. Clever though. Another fun shock I rather enjoyed was the startling development of the formerly heroic Foundation now a vicious dictatorship that'd make Stalin, Hitler and Bush feel right comfy. I guess desiccat
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May 05, 2011
Michelle
rated it:
I am baffled as to why I liked this book and the previous one in the series, at least I am baffled as to how to explain it. This is about as conceptual as it gets. There is no protagonist, or maybe the protagonist is the human race, which might sound kind of original and exciting, but it really isn't. The characters themselves don't really get that much characterization, they are pawns in a game with no players and they're only "on stage" for a brief episode and then the epic sweep
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Nov 15, 2010
Michael
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Aug 24, 2009
Nicholas
rated it:
Asimov continues with his narration of the history of the interregnum between empires in pretty much the same anthology format used in Foundation. Actually, upon further thinking, there's probably no way really to tell the story of a 1,000 year journey on the part of humanity without doing it in snippets. More and more the series begins to read more like a history book with some dramatic events being highlighted for their importance as turning points. These turning points are called Seldon Cr
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Feb 24, 2011
Matt
rated it:
(Cross-posted to my sci-fi blog, Android Dreamer.)
Having now read three of Isaac Asimov's and been thoroughly disappointed by two of them, I feel comfortable in saying that in my opinion Asimov is a writer of great ideas and worlds with rather poor actual execution. Foundation and Empire is a terribly boring novel. The series as a whole is high concept, with one of the more memorable characters of the medium in Hari Seldon, but I feel as though the first book is really all that is nece More...
Having now read three of Isaac Asimov's and been thoroughly disappointed by two of them, I feel comfortable in saying that in my opinion Asimov is a writer of great ideas and worlds with rather poor actual execution. Foundation and Empire is a terribly boring novel. The series as a whole is high concept, with one of the more memorable characters of the medium in Hari Seldon, but I feel as though the first book is really all that is nece More...
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Mar 02, 2010
Tamcamry
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• If I’m not mistaken one of the major criticisms of the first few stories in the Foundation saga is that there really isn’t much dramatic effect. Because of the way Hari Seldon has the future laid out, the Foundation will always win, it will always be secure and nothing too bad will ever happen. In the first story in this book Asimov sets that theme up so that he can shatter it in the second story. I remember thinking towards that beginning that maybe I had the true identity of the Mule figu
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Sep 02, 2010
Levi
rated it:
I think I actually liked the pacing in the first book better, despite the fact it has more time jumps and is less focused on individuals. The second book of the foundation series does however still live up to the epic theme.
I did like the twist ending, almost like 6th sense style. I had a nagging suspicion throughout almost the entire book of what was really going on, but could never say for sure. Asimov drops plenty of hints, and by the end it's really looking like it'll play out More...
I did like the twist ending, almost like 6th sense style. I had a nagging suspicion throughout almost the entire book of what was really going on, but could never say for sure. Asimov drops plenty of hints, and by the end it's really looking like it'll play out More...
Nov 12, 2011
Taro
rated it:
A little pedantic at some places, but overall, fun to read. The tone of the story seems to shift in this book, becoming a little more fantastic.
By the end of the second book, we've covered about 300 years in the narrative. The people in the galaxy all indulge in smoking tobacco. Really? We also meet Bayta in this book. In my recollection, this is the first female character. She is capable and intelligent, but she's forced into some of the same gender roles that were, I believe, in plac More...
By the end of the second book, we've covered about 300 years in the narrative. The people in the galaxy all indulge in smoking tobacco. Really? We also meet Bayta in this book. In my recollection, this is the first female character. She is capable and intelligent, but she's forced into some of the same gender roles that were, I believe, in plac More...
Nov 02, 2009
Max
rated it:
Chronologically, this is the third in the series, and so far it dragged the most for me (at least the first 3/4 of the book). Part was because it was two parts, the first where a young, agressive general gets a chance to make his mark by attacking the Foundation at the periphery of the Galaxy (not more than legend to many of those in the Empire).
The Foundation survives and looks for the next Seldon crisis in the second part, confident that everything will work out since they have More...
The Foundation survives and looks for the next Seldon crisis in the second part, confident that everything will work out since they have More...
Dec 09, 2011
I read the first FOUNDATION book about 6 years ago and although the details of the plot and the characters are really fuzzy the themes from the book still seem to come up. Like recently a friend was telling me about how a dance company where she used to work was trying to figure out how to preserve the choreography of their choreographer who passed away last year and the difficulty of deciphering what the choreographer would have wanted. Can we trust what he said? Would he have said the same
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Jul 27, 2011
I'm really enjoying the Foundation Trilogy but I can't help that niggling thing that this second book brings on more than the first. The women in it are portrayed as housewives and even the first (and so far only) woman that makes it as a proper character is constantly admired for her looks. There is an almost hilarious moment when an elder of a planet they visit is shocked and offended that she is allowed to sit and converse with men.
Why did he include a female leading character at all? Well More...
Why did he include a female leading character at all? Well More...
Apr 01, 2011
Andrew
rated it:
I wish the star system was based on 10 instead of 5. This book falls squarely with 7 stars for me. I liked it although it is definitely part of a larger series and as such may not be completely satisfying unto itsef. It also seemed to go a long way to achieve its points. The previous book, Foundation, felt more like every part of it was needed and as such was much more interesting to travel through. I mention travel because these books focus mainly on a plot based mostly on overarching political
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Aug 03, 2011
Steven
rated it:
The second (depending on how you look at it) of the books in Asimov's foundation series, I kind of felt this book suffered a bit from middle-o-the-trilogy syndrome. I kind of felt it was just carrying me through from the first book to the third. After using religion as a way of solidifying the strength of the Foundation, it moves into a phase where commerce (and piracy?) pave the way to expanding the Foundations influence and territory. I wouldn't consider any of the characters in this second bo
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