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 General Bel Rios. The conclusions at the end of that story, although necessary for 'The Mule' to have sufficient bearing, seemed too much of a cop-out for my taste. That being said, by the end of the book, I was excitedly in to it again. The Mule himself presented a startling turn that I, like Hari Seldon, did not see coming, and set the stage for an exciting conclusion to the (original) trilogy that deals with that very cop-out that I had earlier found so disconcerting.