** spoiler alert ** Foundation was a great book, but in my opinion Foundation and Empire was so much better. My main compliant with Foundation was the fact that it was difficult to grow to really like any character. Since as soon as you start to learn about a character and start to like them, the story would shift to years into the future and the point of view of a new character. In Foundation and Empire there was still the shift, but the shift happened a lot slower and allowed for me to identify and grow to like some of the characters. Asimov creates a beautiful science fiction story and continuation of his epic series in Foundation and Empire.

The concepts and ideas of human nature are great. It really got me to think how well that Asimov understands how humans think and act to certain events. This is evident in the chain of events that lead to the fall on the Empire. No outside force needed to bring down the Empire, just it own people choking the already failing Empire. Well the downfall of the Empire was amazingly executed. I personally like the second book/story inside Foundation and Empire. I like the story surrounding the mutant known as the Mule. The characters of Bayat,Toran, the Clown, Mule, and Ebling Mis were all rather interesting and the story exciting and rather great plot devices used. The plot twist was crafted well, even though I caught on to the twist before the big reveal chapters before. I also liked that a female character actually had a larger role in this novel. I believe Foundation and Empire was an improvement with the characters and had a far better storyline.

I am looking forward to reading the next novel Second Foundation and see where this story continues. Isaac Asimov is truly a genius of a writer and this series has quickly became my favorite science fiction series I have ever read. I would recommend this series to science fiction fans and even though that are not. I was not a big science fiction reader, but I fell in love with this series.