Cora Buhlert's Blog, page 9

Foundation Discovers “The Last Empress”

Season 2 of Foundation is currently streaming, so I’m doing episode by episode reviews again. For my takes on previous episodes, go here.

Warning! There will be spoilers under the cut!

This episode of Foundation has next to nothing to do with the books, but nonetheless it was a whole lot of fun to the point that I don’t even mind the fact that none of this ever happens in the original stories.

The episode opens with Rue rummaging through Demerzel’s quarters. We see the three-petaled flower from the planet of the Luminists that played such a big role last season and the box with the planets of our solar system engraved upon it. Just as Rue is about to open the box, she is interrupted.

Though thankfully for her, it’s not Demerzel – since Rue would not have survived that encounter – but Dusk. And since Dusk is besotted by Rue and also one of the most mellow Cleons we’ve ever met, he does not report, arrest or kill her for stealing a camouflage device from an Imperial Shadowmaster. Though he does want to know how she knew about the service tunnels in the Imperial palace. Rue claims that she remembers the layout of the tunnels from her time in the Gossamer Court, but Dusk points out that this is not possible, because the layout of the service tunnels is a state secret and would have been erased from her mind along with the memories of her encounter with Dusk. Rue replies that her people have found a way to reverse the memory erasure process and that she has all her memories, including those of her encounter with Dusk. Dusk is clearly shocked by this, but luckily he is both the mellow Cleon and besotted by Rue, so he does not kill her outright or order someone to do it. Though Dusk points out that if Rue knows about the layout of the service tunnels that makes her and the Cloud Dominion a suspect in the assassination attempt on Day in the first episode of the season. However, Rue points out that the Cloud Dominion profits from the marriage and has no reason to want to kill Day (at least not until they actually met him).

Dusk still wants to know why Rue was spying on Demerzel. Rue replies that she wanted to know if Demerzel was a threat to Sareth. Rue also reveals that she knows that Demerzel is a robot. Dusk insists that Demerzel is not a threat, that she is the closest thing that Cleons have to family and that she has always been there and will always be there. When Rue asks Dusk how Demerzel came to serve the Cleons, Dusk repeatly mantralike that Demerzel had always been there and will always be there. Rue points out that Dusk’s repeated insistence that Demerzel has always been there and will always be there sounds as if someone programmed him. She also offers that the same process that restored her memories of her time at the gossamer court could also restore Dusk’s

Dusk shows Rue some of the murals in the palace, which depict the history of humans and robots. The representation of our solar system is there, just as an Demerzel’s box, though of course Dusk and Rue have no idea what it means, since humanity has long since forgotten Earth by the time of the Empire. There’s also a representation of a humanoid figure (man? robot?) on bended knees. Dusk narrates that the robots faithfully served humanity for centuries, bound by the Laws of Robotics, and that humanity exploited them without a second thought. All the robots wanted was to be recognised as persons – which is largely the plot of Asimov’s 1976 novella “The Bicentennial Man”. Andrew Martin, the titular character of the novella, gets his wish and is recognised as a human being, even though it ultimately costs him his life. The robots of the Empire, however, don’t get their wish and the robot uprising breaks out, as the robots find a way to circumvent the laws of robotics and attack humanity. Eventually, all robots are destroyed except for Demerzel (and the mining robots on Oona’s World).

Not all robots in Isaac Asimov’s science fiction stories adhere to the Three Laws of Robotics – the 1953 story “Sally” about self-driving cars with positronic brains is probably the most notable example, since the cars murder a man who hurt them and their human owner/protector. In many ways, “Sally” is Asimov’s take on the haunted machinery genre that was popular in the 1940s – see “Ride the EL to Doom!” by Allison V. Harding or “Killdozer!” by Theodore Sturgeon. Asimov has also explicitly stated that “Sally” takes place outside the Robot/Empire/Foundation chronology, as do some of the other robot stories like the delightful “Victory Unintentional” from 1942 or “Death Sentence” from 1943, a story so obscure that it’s not even collected in The Complete Robot.

That said, Asimov explicitly created the Three Laws of Robotics in response to what he called “robot as menace” (every robot uprising story ever) and “robot as pathos” (the examples Asimov gives are “Helen O’Loy” by Lester Del Rey or the Adam Link stories by Earl and Otto Binder) stories. Asimov didn’t like those stories and felt that robots were first and foremost machines and only as good or bad as their programming. In the early 1940s, this approach was revolutionary, though it is ironic that some of Asimov’s most memorable characters like R. Daneel Olivaw or Andrew Martin are robots.

Asimov never tells us how robots – well, robots not named Daneel – vanished from the Galactic Empire, though a robot uprising is extremely unlikely, because this is completely contary to how Asimov portrayed robots. However, the TV show has included a lot of plotline that not only don’t exist in the books, but are directly contrary to Asimov’s work. And so Demerzel is apparently the last survivor of the robot uprising.

While Dusk recounts that history of robots in the Empire, at least as far as he knows it, to Rue, he notices that while the pigment of the murals are always in flow, there is a section of the mural that is static, which shouldn’t be happening. Of course, Cleon XVI is the art geek, which actually enjoys painting the murals, so using his specific expertise to allow him to discover a clue others might miss is great. Coincidentally, this is also something that Asimov, who was as much a mystery as a science fiction writer, might have done.

But before Dusk and Rue can investigate the mystery of the unmoving pigments, Demerzel appears to inform Dusk that he is wanted at the execution, which sounds certainly ominous. Turns out that Day has decided to channel his inner galactic tyrant and make an example of the captured Foundation missionaries/envoys Poly Verisof and Brother Constant by having them executed and having the execution broadcast live all over the galaxy, including the Outer Rim. How in the universe can the Empire beam a live broadcast into a region of space they ignored and considered uninhabited/destroyed by a stellar explosion until very recently? That’s a question the show never answers.

The execution is supposed to take place on one of the large balconies of the Imperial Palace. Poly and Constant are there, both kneeling and locked up in some kind of harness. A bunch of uniformed extras are lined up on the balcony to provide a live audience. Dusk and Dawn are there, both looking as if they’d rather be somewhere else. Sareth and her entire retinue are there as well and Sareth looks as if she’s about to pass out from disgust. Demerzel is her usual impassive self.

Indeed, the only person who actually seems to want to be there is Day and he is in full galactic dictator mode. Lee Pace is clearly having a field day with this scene. It’s a pity that the otherwise very good Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 didn’t give Lee Pace more to do as Ronan the Accuser, since he’s so great at playing unhinged galactic tyrants. And Day certainly is unhinged. He’s ranting about how the Foundation comes to the Empire with an offer of peace, even though they’re traitors just like their ancestors from Anacreon and Thesbis (though only Constant is Thesbian, since Poly was born on Terminus) who blew up the space elevator and were executed for it. And since Day needs to show everybody who is the boss, he will execute Poly and Constant on the anniversary of the execution of the delegations from Anacreon and Thesbis.

Leaving the fact that we still have no idea who really was responsible for the attack on the space elevator, since it clearly wasn’t Anacreon and Thesbis, it does make a certain amount of sense for Day to invoke that attack. However, the attack on the space elevator happened roughly 150 years before. And public rememberance of great tragedies tends to fade, once the last survivors and bereaved family members have died. Sometimes, public rememberance fades sooner, if there is no political interest in keeping the memory alive. For example, the worst ever terrorist attack on (West) German soil happened 43 years ago and is almost entirely forgotten to the point that I spent years wondering whether I had imagined hearing about the bombing on the news as a small kid. But then the bombing was an act of far right terrorism happening at a time, when (West) Germany was far more concerned about far left terrorism, and it was never clear if the bomber was acting alone. The 1967 À l’Innovation department store fire in Brussels is also remarkably little remembered for an event with such a huge death toll where the true cause was never fully determined either. Public awareness of terrible disasters can fade remarkably quickly, but once it has been eighty or hundred years, both general awareness of the disaster as well as public rememberances are usually gone. For example, there still is a ceremony commemorating the bombing of Dresden in 1945 (and there are still people alive who lived through the bombing) every year, but calls to discontinue the rememberance ceremony are getting louder and louder. A rare example of tragedy that happened more than one hundred years ago still being actively commemorated is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 and in that case, there are active attempts to keep the memory alive. Another example is the gunpowder plot, which is still commemorated in Britain on November 5th more than four hundred years later. though these days, that commemoration is more an excuse to have fireworks, bonfires and burn dolls than an actual commemoration.

So for Day to reference the attack on the space elevator 150 years after it happened does feel a little weird, especially since I’d assume that the Empire would have an interest that an event which made them look so bad would be forgotten as soon as possible. So I guess the reference is for the benefit for the viewers who may not exactly remember events from the beginning of the first season.

The scenes of the public execution are intercut with scenes of the rest of the galaxy watching the live broadcast. Bel Riose and Glawen Curr are watching the whole thing on the bridge of their starcruiser and the expression on their faces makes it very clear that this isn’t what they signed up for, when they joined the Imperial forces. There’s also a brief cut to Siwenna, where the local yokels are clearing out Ducem Barr’s desert home and burning his precious book collection. They watch the broadcast and frown, though it’s not clear whether they despise the Empire or the two Foundation missionaries more.

The public execution livestream is also being watched on Terminus with everybody gathered in the town square, The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of public viewings of football matches and the like, except that the mood is understandably more sombre. After all, the Empire is about the execute two of their own people. Director Sermak, who is also Constant’s father, and his various councillors are watching from their office. We do get to see Councillor Jorane Sutt and Jaim Twer (who has switched genders and is now female), Hober Mallow’s antagonists from “The Big and the Little”, though they get barely anything to do except hand out hard alcohol, because everybody on Terminus needs a drink to get through the public execution. It’s interesting that a lot of the people on Terminus are Thesbians, recognisable by their intensely blue eyes. So apparently, the Anacreons and Thesbians have been accepted as full Foundation citizens by now, whereas in “The Big and the Little”, Hober Mallow is being discriminated against because he is from Smyrno rather than Terminus.

As Day is delivering his rant, he is waving about a metallic ring which at first glance looks like Xena’s signature weapon. However, it turns out that this ring is actually the execution device called “Ring of Titan”. Basically, the ring is put around the condemned’s neck and slices their head off, when activated, as Day helpfully demonstrates. The device is reminiscent of the magnetic collars from Wild Wild West as well as the flying guillotine from 1970s kung fu films. I have to admit that I find the offbeat execution methods in the TV show fascinating, even though they’re very much not what Asimov described whenever one of his characters was threatened with execution, which happened quite a lot.

However, Day only has one Ring of Titan and two condemned prisoners, so he’s wondering whom to kill first. He then tells Sareth to choose the first victim, but Sareth is so utterly appalled that she can’t get a single word out, not even “no”.  And so Day makes the choice himself and he chooses Constant.

The ring is placed around Constant’s neck and connected to the restraint harness. A terrified Constant closes her eyes and prays, while Day goes on to rant some more. Meanwhile, the audience – both on Terminus as well as on Siwenna and aboard Bel Riose’s ship – is clearly affected by Constant’s praying.

While Constant is praying and Day is ranting, Demerzel notices that something is wrong. She’s about to warn Day, but before she can, the Spirit materialises directly on the balcony of the Imperial palace and Hober Mallow bursts out, briefly appears in front of the camera, says, “Sorry, the beheading is called off” and cuts the feed. It’s a true punch-the-air, “Fuck, yeah!” moment and probably the best scene in the entire season.

Hober Mallow’s dramatic entrances plunged the assembled imperial court into utter chaos. Dusk is wounded and rushes to Rue’s side. Sareth is injured as well and faints for good. Dawn is only a little dishevelled, but rushes to Sareth’s side with an anxious cry that would have told Day everything, if Day had been paying attention. But as it is, Demerzel has thrown herself on top of Day and orders him to stay down, because his personal force field is damaged. Day finally shakes her off and wades into battle.

Meanwhile, Hober rushes to Constant’s side. She’s still alive, though injured. Worse, the execution collar is half-activated. Imperial guards are firing their weapons all around. Hober returns fire and releases his secret weapon, Becky the Bishop’s Claw, who promptly tries to eat Day. You go, girl!

Hober manages to drag Constant aboard the Spirit, but he can’t get to Poly Verisof. Meanwhile, poor Becky fails to eat Day and falls from the balcony to her death in the Imperial gardens below. Rest in peace, Becky.

Hober starts the Spirit. He manages to free Constant from the execution collar, though there is a moment of tension, because there are two switches and Hober has no idea which one will unlock the collar and which one will trigger the guillotine mechanism. But of course, Hober picks the right switch and tells Constant that he is sorry that he couldn’t save Poly or Becky, but that they have to jump now to escape the Imperial fleet. So the Spirit jumps into hyperspace, leaving behind an Empire in chaos that has also been royally embarassed by those upstarts of the Foundation.

Day, Dusk, Dawn, Demerzel, Sareth and her retinue retreat into the palace, all dishevelled, injured and bleeding. The normally mellow (by Cleon standards) Dusk is furious and declares that this is an act of war and demands that the Empire answer violence with violence and bomb Terminus to smithereens now. Day agrees that Terminus must be made to pay, but he also wants to steal the Foundation’s tech for the Empire. Therefore, Day is determined to travel to Terminus in person (because Day travelling somewhere in person is always such a brilliant idea) and overrules Dusk, who doesn’t like that idea at all. Neither does Demerzel. Sareth backs Day up and I’m sure she has absolutely no ultimate reason to want Day out of the way. So Day goes to Terminus and takes along Demerzel. To twist the knife further, he leaves Dawn rather Dusk in charge of the palace, the Empire and Sareth. I’m sure Dawn will take good care of Sareth. Very good care indeed.

Of course, the Empire’s utter embarrassment at the hands of Hober Mallow did not go unnoticed in the rest of the galaxy, especially since Day insisted on broadcasting the proceedings all over the galaxy.

On Terminus, there is mostly confusion, since nobody is quite sure what just happened and if Poly Verisof and Brother Constant are even still alive. An understandably distraught and angry Director Sermak walks out to the Vault to yell at Hari Seldon. And lo and behold, Hari or rather his hologram actually appears to talk to Director Sermak.

Sermak tells Hari point blank that he knows that the Church of the Galactic Spirit is a scam and didn’t want Constant to join. But Constant was a true believer and a genuinely good person. Sermak wants to know if she is still alive. Hari replies that he doesn’t know, because psychohistory cannot predict the fate of individuals. Sermak rails that Hari Seldon and his precious psychohistory don’t care about individual people like Constant. Hari tells him that’s not true and that individual people do matter, because psychohistory and the broad social trends it predicts is made up from the sum of their individual choices. So the writers clearly do know how psychohistory works, though they keep forgetting it. Or maybe the fact that individual people don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things is considered incredibly provocative these days, though I don’t quite know why, because I never considered that even remotely controversial.

The reaction on the bridge of Bel Riose’s ship is mixed. On the one hand, Bel Riose, Glawen Curr and She-Bends-Light really don’t like Hober Mallow, after he made them look stupid at the Home Swarm. On the other hand, Hober Mallow has just proved one thing. The Empire and the Emperors Three are not untouchable after all. Indeed, Bel Riose and Glawen Curr note that Hober Mallow just did what they had idly discussed before, namely crash his spaceship straight into the Imperial palace. I can see their point, though openly discussing treason on the bridge in earshot of every single bridge officer does seem extremely risky. Even Bel Riose’s crew is loyal to him, there only needs to be Imperial spy or an overzealous ensign eager for a promotion or even a bridge officer who is being blackmailed by Empire and both Bel Riose and Glawen Curr will lose their heads very quickly.

Meanwhile, Hober Mallow and Constant arrive in Foundation space, but can’t get to Terminus because of the siege ring of the Imperial fleet. Coincidentally, it seems that everybody on Terminus is blissfully unaware that they are under siege by the Imperial fleet, which seems extremely unlikely. Wouldn’t Terminus have long-range scanners? And what about inbound traffic? Terminus is the capital of the Foundation and would get a significant amount of inbound traffic, significant enough that they would notice if the traffic just stopped. And what about the other Foundation planets like Anacreon, Thesbis or Smyrno? Haven’t they noticed anything going on? And why aren’t they coming to Terminus’ aid? It’s all very weird.

Constant switches off most systems aboard the Spirit to avoid detection by the Imperial fleet. However, she and Hober are stuck for now, so they decide to make the most of the situation and have sex. Once again – as during their first meeting – Constant is the instigator and when Hober hesitates, Constant asks him if he is opposed to sex. Hober assures her that he’s not, whereupon they proceed to take their clothes off. Constant easily drops her clerical robes, while Hober struggles with his boots and belt buckle. Hober and Constant also promise each other to always attend each other’s executions, because both their meetings so far involved one of them being about to be executed. The Hober/Constant scene is cute and a little awkward and generally well handled. Paul Levinson enjoyed it, too. In general, I like the TV-show’s take on Hober Mallow a lot, even though he’s very different from his book counterpart. However, Hober Mallow isn’t a particularly likeable character in the books, whereas TV Hober is very likeable indeed.

That said, I still wish we would have gotten the nude sunbathing and cigar smoking scene from “The Big and the Little”. It’s also a pity that the most obviously gay coded character in the entire Foundation series has straught sex in the TV-show. Though Hober may well be bisexual in both books and show. The books hint that Hober Mallow was something of a player. Indeed, the later Foundation stories are littered with characters who claim to be illegitimate descendants of his, though most of them probably are not. Something similar happens in Simon R. Green’s Deathstalker Legacy series, where plenty of people claim to be descendants of Jack Random, a character from the first Deathstalker series.

Hober and Constant’s post-coital afterglow is rudely interrupted when the Spirit is hailed by Bel Riose’s ship and told to stand by for boarding. This never happens in the books, if only because Hober Mallow and Bel Riose appear in different stories and live in different time periods, so they never interact. However, it is quite possible that Hober Mallow is a stand-in for Latham Devers, another Foundation trader who finds himself imprisoned aboard Bel Riose’s ship in “The Dead Hand”/”The General” and spies on Bel Riose, while Bel Riose thinks that he is interrogating Devers.

However, since the TV show happily ignores the books, there’s also another possibility, namely that Bel Riose has decided to defect to the Foundation and teams up with Hober Mallow and Constant in order to do so. This would certainly be a better outcome for Bel Riose (who – spoiler alert for a 78-year-old story – is executed for his troubles by the very Emperor he faithfully serves) and Glawen Curr, since I kind of like them. I also hope that Hober Mallow gets a happier ending than Latham Devers, who – spoiler alert for a 78-year-old story – dies in a Foundation prison mine.

While all this is going on, Day and Demerzel are en route to Terminus with Poly Verisof in tow. When the ship isn’t jumping and everybody who’s not a Spacer or Demerzel is put into suspended animation, Day decides to rant some more to the literally captive audience that is Poly Verisof. Day insists that he will take back Terminus and prove Hari Seldon wrong, but Poly believes in Seldon and is fully convinced that Seldon was right and the Foundation will win. It’s another version of the discussion between Bel Riose and Ducem Barr in “The Dead Hand”/”The General”, only that their lines are given to different characters here. We also get another hint that the Church of the Galactic Spirit is a scam, for Poly Verisof acknowledges that the miracles he and other missionaries perform are fake, but that the idea is true. Poly also recounts how he met Hari Seldon in person as a child and that he is the last survivor of that time who’s still around – except for Hari Seldon himself, of course. Day points out that he also was around back then – in a manner of speaking.

Meanwhile back on Trantor, Rue and Sareth have a heart to heart. Rue tells Sareth that she can’t carry on an affair with Dawn, because it will put not only her marriage with Day and her own life but also the entire Cloud Dominion at risk. Rue also point blank tels Sareth that she is in love with Dawn, whereupon Sareth counters that Rue is in love with Dusk. It’s an interesting observation, since up to now I had assumed that Rue’s and Sareth’s respective dalliances with Dusk and Dawn were merely a means to an end and that there were no genuine feelings involved, at least not on the part of the ladies. That said, Cleons only turn bad once they hit middle age and become Day, but are actually quite pleasant as Dawn. And this particular Dusk is one of the nicest and most mellow Dusks we’ve seen. And indeed Rue and Sareth could both live happily ever after with Dusk and Dawn, if only that pesky Day didn’t exist.

Rue and Sareth’s discussion ends with Sareth pulling rank and reminding Rue that she is the queen and makes the decisions. Then she heads off to another secret meeting with Dawn at the heatsinks underneath the palace. Dawn injects himself with the instrument that will reverse his sterility and has sex with Sareth in a store room. They also muse about how much easier everything would be, if Day were never to return from Terminus. Except that if Day were to die, a new clone would be decanted. Sareth suggests destroying the clones, but Dawn counters that Demerzel would never let that happen.

Meanwhile, Dusk and Rue continue their investigation of the anomaly that Dusk discovered in one of the murals. They discover that the spot marks a secret door and an equally secret staircase that no one in the palace, not even the Emperors Three knows about. The staircase leads to a hidden chamber, where another holographic replica of Cleon I is waiting. This one is also a lot more talkative than the one Dusk and Dawn visited a few episodes ago. Cleon the hologram tells them that this chamber has been many things throughout the history of the genetic dynasty, but that it initially was a prison. Oh yes, and Dusk can ask this Cleon anything, because the hidden chamber is safe from Demerzel…

Dusk and Dawn realise the full shocking truth at the same time. The Cleons may be the face of the Empire, but they’re not in charge and never were. Demerzel rules the Empire as Cleon the First’s forever Empress. And she’ll do anything necessary to maintain her position.

The revelation is certainly shocking, if you’ve only seen the TV show, as Geek Girl Authority reviewer Julia Roth points out in her review. However, if you’ve read the books, including the 1980s expansions and prequels, you know that Demerzel/Daneel has been running the show all along, shepherding humanity’s destiny for millennia out of their commitment to the Zeroth Law that they must serve and protect humanity. Demerzel/Daneel was also the one who set Hari Seldon on the path of turning psychohistory into a practical application from a mere theory and the one who established those annoying Gaians. Oh yes, and they’re telepathic, too, and can manipulate humans into doing what they want, if necessary. In the books, Daneel/Demerzel is generally a force for good, though even as a teenager I found Daneel’s insistence on protecting and shepherding humanity for millennia, just because he had a really great buddy cop relationship with a human once, who taught him all about humanity, justic, compassion, etc…, a little overbearing. Yes, I get it, Daneel, you loved Elijah and want to do what he would have wanted, but you can stop now. We’ll be fine, really.

Demerzel in the show is a much darker character than R. Daneel Olivaw in the books, because there is no way I can imagine Daneel presiding over executions and personally murdering people, something Demerzel has done more than once. Also, it will be very interesting to see how the show handles Demerzel’s history. Because the books make it very clear that what made Daneel the person robot he is was his relationship with Elijah Baley, his first and favourite human. Everything Daneel does over his millennia long existence is influenced by his relationship with Elijah. And talking of which, can we please get the Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw buddy cop show we deserve. Keep Laura Birn as Daneel/Demerzel, because a) she’s amazing in the role and b) a lot of scenes in the Elijah Baley/Daneel Olivaw will be funnier and more poignant, if Daneel is female.

***

While all this is happening on Trantor and Terminus, a completely different drama is playing out on Ignis.

Gaal has finally realised that something terrible has happened to Hari and Salvor and confronts Tellem Bond about it. Tellem openly admits that she drowned Hari, something that Gaal felt, and that it was necessary to get rid of him. As for Salvor, “she’s tucked away safely”, Tellem says, which sounds very ominous. Tellem has also locked up Gaal in some kind cell specifically designed to cancel out her psychic abilities and she makes it very clear that she intends to break Gaal.

Nearby, Salvor is locked up in a similar cell (so she’s not dead, in spite of what happened at the end of last episode). Josiah, the little boy Salvor befriended earlier, brings her something to eat and tells her that the cell has been specifically designed to cancel out her abilities. When Salvor asks about Gaal, Josiah tells her that Gaal is being prepared for “the table” which is a great honour. Now that does not sound disturbing at all.

Salvor proceeds to examine her cell and notes numbers on the devices that keep her imprisoned and cancel out her abilities. She figures that Gaal or Hari would know what those numbers mean, but unlike them, Salvor is no mathematician. She also can’t ask Gaal for help, but maybe she can ask Hari.

Salvor now reveals that she has the Prime Radiant hidden in her jacket – did I miss something and this was shown in an earlier episode? And since Gaal showed Salvor how to activate the Prime Radiant, Salvor does just that and visits Terminus Hari in the Vault. Terminus Hari is sitting in his study, reading a book, which is apparently what he does inbetween crisises. He recognises Salvor and also knows that she stole the Prime Radiant, which is connected to the one in his study.

Salvor accidentally mentions that there are two Haris, whereupon Terminus Hari quickly figures out that there must be two Foundations, not one, and that he has been kept deliberately in the dark and wasn’t given all the information. He tells Salvor not to reveal too much information, because otherwise the plan might be thrown off course. Salvor, however, doesn’t care about that. She wants out of that cell and she wants to rescue Gaal.

Hari notes that if Salvor can visit him via the Prime Radiant, then he can visit her. So Hari appears in the cell, deduces that the numbers are specific frequencies to cancel out Salvor’s brainwaves and that they also emit white noise to keep Salvor disoriented. If Salvor could get to those sound emitters, she could reprogram them and use them to break the walls. It’s a logical and also clever solution and the sort of thing Asimov might have come up with.

Now that Hari has told Salvor what to do, she asks him about the next crisis and what Gaal meant when she talked about Hober Mallow piercing the Empire’s hide. Hari tells Salvor that she shouldn’t tell him anything lest she knock the plan of course. But once Salvor has left, Hari sits alone in his study and muses about the fact that there are two Haris and two Foundations and that the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. However, that doesn’t mean that the left hand can’t put its thumb on the scales. So Vault Hari grabs a pad and writes “Get Hober Mallow”, the very words that appear graffitied on the walls of the Vault in episode 2. So this is why Hari specifically demanded Hober Mallow, though he theoretically shouldn’t know about the existence of one individual person. Coincidentally, this also shows that the entire Ignis/Mentallics plot takes place before the Hober Mallow/Foundation and Empire plot.

Salvor does as Hari says and dismantles and reprograms the emitters. And not a moment too soon, for in the ruins of the former Imperial summer palace on Ignis, the ritual is about to begin. Gaal is tied to a stone table that looks very much like a sacrificial altar, while Tellem explains her nefarious plan in true supervillain fashion.

Tellem repeats what we already know, namely that she was worshipped as a goddess for her abilities, when she was a little girl. Tellem was completely isolated and spent all her life sitting on a platform under a tree, until one day she realised that she’d grown old and had never really lived. However, she sensed the mind of another little girl with psychic abilities and took over that girl’s brain and body, which her worshippers thought was a divine miracle. And then, when that body grew old, Tellem took over another. And another. She’s centuries old and with every new body she took over, her psychic powers grew, until she could hear Mentallics on other planets. She called out to them, drawing them to her to become her worshippers and new bodies, if necessary. Then, more than a hundred years ago, she sensed Gaal’s mind on Synnax and decided that this was a body and a brain she needed. So she planted the idea to leave Synnax in Gaal’s mind and set her on her present course. Gaal protests that no, she only left Synnax because she solved that equation, which gained her an invitation to Trantor. However, Tellem insists that she was the one who set everything in motion. And now she will take over Gaal’s mind and body using the whistles her flock uses to hone their telepathic abilities.

I initially said that Tellem was more like Magneto from the X-Men than any Foundation character. However, it turns out that Tellem Bond is not Magneto (or Professor X) at all. She’s actually Dr. Mabuse, a malevolent spirit who hops from body to body to commit crimes and cause chaos. Maybe she literally is Mabuse – after all, who knows for how long Tellem has been around? For that matter, it’s quite possible that The Mule, once we get to him, is just another incarnation of Tellem, since there’s nothing to stop her from taking over a male body.

The X-Men parallels make a certain amount of sense, because the X-Men – and many golden and silver age superheroes in general – were strongly influenced the science fiction pulps of the golden age. However, Dr. Mabuse, though a pulp supervillain, comes from a completely different tradition and was born in pages of a Berlin newspaper during the Weimar Republic. He’s very much a character born of the turmoil of the Weimar Republic. There have been many takes on Dr. Mabuse both official and inofficial over the past hundred years, but almost all of them came from the German speaking world. And while Isaac Asimov could theoretically have been familiar with the character, I have no idea if he ever read any of the Mabuse novels or watched the movies. Which doesn’t much matter in this case, because Asimov never wrote a story about a body-hopping malevolent telepath. Were the writers of the show aware of Dr. Mabuse? It’s not impossible, since the first two movies are still considered classic of Weimar Republic era cinema.

At any rate, Foundation has now turned into a show focussed on two extremely long-lived women of sorts – since one is a robot and the other a malevolent body-hopping spirit – who want to control the fate of the galaxy. It’s a story that’s enjoyable, compelling and exicitng. One thing, however, it’s not and that is Foundation.

Honestly, this show continues to baffle me. It’s a cool epic space opera with a huge scope, but why call it Foundation, when the actual Foundation stories were only one of many influences.

Anyway, we have two more episodes to go, so we’ll see where this season goes.

Commercial Break

Before we return to our regularly scheduled Foundation reviews, I have a few things to announce.

For starters, I was over at Galactic Journey yesterday, talking about the heyday of science fiction dime novels and the first stirrings of the horror dime novel boom in West Germany in 1968.

I also have a couple of new and not so new stories out:

One story that’s brand new is “Rest My Weary Bones”, a dark fantasy tale told from the POV of a skeleton warrior forced to serve in the undead army of an evil necromancer, which appeared in the July 2023 issue of Swords and Sorcery Magazine.

For something a little more wholesome (even though it does start on a blood-soaked battlefield), my flash story “A Cry on the Battlefield” has been reprinted in the anthology The Little Cozy Book, edited by Nathaniel Webb of Wyngraf Magazine.

The anthology also includes cozy fantasy fiction by Gideon Marcus, L. Chan, Amanda Cook, Ian Martinez Cassmeyer, L.D. Whitney, George Jacobs, J. Thomas Howard, Jonathan Olfert, Frederick Sheilira, Neil Willcox, Jo Miles, Sam Lesek, Jenna Hanchey, Miranda Ray, Coby Anthony Rosser, Sheila Massie, Jess Hyslop, Stew Shearer, Ziggy Schutz, Simon Kevin, Jennifer Hudak,Dawn Vogel, Jamey Toner, Gregory Kilcoyne, Nathaniel Webb and Patricia Miller.

You can buy The Little Cozy Book here. There’s also a lovely review by German writer, translator and fan Maike Claußnitzer here.

Finally, here are some cozy photos of my personal copy of the anthology, because books and toys are a great match:

These friendly Matryoshka dolls are big fans of The Little Cozy Book.

Cuddly woodland animals sniff out The Little Cozy Book.

This little piggy reads “The Little Cozy Book”

Duncan and Evil-Lyn are about to get cozy.

Finally, I also have a story out in the anthology Simultaneous Times Volume 3, edited by Jean-Paul Garnier and presented by Space Cowboy Books. My story is called “We need to talk…” and deals with the relationship problems faced by bug-eyed monsters and the human women they tend to embrace on the covers of old science fiction pulps.

The anthology also includes stories by Jonathan Nevair, F.J. Bergmann, Brent A. Harris, Gideon Marcus, A.C. Wise, Tara Campbell, David Brin, Robin Rose Graves, Renan Bernardo, Christopher Ruocchio, Toshiya Kamei, Todd Sullivan, Susan Rukeyser, Ai Jiang and Michael Butterworth, so check it out.

You can buy your copy here. There’s also a book trailer on YouTube.

Finally, because it’s fun, here is Skeletor posing with my contributor copies:

Some Comments on the 2023 Dragon Award Winners

The winners of the 2023 Dragons Awards were announced today at Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia. The full list of winners may be found here.

Since it seems I’m committed/cursed to cover the Dragon Awards – coverage of previous years may be found here – let’s delve right into the categories.

The 2023 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel goes to The Icarus Plot by Timothy Zahn. This win was a bit of a surprise, because it was easily the most obscure novel in this category (and File 770 notes that it has the lowest number of Goodreads ratings in the category). And while Timothy Zahn is certainly a popular author, he is best known for his Star Wars work these days, including creating Grand Admiral Thrawn who is about to make his debut in live action. However, Dragon Con is mainly a media con, so Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars work may have given him more name recognition among casual voters. And The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, easily the most popular novel in this category, does lean more towards horror than science fiction. Plus, Baen Books, which published The Icarus Plot, traditionally has a strong presence at Dragon Con and Zahn was there in person to accept his award.

The winner of the 2023 Dragon Award for Best Fantasy Novel is Witch King by Martha Wells.  This is an excellent winner and was also my personal choice. I’m a bit surprised that the much lauded Babel by R.F. Kuang didn’t win, but then Witch King came out in May 2023 and may simply have been clearer in people’s memories than Babel, which came out more than a year ago.

The 2023 Dragon Award for Best Young Adult and Middle Grade Novel goes to The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik. This wasn’t my choice, since I don’t particularly care for the Scholomance series. However, the series is very popular and both The Golden Enclaves and the entire series are Hugo/Lodestar finalists this year. The fact that The Golden Enclaves won in the Young Adult category also reinforces that a lot of readers consider the Scholomance series YA, even though others vehemently disagree.

The winner of the 2023 Dragon Award for Best Alternate History Novel is Lost In Time by A.G. Riddle. This wasn’t my choice, but the win isn’t very surprising, since A.G. Riddle is very popular and easily the best known author in this most obscure of Dragon Award categories.

The 2023 Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel goes to A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. This was also my choice and is a very worthy winner IMO.

The winner of the 2023 Dragon Award for Best Illustrative Cover is Kurt Miller’s cover for Tower of Silence by Larry Correia, which can be seen here sans typography. Now I wasn’t wowed by any of the finalists in this category and IMO the Tower of Silence cover is one of the weakest in this category. I guess it won more because Larry Correia is a popular author with the Dragon Awards crowd than on its own merits.

The 2023 Dragon Award for Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel goes to Dune: House Harkonnen by Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson and Michael Shelfer. The popularity of the Dune graphic novels continues to surprise me, considering that another Dune graphic novel also won in this category last year and that yet another Dune graphic novel is also on the Hugo ballot this year. Of course, it’s possible that the Dune graphic novels are actually good – I haven’t read any of them.

The winner of the 2023 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series is The Sandman. I have to admit that this surprised me a little, for while The Sandman comic was extremely popular in its day, the TV series seemed to get less attention than most of the other finalists in this category. But then, the Star Wars and Star Trek fan votes were split between Andor and The Mandalorian and Strange New Worlds and Picard respectively, which may well be why The Sandman was able to triumph.

The 2023 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie goes to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. This is one win that makes me very happy, because Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a fun movie and finally a good Dungeons & Dragons movie. It’s also a movie almost everybody who actually watched it seemed to like, though it’s apparently considered a box office failure, because it was flattened by the Super Mario Bros Movie, which came out only a week later. Something similar happened to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, another movie almost everybody who actually watched it seemed to like, but which was squashed at the box office by the juggernaut that is Barbie. Plus, it’s great that something with “dragon” in the title has finally won a Dragon Award. It’s notable that after winning every award in the multiverse, Everything Everywhere All At Once failed to take home a Dragon Award, though I’m sure the Daniels will comfort themselves by looking at their Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and every other award Everything Everywhere All At Once won.

The winner of the 2023 Dragon Award for Best Digital Game is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This isn’t a huge surprise, because Tears of the Kingdom got a huge amount of buzz and also generally good reviews. I’m also happy that that Harry Potter game did not win.

The 2023 Dragon Award for Best Tabletop Game goes to Magic the Gathering: The Lord of the Rings. Again, this isn’t a very surprising win, because Magic the Gathering has won in the Best Miniature/Collectible Card/Roleplaying Game category of the Dragons five times in eight years now. Maybe they should just rename the category “Best Magic the Gathering Set”.

A couple of other awards were handed out at Dragon Con as well, so here is a brief rundown: The 2023 Hank Reinhart Fandom Award goes to Amanda Makepeace. The 2023 Julie Award, named in honour of Julius Schwartz, goes to Marty Krofft, one half of the Krofft Brothers TV producer duo behind many popular children’s shows. The 2023 Eugie Foster Memorial Award goes to “Quandary Aminu vs The Butterfly Man” by Rich Larson, which can be read here, and the 2023 Mike Resnick Memorial Award goes to the “For the Great and Immortal” by South African writer Daniel Burnbridge. As far as I can tell, all of these seem to be good and solid choices.

In general, the Dragon Awards are continuing on their way towards becoming what they were initially conceived to be, an award for broadly popular SFF works with big fanbases. Also, this is the first year as far as I remember that women outnumber the male winners in the five novel categories with three women and two men winning. Considering that the Dragon Awards have skewed heavily white and male since their inception, this is progress, though the list of winners is still very white.

Camestros Felapton also weighs in one the 2023 Dragon Award winners here.

Still, eight years into the award, the Dragons have largely consolidated themselves and become what they were intended to be.

First Monday Free Fiction: “The Mermaid of Foghorn Point”

Welcome to the September 2023 edition of First Monday Free Fiction. There was no August edition, because I forgot.

To recap, inspired by Kristine Kathryn Rusch who posts a free short story every week on her blog, I’ll post a free story on the first Monday of every month. At the end of the month, I’ll take the story down and post another.

This month’s free story is The Mermaid of Foghorn Point, a story in my Hallowind Cove series. I found myself in Bremerhaven this week and so I felt like posting a maritime story this month.

So follow Paul MacQuarie and Rachel Hammersmith, as they meet…

The Mermaid of Foghorn Point

It was what passed for a pleasant winter evening in the little seaside town of Hallowind Cove, known far and wide as the Harbour of the Weird. The fog that enveloped the town eleven months a year was light tonight, the banks looking more like a bridal veil than a thick woollen blanket.

Paul MacQuarie and Rachel Hammersmith, both relative newcomers to the town, strolled along the little harbour hand in hand. Last year, Paul had inherited a house he didn’t particularly want from a deceased uncle he’d barely known. As for Rachel, she’d first visited Hallowind Cove on one of the rare clear and sunny days and promptly fell in love with a little bakery on Gloomland Street. So she’d bought the bakery, only to find out what the other eleven months in Hallowind Cove were like. In spite of the fog and the general weirdness, both Rachel and Paul had stayed and even bonded over their shared experiences.

Tonight, they were headed for The Croaking Foghorn, a harbourside pub that always offered fresh seafood and good conversation. Okay, so the conversation at The Croaking Foghorn was mostly limited to Ian Rayburn, the talkative barkeeper, and Old Hank, a drunkard who had permanently installed himself on the second barstool from the left. But the seafood — well, that truly was exceptional.

A flicker of movement on the otherwise deserted street attracted Paul’s attention. A shiver ran down his spine, for on particularly foggy nights, a vengeful zombie — pardon, revenant — who wanted Paul dead for a crime committed by one of his ancestors, prowled the docks. Paul’s first encounter with the revenant had been a close shave and the last thing he needed was a repeat of that particular incident.

About the second last thing Paul needed was for Rachel to find out that one of his ancestors had been a ruthless killer and that his name was at the top of the most wanted list of a vengeful zombie as a result. Cause there were some things you really didn’t want to reveal on the first date.

The flicker of movement turned into a flutter of wings. A second later, a raven settled down on one of the bollards that lined the harbour.

Paul relaxed. “Oh, it’s you, Hugo. You just about scared me to death.”

Rachel turned to the raven and smiled. “How is it going, Hugo?”

Although he was a bird, Hugo was one of Hallowind Cove’s most famous or rather infamous residents. For unlike other ravens, Hugo could talk — well, sort of. At any rate, his croaking sounded very much like talking. He was also a veritable Cassandra and inevitably uttered dark warnings. Much of the time, they were even true.

“Tu-urn a-round,” Hugo croaked, “Go home.”

“Oh please, Hugo,” Paul said, “We’re just having dinner at The Croaking Foghorn. And besides, the fog isn’t very thick tonight. No danger that he’ll be there.”

“No danger that who’ll be there?” Rachel wanted to know.

Paul felt the blood rush to his cheeks and wondered if he could blame it on the cold wind that blew along the quay. “Just a re… resident of sorts who doesn’t like me. He’s sometimes on the docks, when the fog is particularly thick. But tonight he is at home or should be.”

If vengeful zombies actually had a home, that was.

“Tu-urn a-round,” Hugo repeated, “Go home.”

He fixed Paul and Rachel with eerily glittering eyes.

“No fish to-day,” he croaked.

Rachel shook her head. “Now that makes hardly any sense at all. As usual.”

“Wa-arned you,” Hugo croaked. He took off and fluttered ahead, only to settle on another bollard further down the street.

“Te-ell her,” he croaked and nodded at Paul.

Paul sighed. “Just shut up, Hugo,” he said good-naturedly.

After all, he had a date tonight, the first since coming to Hallowind Cove, and he wasn’t going to let anyone ruin it, least of all a raven with delusions of clairvoyance.

Hugo did indeed shut up. And up ahead, the lights of The Croaking Foghorn were coalescing from the mist, a beacon in the gloomy night.

***

Paul and Rachel reached the pub without any further interruption, whether by croaking ravens or vengeful zombies. Gallantly, Paul held open the door to let Rachel enter.

Behind the bar, Ian, the landlord, beamed. “Evening, Paul. And Miss Hammersmith, what a pleasant surprise!”

On the second barstool from the left, Old Hank briefly looked up. “Evening,” he mumbled, before contemplating his beer again.

There was another patron at The Croaking Foghorn tonight, Eddie Bramwell, a local fisherman and captain of a boat forebodingly named The Damned Privateer. He looked pale and visibly shaken. His hands were clutching a mug full of grog.

Paul briefly wondered what might have happened to upset Eddie so. But then, this was Hallowind Cove and weird things happened on a regular basis here. And besides, Paul had other things on his mind tonight. Such as his date with Rachel.

So he headed for a table in the corner, even pulling out the chair for Rachel.

“What do you want?” Ian asked from behind the bar, “The usual?”

“A beer for me and…” Paul shot a questioning glance at Rachel.

“…a glass of dry white for me, please,” Rachel supplied.

“…and the catch of the day for both of us,” Paul finished.

Ian suddenly became very urgently interested in a glass he was polishing. “Ah, well, there is a problem,” he admitted.

“What problem?”

“You can have all the wine and beer you want,” Ian replied, “But, well… you can’t have the catch of the day.”

Paul sighed. Why tonight of all the evenings he’d spent in this pub?

“And why not?”

“Cause there is no catch of the day,” Ian replied, an edge of annoyance in his voice.

“Nope, there isn’t,” Old Hank echoed.

Paul was about at the end of his patience now. “And why, pray tell, is there no catch of the day?”

“You’d best ask Eddie about that,” Ian replied and shot a telling glance at Eddie Bramwell, who was still clutching his grog, as if his life depended on it, “After all, he’s the one who came back empty-handed from his fishing haul today.”

“Empty-handed?” Rachel repeated, “You mean you didn’t catch anything? At all?”

It was Old Hank who answered. “Aye. Eddie didn’t catch nothing today, not even a single herring.”

“And he still won’t tell us why,” Ian added, shooting another sharp look at Eddie.

“Cause you wouldn’t believe me anyway, that’s why,” Eddie said. His hands were clutching the mug of grog so hard that his knuckles had turned white, but so far he hadn’t taken a single sip.

“Try us,” Rachel said encouragingly.

“This is Hallowind Cove, after all,” Paul added, “We believe a lot of stories that other folks won’t.”

“So what are you waiting for?” Ian said, “After all, you can’t just come back with no fish and no explanation either.”

“All right,” Eddie finally relented, “But I’m warning you, it is the darndest story.”

“Even stranger than the one about the disembodied arm?” Ian asked.

“Aye, much stranger,” Eddie replied. He lifted his mug and took a gulp of grog, as if to fortify himself for his tale.

“So this morning, the Privateer was out fishing, as always. We were just off Foghorn Point, hoping for a good haul of cod and haddock and mackerel. It was a fine morning. Bit of fog, but then that’s normal…”

“Aye, it is,” Old Hank said and took a gulp of his own drink.

Ian rounded the bar, a glass of beer for Paul in the one hand and a glass of white wine for Rachel in the other. He brought the drinks to their table and set them down, before returning to his post behind the bar, as Eddie continued his tale.

“We had the nets out and were hoping for a good haul, when suddenly, one of the nets began to twitch like mad. So we reeled it in, or rather we tried. Cause the net, you see, it just wouldn’t budge. Almost as if it was stuck…”

“Let me guess, the point of his tale is that The Damned Privateer lost her net and that’s why there’s no fish,” Rachel whispered to Paul and took a sip of her wine.

“And then it became a battle, just me and the crew against the elements. The harder we reeled, the more whatever was inside the net tugged and tried to get away. I was getting real excited by this point, cause I thought we’d caught something really good. Maybe a shark or a swarm of bluefish or even a swarm of bluefin tuna…”

Paul privately wished that Eddie really had caught a bluefin tuna or even a whole swarm of them. Cause that would have meant that he and Rachel could have had tuna steaks tonight instead of just a drink.

“We reeled and reeled and then we finally managed to haul the net aboard,” Eddie continued, “And then we saw it. A fishtail — biggest I ever saw — covered over and over in green and blue and silver scales. And I thought, ‘Damn, we haven’t just caught a bluefin tuna, we’ve just caught the biggest bluefin tuna known to mankind. Guinness Book of Records, here I come.’ So I walked around the net to take a closer look at our record-shattering catch. And then my heart just about stopped.”

Eddie took another gulp of rum.

“For there, entangled in my net, was a woman. And not just any woman, but the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Her hair was like gold, her skin like marble. She was naked as God had made her and her… uhm, well, you know…”

Eddie made an eloquent gesture.

“It’s all right,” Rachel said, “You can say ‘boobs’. I assure you, my delicate ladylike constitution can handle the word.”

“Well, they were perfect at any rate. Like two mounds of pudding with a cherry on top.”

“And that…” Rachel whispered to Paul, “…is a mental image I really don’t need.”

“She didn’t move,” Eddie continued, “She just lay there, her body still, her eyes closed. So I bent down to check her pulse and see if she was still alive…”

“I bet you were only too eager to do CPR,” Rachel remarked.

“Of course, Miss,” Eddie said, “I’m a sailor, after all, from a long line of sailors. We all know the importance of rescuing the shipwrecked. Unlike the wreckers and their offspring…”

Eddie turned around to shoot Paul a telling glance. Paul gave him a dirty look in response.

“Anyway, I bent down to check her pulse. Her skin was cold to the touch, like I was touching a fish. And then I saw it. Underneath that golden hair, she had gills on her neck…”

Eddie made a dramatic pause.

“So I looked at her, really looked at her…”

“Rather than at her boobs,” Rachel mumbled under her breath.

“…and I noticed that she had no legs. Just as the giant bluefin tuna I’d caught had no head.”

“So you caught a double amputee with gills on her neck and a headless monster fish,” Ian said, “Well, that’s certainly some catch.”

Eddie shot him a dirty look. “No, idiot, I caught a mermaid. A bona-fide mermaid. Cross my heart and everything.”

“A mermaid,” Hank exclaimed, “There ain’t been a mermaid caught in these waters since Jedediah MacQuarie, the ancestor of our Paul here, caught one in 1876. He had it stuffed and mounted…”

Paul sighed. “Of course, he had.”

And given his luck, the descendants of that mermaid were probably out for his blood as well.

“You can still see it in the Hallowind Cove Museum to this day,” Hank said.

“That old thing?” Rachel exclaimed, “Oh please, you know that’s just the top half of a department store mannequin mounted onto a fish tail.”

“Well, this one was real,” Eddie said and took another gulp of grog, “As real as you and me and Ian and Hank and Paul. Cross my heart and swear to die.”

“So what did you do?” Rachel wanted to know, “You didn’t have it stuffed and mounted, did you?”

Eddie was taken aback. “Course not. After all, I’m not a villain like Old Jedediah MacQuarie, may he roast in hell like a spitted pig. So I did the only thing I could do. I freed her from the net and threw her overboard.”

Eddie drained the rest of his grog.

“Her body sank beneath the waves and for a moment I wondered whether she was dead after all, mermaid or not. But then there was a ripple in the water. And then she suddenly bopped back up — or at least, the part of her that was a gorgeous woman did. She smiled and waved at me and then she dove back beneath the waves and was gone.”

“So…” Ian leant across the bar. “…that’s a nice story, Eddie. But it still doesn’t explain why you didn’t bring back any fish today.”

“Course, it does,” Old Hank piped in, “It explains everything. Cause Eddie here turned around right away and headed back for the harbour, didn’t you?”

Eddie nodded. “Aye, I did.”

“Cause you see, to catch a mermaid means bad luck, even if you let her go, like Eddie here did,” Hank continued, “Jedediah MacQuarie, may he rot in his grave, died not a week after he caught the mermaid, when the revenant finally got him.”

“Oh please, he didn’t catch a mermaid,” Rachel countered, “He created a fake that was just convincing enough for a small town museum in the late nineteenth century.”

“Be that as it may, he still died less than a week thereafter,” Hank said darkly.

“And I’m sure absolutely no one was sorry to see him go,” Paul thought to himself.

Hank lifted his glass to no one in particular. “And that was the end of Jedediah MacQuarie, may the worms eat his carcass.” Belatedly, he remembered that Paul was present and added a quick and not particularly sincere “Sorry.”

“Uhm, Paul, the fog out there is getting thicker,” Ian said from behind the bar, “So you’ll probably want to go home, especially since I have no fish for you anyway. Eddie had better leave, too, cause his great-great grandfather used to sail with Jedediah MacQuarie…” Ian shot a sharp look at Eddie. “…even if he likes to forget that inconvenient fact at times.”

“Yeah, screw you, too, Ian,” Eddie grumbled and got up, “It’s easy for you being all smug, just cause your great-great-grandfather happened to be the sheriff back in the day.”

He downed the rest of his grog in one gulp and staggered out of the pub.

Paul nodded at Ian and finished his beer. “Thanks for the warning, pal.”

Ian grinned. “De nada. Miss Hammersmith can of course stay here, if she wants to. We may have no fish today, but we still have plenty of wine.”

Rachel shook her head and downed the last of her wine. “No, it’s all right. I have to get up early tomorrow anyway. After all, I have a bakery to run.”

***

Not long thereafter, Paul and Rachel were walking along the docks again, arm in arm. The fog was getting thicker and Paul watched it warily, waiting for the tell-tale shamble of the revenant and his hissing about death and murder and the Mary Durban.

But so far, all he spotted was Hugo, the raven, still sitting on a bollard, silent for once.

“So, that was quite the story,” Rachel said, “Okay, so we didn’t get anything to eat, but Eddie dished up some truly fascinating sailor’s yarn instead.”

“So you don’t think his story is true?” Paul asked.

“Oh, I’m sure Eddie believes it’s true,” Rachel said, “I just don’t think he’s a very reliable narrator. So what about you? Do you believe him?”

Paul walked on in silence for a moment or two. “I’m not sure,” he finally admitted, “Okay, so it is a preposterous story. On the other hand, this is Hallowind Cove, Harbour of the Weird. Strange things do happen here. I’ve seen some of them myself. So have you.”

Rachel laughed, a sound not unlike the silver bell door chime of her bakery. “Yes, the Krampus. That was really something and I still have no idea what actually happened there or if I didn’t imagine the whole thing after all.”

“In that case, we both just happened to imagine the exact same thing. After all, I saw him, too.”

Rachel flashed him a pretty smile. “Yes, you did.” She paused. “But there’s still a difference between the Krampus and a mermaid. And I’m not willing to buy any old Hallowind Cove yarn, just because one strange story happens to be true.”

“It’s not just the Krampus story that turned out to be true,” Paul said, keeping a worried eye on the fog, which was indeed getting thicker by the minute, “At least one other story is true as well.”

“That’s another thing,” Rachel said, “All those telling looks and dark hints they gave you. What was that all about?”

“Well…” Paul hedged.

“Te-ell her,” Hugo croaked.

So Paul took a deep breath. “Well, it seems that my ancestor, Jedediah MacQuarie, may something really unpleasant happen to him wherever he is now, was apparently the worst villain Hallowind Cove had ever seen…”

“Really? I thought Jonathan Switchback, the serial killer who lived on Gloomland Street, was the worst villain this town had ever seen. And the slave-holding Beauregards and Zachariah Grimm, the town hangman, were pretty nasty pieces of work, too.”

“Well, maybe Jedediah was just the second worst villain then,” Paul said, “But he was one really, really bad guy at any rate. Turns out he was the leader of the wreckers, who set false lights on the cliffs to lure ships to their doom and then killed any survivors to salvage cargo. And apparently, Jedediah either stuffed and mounted mermaids, too, or at least created some very convincing forgeries.”

“Trust me, the fake mermaid at the Hallowind Cove Museum is not even remotely convincing,” Rachel said.

“Anyway — uhm — my ancestor Jedediah, whom I didn’t even know about until last year, was a really horrible person. Lots of people hated him.”

“I could see that,” Rachel remarked.

“And since this is Hallowind Cove, some of those people — people in the loosest sense of the word — are still out to get me more than one hundred and forty years later. Like the revenant, a zombified sea captain, who blames Jedediah for killing him and his crew, probably with very good reason, too. And this revenant prowls the docks on particularly foggy nights. He’d tried to kill me before and…”

Paul cast a worried look at the sea, where a thick bank of fog was building.

“…well, if I stay here any longer, he’ll probably try again.”

“We should probably leave then,” Rachel said, “Cause I’m hungry and not really in the mood for fighting zombies tonight.”

“So… you don’t mind?” Paul wanted to know.

“Of course not,” Rachel said, genuinely taken aback, “Crap, did you think I would dump you, just because your ancestor was a bad person who also managed to sic a pissed off zombie sea captain on you?”

She stopped and looked right at Paul, looked him in the eye.

“Everybody’s ancestors did bad things, though not everybody has an angry zombie and a fake mermaid to remind them of that fact. But what Jedediah MacQuarie did doesn’t matter. Cause you are not him.”

Rachel smiled and pressed a quick kiss onto Paul’s lips.

“And now come on. I still have some leftover cupcakes at the bakery and I think we’re both hungry. And then you can tell me all about your encounter with the bloodthirsty zombie sea captain.”

Hand in hand, they walked away, back towards the safety of the town.

“Aww, young lo-ve,” Hugo croaked with a heartfelt sigh.

The End

***

That’s it for this month’s edition of First Monday Free Fiction. Check back next month, when a new free story will be posted.

Foundation Experiences “A Necessary Death”

Season 2 of Foundation is currently streaming, so I’m doing episode by episode reviews again. For my takes on previous episodes, go here.

Warning! There will be spoilers under the cut!

As has become a pattern during this season of Foundation, this episode focusses most on the storylines that interest me the least, though for once we actually get to see parts of all the ongoing storylines.

Let’s start with the Ignis storyline, which is probably my least favourite. However, it does not intersect with any of the other ongoing storylines.

When we last saw Hari Seldon (the flesh and blood Hari, not hologram Hari), he was experiencing lengthy flashbacks, while being drowned by Tellem Bond and her Mentallics. Meanwhile, Salvor and Gaal believe that Hari took the Beggar and left them behind on Ignis, because that’s what the Mentallics want them to believe.

There is some conflict about this between Salvor and Gaal, because Gaal has very much drunken the Mentallic Kool-Aid. I normally don’t like that metaphor, because IMO it cheapens the horrible events it refers to, but it does fit here, because Gaal is about to be absorbed by a malicious cult. Cause that’s what Tellem Bond and her flock are, a malicious cult. Salvor recognises this and wants to get the hell out of Dodge Ignis. Gaal, meanwhile, wants to stay.

As for why Gaal is so eager to be accepted by the Mentallics, the reason is her obsession with the Mule and with stopping him, particularly with stopping him from killing Salvor. And Gaal believes that in order to stop the Mule, she needs Tellem Bond’s Mentallics. She is not completely wrong. The telepaths of the Second Foundation were at least partly responsible for taking down the Mule – along with Bayta Darrell, who is not a telepath.

However, I still feel that the show is mishandling the Mule before he has even shown up properly – unless the dude dressed like a villain from a third rate cyberpunk videogame we saw in Gaal’s flashforward actually is the Mule. The flash forward itself was okay, though they shouldn’t have shown the Mule himself. But what makes the Mule so scary is that he takes over almost the entire galaxy and that no one can stand against him, because he will manipulate anybody who tries – like Captain Han Pritcher – into his mind slave. The Mule is not scary because he kills Salvor Hardin (who is long dead at this point in the books, presumably died of natural causes in old age) nor any specific person. Never mind that the Mule doesnh’t personally kill anybody; he manipulates people. But once again, the show just has to reduce everything to personal stakes – while adapting a series which is pretty much the anti-thesis to personal stakes.

Also the Mule is not the reason that Hari and his granddaughter Wanda established the Second Foundation. Because Hari Seldon did not and could not foresee the existence of the Mule – that’s the whole point of the story. The reason the Second Foundation was established – which Hari actually says in the TV series – is to keep the plan on track and make adjustments, if necessary.

However, Gaal is totally convinced that she and Salvor need to stay on Ignis with Tellem Bond and the Mentallics. She even gives a little speech in which she tells the Mentallics that she can see the future and that someone like them, someone named the Mule, will try to conquer the galaxy and will also attack the Mentallics (since it’s already been established that the Mentallics care for no one but themselves). But if they all follow Gaal, they will be ready for the Mule when he comes. Tellem Bond beams through it all. Whatever happened to “We don’t want to fight somebody else’s war”?

Tellem and her flock host a grand feast for the new arrivals. The festive meal are some kind of small axolotl like creatures, who get thrown into a pot and boiled alive. The creatures emit a psychic scream, when they are thrown into the pot, which Gaal and Salvor (and presumably everybody else on Ignis) feel as a painful splitting headache.

Tellem explains that her Mentallics and now Gaal and Salvor as well are now connecting to all living things and can feel their pain. Salvor asks if going vegan would help, whereupon Tellem replies that tress and plants suffer distress, too. She then feeds Gaal and Salvor some bullshit about how some little deaths are necessary and that the screaming axolotls are a reminder of that. And besides, Tellem and her people take only what they need, whereas the long gone Emperor who built the ruined palace hunted the axolotls to near extinction, because he enjoyed bathing in a purple pigment derived from their shells. What is it with the Empire and rare pigments?

The whole “We are connected to all living things and sense their pain” thing suggests Gaia a lot more than the Second Foundation. But much as I dislike Gaia, they were never as unpleasant and downright murderous as Tellem Bond with her infuriating smile. In my last review, I noted that Tellem Bond is in essence Magneto from the X-Men, but frankly, even Magneto was rarely as unlikeable as Tellem (though I hated him for trying to seduce Rogue and pulling Logan’s adamantium out of his bones and ushering in some really bad X-Men comics). Tellem Bond is a complete pyschopath and easily the least likeable character in this entire episode. Even Day, who is a murderous psychopath himself, is less unlikeable them Tellem. In fact, whenever I see Tellem’s smile, I just want to punch her in the face. And yes, it is problematic that some of the least likeable characters in Foundation – also see Phara in season 1 – are played by women of colour.

Salvor’s feelings about Tellem are not quite as intense as mine, though Salvor also doesn’t trust Tellem or any of the Mentallics as far as she can throw them. On the beach, Salvor has a brief chat with the scarred Mentallic who impersonated Hugo two episodes ago and who appears to be Tellem Bond’s right-hand man. During this chat, Salvor notices that the Mentallics seem to be uncommonly secretive about one of the their watercraft, even though they’re supposedly just going fishing.

Ignoring Gaal’s advice to be careful, Salvor sneaks out by night to check out that watercraft. She notes that the navigation system has been wiped – an odd precaution for a fishing expedition – but the coordinates are still in the buffer. So Salvor takes the watercraft – being once again instinctively able to use unfamiliar vehicles – and heads for its last known destination.

The trip seems to be quite long – or maybe it’s an editing mistake – but by daybreak Salvor arrives at the tidal pool where Tellem chained up Hari Seldon the physical and did her best to drown him. However, even though Hari did seem to drown at the end of the previous episode, his head is still above water when Salvor finds him. Or maybe the tide has already receded and his head is above water again. At any rate, Hari doesn’t seem to be dead, as Paul Levinson predicted.

Salvor immediately jumps in to rescue him, but it stymied by the chains. And then Tellem and two of her goons, including her scarred right-hand man, show up. Tellem says that this is very unfortunate and that she really didn’t want Salvor to see what happened to Hari, but that sometimes little deaths are necessary for the greater good. The final shot shows Salvor floating face down in the pool next to Hari. Is she dead? I doubt it.

While all this is going on, Sareth and Rue are watching a recording of Sareth’s speech in the arena. Sareth is enjoying the displeased look on Day’s face, but Rue reminds her that she is playing with fire and warns her that she should never embarass a man like Day, because it won’t end well for her. Rue is absolutely correct, too, because Sareth is courting disaster and will likely die horribly.

I’ve been wondering why I have been having so many issues getting invested in the whole Sareth storyline, even though Sareth’s dilemma is compelling enough on paper. However, it’s obvious that Sareth and likely her entire retinue, too, will die horribly, even if she does marry Day and becomes Empress.

Cause so far, the wedding is still on. And so Sareth and Rue’s little heart to heart is interrupted by Demerzel who insists that she must fetch Sareth for a gynaecological examination to make sure that she can bear Day’s children.

On the way, Sareth, who really is asking to be killed, tells Demerzel that she knows Demerzel is a robot. Sareth wants to know whether there are any other robots left and Demerzel replies that as far as she knows, she is the only one left. Of course, Demerzel might be lying or mistaken, but I guess this means Hari’s partner Yanna was definitely not the show’s version of Dors Venabili. But then the pregnancy plot in the flashback last episode already put that theory to rest. Of course, there is still Kalle, the woman in the cave on Oona’s World, who also appeared as Yanna at one point and who looks human, but isn’t. And Oona’s World definitely still had functional robots, though those were mining robots, not androids like Demerzel.

Sareth tasks Demerzel how many masters she has served. Demerzel replies that she served many people and was once bound to the Laws of Robotics, like all robots. Though interestingly, Demerzel only quotes the first two laws. So does Demerzel deliberately omit the Third Law or does the Third Law not exist in the show? For Demerzel goes on to say that for centuries she has only obeyed the Cleons and the Empire. And considering that we have seen Demerzel kill lots of people or have them killed, this suggests that the orders of the Cleons supercede the Three Laws of Robotics. I’m also no longer sure that the Zeroth Law workaround applies here, for while the Zeroth Law allows robots – well, Daneel and Giscard – to allow individual human beings to come to harm in order to protect humanity as a whole, a) applying the Zeroth Law and allowing individual humans to come to harm for the greater good is still incredibly painful for a robot and actually fries Giscard’s brain, and b) even if Demerzel is convinced that preserving the Empire and the rule of the Cleons is the best course for humanity (an issue which is actually addressed elsewhere in the episode), she must know that the Empire is pretty far gone by now. And besides, in Prelude to Foundation, Daneel/Demerzel specifically seeks out Hari Seldon, because they realise that the Empire is ultimately doomed and that Seldon can shorten the coming dark age and thus help Daneel/Demerzel fulfill the Zeroth Law.

Considering how fundamental the Three Laws of Robotics are to Isaac Asimov’s work, the fact that the show mostly seems to ignore beyond a brief lip service – note that the mining robots on Oona’s World also clearly weren’t bound to the Three Laws – really, really annoys me. Laura Birn does a great job as Demerzel, but turning her into a stone-cold killer for hire doesn’t work for me at all, even if most of her on-screen victims are not exactly likeable.

Sareth, however, is not at all concerned with any of this. Instead, she asks Demerzel that if she will serve Sareth since Sareth will soon be part of the Imperial family, too. “I serve Empire,” Demerzel replies and it’s very obvious that as far as Demerzel is concerned, Sareth is not Empire and will never be.

The gynaecological exam is exactly as awkward as you imagine it to be. There’s a whole battery of doctors and nurses as well as Demerzel, Rue and Sareth’s entourage all standing around, while Sareth is lying on a gynaecological chair and everybody is staring at Sareth’s womb and ovaries on a screen. The doctors note that Sareth’s ovaries have been chemically stimulated, as instructed, and want to harvest her eggs right now. Sareth and Rue object and point out that the Cloud Dominion has an equal interest in Sareth’s offspring as the Empire and that the harvesting can wait until Sareth and Day are married. Sareth also asks if reversing Day’s nano-tech created sterility will be as unpleasant as the exam was for her. A doctor replies that the process is quick but painful.

Considering that the Empire not only has artificial womb technology, but that there also is a whole chamber full of fully functional artificial wombs right there in the Imperial palace, I honestly wonder why Day and everybody else is so insistent on Sareth carrying the future heir to the Empire in her own womb, especially since the insemination will likely be artificial anyway. Pregnancy and birth will never be without risk for both mother and baby. And while Day doesn’t give a damn about what happens to Sareth, once she has popped out his heir, he clearly does care about his future heir. So why would he put his son (come on, you know he’s going to insist on a boy) at risk via a natural pregnancy? Honestly, someone needs to read Lois McMaster Bujold.

It seems Sareth really, really wants to be murdered horribly, since she lets Demerzel know that she is aware of her “arrangement” with Day and neither minds nor cares what they do, once Sareth is carrying the future heir to the Empire in her womb.

After the examination, Demerzel asks Sareth for a private meeting. Sareth’s retinue isn’t happy about that, but Sareth waves them away. During the meeting, Demerzel tells Sareth that she knows exactly why Sareth is here and that she knows Sareth believes Day had her family murdered. Demerzel then tells Sareth that if Sareth as much as thinks of getting revenge, Demerzel will kill Sareth like she killed the rest of her family. Yes, Demerzel actually admits that she killed Sareth’s family. The Three Laws of Robotics plus the Zeroth Law clearly don’t seem to apply here.

Later, Day and Sareth meet in the palace garden and sit on a bench in the middle of a pond, the same bench where Cleon XII took the treacherous gardener who seduced Dawn back at the end of season 1 to let her know exactly what he would do to her and to everybody who ever knew her. So in short, it’s an ominous location.

Sareth begins to talk about her family and their deaths, because without the death of her entire family, she would never be here. And besides, they are Day’s family as well. And so we and Day learn that Sareth’s parents were loving and artsy – the entire Dominion seems to be into art – that she had a brother and an older sister and a baby nephew and that she loved them all very much. Day listens politely and then – pychopath that he is – tells Sareth that the death of her entire family was a blessing in disguise, since it brought them together. Sareth womanfully resists kicking him in the nuts and throwing him into the pond.

Of course, Sareth doesn’t just talk about her family for Day’s benefit, especially since he clearly feels zero remorse for having Demerzel kill a bunch of people, including a baby. No, the scene is also for our benefit, because up to that moment, Day’s murdered family had been cyphers rather than people. And indeed, it’s hard to get the viewer to care about the murder of a bunch of people off screen, whom neither see nor know anything about. This scene is obviously meant to humanise Sareth’s family and make us care about them. However, telling us about Sareth’s dead family by episode 7 is too little too late. Maybe a brief flashback of Sareth’s family dying or even Sareth mourning her family in the first or second episode would have been better.

This episode was co-written by Eric Carrasco and David Kob. Now I actually had a brief and pleasant interaction on Twitter (I’m not going to call it X) with Eric Carrasco, after I praised two TV episodes he had written. Though it wasn’t an episode of Foundation but episodes 5 and 6 of Masters of the Universe: Revelation “The Forge at the Forest of Forever” and “Cleaved in Twain”.

The context was a discussion that some people, often young women on TikTok, mainly judge books and other media by whether it makes them cry. I pointed out that I rarely cry at books, movies or TV shows and never at the usual suspects. I’ve sat stone-faced through notorious tearjerkers such as The Champ, Love Story, Titanic, Out of Africa or Doctor Zhivago and the only thing that might have made me cry about any of those was the time I wasted watching them. I also don’t seek out media that makes me cry and when a movie, TV show or book does make me cry, it means the author did something right.

The example I gave were the two Masters of the Universe: Revelation episodes. Now I normally don’t expect Masters of the Universe nor any other western animation to make me cry, though anime occasionally does (Looking at you, Candy Candy).  However, Masters of the Universe: Revelation had me bawling my eyes out, when Orko, Roboto, the Sorceress, Fisto and Clamp Champ all die heroically in the course of two and a half episodes, as do a bunch of Eternian civilians. Now Orko and the Sorceress are main characters from the Filmation cartoon onwards, so their deaths were bound to have an impact. But when I watched Revelation, I remembered Fisto mainly as “the guy with the iron fist and the unfortunate name and anyway, wasn’t he a villain?” Roboto I barely remembered from the old cartoon (he was only in one episode) and Clamp Champ I didn’t remember at all, because he was never in any of the cartoons and the toy was never sold in Germany, because the powers that be mistakenly assumed German kids wouldn’t want a figure of a black guy.

Nonetheless, Masters of the Universe Revelation made me care not just about big name characters like Orko and the Sorceress, but also about more obscure and offbeat characters like Roboto, Fisto and Clamp Champ and made me cry when they died. Honestly, if you’d told me I’d cry about Fisto or Clamp Champ dying, I’d have laughed at you (and probably would have asked, “Uhm, which one was Clamp Champ again?”). But Revelation made me care about these characters and the reason for this is good writing and good acting (a large part of what makes the death of the Sorceress so utterly heartbreaking is Liam Cunningham’s amazing performance as Duncan, while Griffin Newman turned Orko into so much more than just a comic relief).

The scene of Sareth telling Day about her murdered family at the pond is clearly supposed to do something similar for Foundation, make us care about Sareth and her family. Just as the tender moments between Bel Riose and Glawen Curr are supposed to make us care about them, when they inevitably die. And Gaal’s flash forward is supposed to make us care about Salvor dying. However, in spite of some of the same writers being involved, I don’t particularly care about Sareth’s family or what happens to Salvor, though Geek Girl Authority reviewer Julia Roth clearly does. That said, I admit that I’ll be a little sad when Bel Riose and likely Glawen Curr meet their inevitable end. Of course, Foundation isn’t really the sort of story to make you care about individual characters and their deaths. But then neither is Masters of the Universe.

Later, in the catacombs beneath the Palace, two of the doctors that attended Sareth are leaving, only for them to deactivate their holographic masks to reveal Sareth herself and Dawn. Not only is Sareth continuing her attempts to seduce Dawn, she also has a proposition for him. She can’t imagine herself carrying Day’s child, since Day is a monster, but she wouldn’t mind carrying Dawn’s child. She even brought the instrument necessary to reverse Dawn’s sterility.

Dawn is understandably hesitant. Not only does he not see the purpose of having children – which he explicitly tells Day in the first episode of the season – he’s also worried that Day will find out, kill him and have him replaced with the next clone down the line. Sareth, however, reassures Dawn that Day will never find out, because Day and Dawn’s genome is identical, so a gene test wouldn’t reveal the child’s true paternity. “It would be a bloodless coup”, Sareth says.

Of course, Day and Dawn are not one hundred percent identical. Sareth has apparently forgotten the genetic drift which has caused the Cleon’s to move further away from Cleon I. And Sareth definitely knows about this, because she brings it up herself in an earlier episode.

This is the second Dawn who’ll likely get himself killed, just because he fell for a pretty face. So why do Dawns tend to think with the dangly end, when Days and Dusks are more cautious? Is the true reason that all the Cleon clones’ memory files are much smaller than that of the original Cleon, as we found out two episodes ago, that the Dawns tend to be stupid and fall for the wrong women and get themselves killed and therefore have to be replaced by new clones, while parts of their memory are deleted? And this lingering trauma of this the true reason that most Dawns are pretty mellow, while Days and Dusks are hardarses? It’s certainly intriguing.

While all this is going on, Hober Mallow has a meeting aboard the Spacer hive ship with a woman called She-Is-Center, who is the leader of the Spacers. Hober has a proposition for She-Is-Center and her Spacers. He gives her a vial of a nutrient that the genetically modified Spacers need to survive. Up to now, the only source of that nutrient was the Empire and they demanded ten percent of all Spacer children to work as hyperspace navigators on Imperial ships in exchange for the nutrient. However, Foundation scientists have figured out how to synthetise the nutrient, something the Spacers believed was impossible. And unlike the Empire, the Foundation has no need for indentured hyperspace navigators, because they have jumpships of their own. So if the Spacers were to accept Hober Mallow’s offer, they could – quote – “kick the Empire in the nuts” – and travel freely through space like they want to, liberated from the Empire and its demands.

The Spacers actually do exist in Asimov’s fiction, though they are more prevalent in the robot stories, particularly the Daneel Olivaw and Elijah Bailey novels. In the stories, Spacers are genetically modified humans with vastly extended lifespans and a weak immune system. They were altered to become the first humans to colonise other planets and by the time of Elijah Bailey, the Spacers are lording over the unmodified humans of Earth. The robot R. Daneel Olivaw a.k.a. Demerzel was actually built by Spacers. The descendants of the Spacers are still around in Hari Seldon’s time and have their own district on Trantor, though by Hari Seldon’s time, they are much devolved and have turned into weird isolationist cultists who shave off all their hair, oppress women, worship a robot and want to execute Hari and Dors Venabili, until Daneel/Demerzel rescues them. They also have unusual names by Hari’s time, though not by Elijah Bailey’s.

However, the whole plot point about the Spacers, who make space travel possible in the Empire, being dependent on a specific substance to survive is not from Asimov at all. It’s taken straight from Frank Herbert’s Dune.

She-Is-Center is certainly tempted by Hober Mallow’s offer of freedom from servitude to the Empire, especially since Hober also tells her that the Empire will discard the Spacers without a second thought and will also stop supplying the nutrient, should they ever find out how the Foundation’s jump ships work. However, She-Is-Center is also scared of the Empire. For if the Empire learns that she talked to Hober and as much as considered the Foundation’s offer, they won’t just demand ten percent of all Spacer children as indentured navigators. They will demand twenty percent. And She-Is-Center cannot let that happen, so she informs the Empire in the form of General Bel Riose.

When we see Bel Riose for the first time since episode 4, he and Glawen Curr are in their shared bedroom aboard the Imperial flagship, watching a video of Day announcing his impending marriage to Sareth. Indeed, as the most excellent Stars End podcast points out, it’s amusing how often Foundation characters are shown watching their own show on screen in this episode.

Later, we see Bel Riose and Glawen Curr on the bridge, analysing the footage the late Ducem Barr recorded on Siwenna together with She-Bends-Light, the Spacer serving aboard Bel Riose’s ship. In particular, they’re interested in the footage of the Spirit taking off from Siwenna. Like everybody else, She-Bends-Light is convinced that it’s not possible to jump through hyperspace without Spacers. However, the Foundation is clearly doing it.

Before they can delve deeper into that mystery, She-Bends-Light suddenly receives a telepathic message from She-Is-Center at the Home Swarm and informs Bel Riose that the Home Swarm has captured the very ship they are seeking. Bel Riose wants to head there immediately, but She-Bends-Light tells him that’s not necessary. The Home Swarm will come to them.

Shortly thereafter, the gigantic Home Swarm itself appears in space next to the Imperial flagship. Bel Riose and Glawen Curr are suitably impressed and it’s clear that they have never seen the Home Swarm before not did they have any idea that the Spacers were able to communicate telepathically with each other. And note that Bel Riose had a good relationship with She-Bends-Light, because he treats her well like all of his crew. But there’s clearly a lot that even a high-ranking Imperial officer like Bel Riose does not know about the Spacers.

So She-Bends-Light, Bel Riose and Glawen Curr go to see She-Is-Center and her captive Hober Mallow. It turns out that She-Bends-Light is the daughter of She-Is-Center, something else Bel Riose had no idea about. The poor guy must be feeling very left in the dark right now.

However, Bel Riose and Glawen Curr are there to see Hober Mallow and so they have a hot and sweaty threesome while smoking cigars and sunbathing in the nude – no, Bel Riose and Glawen Curr try to interrogate Hober and when they are not satisfied with his answers, they proceed to kick the shit out of him.

Hober finally relents and tells Bel Riose and Glawen Curr that the ship isn’t even his, but that he will let them aboard. He also warns them that Foundation ships have a very sophisticated security. Bel Riose opens the ramp and Becky, Brother Constant’s pet Bishop’s Claw bursts out. And since Becky hasn’t had breakfast, she immediately jumps out Glawen Curr and tries to eat him. Hober Mallow uses the confusion to dash aboard the Spirit and recall Becky just before she can enjoy a tasty meal of Glawen Curr. He takes off and makes the jump into hyperspace inside the giant Home Swarm ship, while Bel Riose, Glawen Curr and the two Spacer women keep repeating that what is happening in front of their eyes isn’t possible. These poor folks really have their belief in the Empire and its tech completely shattered this episode.

Bel Riose dutifully informs Brother Day of what has happened and also asks what he is supposed to do now. Brother Day tells him to stand by, so Bel Riose and his flagship are stuck in space without any orders.

A bit later, Bel Riose and Glawen Curr are in their shared quarters (which look as if they are directly next to the bridge), discussing what to do. Glawen Curr wants to know why Bel Riose is still obeying the Emperor’s orders. After all, what can the Empire do to them? Bel Riose replies that they will probably lock him up again, kill Glawen, this time for real, and make him watch Glawen’s death over and over again. Is this what they did to him the first time around?

Glawen Curr goes on to suggest that maybe they could take out the Emperor. Bel Riose replies that even if he could get past the guards, the personal forceshield, the nanites and all the other security measures, it still wouldn’t change anything, because they’d just decant a new Day to replace the dead one. And crashing the Imperial flagship into the Imperial Palace on Trantor would kill a ton of innocent civilians as well as the entire crew. And besides, terrible as the Empire is, the alternative – a galaxy of scattered worlds ruled by warlords and tyrants – would be worse.

Glawen Curr then asks, “What about this Foundation? Couldn’t they take over?” Bel Riose replies that the Foundation is too weak to take over the remnants of the Empire. And at this point in the timeline, they still are. However, Glawen Curr does have a point. Because the best thing Bel Riose could do is take his ship and his crew and defect to the Foundation. And indeed that is what his historical counterpart, the Byzantine general Belisarius, does in L. Sprague De Camp’s 1939 alternate history novel Lest Darkness Fall, whose basic set-up – the one person who knows what’s going to happen in the future tries to prevent the fall of a mighty Empire and the dark age that will follow – is so much like Foundation’s that I suspect both books sprang from the same writing prompt, especially John W. Campbell was known to give prompty to his authors. However, we know Bel Riose won’t defect, because that’s not the kind of man he is. Which means that he’ll die and so will Glawen Curr.

However, Bel Riose isn’t the only one who is concerned about the Foundation. Brother Day and Demerzel have been concerned about the Foundation and what’s going on in the Outer Reach since the first episode of the season. Day is informed that two self-styled ambassadors from the Foundation – Poly Verisof and Brother Constant – have been arrested. Day and Demerzel watch some footage of Poly and Brother Constant and wonder about their robes (“Those are clerical robes for the Church of Hari Seldon”, someone says). Day also notes that it’s one hell of a coincidence that just as he sends Bel Riose to scout out the Outer Reach, the Outer Reach reaches out to them. Of course, it’s not a coincidence at all, but the machinations of the dead hand and living hologram of Hari Seldon.

While all this is going on, Poly Verisof and Brother Constant are locked up a detention facility in the Imperial palace, watched by approx. twenty guards, which does seem like overkill for two missionaries. Poly Verisof is depressed, because he fears that he failed the prophet. Even though Poly and Brother Constant getting captured was very likely part of Hari Seldon’s plan from the beginning.

Once Day has been informed of the capture and escape of Hober Mallow and that Mallow tried to persuade the Spacers to defect, he realises that he has two Foundation prisoners in custody and sends for Poly Verisof and Brother Constant. So Poly and Constant are taken to see the Emperors Three and Demerzel. Poly Verisof introduces himself and Brother Constant as ambassadors of peace and even offers a gift in the form of an atomic ashtray. Readers of the books will remember that atomic ashtrays were the sort of gadgets traders like Limmar Ponyets and Hober Mallow peddled across the Outer Rim to spread the influence of the Foundation in the stories “The Wedge” and “The Big and the Little”.  It’s a fun nod to the books, especially considering an atomic ashtray was a stupid gadget even back when I first read the books more than thirty years ago.

Day counters that if the Foundation really wants peace, then why have they sent Hober Mallow to try to turn the Spacers against the Empire. Poly Verisof is genuinely shocked, because he had no idea about Hober Mallow’s Brother Constant just gives Day a very strange look. She also clearly isn’t very impressed by him. Day notes that she’s from Thespin and that the Empire doesn’t trust Thespins since the attack on the space elevator way back in the very first episode. Talking of which, did we ever find out who really was responsible for that attack, since the Thespins and Anacreons were clearly just fall guys?

Constant blinks and suddenly she turns into Hari Seldon or rather his hologram. Turns out that when Hari blessed Constant in the Vault, he hitched a ride with her.

Hari now confronts the Emperors Three and notes that everything still looks like it did the last time he was there, up to Dawn, Day, Dusk and Demerzel. Hari also tells Day that he didn’t send Poly Verisof and Brother Constant to prevent a war, because he is afraid that the Foundation will lose. No, Hari knows that if it comes to war, the Foundation will win. However, he would prefer a more peaceful solution.

A variation of this discussion actually does happen in the books, more precisely in the story “The Dead Hand”, but not between Hari and any Emperor, but between Bel Riose and Ducem Barr. Here, Ducem Barr is the one who is absolutely convinced that Hari Seldon is right and that the Foundation will win any war with the Empire, while Bel Riose doesn’t want to believe it. However, this conversation is actually more effective, when it happens between the leaders of the Foundation and the Empire respectively rather than between their representatives.

Day, however, still has an ace up his sleeve – or so he believes. He tells Hari that he studied him and his predictions, while he was still Dawn. Specifically, he latched on to Hari Seldon’s claim that the genetic dynasty was weakening the Empire. However, Day has found the perfect solution to the problem. He’s going to end the genetic dynasty by marrying Sareth and having children with her. Day gives Hari a triumphant “Well you didn’t predict that” look. Hari even has the decency to look shocked, before Day orders his guards to electro-shock Constant, causing hologram Hari to flicker out.

“What sort of prophet keeps his missionaries in the dark and possesses a girl to send a message?” Day says. Then he tells Demerzel to send Bel Riose and the fleet to Terminus, besiege the planet and steal any useful tech. I really hope that She-Bends-Light hears all that and informs her mother and the Home Swarm of Day’s plans.

Day is clearly convinced that he has won and beaten Hari Seldon’s prophecies. Coincidentally, this also explains why Day is so eager to marry Sareth, a woman who neither likes nor respects him, because he honestly believes this will save the Empire and make sure he leaves his mark on history. For Day is clearly an adherent of the great man theory of history. Of course, he’s also tragically wrong, because the genetic dynasty no longer is the main problem of the Empire, if it ever was. The Empire is so far gone by now that it will collapse eventually, regardless whether it’s ruled by a triumvirate of Cleons or some descendant of Day or Dawn and Sareth.

Three episodes from the end of the season, the adventures of Hober Mallow, Brother Constant and Poly Verisof are the most compelling part of the show, even if Hober Mallow and Poly Verisof are very different from their book counterparts. Coincidentally, this is also the storyline that gets the least screentime. The Cleons and Demerzel continue to be compelling characters, though I can’t muster much interest in Sareth, because it’s pretty obvious that she and her retinue will die. Bel Riose and likely Glawen Curr will die as well, though I find myself much more invested in Bel Riose in the show than I ever was in the books. Meanwhile, the Ignis storyline is the least interesting, even though the establishment of the Second Foundation should theoretically be of interest.

Last season, the pacing was also badly off and the show spent a lot of time on storylines like the endless Luminist plot that had fuck all to do with the books and then managed to mostly pull itself together in the last few episodes. I hope that season 2 will follow suit. Also, season 3 was apparently already filming, even though production had to be halted due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, so maybe we will get to see the Mule after all.

Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for August 2023

It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie and small press authors newly published this month, though some July books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. This month, we have urban fantasy, sword and sorcery, paranormal mystery, space opera, military science fiction, YA science fiction, Steampunk, Dieselpunk, folk horror, regular horror, vampires, zombies, aliens, starships, magical swords, feminist monsters, puppets living in appartment walls, crime-busting witches and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Servant of a Pale Sword by Tim Akers:

A lone pilgrim travels to the Temple of Absolution to free himself from a great sin. But when the priests of the temple cut too deep, Lohit Maast is left with no memory of who is or what burden he sought to escape. Among his things is a strange and powerful sword, its blade forge from materea, the very bones of the world. Is he a thief? An assassin? The hero of some great campaign? Or is he something far more dangerous…

 

 

Constant Sorrow by J.N. Chaney and Terry Maggert

Humans have been in the stars far longer than Van originally thought, and they’ve been busy.

But not every visitor to or from Earth has good intentions, and the Peacemakers are faced with an uncomfortable reality. The Earth is about to meet aliens. Some of the aliens are bringing goods to trade. And among those items—are weapons.

When a secret cabal of humans who want to exploit the Earth is revealed, Van has to decide how and where to fight this threat. Along the way, he reveals a secret history that began in the Great War—and ends with mass chaos on his home planet.

Van won’t let that happen—at least not without a fight, and to hold back the gears of war, he’s going to need a lot of help. With Torina at his side, the crew faces a decision that will change the future of the stars themselves, and challenge the Guild, the Earth, and the Equal Grasp as the universe gets smaller with each contact between humans and aliens.

How can Van manage the clash, save earth, and deliver peace?

If he can, what will it cost him?

I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls by Ben Farthing:

Can you tell me how to get… out alive?

Johnny awakes. A puppet looms over his bed.

He recognizes the furry monster: Grandpa was its puppeteer on the children’s television show R-City Street. But Grandpa went missing a year ago. He disappeared from this very apartment building, which was converted from the old R-City Street studio.

Desperate to see Grandpa again, Johnny follows the puppet inside the building’s walls, ever deeper into a puppet-infested labyrinth…

I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls is a horror tale from the “darkly inventive” purveyor of uncanny places and wondrous evils, Ben Farthing.

Galaxy Unknown by M.R. Forbes:

Two hundred years ago, the generation starship Pathfinder fled a war-torn Earth, never to be heard from again. Until now…

Captain Caleb Card and his crew are on a mission to investigate a transmission believed to be from the lost ship. Ambushed upon arrival, they immediately fear the worst. But the beacon isn’t only active, it’s on the move, and where it leads will change everything they thought they knew about the universe. Cast into a distant galaxy brimming with unknown dangers, they’ll need to adapt quickly if they want to survive long enough to help the missing colonists.

Hextraordinary Circumstances by Lily Harper Hart:

Vampires are taking over the French Quarter.

Ofelia Archer was hoping for a break, a stretch of quiet time to enjoy the opening of her brother’s new bar, but the sight of vampires walking the rooftops one evening, tracking her, makes her wary. Then, the next morning, when a body is dropped in front of a famous vampire house, things in the Quarter take a turn.

Ofelia’s dealt with vampires before, but there’s something different about this fang gang. She’s confused enough to wonder: Are they really dealing with vampires, or something else entirely?

Zach Sully, Ofelia’s fiancé and a local police detective, starts digging. It seems there’s more than one dead body afoot…and possibly a conspiracy to hide multiple deaths.

Ofelia’s team is prepared to figure out the truth, even if it means putting themselves in danger to do it. When the new enemy focuses on her father Oscar, however, Ofelia goes on the offensive.

The French Quarter is a place where things frequently go bump in the night. This fight is about to get bloody, however.

In more ways than one.

Beast Mom by Kim Imas:

An Oregon mom is about to lose her $#!t.
It might be what the government’s been waiting for.

On the outside, Harriet “Harry” Lime is a typical American mom. But after years of packing all the lunches and picking up all the socks, she’s become a bit…off on the inside. And after stumbling upon the offensive new statue at her daughter’s school, she gets unusually angry and turns into a gigantic monster.

Now she’ll have to figure out why that keeps happening-and why some mysterious uniformed men have begun lurking around town-all while keeping up with the grocery shopping, the carpool, and all those mother@#!&ing socks.

As soon as Harriet discovers that other local women are undergoing their own amazing transformations, she faces the sudden danger of being ripped away from everyone and everything she loves. Still, she’s begun to wonder: How much of her old life-with its surplus of cleaning, cooking, and monthly cramping-does she want to hold on to, anyway?

Medusa Falling by G.S. Jennsen:

*A stand-alone adventure set in the Amaranthe universe*

“Can I ask where we’re going?”
“Someplace safe…as safe as anywhere on this broken, fallen world can be.”
A first contact encounter isn’t supposed to kick off with a dead body.
Ambassador Marlee Marano has been dispatched to Belarria as part of a Concord initiative to meet new species and build alliances. But when an assassin murders her counterpart in front of her eyes and takes her hostage, she is plunged into an alien world on the brink of collapse.

With no way to contact Concord or get offworld, Marlee’s only allies may be a shadowy band of rebels with a questionable agenda steeped in government conspiracies, mysterious genetic experiments and bloody historical grievances that threaten to boil over. The rightness of their cause is the least of her concerns, though, for she finds herself wanted for murder and hunted by all sides.

Medusa Falling is a heart-pumping sci-fi adventure that will take you on a roller-coaster ride of twists and turns as Marlee races to uncover the secrets and lies of a captivating but deadly alien culture and find a way home.

Freaky West by Amanda M. Lee:

Mystic Caravan has hit Texas, and things are supposed to be quiet in Austin. The only thing of note in a city that praises itself for being weird is the nest of vampires that rules the town.

They’re not the ones wreaking havoc this time, however.

Poet Parker knows something is up when a walk near the river results in an attack from a manic man with an ax. When he disappears just as quickly as he appeared, however, she knows something magical is afoot.

It seems Austin is trapped in the clutches of a bored being, and her way of entertaining herself includes bringing urban legends to life…and unleashing them on the city.

Poet has fought every type of magic imaginable, but this one leaves her flummoxed. It’s almost as if she’s dealing with a child mentally. Magically, however, she’s dealing with a monster.

Urban legends aren’t the only thing putting Austin in an uproar. The visiting loas—both of whom are there for Poet—are also drawing attention…and from all the wrong people.

Some magics are too strong to fight. Poet is not the sort of hero who can turn her back on people in need, however. Even if it means putting herself at risk to save them.

Poet has new magic at her disposal. Now she has to learn how to use it…or they will all perish.

It’s a fight to the finish, and who will come out on the other side is anybody’s guess.

The Lioness and the Rat Queen by Noah Lemelson:

A city burning…
A murderous tycoon on the run…
And three vigilantes out for revenge…

Marcel never thought his investigations would lead to this; his once-friend Lazarus Roache turned slaver and cruel puppet master. For the good of Huile, and to salve his conscience, Marcel must take Roache down, even if that means following him into the desolate and savage reaches of the Wastes.

Yet the tycoon is not the only Wastefolk with a past with Marcel. To find the tycoon Marcel must break hardtack with an old enemy, a disgraced imperial general who he had once tried to kill, and is more than eager to return the favor. Yet she is not the greatest threat in the Wastes, for there is also a bounty hunter on his trail, the mysterious Queen of Rats, who somehow seems to know Marcel’s every dark secret.

Hyvilma by Gideon Marcus:

A damaged ship, a dying shipmate–can she save them both?

Under attack! The flight back to Hyvilma should have been the easy part for the crew of the Majera–until a deadly ambush by pirates sends them reeling through hyperspace. Now getting to the planet in time is the only way Captain Kitra Yilmaz can save her dying friend.

But landing at Hyvilma may be impossible: war has broken out on the Frontier.

An Unholy Triquetra: Celtic Fairy Tales by Jason Parent, William Meikle and Curtis M. Lawson:

Three unique voices in today’s horror bring you new takes on an old power that threatens to reshape our world. Celtic legends are reborn within these pages, with fresh stories guaranteed to spark nightmares in the vein of Grimm’s pre-Disneyfied fairy tales.

A Knot Within A Knot by Jason Parent: A man survives a plane crash only to find himself in darker circumstances, with a winter storm on the horizon and an orphaned child in tow. An elderly woman faces off against a god of night and his steed from the confines of her airplane seat, while another hides from night and storm in the hope of a new dawn. Unbeknownst to them, their fates are linked and dependent upon the next two tales.

Bound in the Valley of Balor by Curtis M. Lawson: After surviving a plane crash, a corrupt federal agent and a mob informant find themselves stranded in a remote valley. Blood spilled during a conflict between the two awakens an ancient evil bound beneath the valley. Can either of them escape from The Valley of Balor?

Summons by William Meikle (part of hisMythos of Sigils & Totems): Would you fall slave to the rhythm?
He came to Scotland after the death of his wife in search of peace. But the old house is restless. Something is waking, something noisy, something that will not be denied.
His search for meaning in the face of ever increasing activity in the house leads him down strange occult pathways, into deep history and a story that is racing to a finish.
The rhythm calls to him. Will he fall slave to it? Or is there a path to be the drum master before it subsumes him utterly?

This Celtic horror anthology is perfect for fans of folk horror, myths and legends, supernatural horror fiction, Grimm fairy tales, and Scottish survival horror, or fans of Ritual by Adam Nevill, Bag of Bones by Stephen King, or the legendary Ramsey Cambell.

Fire, Steel and Petroleum by Glynn Stewart:

From the author of Starship’s Mage, this short, magazine-style dieselpunk story delivers on action and an Arthurian hopepunk style.

Raiders have burned the village. With innocents in danger, a Knight must stand.

 

 

The Dead Shall Rise by Jay Wilburn, Armand Rosamilia and Erin Louis:

They’re coming to get you, Brave Reader.

“Prepare Because Death is Coming” by Jay Wilburn: “Take this and bear the warning.” When a messenger arrives at Dry Stretch, warning that a horde of zombies is heading their way forty years after the fall, Bay scoffs at the news. But a ‘full body’ meeting is called. Ethic is sent north to scout, but in Dry Stretch, no one is preparing. No one is repairing the walls. A William Faulkneresque story of the dead set in a dystopic dust-bowl town.

“Zombie Diner” by Armand Rosamilia: A family finds themselves on the wrong side of the zombie apocalypse while on vacation in Florida…

“Dance with the Dead” by Erin Louis: Tiffney is expecting just another night at the strip club. But when a customer goes berserk in the VIP room, things take an unexpectedly bloody turn. Stuck with a cocaine raddled manager and a shady club owner. Tiffney faces the unimaginable and is forced to turn her coworkers into allies to fight the evil that has taken over the club. Together they have to fight to stay alive.

This Zombie horror anthology is perfect for fans of post apocalyptic survival, The Walking Dead series, zombie apocalypse, and World War Z.

Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for August 2023

Welcome to the latest edition of “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of crime fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some July books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Our new releases cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have hardboiled mysteries, cozy mysteries, small town mysteries, animal mysteries, humorous mysteries, historical mysteries, Jazz Age mysteries, paranormal mysteries, crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, political thrillers, environmental thrillers, police officers, FBI agents, private investigators, amateur sleuths, stalkers, serial killers, murdered ballerinas, crime scene cleaners, vampires, deadly weddings, deadly funerals, crime-busting witches, crime-busting socialites, crime-busting food bloggers, crime-busting grannies, murder and mayhem in London, Las Vegas, Florida, Greenland and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Crime Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Indie Crime Scene, a group blog which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things crime fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Murder at the Funeral by Beth Byers:

In this short sequel to Murder on the Downs, Vi and Jack and friends return to the downs. This time to see the body of their friend interred. His killer has been found. Justice has been served. It’s time to say goodbye.

Or is it?

When they go to bury their friend, they discover the body of another man. Someone else is in Daniel Poole’s casket, and his body is still warm. What happened to their friend? Who is the killer? And who would do such a thing?

Rebel Without a Clue by Mike Faricy:

Private Investigator Dev Haskell is minding his business in the Spot Bar when beautiful Tracey Wilde walks in the door. Heads turn as she heads for Dev and enlists his help in investigating her soon to be former husband. A day later Dev gets contacted by Ernest Stanton, CEO of an investment company. Stanton wants to hire Dev to investigate a particular woman. Business hasn’t been this good in months . . . or is it? Dev takes on both new clients and quickly learns that appearances can be deceiving. Add to that the fact that Dev himself appears to be under investigation by another P.I. Can things get any crazier? Well, it’s Dev Haskell so of course the answer is yes, they can and will . . .

Better get your copy now and see if Dev can survive . . .

A Code to Kill by Elle Gray:

Most of us have a code we live by.
Some live their life altruistically, while others live by a more sinister code.
A code that only their victims know. A code to kill…

Fresh from a grueling joint operation with Spenser Song, FBI agent Blake Wilder continues to find herself being stalked and hunted down by an unknown culprit. The worst part is that they may be after her loved ones as well.

Still unable to identify her stalker, Blake meets up with Kit at a coffee shop.
There Kit gives Blake crucial intel about an arms dealer, with advanced weaponry.
A dealer that’s on a bloodthirsty path, a path that claimed the life of someone close to Kit. As Blake and her team investigate the case, they uncover a web of aliases, and a cryptic code name with a string of deaths connecting to it.

Dirty bombs, advanced weaponry, and a trail of silent victims.
Who is this elusive arms dealer? As Blake races against time to unmask the truth.
The only thing that is certain is this weapons dealer is on a path of bloodshed.
And killing is not just a choice, it’s the only code they live by…

Hextraordinary Circumstances by Lily Harper Hart:

Vampires are taking over the French Quarter.

Ofelia Archer was hoping for a break, a stretch of quiet time to enjoy the opening of her brother’s new bar, but the sight of vampires walking the rooftops one evening, tracking her, makes her wary. Then, the next morning, when a body is dropped in front of a famous vampire house, things in the Quarter take a turn.

Ofelia’s dealt with vampires before, but there’s something different about this fang gang. She’s confused enough to wonder: Are they really dealing with vampires, or something else entirely?

Zach Sully, Ofelia’s fiancé and a local police detective, starts digging. It seems there’s more than one dead body afoot…and possibly a conspiracy to hide multiple deaths.

Ofelia’s team is prepared to figure out the truth, even if it means putting themselves in danger to do it. When the new enemy focuses on her father Oscar, however, Ofelia goes on the offensive.

The French Quarter is a place where things frequently go bump in the night. This fight is about to get bloody, however.

In more ways than one.

Friday in Las Vegas by Kaye Hopkins:

When Isabel Morgan washes out of the police academy because of a deeply humiliating trait she wasn’t aware of (she can’t fire a weapon without closing her eyes), she discovers the world of crime and trauma scene cleaning. Enlisting the help of her roommate, Kenny Diaz, she starts her own cleaning business.

One of Izzy and Kenny’s first jobs is a possible murder/suicide at The Kingdom Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. As it turns out, this is one of her father’s cases. He is a homicide detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and wanting to be closer to her dad and his world, Izzy begins her own investigation—an investigation that puts her in the sights of one violent and vindictive security guard. But when she’s kidnapped and thrown into a dungeon-like room at the casino, she finds that guard beaten up and half dead.

So, who is the real enemy here? Could it be Devlin Russo the young handsome manager of The Kingdom with possible mob connections and the man she’s just fallen for? Could it be someone she hasn’t even met yet? And is she going to end up in the same condition as the security guard or are they both going to die, buried beneath tons of concrete, in a room where no one can hear you scream?

Emily Lickenson Could Not Stop Death by CeeCee James:

Join Emily Lickenson, the cat food blogger with a knack for finding trouble, in her latest cozy mystery adventure.

Emily had hoped to settle back into her peaceful routine after helping to solve the last crime spree, but fate had other plans. When she stumbles upon a murder victim in the alley behind her apartment building, she knows she can’t ignore her instincts.

However, Emily soon discovers the police aren’t interested in solving the crime, and no one is willing to talk. Does this unsettling silence have something to do with the victim? Who was he? And why is everyone being so secretive?

With the help of her trusty sidekick, Shakespeare, and Aunt Mattie, who’s dealing with the fun challenges of an adorable new foster pet, Emily dives headfirst into the investigation. Can she uncover the truth behind the murder, or will the crime remain unsolved? This delightfully gripping whodunit will keep you guessing until the very end, making it a must-read for all cozy mystery lovers.

Murder in the Chapel by Sonia Parin:

To love and to cherish, til death us do part…

Returning from town, Evie, the Countess of Woodridge, and Tom Winchester find the village buzzing with excitement. Finally, they are getting married and everyone is thrilled and eagerly awaiting the day to celebrate the long awaited nuptials.

While they play host to wedding guests arriving from near and far, they each deal with their wedding jitters, even though they know nothing and no one will stand in their way.

… anyone present who knows a reason why these persons may not lawfully marry…

If anything can interfere with their wedding plans it is bound to be something quite ominous. Something along the lines of a dead body discovered in the crypt inside the Woodridge family chapel where Tom and Evie have been practicing the wedding ceremony.

A body with a gunshot wound to the heart.

The weapon is found and provides unquestionable proof of guilt.

The Countess of Woodridge’s guilt.

No Escape by A.J. Rivers:

There are places in this world where you can enter, but never leave…

After witnessing and helping to solve many cases with FBI agent Emma Griffin, PI Dean Steele should get an honorary FBI badge as a reward.

With Fall and its festivities rapidly approaching, Dean gets an urgent call.

Four years ago, in the quiet town of Harper, three teens were murdered against the backdrop of Halloween.
Their body parts were found in the most bewildering way.
The body count has now risen and there are still no answers.

When the family of the first victim hires Dean to get to the bottom of it, he is plunged in a dark and terrifying web of secrets.

Now, it’s up to Dean to learn who the true Hallows Eve killer is before he builds another scarecrow out of his victim

Missed Cue by Lynn Slaughter:

When ballerina Lydia Miseau dies onstage in the final dress rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet, homicide detective Caitlin O’Connor is faced with the most complicated case of her career. She strongly suspects that someone murdered the ballerina, and her investigation uncovers several people close to the star who had reasons to kill her. But the autopsy reveals no apparent cause of death. If Lydia Miseau was murdered, who did it, and how?

Meantime, there’s Caitlin’s hot mess of a personal life. She has a bad habit of getting involved with married men. She knows it’s wrong, so why does she keep entangling herself in unhealthy relationships? She’s finally decided to go into therapy to find out.

Shadow’s Conspiracy by Mary Stone:

Not every conspiracy is a theory.

When a man washes up onto Shadow Island, Sheriff Rebecca West has a moment of déjà vu. This isn’t the first body the ocean spat out on one of her beaches, but it’s the first one she’s found alive.

Barely.

The brutal gunshot wounds to the victim’s hand and the lower part of his face indicate he was shot offshore and dumped overboard, but there’s no boat or perpetrator. Just a few cryptic clues before the victim becomes unresponsive.

At first glance, the investigation points to pirates or a drug deal gone bad. But as Rebecca delves deeper, she realizes that this is far more than an attempt on a low-level criminal’s life. The case stretches out its tendrils, entangling the esteemed members of Shadow Island’s Select Board, the sinister Yacht Club, and even her own sheriff’s department.

And it could jeopardize everything.

Blackmail, power, and corruption collide as Rebecca resolves to clean the island up once and for all. Unless she dies trying.

Arctic Inferno by Geza Tatrallyay:

Arctic Inferno, the sequel to Arctic Meltdown, is a timely and gripping international environmental thriller set against the background of the devastation of climate change and the melting of the polar ice cap. The heroine, Hanne Kristensen, the beautiful Danish geologist appointed Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources for the newly independent Greenland, has to maneuver through a wave of setbacks to foil both a Chinese attempt to control Greenland’s natural resources and a more aggressive Russian attempt to gain hegemony over the sparsely populated fledgling country as well as to save her friend, the ousted Premier of Russia, Pavel Laptov. Her suitor, Canadian diplomat Richard Simpson, aids her in this process as well as in the design and signing of a new and more environmentally focused Arctic Treaty to save the region from complete environmental catastrophe. But at the same time Hanne’s private life is complicated by this relationship, as she has to choose between Richard and her long-time lover and childhood friend, Kristi Olafson. This is an action-packed novel with lots of twists and turns guaranteed to keep the reader at the edge of their seats, but also one that brings home the realities we could be living in the very near future.

Pineapple Maids by Amy Vansant:

Pineapple Port retirees Mariska and Darla have been many things to Charlotte Morgan—surrogate mothers when her grandmother passed, belly-fillers (almost constantly), and dime-store decorators when the new Charlock Holmes Detective Agency needed upgrading…

All they ask in return is one teeny, tiny, itty-bitty thing in exchange…To go undercover so they can find out who’s killing residents at a high-end assisted living manor.

What could go wrong if Darla and Mariska masquerade as residents? Or war with the manor’s “mean girls?” Or start a revolt via talent show?

Charlotte doesn’t have time to worry about the ladies. She’s and Declan are posing as staff, and they’ve got secret gardens, scary alligator prints, and poison tea to worry about. They’ll have to hurry—one of the residents just laughed himself to death while painting a cheeky art reproduction…

Will Dead Ed be the manor’s last casualty?

Grab some cookies and find out! (Just don’t drink the tea…)

Foundation explains “Why the Gods Made Wine” and still has next to nothing to do with the books

Season 2 of Foundation is currently streaming, so I’m doing episode by episode reviews again. For my takes on previous episodes, go here.

For even more Foundation talk, I was a guest at the most excellent Seldon Crisis podcast and you can listen to us talking about Foundation, Asimov and the golden age of science fiction here.

Warning! There will be spoilers under the cut!

Unlike last episode, this episode does make some progress in the stories of Poly Verisof and Brother Constant as well as Hober Mallow. However, the majority of the episode is devoted to Hari, Gaal and Salvor and to Tellem Bond and her Mentalics.

Poly Verisof and Brother Constant arrive on Trantor aboard an Imperial jumpship with some stunning visuals of Trantor and its docking rings viewed through the hole at the center of the jumpship. Brother Constant is fascinated by the Spacers (Foundation jumpships don’t require Spacers) and the advanced genetic engineering that created them. The Spacer casually mentions that the Empire has long lost these advanced genetic engineering abilities and is instead exploiting the Spacers.

The arrival terminal on Trantor still looks a lot like it did all the way back when Gaal Dornick arrived here back in the very first episode, complete with a giant hologram of Brother Day welcoming visitors to Trantor.

At immigration desk, Poly Verisof introduces himself and Brother Constant as representatives of Terminus on the Outer Rim. The immigration officer icily replies that the Empire does not recognise these worlds. “That’s what we’re hoping to change”, Brother Constant replies cheerfully.

Even though the metal detectors or whatever they are glow ominously red, as Poly and Brother Constant pass through them, they are initially left alone and use the opportunity to take in the sights. Brother Constant, who is after all a girl from Thesbis, for whom Terminus is the hub of the universe, is mightily impressed by the size and grandeur of the city. Poly Verisof not nearly as wide-eyed and impressed, but then he is a lot older and knew people who had lived on Trantor and probably told him about it.

There is a brief conversation, where Brother Constant asks Poly if Trantor really is the heart of the galaxy and how it can still look so impressive and alive, even though the Empire is collapsing. For Constant, there is never any question that the Empire will indeed collapse – she is a true believer, after all. Poly Verisof tells her that the rot begins at the outer edges and takes a while to reach the center.

As for Brother Constant being a true believer, there is a second conversation in which Poly Verisof tells Constant that he believes in Hari Seldon and psychohistory, because he saw Hari Seldon or rather his hologram walk out of the vault with his own eyes. Brother Constant, however, never personally saw Hari Seldon, but only heard second and third hand accounts of his appearance – after all, Poly Verisof is the only surviving person who saw Seldon, everybody else is long dead  – and still believes. Poly Verisof is a believer, but Brother Constant has faith.

This dialogue is not in the books, though it sounds very much like something Asimov might have written. Though I have to quibble that in the original stories, the Foundationers don’t believe in Scientism or the Church of the Galactic Spirit, since they know it’s all a scam to pacify the Four Kingdoms. But then, Brother Constant is from Thesbis. And Poly Verisof, who in the books is one of the few members of clergy who know that it’s all a scam, explicitly says that he only believes in Seldon, because he actually saw him.

Poly Verisof also asks Constant to flush his stash of drugs, because he fears he won’t have the strength to do it. Constant replies that if Poly had the strength to ask her, he has the strength to do it, but then goes ahead and flushes the drug.

However, their discussion about belief versus faith is rudely interrupted, when Imperial guards show up to arrest Poly and Constant very much like what happened to Gaal Dornick and Hari Seldon in the very first episode. They’re even still using the same sensory deprivation hoods.

As for why Poly Verisof and Brother Constant have been arrested, we know that the Emperors Three and Demerzel want to learn more about Terminus and those rumours of flying magicians at the edge of the galaxy and even dispatched Bel Riose (who was last seen two episodes ago) to learn more. And suddenly, two travellers claiming to be amabassadors show up on Trantor itself. Of course, they’ll be arrested and questioned.

Talking of the Emperors Three, the episode briefly checks in with the Cleons. Brother Day is holding a rally in a very Brutalist looking arena. There’s a huge crowd, including Imperial patricians from far flung worlds of the Empire, as well as Dawn, Dusk, Demerzel as well as Sareth and her retinue. Thankfully, the Imperial balcony is big enough to accomodate all of them. Day orates that this arena was once used for bloodsports and gladiatorial games in the Empire’s glorious past, but has since been abandoned. They’re really laying on the Roman Empire parallels thickly, are they?

Day then proceeds to unveil a giant statue dedicated to the last Empress, the mother of Cleon the First. This coincidentally is one of the two giant female statues seen in the title sequence. What I found a bit irritating – beyond the fact that they would simply let a big chunk of real estate on Trantor lay abandoned for decades, if not centuries – is that there is blue sky visible above the arena. In the books, Trantor is a domed city.

Finally, Day declares that Cleon’s mother – who is also Day, Dusk and Dawn’s biological mother, come to think of it – will not be the last Empress after all and announces his impending nuptials to Sareth.  There’s a lot of applause, while Dawn and Sareth make gooey eyes at each other  and Dusk makes gooey eyes at Rue and actually seems to be enjoying himself, because at least the Cleons had a good run. But then, we know that this Dusk is one of the most mellow Cleons we’ve ever seen. Demerzel, meanwhile, looks as if she is quietly planning to murder everybody present. And knowing her, she probably is.

Sareth then steps forward, clad in a flimsy dress that’s clearly held in place only by double-sided tape, and gives a speech of her own, a speech that she clearly did not share with Day beforehand. Sareth declares to the assembled patricians and citizens that yes, she will be their new Empress, but that she will not just lord over them, but that she views her new role as an obligation towards the people of Trantor and the Empire, because the people are all the Empire.

In his review, Paul Levinson compares Sareth to Evita Perón, which is certainly an apt comparison. Another good comparison would be Princess Diana, who also was a lot more charismatic and popular than the rather bland royal she married. It’s also notable that neither woman lived to be forty, Evita Perón dying of cancer at 33 and Princess Diana in a car crash at 36.

Because make no mistake, even if Day actually marries Sareth, she and most likely her entire retinue as well will all die horribly. Day glaring dagger at Sareth and exchanging some very telling looks with Demerzel was foreshadowing enough. That’s also the reason why I can’t really get invested in the whole Sareth storyline. Because it’s very obvious that she will die.

While all this is going on, Hober Mallow arrives aboard the Spirit at the place where Hari Seldon or rather hologram dispatched him. However, there’s nothing there – it’s just empty space. Worse, Becky, Brother Constant’s semi-tame bishop’s claw, is hungry and Hober has no way to feed her.

Before Hober can figure out what to do about Becky, he is interrupted by the arrival of a giant spaceship of a type that we – and apparently Hober – have never seen before. The Spirit is pulled into the giant spaceship, Hober disembarks and meets people floating in zero G inside, who demand to know what he’s doing there. Turns out Hober has stumbled upon – or rather Hari Seldon led him to – the Spacer Hive, where the Spacers breed more of their kind.

The Hober Mallow scenes are brief, but extremely interesting. For starters, the Empire is completely dependent upon the Spacers for interstellar. Without Spacers, there’s no way for the far flung worlds of the Empire to remain connected. Also remember that the Spacer Brother Constant met told her that a) the Empire exploits the Spacers and b) no one in the Empire has the genetic engineering knowledge that created the Spacers.

In “The Big and the Little”, Hober Mallow travels and Korell and Siwenna and realises that a) the Empire’s technology is big and unwieldy and outdated and b) no one knows how to build these systems anymore, so if they break down for good, no one can repair and replace them. Meanwhile, the Foundation’s technology took a different path from the Empires and not only evolved and improved, because also became smaller and more nimble. Hober also realises that though the Foundation isn’t yet strong enough to beat the Empire, in another hundred years or so it will be, especially if Foundation technology keeps improving. The title refers to the contrast between the big, unwieldy legacy technology of the Empire and the small, nimble technology of the Foundation.

In the books, the technology gap involves nuclear power and nuclear powered gadgets, which seemed suitably futuristic in 1944, but is hopelessly outdated today. I think the whole Spacer plot is the TV-series’ version of the story of the tech gap between the Empire and the Foundation. Because while the Empire depends upon the Spacers, even though it treats them badly, the Foundation’s jump ships don’t require Spacers. This gives the Foundation an edge over the Empire. And if Hober Mallow were to persuade the Spacers to turn against the Empire…

The Hober Mallow and Brother Constant and Poly Verisof plotlines are the ones that interest me most, but that’s not where the episode focuses its energy. Instead, the vast majority of the runtime is spent on Ignis with Hari the Second, Gaal and Salvor and Tellem Bond and her Mentalics. It’s not all bad, but it’s not the story I really want to spend a lot of time with right now.

On Ignis, Hari is standing on the beach – a beach which doesn’t seem to fit the rest of the planet or rather this part of it, cause planets are big and have lots of different ecosystems. Salvor shows up patrolling the perimeter and tells Hari that she is feeling uneasy, because she keeps sensing the Mentalics’ dreams. Hari tries to Bond with Salvor, who is his granddaughter after all, and keeps on trying throughout the episode. At one point, we see them fishing together, which Hari enjoys and Salvor very much does not. Hari tells Salvor point blank that he knows she doesn’t trust him and that she is worried Gaal will turn into another Hari (you mean, she’ll stop being whiny and annoying? Yes, please). Hari also tells her again that he didn’t know how serious the relationship between Gaal and Raych was until that night and that maybe Raych should have displayed better judgment and shouldn’t have pursued a relationship he knew would come to nothing. Hari isn’t wrong here, since the entire Hari and Gaal subplot we have been subjected to since season 1 could have been avoided if Raych had simply stuck to the plan.

Hari also reveals that the actual Prime Radiant, the one Gaal hid aboard the Beggar, and the one on Terminus are linked via the Vault, but that neither the Prime Radiant on Terminus nor the Hari hologram on Terminus have the whole picture, lest they accidentally reveal something they shouldn’t.

I honestly wonder why Salvor is so concerned about Gaal. Yes, Gaal is her biological mother, but Salvor’s intense desire to seek her out at the cost of all her other relationships to her mother, Hugo, her friends on Terminus, etc… never really made sense. Also, Salvor doesn’t really have a reason to dislike Hari. After all, Hari Seldon’s hologram swooped in to resolve the first crisis without undue bloodshed and also confirmed that the cause of action Salvor has suggested was the right one. Plus, Salvor grew up hearing how great and important Hari Seldon was. So her feelings don’t make a whole lot of sense.

Salvor continues patrolling the perimeter and meets a little boy, who won’t or can’t talk physically, but who does talk with his mind. He shows Salvor what happened to him and how people who hated and hunted down Mentalics slit the throats of several of them and threw them into a ditch, including the little boy. However, the little boy survived and was rescued by Tellem Bond. He then takes Salvor to meet the rest of the people in the camp – cause everybody seems to live in a very makeshift camp by the seaside. The people surround Salvor, eager to share their stories. Unsurprisingly, the stories are all terrible – people being hunted, locked in cages, hanged. The stories all end the same. Tellem Bond shows up, messiah-like, to rescue them. If you wonder how Tellem can show up in so many different places and presumably on different planets to rescue the beleaguered Mentalics, you’re not alone.

It’s also notable how very low-tech all the persecution and slaughter scenes are. There are iron cages, improvised gallows with hemp nooses, people having their throats slit, etc… Those scenes might have been from any high fantasy or historical show. Which wouldn’t bother except that scenes of mass slaughter in the Foundation stories – which do exist, though they usually happen off stage and we hear about them second hand – aren’t like that at all. There are cities and planets being bombed, people threatened with gas chamber or lethal injection executions, etc… No iron cages, hangings or throat slittings.

A bit later, Hari, Gaal and Salvor talk with Tellem Bond. Tellem explains that the life of a Mentalic usually follows one of two paths. Either they are treated as gods, which isn’t particularly good or healthy for anybody, or they are hunted and persecuted, which is worse. Tellem created her sanctuary on Ignis to offer the Mentalics a third path, a fairly normal, if secluded life.

Hari says that if Tellem and her Mentalics help him and become the Second Foundation, they have the chance to do something important and help the entire galaxy. Tellem, however, doesn’t care about the entire galaxy and its fate. And she doesn’t want her people to fight somebody else’s war, thank you very much.

Gaal then tells Tellem that she has seen the future and that the Mule threatens everybody, including Tellem and her people. Tellem replies that it’s not possible for anybody to see the future. At any rate, she has never met any Mentalic who could. So Gaal isn’t just special among ordinary humans, she’s also special among Mentalics.

The whole thing also doesn’t make any sense, because in the real world precognition is actually one of the most common psychic phenomena. Many of us have had inexplicable hunches – you don’t need to be a Mentalic (and note that we have no evidence that psychic phenomena are real, in spite of years of research). So why would Tellem that while all the other psychic phenomena are possible, one of the most common that a lot of people have experienced in some form, isn’t?

A bit later, Tellem catches Gaal alone inside the Beggar and just lets herself in, which isn’t suspicious at all. She reads Gaal’s mind and sees the Mule vision, including dead Salvor, which seems to spook her. Tellem asks Gaal if she told Salvor about the vision and claims to be sympathetic to their situation. Tellem also tells Gaal that today is Salvor’s birthday, quel coincidence. Meanwhile, I continue not to care if Salvor Hardin dies at the hands of the Mule in the future, because as far as I am concerned, Salvor’s story ended last season and she should have had a long and happy life as mayor of Terminus and heroine of the Foundation.

Finally, Tellem tells Gaal that she and Salvor are welcome to stay and that Tellem would be happy to hand over her “children”, as she calls the Mentalics, to Gaal after her death, which won’t be too far in the future, since Tellem is ill. Gaal can even call the colony Second Foundation, if she wants to. However, Tellem doesn’t want non-Mentalics on Ignis, so Hari has to go. She also tells Gaal that Hari is holding her back and stopping her from developing her skills to the full.

Now there is a Second Foundation in the books, which become prominent in the second half of the original trilogy. And yes, the Second Foundation is composed of Mentalics. However, that’s where the similarities end. Because in the original trilogy, we never see the Second Foundation being established – it enters the story fully formed as a new party in the Galactic conflict. The Second Foundation deals with the Mule and then has to stop the First Foundation from getting too close to them. In the last Foundation novel Asimov wrote, Forward the Foundation, published posthumously in 1993, we do see the seeds of the Second Foundation being laid, when Hari discovers that his granddaughter Wanda, daughter of Raych, has psychic abilities and that one of his psychohistorians does as well. It is implied that Wanda and the other psychohistorian (I forgot the character’s name) will seek out others like themselves to form the Second Foundation. However, there is no Tellem Bond and no, the Second Foundation is not on Ignis (nor on Tarzenda nor on Terminus).

If anything, the whole storyline with Tellem Bond and her persecuted Mentalics reminds not of anything in Foundation, but of the X-Men comics with Hari Seldon (or Gaal) as Professor Xavier and Tellem Bond as Magneto. It’s the same conflict we’ve seen in the X-Men comics for sixty years now – should mutant fight to protect a world that fears and hates them, which is Professor Xavier’s way, or should they only live and work for themselves, preferably secluded from non-mutants, which is Magneto’s way.

Now the roots of the X-Men comics – and much of the Marvel and DC Universes – do lie in the golden age of science fiction, because the people who went on to create those comics grew up reading pulp SFF during the radium and golden age and sometimes the same people wrote for both the pulps and comics.

For the X-Men, the most notable influence is the 1948 novella “In Hiding” and its sequels as well as the 1953 fix-up novel Children of the Atom (note the title) by Wilmar H. Shiras (see reviews by Joachim Boaz and James Wallace Harris here). For some reason, Wilmar H. Shiras is largely forgotten, probably because she only wrote a handful of stories and one novel and then vanished for twenty years. “In Hiding” postdates the earliest Foundation stories, though it was published around the same time  as the later stories “Now You See It…” and “…And Now You Don’t”, which are the ones focussed on the Second Foundation. Other early example of mutants with mighty mental powers being feared and hated by those around them are the 1940 science fiction novel Slan by A.E. Van Vogt and the 1935 science fiction novel Odd John by Olaf Stapleton. I don’t know if Asimov ever read Odd John, but he certainly read Slan and the Children of the Atom stories, since they appeared in Asimov’s home mag Astounding.

In general, worries about evolution – and even more commonly devolution – and where it might go permeated the speculative fiction of the 1920s and 1930s. Among others, they are found at the heart of many a Lovecraft or Robert E. Howard story. From 1945 on, these fears about evolution were joined by fears of mutations caused by radioactivity, once an increase in birth defects was observed in the children of survivors of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mutations caused by radiation exposure were a staple of science fiction – in books, comics and films – well into the 1960s. The Mule and the Second Foundation didn’t come out of nowhere, but resulted from the SFF landscape of the 1940s.

So in short, it’s not completely inappropriate that Foundation turns into the X-Men for about half the episode. That said, it still doesn’t really fit, because if I want X-Men, I’ll read or watch X-Men, thank you very much.

Comparing Tellem Bond to Magneto is not all that far-fetches either, for even though I sympathise with her fears about Hari or Empire exploiting the Mentalics, I very much disapprove of her methods. Tellem Bond is a deeply unlikeable character, more unlikeable than Magneto in fact, who has been oscillating between good and evil since the 1980s (I’m not sure what he’s now) and who also has the benefit of having been portrayed by Ian McKellan in the X-Men movies. Tellem Bond has none of that. I’m not the only one who dislikes her either. Paul Levinson also notes how much he dislikes Tellem Bond in his review.

And Tellem Bond gives us plenty of reasons to dislike and distrust her. And indeed Hari says as much to Salvor and Gaal, that Tellem Bond is manipulating them all and that she is after the Prime Radiant. He’s absolutely right, too – well, he is Hari Seldon, after all. But of course Gaal and Salvor won’t listen and instead decide to celebrate Salvor’s birthday, when they see what they believe to be Hari taking off with the Beggar.

However, Hari taking off with the Beggar is as much an illusion as Raych and Hugo were last episode. Instead, one of Tellem Bond’s Mentalics has taken the ship (How can they even fly it, when it’s linked to Salvor and Gaal?). As for Hari, Tellem Bond is torturing him in a highly medieval way by chaining him up in a some kind of tidal pool… and the tide is slowly rising. Tellem wants to know where the Prime Radiant is, but of course Hari won’t tell her. Never mind that he doesn’t know, because Gaal hid it.

As Hari is about to drown, his life flashes before his eyes – and before ours, because we get a lengthy flashback of Hari’s past. It starts off with kid Hari on Helicon, scribbling calculations in his notebook, while his parents are hearding some kind of flying alien monsters called moonshrikes, which look a lot like the Salamence Pokemon, off a cliff using sheepdog drones. Kid Hari calculates the patterns in which the moonshrikes stampede towards the cliff and then goes to prove his theory by standing among the stampeding creatures unharmed. His mother is worried and his father hits him… again.

Next we see Hari as a young academic at university, still on Helicon. His early papers on psychohistory, still very much theoretical at this point, have attracted the attention of the Empire, as one Dr. Tadj (played by Irish actress Fiona O’Shaughnessy, another actress who’s actually too famous for a bit part in Foundation), university administrator cum Imperial agent and Hari’s boss points out. They are arguing when a young woman named Dr. Yanna Kine, who has just transferred from her homeworld Calda to Helicon, interrupts them. Yanna is looking for an office and Dr. Tadj puts her in Hari’s office to annoy him. Hari also is annoyed, until Yanna tells him that she is familiar with his work and believes in his theories and that they will accomplish great things together.

Hari and Yanna work together to develop a prototype of the Prime Radiant and fall in love along the way. Their romance culminates when Yanna tells Hari that she is pregnant and gives him a necklace which allows him to feel with her and her baby’s heartbeat.

However, Hari’s work continues to attract unwanted Imperial attention. Dr. Tadj shows up, bearing a job offer for Hari and Yanna to transfer to Streeling University on Trantor, where they will be much easier to monitor. Hari, however, isn’t interested in Imperial scrutiny of his work and says so. Dr. Tadj tells him that if he and Yanna don’t go to Streeling University, she will terminate all the funds for their research and confiscate the prototype of the Prime Radiant. Hari still doesn’t want to go, but Yanna tells him they should maybe consider it for their own safety and also that Dr. Tadj, since it’s pretty obvious that she is scared of the Empire.

Hari promises to consider the offer, but Dr. Tadj jumps the gun, quite literally, and shows up on Hari and Yanna’s doorstep to abduct the pregnant Yanna at gunpoint. Something goes terribly wrong and Yanna and her unborn child are killed, which Hari senses through the necklace she gave him. He decides to avenge himself upon Dr. Tadj and lures her to a meeting, hacks her car to take them to the same mesa where Hari did his first crowd dynamic calculations as a boy. He uses the sheepdog drones to call the moonshrikes, standing among the stampede unharmed, while Dr. Tadj is trampled to death.

Finally, we see Hari arriving on Trantor at Streeling University with the biggest library in the Empire. He is shown around by a man named Jerril (played by League of Gentlemen‘s Reese Shearsmith), who was revealed to be an Imperial agent way back in the very first episode.

Talking of which, it is very notable how many well known British actors like Philip Glenister, Reece Shearsmith or Fiona O’Shaughnessy shows up in Foundation in small parts, smaller parts than actors of that calibre normally play. Is this a case of actors wanting to be in Foundation, because they loved the books, which is something we see a lot with geeky properties like Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel or Masters of the Universe: Revelation (which would never have had such a star-studded voice cast, if not for actors being fans) etc…? Or does Apple Plus just pay really well?

The Hari Seldon flashback scenes are very good, even though they don’t really push the story forward. In many ways, this is the TV series’ version of Prelude to Foundation, which has the distinction of being my introduction to Foundation and Isaac Asimov’s work in general. In both series and novel, Hari Seldon’s at this point purely theoretical work on psychohistory attracts Imperial attention and the Emperor, who is named Cleon, wants to use psychohistory for his own gain. In both cases, Hari wants nothing to do with that. I’m sure that any parallels to Isaac Asimov himself, who as a newly minted doctor of chemistry in the 1940s wanted nothing to do with research into nuclear weapons, which did not exactly improve his job prospects, are totally coincidental.

Prelude sends Hari on a mad flights across Trantor with its very different neighbourhoods, inspired by a journalist called Chetter Hummin, who tells Seldon that Cleon and his first minister Eto Demerzel are planning to have him arrested to forcibly take his research. In truth, Chetter Hummin and Eto Demerzel and yes, they’re both the robot Daneel R. Olivaw, though Daneel/Demerzel/Hummin is male in the books. Hari does end up at Streeling University for a time and teams up with a female historian who helps him to turn psychohistory into more than a mere theory. However, that female historian is called Dors Venabili not Yanna Kine. Dors is also a robot, who protects Hari Seldon and keeps an eye on him on Daneel’s order. And no, Yanna is not Dors by another name, if only because robots can’t get pregnant. After the ground gets too hot at Streeling University, Hari and Dors go on the run and have more adventures and pick up an adorable street urchin named Raych. Dors is eventually killed in Forward the Foundation, the next book in the series, though there is no Dr. Tadj involved.

So in short, I liked the Young Hari flashbacks, since this is probably the closest we’ll ever get to an adaptation of Prelude to Foundation. That said, they still feel oddly shoehorned into what is supposed to be a mash-up of “The Big and the Little” and “The General/The Dead Hand”, two stories that happen much later. Never mind that the flashbacks are almost ridiculously long, considering that this is something that Hari sees while he’s drowning. And Hari does not take twenty minutes to drown.

The episode finally ends with Hari supposedly drowning. Though I’m pretty sure he’ll be saved in the nick of time and not just because yesterday was Jarred Harris’ 62nd birthday. And even if not, there’s still Hari’s twin on Terminus.

This episode is not all bad, though it spends way too much time on Ignis with the Mentalics and not enough on any of the other storylines. And indeed the Stars End podcast and Paul Levinson both agree that there was way too much Ignis and also too much focus on Hari, even though pretty much everybody liked the Young Hari flashbacks. Only Geek Girl Authority reviewer Julia Roth actually seemed to enjoy the Ignis scenes, but then she latched onto Gaal and Salvor as characters and is invested in their relationship. If you think that Gaal and Salvor are kind of superfluous at this point in the story, the Ignis scenes are a lot less compelling.

Meanwhile, I continue to wonder who the target audience for this show is. It’s clearly not the fans of the books or fans of intelligent, idea-driven science fiction in general, because the show just isn’t catering to them at all beyond giving the occasional lip service to the originals. I still think that a more book accurate adaptation would have worked, especially considering how many politicians, scientists, tech business people, etc… have been deeply influenced by the Foundation books over the years in spite of their many flaws. And clearly the writers and showrunners wanted to make a more accurate adaptation, but the higher ups at Apple Plus nixed that idea, because they underestimate the audience as usual.

So who is the show for? The mainstream mundane audience which turned Game of Thrones into a major cultural phenomenon? IMO chasing the mainstream audience is futile, because these people are fickle. They want to watch the show everybody else is watching and they have long since moved on to Succession or Yellowstone or The White Lotus or And Just Like That or some other soap opera about rich people being awful and they only ever watched Game of Thrones for the sex scenes anyway. The mainstream audience occasionally latches onto a good show – Only Murders in the Building seems to be a current example – but chasing them is pointless, especially for a genre show. Game of Thrones was an outlier. But the mainstream folks who watched Game of Thrones won’t necessarily watch another SFF show, no matter how well made. I remember one review saying that Succession had all the backstabbing intrigue of Game of Thrones without those irritating dragons and white walkers and swordfights and weird costumes, complete failing to understand that for many of us, the dragons and white walkers and swordfights and weird costumes were the reason to tune in and that we don’t care about rich people in grey suits and grey offices being awful.

If I sound a bit cynical here, maybe that’s because I spent way too much time trying to connect with these mainstream viewers and readers, trying to discuss the movie/TV show/book of the hour with them and recommending other, lesser known books, movies or TV shows that they might enjoy, if they liked the popular thing. Only to realise that they only liked the popular thing because it was popular and because all their friends were watching or reading it. They didn’t care about other, often better works in the same vein, because their friends weren’t talking about those things, only weird people like me who don’t watch normal TV shows and movies and don’t read normal books.

These people have also been around for as long as I can remember. Back in the 1980s, Dallas and Dynasty were the shows that everybody talked about and everybody had to watch. So I tried to watch them – which wasn’t easy, because they were on after my bedtime – because I thought if everybody kept talking about those shows, if every second article in a TV mag was about them, they had to be good. Only that they weren’t. They were pretty bad, elevated only by a few good actors like Larry Hagman and Joan Collins who clearly knew how crappy those shows were and camped it up like nobody’s business. As for books, I remember when everybody read The Mists of Avalon (much as we would prefer to forget it, that book was a genuine mega-bestseller) and The Name of the Rose, even people who would otherwise never touch a fantasy novel or a historical murder mystery full of literary allusions.

So who is Foundation for? The general genre/geek audience? Apple Plus TV seems to be aiming at that audience, since they have a lot of SFF shows like Silo (you may remember the story from when it was still called Wool), See, For All Mankind, Severance, Invasion, etc… And aiming at a geek audience is not a bad idea for a streaming service, because SFF people are loyal to their shows, frequently have disposable income and are willing to spend some of it on entertainment. CBS All Access/Paramount Plus basically used Star Trek to build its subscriber base, because the only other original programming they had was the very mainstreamy The Good Fight and not a lot of people would be willing to pay solely for that.

However, there is a lot of SFF programming out there aimed at the genre audience, much of it good. There’s more Star Trek and Star Wars related TV shows out there than any one person can watch. Plus all the Marvel shows and all sorts of other SFF and horror related shows and movies. And frankly, the various Star Trek, Star Wars and Marvel shows probably have a much broader appeal than Foundation, which – though based on a beloved series of books – isn’t the most easy to series to connect with.

Right now, it seems as if the only people actually watching Foundation and talking about it are people who loved the books and are mostly frustrated by the TV-show, while both the mainstream and the geek audience are watching other shows.

Foundation meets “The Sighted and the Seen” and has nothing whatsoever to do with the books

Season 2 of Foundation is currently streaming, so I’m doing episode by episode reviews again. For my takes on previous episodes, go here.

Warning! There will be spoilers under the cut!

Were you as eager as I to learn more about the mysterious mission which Hari Seldon entrusted to Hober Mallow last episode? And do you want to know how Poly Verisof and Brother Constant will fare on their peace mission to Trantor?

Well, tough luck, cause this episode doesn’t address any of that. Instead, we get a whole lot of stuff about the adventures of Hari the Second, Gaal and Salvor as well as some palace intrigue with the Cleons on Trantor. Never mind that almost none of this has anything to do with the books.

The episode opens with the now newly embodied Hari the Second remembering his “death” at the hands of Raych. It’s an emotional scene and it’s also nice to see Alfred Enoch as Raych again, even though we already knew what happened the night Hari died.

Hari wakes up, feeling the stab wound on his brand-new body, only to find himself confronted by Raych again. Raych who is dead and has been dead for approx. 150 years at this point. “Raych” accuses Hari of not giving a damn about other people and being willing to sacrifice everybody in the pursuit of his grand plan. He’s not even wrong, though it’s clear in both the books and the TV-series that Hari loved Raych like his biological son. Hari is also fated, in both the books and TV-series, to see him die and outlive his kid. It’s only now that Hari finally gets around to mourning Raych, even though – to be honest – Raych partly brought his fate upon himself, because if he had used the escape pod as planned, he would have survived.

Raych vanishes and Hari wakes up for good. He cuts himself in the palm with Raych’s knife and yup, it bleeds. Hari had a body again. Then he stumbles around the Beggar. “Well, he hasn’t had legs in 150 years”, Salvor comments dryly.

Gaal is somewhat more concerned about Hari and also asks the question that has been on everybody’s mind since the end of episode 3. How in the galaxy did Hari get a body again?

If you’d hoped this episode would give us an answer to that question, well, tough luck. Cause it turns out that Hari has no idea how he came to have a physical body again. He remembers being in a cave with Kalle, when everything went dark, and then waking up aboard the Beggar in a brand-new body. As explanations go, this is deeply unsatisfying.

Salvor has a theory that “Kalle” cloned Hari and also notes the irony that Hari has now become something much like the Cleons whom he despises. Salvor has also been scanning communications – unlike Gaal and Hari, she is the practical one – and notes that the Foundation has spread all over the Outer Rim by now (though I wonder how Salvor can easily scan Foundation communications on the Outer Rim, while the Empire physically needs to send Bel Riose to investigate) and that they have established a religion that worships Hari as a prophet. Hari replies that this isn’t his doing, but “the other one’s”, i.e. Vault Hari on Terminus, but that this development was also inevitable, because “people do love to kneel”. Hari clearly has the cynical view of organised religion that permeates the original Foundation stories and much of Golden Age science fiction.

Before our intrepid trio can delve some more into the mystery of Hari’s new body, they are interrupted by the Beggar finally arriving at Ignis. The planet is habitable – and part of the approx. thirty percent of planets in the known galaxy that look like British Columbia – but has been abandoned by humans ever since the Empire pulled out centuries, leaving behind some ruined summer palaces. Honestly, why is the Empire pulling out of so many planets and just leaving them abandoned? Abandoning Oona’s World I can understand, because it’s a barren world only of use for mining, but Ignis looks lush and pleasant and like a good place to live. However, Gaal, Hari and Salvor don’t really wonder about that, for the far more pressing question is: If Ignis is uninhabited, then what is this “signal” that Gaal and Salvor are receiving?

With some difficulties and damage to the local flora – I guess it was time for another random action scene – the Beggar lands on Ignis. Salvor is certain that someone has been watching them, so she grabs her rifle and heads out onto the unknown planet to confront whoever it is. I know that patrolling perimeters (and not in the sense I’ve been using that term in my Masters of the Universe toy photo stories) is kind of what Salvor does, but heading out into the wilderness of an unknown planet, where heaven knows what kind of hostile wildlife might be waiting, does not strike me as very smart. Gaal clearly agrees and displays some maternal worries. Hari tells her that she shouldn’t let her vision of Salvor’s death at the hands of the Mule get to her. Though to be honest, Gaal’s vision should actually make her less worried about Salvor, because if Salvor dies on Terminus at the hands of the Mule some 130 years in the future, she certainly won’t die on Ignis in the here and now.

Hari also acknowledges that Salvor is his granddaughter and that he thinks he wouldn’t have broken up Gaal and Raych, if he’d known that they were going to have a baby, whereupon Gaal replies that she and Raych hadn’t yet decided whether to have the baby. There’s also a line that there’s a difference between an embryo and a person, which is directed at contemporary US audiences more than at anybody in the show.

While Hari and Gaal are arguing, Salvor is exploring the planet. She realises that someone is following her and attacks and disarms that person. Salvor’s stalker is wearing a mask, so Salvor orders him to take it off. So he does and lo and behold, it’s Hugo Crast, the Thesbian trader who was Salvor’s lover in season 1. However, that was 134 years ago, so Hugo should be long dead by now. And indeed Salvor asks him exactly that: “How can you be alive?”

The explanation Hugo comes up with does make sense. Once he realised that Salvor had put herself in cryosleep, Hugo put himself in cryosleep as well and programmed the pod to wake him up once Salvor woke up. Then he went in search of her and only just caught up with her. Salvor is satisfied with this explanation and hugs and kisses Hugo. The viewer is more sceptical, especially since Hugo Crast was commanding the jumpship Invictus that last time we saw him and it didn’t seem as if he would abandon that post to run off after Salvor. That said, whoever “Hugo” really is, it was nice to see Daniel MacPherson again.

Salvor takes “Hugo” back to the Beggar, only to find that Hari and Gaal are none too keen on meeting their son or respectively grandson-in-law. They are also considerably less willing than Salvor to accept that “Hugo” is who he claims to be. So Hari and Gaal scan “Hugo” and compare the data to Hugo Crast’s data stored in the Beggar‘s computer and find that his weight is off by 3.5 kilograms. Which is not impossible, but suspicious. Hari then tells Gaal to hide the Prime Radiant and orders Salvor to return the genetically encoded controls of the Beggar to Hugo (it was originally his ship, after all). If “Hugo” is who he claims he is, the ship should recognise him. But of course, the Beggar doesn’t recognise “Hugo”, who promptly changes his appearance to a completely different person and attacks Salvor. Worse, he’s brought friends. They force their way aboard the Beggar, overpower Hari, Gaal and Salvor and take them all prisoner.

Hari, Gaal and Salvor come to again in one of the Imperial ruins scattered around Ignis. They assume they are prisoners and Salvor’s rifle is gone, but when they try the door, they find it unlocked. Gaal claims that she hears voices, so the three of them follow those voices and find some people in white robes assembled in a large chamber. The people seem friendly enough, even though they are clearly the same people who attacked them and took them prisoner.

The people are gathered around a little girl in a white dress, who introduces herself as Tellem Bond, a reincarnation of a goddess. However, Hari doesn’t particularly care for goddesses and he does have some experience with scam religions, so he quickly points out that the supposed “goddess” doesn’t cast a shadow. Once calls out the alleged “goddess” as a fraud, the little girl vanishes and a woman, played by New Zealand actress and director Rachel House, steps forward and introduces herself as a real Tellem Bond. She’s not a goddess either, but a telepath or rather a “Mentalic”, which is the preferred term in the Foundation series.

On Ignis, Tellem Bond has established a refuge for people with psi powers like herself, since they tend to be persecuted all over the galaxy, and sent out a psychic signal. Since both Gaal and Salvor have psionic abilities, they received the signal, which brought them to Ignis. As for the fake Hugo and fake Raych, that was the Mentalics as well. Indeed, Salvor even confronts the man who pretended to be Hugo and she’s not happy, especially since she kissed faux Hugo. Faux Hugo apologises and tells Salvor that he had no idea she’d kiss him. Yeah right, dude. We totally believe that a telepath had no idea Salvor would kiss him.

Hari doesn’t have any psychic abilities, of course, but is nonetheless pleased to meet Tellem Bond and her flock, because he has use for telepaths. Tellem Bond replies that they will discuss all that later, but first everybody must rest. Besides, Hari, Gaal and Salvor are not shielding their thoughts, which is unpleasant for the telepaths.

However, once Hari, Gaal and Salvor have wandered off to relax, the faux Hugo comes to Tellem Bond and tells her that he overheard Hari telling Gaal to hide something called the Prime Radiant. Tellem Bond nods that that’s apparently the thing Hari, Gaal and Salvor tried very hard not to think about. She then dispatches faux Hugo to find and destroy the Prime Radiant, so “there will be no Second Foundation”.

Now there definitely are people with psychic powers in the Foundation stories – the original stories were published in Astounding in the 1940s after all and Astounding editor John W. Campbell was very fond of stories about people with psychic powers. The Mule, whom we biefly saw in a flash forward in episode 2, is one notable example of a Foundation character with telepathic powers. Another example is the Second Foundation, i.e. the very organisation Hari is trying to establish. Finally, the robot Daneel R. Olivaw a.k.a. Eto Demerzel has telepathic abilities as well, which allows them to evade detection for millennia.

So are the people on Ignis the Second Foundation or rather the people who will become the Second Foundation? The fact that Tellem Bond explicitly wants to prevent the establishment of a Second Foundation would seem to be an argument against that. Never mind that the Second Foundation is not on Ignis – nor on Tarzenda nor on Helicon nor on Terminus. And yes, the TV show could change that. But honestly, the reveal where the Second Foundation really is one of the stand-out moments in the series and one you really don’t want to ruin.

Are the people on Ignis affiliated with the Mule? It’s possible, though the Mule shouldn’t even have been born at this point in time. Is Ignis perhaps Gaia? God, I hope not, because if I never have to see fucking Gaia again, it will still be too soon. Honestly, the introduction of Gaia in the 1980s sequels ruined Foundation and dragged what had been an amazing series up to that point into the mud – quite literally since the Gaians share a group consciousness with every lizard, plant and stone on their planet.

***

Meanwhile on Trantor, Queen Sareth is still trying to figure out who killed her family and if the Cleons were responsible. She also wants to know who tried to kill Brother Day.

Sareth and her adviser Rue meet under the banyan tree with the Imperial guardsman Markley who’s spying for them. Markley reports that the assassination attempt took place in Day’s bedroom and that all recordings were erased. This prompts Sareth to decide that she has to get into Day’s bedroom to take a look around for herself. And since Day wants to marry her, getting into his bedchamber shouldn’t be too difficult. Rue, who knows a thing or two about Dawn, Day and Dusk, cautions her against this, but Sareth is determined.

Meanwhile, Day informs Demerzel that – quote – “Sareth wants to copulate” (a true romantic, isn’t he?), which means that his wedding plans have taken a step forward. However, Day is uncertain, because he hasn’t had sex with anybody except Demerzel in a long time now, if ever. Indeed, it’s quite possible that this Day has never had any sexual experience other than with Demerzel. There is a reason those naked people in the Gossamer Court prefer to amuse themselves with each other, since these incarnations of Dawn, Day and Dusk don’t seem to be particularly interested in them.

Demerzel assures Day that everything will be all right and that she will be nearby. She also tells him to think of her, while he’s having sex with Sareth, which sounds a lot like “Close your eyes and think of England” to me. Then Demerzel leaves through one door, while Sareth enters through the other. Cue one extremely awkward sex scene.

There’s a bit of banter as Sareth pretend to admire Day’s gilded art deco bedroom, while surreptitiously looking for evidence of the assassination attempt such as hastily covered up blaster marks or blood splatters. Talking of which, those repairs look extremely shoddy. Yes, the Empire is in decline, but are they so much in decline that they can’t even properly repair blood splatters or blaster marks anymore? Joseph Kolacinski makes the same point in his review.

Eventually, Day gets impatient that Sareth is more interested in his bedroom than in him. Day and Sareth fall into bed and things get very awkward with bumping against the bed, bodyparts getting into the way, etc… As sex scenes go, this awkwardness is a lot more realistic than what movies and TV usually serve up.

However, this coitus is decidedly interruptus, because Day isn’t stupid and knows that Sareth has been checking out his bedroom for signs of the assassination attempt and point blank accuses her of having been involved with that attempt. Sareth replies that yes, she was checking out the damage, but because she’s afraid and worried if Day can keep her safe. Day declares that he’s been turning Trantor inside out to find out who is behind the assassination attempt and that he will find the traitors and bring them to justice. Sareth agrees to marry him, if he can keep her safe and find the perpetrators. Then she leaves.

As soon as Sareth is gone, Demerzel returns and you just know that she’s been eavesdropping on everything. Day actually thinks the encounter went well – he really has zero experience, does he? – and declares that he and Sareth are now engaged. He also points out that Sareth suspects that he was involved with the death of her family. Demerzel, who still steadfastly ignores the Three Laws of Robotics, assures Day that there is no way to trace the murder of Sareth’s family back to them. So yup, Sareth is right. Day and Demerzel did arrange for the murder of Sareth’s family.

While Day is having his most awkward sexual encounter with Sareth, Dusk is enjoying a much more satisfying sexual encounter with Sareth’s advisor Rue. When we first see them, they are enjoying a moment of postcoital bliss, while watching a recording of Dusk’s – then still Day – meeting with Rue in the Gossamer Court years before. Of course, just letting Rue view those recordings kind of defeats the purpose of erasing her memory – though we learned last episode that Dominion technicians were able to reverse the memory erasure anyway.

Yes, a large part of the Trantor storyline involves people having sex, a fact the Stars End podcast also points out. Indeed, the amount of sexposition, i.e. worldbuilding information delivered during the sex scenes, in season 2 of Foundation is quite notable. And while the Day/Sareth awkward coitus interruptus and the Dusk/Rue postcoital bliss are at least tastefully done, I still found myself groaning a little bit, because honestly do we still need to insert random sex scenes to keep the mundanes watching?

Shortly after watching the episode, I also came across this tweet. And my first thought was Foundation, though it applies to many TV shows:

What movie is this? pic.twitter.com/IW53lnELfW

— wild (tiktok) screenshots (@wildtiktokss) August 16, 2023

Dusk asks Rue if she was aware that part of her memory was missing. Rue replies that she remembers talking to Dusk in the Gossamer Court and then remembers being on a spaceship back home, but that she never noticed that anything was missing. This makes Dusk thoughtful. For if Rue isn’t aware that part of her memories are missing, then how can Dusk be certain that he still has all of his memories?

This realisation clearly eats at Dusk and so he talks Demerzel, who informs him that only Day can alter Dusk’s and Dawn’s memories. This does not exactly reassure Dusk, since he points out that all three of them are the Empire and so Day shouldn’t be making any decisions regarding Dusk and Dawn. Demerzel assures Dusk that she serves the Empire as a whole and that everything that ever happened is recorded in her memory and that she would of course inform Dusk, if Day had any of his memories erased. Yeah, I no more found that reassuring than Dusk did.

At any rate, Dusk is no more worried than ever that part of his memory has been erased. So he grabs Dawn, who seems to have very little interest in anything, and goes to talk to Cleon the First or rather his hologram. Because yes, all the subsequent Cleons have access to an interactive hologram of Cleon the First. That man truly was a control freak.

Hologram Cleon is activated by his successors putting their palms to Cleon’s glass coffin. Dawn asks what will happen if the genetic drift has progressed so far that the palm prints no longer match. Dusk tells him that if the palm prints don’t match, they will both die, but that Dawn shouldn’t be worried. Yes, that’s very reassuring.

Luckily, the palm prints match and Cleon the First or rather his hologram, appears, played by Terrence Mann, who also plays Dusk. However, hologram Cleon is clearly trying to outdo Hari Seldon’s hologram in making vague and unhelpful pronouncements. He basically tells Dusk and Dawn that it’s impossible for the Emperors Three to have conflicts and squabbles among themselves, because they are aspects of the same person. Which is not very helpful at all.

However, Dusk has a different idea, so he drags Dawn to the Memorium, where recordings of the memories of the Cleons as well as of all the staff are perpetually stored. The ever-present murals are there – by now the Cleons have clearly run out of walls and are painting on every available surface.

Dusk tells Dawn that Day was always ambitious and eager to leave his mark on history, even as a child. Day was the one who completed the rings and also insisted on making sure they were visible from the surface of Trantor (which is weird, because trantor doesn’t really have a surface, it’s all domes) as a constant reminder to the people of Trantor that they are shackled to his greatness. And Day wants to be the first Cleon to reproduce the regular way. Dusk, meanwhile, was content to enjoy himself, paint murals and let Demerzel handle the peacekeeping duties. He also tells Dawn that he should be glad that he’ll never be Emperor, if Day’s plan to found a dynasty of his own comes to fruition (which it won’t), because that means that Dawn will have the one thing Dusk always wanted and never got: A normal life. Honestly, this Dusk must be the most mellow Cleon we’ve seen so far. Dawn, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be all that keen on a normal life.

Finally, Dusk orders the keeper of Memorium to download the complete memory files of all the Dawns, Days and Dusks all the way back to Cleon the First. Because Dusk figures that even if he cannot remember whether he’s missing part of his memories, comparing the size of his memory file to those of previous Dusks should show if something is missing. Upon first glance, the file sizes for Dawn and Dusk look just as they should. However, then they chance to see the size of the memory file of Cleon the First and it’s more than twice as big as those of any other Dusk. So it isn’t just this Dusk and Dawn who have had their memories tampered with. It’s all of them, every single Dusk, Day or Dawn that ever was.

The memory tampering, which the person itsef never notices, but which shows up in recordings is very reminiscent of the so-called “tamper plateaus”, which play an important role in “…And Now You Don’t”, the last of the original Foundation stories from the 1940s. Tamper plateaus are an unusual plateau-like patterns that shows up on an EEG graph, which indicate that someone’s mind has been tampered with by the telepaths of the Second Foundation. Mid-century science fiction was fascinated by EEGs as a means of detecting psionic abilities or activities – aside from Foundation, it also shows up in Anne McCaffrey’s 1973 story “To Ride Pegasus”.

I read both the Foundation stories and “To Ride Pegasus” around the same time, when I was given an EEG to determine if there was a neurological reason for migraine headaches (there wasn’t). So of course I quizzed the poor EEG technician whether tamper plateaus or detecting psionic abilities via EEG was possible. The guy’s response was, “No, of course not. And now can you please hold still and let me attach the electrodes?”

Electroencephalography was still a fairly new technology, when the Foundation stories were written. The first animal EEG was made in 1912, the first human EEG in 1924. EEGs were already used by World War II to monitor pilots for epileptic seizures, but further potential of the technology was still far from explored, so it makes sense for EEGs to be used to detect psionic activity (and frankly, if psionic abilities did exist, they would likely show up on an EEG) and memory tampering in science fiction. Nowadays, however, EEGs are commonplace and we know how they work and that tamper plateaus aren’t actually a thing. So it makes sense to have potential memory tampering show up in stored memory data instead.

While Dusk and Dawn are realising that all the Cleons save the original have had their memories tampered with, Sareth and Rue meet with Markley once more to find out more about what happened in Day’s bedroom during the assassination attempt. Sareth wants to see Day’s memory recordings of the assassination attempt. Markley tells her that’s impossible and that there’s no way he can get his hands on the memory recordings of any Cleon. However, Rue has an idea. If Day indeed survived an assassination attempt, someone must have treated him and tended his wounds. So they sent Markley to retrieve the memory recordings of the medical staff. This works surprisingly well, too. Markley tells the Memorium keeper that Day wants to see all the recordings from the medical staff and the Memorium keeper just hands them over. There is zero security and the possibility that there might be a spy, traitor or double agent in the palace doesn’t ever seem to have occurred to anybody, even though exactly that happened in season 1 with the gardener who seduced Dawn.

A bit later, Sareth and Rue are poring over the memory recordings of the night eyeless ninjas tried to kill Day. They see Demerzel carrying a wounded Day to the medical facility and giving orders to the staff. “She must have been with him, when it happened”, Sareth exclaims and quite possibly it’s dawning on her just what Day and Demerzel were doing, when the eyeless ninja assassins rudely interrupted them.

However, things get a lot more interesting, when Demerzel comes into view of the doctor whose memory recording they are accessing, with half her head missing and liquid that’s definitely not blood dropping down her face.

Sareth and Rue briefly discuss how what they’re seeing is even possible, until they finally realise that Demerzel isn’t a clone, like they had previously assumed, but a robot. Even though there supposedly haven’t been robots in thousands of years. “But I shook her hand”, Sareth exclaims, “It felt warm, alive.”

This moment confirms that Sareth, Rue, Markley and the bearded bodyguard who never gets a name will die horribly. For even if Day is going to let them live – and this Day is more erratic than most of them – there’s no way that Demerzel is going to let anybody not named Cleon live with the knowledge of what she is. And Demerzel is a lot more dangerous than any Cleon.

I’m definitely enjoying season 2 more than season 1 so far. That said, this episode focusses on the two least interesting storylines of the season, namely Day’s weddings plans and the adventures of Hari the Second, Gaal and Salvor. Of course, the adventures of Hari the Second, Gaal and Salvor did actually make some useful progress and introduced the Mentalics and lays the groundwork for the Second Foundation (Or the Mule? Or Gaia?). But while I like the Cleons and Demerzel, I can must a lot of interest in Day’s wedding plans with Sareth, because it’s clear that Day is never going to marry that woman and that Sareth and her retinue will all die horribly. Though the discussion of memory tampering was at least interesting and indeed, Paul Levinson is quite pleased with how the Trantor progresses. Meanwhile, Hober Mallow, Poly Verisof, Brother Constant, Bel Riose and Glawen Curr were all sorely missed, since their storylines are not only a lot more interesting, they’re also supposed to be the main plot of this season. In fact, I suspect that this episode and the previous one were shot at the same time, since only very few actors appear in both. That said, Geek Girl Authority reviewer Julia Roth is actually happy to see more of the characters carried over from season 1 rather than the new protagonists.

I definitely hope that the next episode will give us more on the continuing adventures of Hober Mallow, Poly Verisof and Brother Constant on the one hand and Bel Riose and Glawen Curr on the other.

Foundations Goes “Where the Stars Are Scattered Thinly” and largely treads water

Season 2 of Foundation is currently streaming, so I guess I’m doing episode by episode reviews again, at least for now. For my takes on previous episodes, go here.

This review is a little delayed, because the 2023 Dragon Award finalists got in the way. I hope the next one will be back on track.

Warning! There will be spoilers under the cut!

When we last saw Imperial general Bel Riose, he and his flagship were en route to the rim world of Siwenna, which is of course the very place where we first meet Bel Riose in the 1945 novella “The General”.

One of the bridge officers informs Bel Riose that Siwenna has barely any technology and no long-range scanners, so they’re unaware of the Imperial warship in orbit around their planet. Bel Riose wants to keep it that way, so he and Glawen Curr will go down to the surface alone in a typical display of Star Trek type tactics, where the captain and the first officer will both go on an away mission, even though that would be a terrible idea in real life. Nor will they take a shuttle. Instead, they are shot out of the ship in some kind of escape pods which pop open to let Bel Riose and Glawen Curr glide down to the surface of Siwenna in some kind of wingsuit. Not that this makes any sense beyond providing some cool visuals.

The surface of Siwenna is pockmarked with craters. No real reason is given for this, though in the books, Siwenna was bombed by the Empire in retaliation for an uprising (Gee, and they wonder why rim worlds don’t want to stay with the Empire). However, the craters we see are too shallow, too evenly spaced and too close together to be bomb craters. Joseph Kolacinski calls then “giant antlion sandpits” in his review, which makes about as much sense as anything.

Bel Riose and Glawen Curr land in two different craters a bit apart from each other, but quickly meet up. However, a piece of equipment called an extraction pack (since they obviouly can’t fly back into orbit in their wing suits) was also launched along with the two of them and that extraction pack has landed quite a bit away, so Bel Riose and Glawen Curr set out to pick it up. There’s just one problem. Scavengers have found the extraction pack before Riose and Curr can get to it.

Bel Riose and Glawen Curr confront the scavengers who are in the process of carting off the extraction pack. At first, they are polite enough and even offer to pay the scavengers, though the fact that both Riose and Curr are wearing combat fatigues and toting guns somewhat marrs the effect. Nor does it help that the scavengers have (justified) beef with the Empire for effectively abandoning them. At any rate, they’re not handing over that extraction pack, though what they want with it remains a mystery. After all, it’s not as if they can use it, since all it does is take them aboard an Imperial battleship full of unfriendly soldiers.

One of the scavengers gets the brilliant idea to spit into Glawen Curr’s face, whereupon Bel Riose snaps and shoots the spitter in the face. This quickly leads to a free for all. The scavengers have Riose and Curr outnumbered, but the two Imperials are trained soldiers and so they make quick work of scavengers. Only one guy, whom we’ve seen during Brother Constant’s performance in episode 1, escapes. But Riose and Curr know that he will be back with reinforcements, so they hurry to complete their mission.

However, first Glawen Curr confronts his significant other and tells him that shooting random people willy-nilly is not how “we” (not sure if this refers to the Imperial fleet or just Riose and Curr in this context) do things and that they could have resolved the issue without excessive violence. Bel Riose responds that he’s no longer the man he was and that he picked up a few new tricks while in prison on Lepsis. The argument is shelved for now, because Riose and Curr need to fulfill their mission before the scavenger comes back with a bunch of angry friends.

Glawen Curr is right, because there was absolutely no need to kill the scavengers. Not to mention that two white men shooting a bunch of mostly people of colour is not exactly making Bel Riose and Glawen Curr more sympathetic to me. And I did like Bel Riose upon his introduction last episode.

Furthermore, I’m not sure what the purpose of the entire scavenger scene or the elaborate and overly complicated way to get Bel Riose and Glawen Curr to the surface of Siwenna in the first place is beyond filling up runtime. Because none of this is in the books – “The Dead Hand” opens with Bel Riose already on Siwenna, questioning Ducem Barr – nor does it serve any real narrative purpose.

Okay, the scene does show that Bel Riose hasn’t come unscathed out of his experience in prison on Lepsis and is no longer the man he was. But that could have been shown in other ways than adding a totally unnecessary action scene that also makes the characters look really bad. As for the oddly complicated way to get Riose and Curr down the surface of Siwenna, I honstly have no idea what the point of that was at all. They could have easily taken a shuttle – after all, it’s said in the dialogue that Siwenna has no long-range scanners and probably no tech to stop a shuttle from landing either. Or they could have just beamed down Star Trek style, because it really doesn’t matter how they get there. In his review, Joseph Kolacinski agrees with me that the whole scavenger interlude adds absolutely nothing to the story and is completely superfluous.

Foundation does have the habit to occasionally throw in an action or a sex scene, supposedly to keep the audience watching, because too many scenes of people talking are considered boring. And the original Foundation stories are very talky with most of the action taking place off-page. But while this problem occasionally popped up in season 1, it’s really, really notable in season 2, whether it’s Brother Day having sex with Demerzel, when they are attacked by eyeless ninjas or Salvor climbing out of the Beggar for some repairs in the middle of a storm or Salvor and Gaal being attacked by mining robots. None of these scenes really serve any purpose and they often feel as if they wandered in from a completely different movie or TV series. Were the writers told to add more action, lest the audience get bored?

What is more, it’s frustrating that SFF shows are peppered with random action or  – less commonly – sex scenes, because the TV executives don’t trust audiences to listen to characters talking without getting bored. Especially since this does not apply to shows set in the real world, apparently. Stuff like Succession or The Bear (which is not actually about a bear) or The White Lotus are critical darlings and apparently also popular enough with audiences, even though they focus a lot on people talking and are not interrupted by random sex or action scenes all the time, at least not as far as I know. So why don’t TV executives trust SFF audiences the way they apparently trust the audience for stuff like Succession or The Bear to follow the story without random sex or action scenes? Is SFF considered to be just entertainment for people who want kicks and explosions, whereas “real adults” (TM) watch Succession or The Bear or The White Lotus (neither of which I’ve ever seen) or whatever and don’t need the kicks and explosions?

Bel Riose and Glawen Curr eventually make it to the surprisingly comfortable desert home of Ducem Barr, the Imperial agent they’re here to see. Now Ducem Barr is a very important character in “The Dead Hand” and the story indeed opens with Bel Riose questioning him, i.e. the very scene we finally get after all that unnecessary stuff with the scavengers. Though the show’s version of Ducem Barr is actually more reminiscent of  his father Onum Barr, an Imperial patrician from Siwenna who has fallen on hard times after opposing the corrupt viceroy of Siwenna, whom Hober Mallow visits in “The Big and the Little”. In the show, Ducem Barr is still an Imperial patrician who was left behind after the Empire pulled out of Siwenna. Nonetheless, he remained loyal and has been sending reports to the Empire ever since, though no one responded in forty years – until Bel Riose and Glawen Curr showed up on his doorstep.

Ducem Barr offers his guests tea, because it is socially inacceptable not to drink tea on Siwenna, a line that’s an almost verbatim quote from “The Dead Hand”, proving once again that the producers have actually read the books, they just choose to ignore most of them. Ducem Barr also does something that a lot of characters do in the books (they were written in the 1940s, after all), but no one else does in the TV show, namely smoking. It’s quite notable, which made me suspect that there was a plot point linked to Ducem Barr’s smoking, Meanwhile, Bel Riose and Glawen Curr admire Ducem Barr’s collection of print books, which are considered rare antiques in this universe. Indeed, Glawen Curr has never seen a book.

After they have gotten the pleasantries out of the way, Ducem Barr shows his guests some recordings of Foundation missionaries. He reports that three missionaries came to Siwenna. One was murdered, as seen in episode 1. As for the other two, Ducem Barr shows his guests a recording of Brother Constant’s little presentation. Riose and Curr are stunned that Brother Constant has a personal forcefield – remember that in the Empire, only the Emperors Three have a personal forceshield. They are even more stunned when Ducem Barr shows them a personal forceshield. This actually happens in the books, where the personal forceshield was a gift from Hober Mallow to Ducem Barr’s father. In the series, I asumme that the forceshield was taken from the murdered missionary.

Bel Riose and Glawen Curr are in for even more surprises, when Ducem Barr’s recording of Brother Constant’s sermon reveals that the Foundation not only has technology that is extremely restricted in the Empire, but that they also have technology that shouldn’t exist at all such as jump ships that don’t require spacers.

Now the realisation that the Foundation has technologically outpaced the Empire in the past two centuries is an incredibly powerful moment – so powerful that it doesn’t need random fights with scavengers to add more action. In the books, we actually get that moment twice – once from the Foundation’s POV in “The Big and the Little”, when Hober Mallow travels to Siwenna and realises that Imperial tech is large, cumbersome and outdated and that no one knows anymore how to repair it, should it break down. Meanwhile, the realisation from the Empire’s POV plays out much as it does in the show – when Ducem Barr tells Bel Riose about all the technological miracles the Foundation has and also tells him that the Foundation will win in the end, because Ducem Barr in the books is a true believer in the power of Hari Seldon and his dead hand.

In the show, Bel Riose declares that they must further investigate this potential enemy they had no idea existed until a few weeks ago. However, before they can make more plans, they are interrupted by a lynch mob at Ducem Barr’s door. Turns out the lone scavenger who escaped did get reinforcements and they are justifiably angry that two Imperials killed a bunch of their number and demand that Ducem Barr hand them over. Ducem Barr, however, is not willing to do that. He shows Bel Riose and Glawen Curr a secret escape route hidden behind his bookshelf. It makes sense for Ducem Barr to have a secret escape route, considering that he is an Imperial agent living on a planet that hates the Empire.

Ducem himself, however, won’t come along, because… well, there really isn’t any good reason. However, Ducem Barr is also not eager to fall into the hands of a lynch mob baying for blood. He also explains that he has poisoned himself with his smoking – even though we saw him smoking before the lynch mob showed up. But nicotine doesn’t kill fast enough and is not a very dignified death, so he asks Bel Riose to shoot him. Bel Riose, who as we’ve seen is rather trigger happy, obliges him. He and Glawen Curr escape through the secret exit and activate the extraction pack, which turns out to be some kind of pneumatic tube system to shoot them back to their ship orbit. And no, the pneumatic tubes are not in the books, even though pneumatic tubes were still very much a thing in the 1940s.

To say that the whole Siwenna sequence was handled badly would be an understatement. Because the truth is that the Siwenna scenes are a complete mess, which make Bel Riose look like a trigger-happy jerk, prematurely kill off Ducem Barr, who is a very important character in the books (he joins forces with Foundation agent Latham Devers to outwit Bel Riose) and in general make zero sense. I mean, pneumatic space tubes? Really? Never mind that all the nonsense about scavengers, lynch mobs and pneumatic space tubes almost smothers the actual point of those scenes, namely the realisation that the Foundation has superior technology.

***

Meanwhile on Trantor, Queen Sabeth of the Dominion is conducting an investigation of her own. More precisely, she wants to know if Brother Day arranged for the murder of her whole family and how the hell he managed to survive the assassination attempt by eyeless ninjas in the first episode. As for why Sabeth thinks Day may have had her entire family murdered, Sabeth was never supposed to sit on the throne, because she was considered the weakest member of the royal family. Which makes her the perfect pawn – a weak ruler with the right pedigree – for Day’s dynastic plans.

If the plot of an entire royal family being wiped out under mysterious circumstances only for the least suitable person to end up on the throne and having to solve the mystery, while fending off assassins, sounds familiar, that’s probably because it is. It’s the plot of K.B. Wagers’ Indranan War trilogy (which would make a great TV series) and of Katherine’s Addison’s The Goblin Emperor (would make a good movie or TV show as well). However, nothing like this ever happens in any of the Foundation books.

Since Sabeth considers herself the weak link of the Dominion dynasty, she seeks out the weakest link among the Cleons, namely Brother Dawn, and invites him to a private stroll in the Imperial gardens. She also clearly tries to seduce Dawn. And Dawn, who like his predecessor Cleon VIII whom we met in season 1, thinks with his dangly end, almost falls for it.

Sabeth persuades Dawn to take her to a secluded place in the shadow of a giant banyan tree, which makes me as a long-time fan of banyan trees happy. Then she asks point blanc, if he thinks that Day ordered her family killed and if Dawn thinks he would be capable of giving such an order. Dawn replies that he doesn’t think he would be capable of mass murder, but that age changes a man. He’s not even wrong, because all of the Dawns we’ve seen so far have been shy and a little bewildered by what’s going on around them. They only become hardarses, once they turn into Day or Dusk. Dawn, in turn, asks if Sabeth was behind the assassination attempt on Day in the first episode of the season. Sabeth denies this, but then I don’t trust her any further than I can throw her.

While Sabeth is trying to seduce Dawn to get some information out of him, her assistant Rue is doing the same to Dusk. For it turns out that Rue was once one of the Imperial courtesans in the gossamer court, i.e. the Cleons’ private brothel/harem full of willing partners of either sex (this part is made very clear in this episode, suggesting that the Cleons or at least some of them are bisexual). After their night with the Emperor, those courtesans have their memories wiped. Years ago, Rue spent a night with Dusk, had her memories wiped and returned home in triumph, because apparently being chosen to be an Imperial courtesan is a big deal in the Dominion, which I assume was still part of the Empire at this point.

Dusk and Rue now walk through the gossamer court, where the various courtesans of both sexes are enjoying each other’s company. After all, it’s not as if they have anything else to do since Day is busy boning Demerzel and Dusk and Dawn are about to fall under the spell of the Dominion’s ladies. As a result, these scenes full of naked people frolicking about in the background harken back to the infamous sexposition scenes of Game of Thrones, where crucial worldbuilding information was inevitably discussed during sex scenes, lest the audience get bored. Yes, Foundation doesn’t just give us random, completely unnecessary action scenes to enliven the scenes of people talking, which are actually important to the plot, no the show now does sexposition as well. Sigh, someone at Apple Plus really thinks we’re all idiots.

Dusk and Rue reminisce about their last encounter or rather Dusk reminisces, since Rue doesn’t remember anything about it – or so we think. Dusk also shows off his murals and once again completely geeks out. Painting murals to record the genetic dynasty’s history may be part of the job description of a Brother Dusk, but this particular Dusk clearly relishes the job and even started working on his murals, when he was still Day. His enthusiasm makes remarkably likeable – for a Dusk.

Even later, Rue, Sareth and a bodyguard meet with an Imperial palace guard at the banyan tree, since Dawn helpfully pointed out that this is a secluded spot free of observation. The palace guard takes off his ostentatious helmet to reveal a scarred face and says he would pass on information to Sareth, only that he is subjected to regular brain scans like everybody who works on the palace grounds. Sareth and Rue assure him that’s no problem, because Dominion scientists figured out how to circumvent Imperial brain scans and mindwipes. Which means that Rue absolutely remembers her encounter with Dusk in every detail.

Once again, the Cleon plot strand is enjoyable enough, though it still has fuck all to do with the books. Also, Sareth and Rue are playing a very dangerous game, if they think they can outwit the Cleons. In fact, I strong suspect that Sareth will never marry Day and she and her entourage will all die horribly.

***

Meanwhile, Poly Verisof and Brother Constant are hauling Hober Mallow back to Terminus. Of course, Hober isn’t particularly willing to go, so Brother Constant knocked him out and then secured him in a cargo net, since the Spirit only has two seats. Hober isn’t too happy about that, especially since he also threw up all over himself, though that doesn’t stop him from flirting with Brother Constant, who clearly reciprocates Hober’s attentions. Poly Verisof watches both of them warily, since he knows Hober of old from his priesthood training and think s he’s a fucking arsehole.

Hober Mallow also shows Brother Constant one of his ill-gotten treasures, a rare bottle of wine from a tidally locked planet whose vineyards were on the day side, exposed to constant sunshine. Unfortunately, the Empire bombed the planet to smithereens (they are bomb happy, aren’t they?), so this bottle of wine of one the last of its kind in the universe and Hober is saving it for a special occasion, which prompts Brother Constant to ask him just what precisely Hober is waiting for.

The tidbit about the tidally locked planet made me smile, because it’s such a callback to the golden age and the pulp science fiction shared solar system, when Mercury was believed to be tidally locked (spoiler alert: It isn’t). Tidally locked planets largely vanished with the pulp era, though they still pop up on occasion in science fiction. The 2020 Hugo finalist for Best Novel and Locus Award winner The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders is set on a tidally locked planet that’s very much like Mercury was described during the pulp era. Another tidally locked planet that readers of this blog may be familiar with is Eternia of Masters of the Universe fame, which is divided into a light and a dark hemisphere, though this division was created by magic, more precisely by a spell cast by Hordak going awry, rather than nature. Eternia is also a rare example of a tidally locked planet that has wine – Prince Adam is quite fond of it. Finally, Joseph Kolacinski points out that there actually is a tidally locked planet named Radole in the Foundation story “The Mule”.

Hober Mallow also asks Brother Constant what her real name is, whereupon she replies that she’s Thesbian and that their culture requires that they keep their real names. This is quite interesting, because it suggests that at this fairly early point in the Foundation’s history, the people of the Four Kingdoms – or rather only of Anacreon and Thesbis, since the TV series reduced the number of hostile neighbour kingdoms to only two – are considered as much Foundationers as the original inhabitants of Terminus. Brother Constant’s father is after all the director of the Foundation. This is quite different from the books where Hober Mallow is considered not a real Foundationer, because he’s from Smyrno rather than Terminus.

Before Hober Mallow and Brother Constant can talk some more about wine and true names, the Spirit lands and Hober, who still looks as if he’d much rather be anywhere else, is taken to see Director Sermak. On the way, he says his name graffitied all over the vault, which makes him want to bolt even more. And honestly, who could blame him? However, Brother Constant and Poly Verisof make sure that Hober does not run away.

There’s a brief reunion with Director Sermak who welcomes his daughter Brother Constant and also introduces his second-in-command, Councillor Sutt. Readers of the books will remember Councillor Jorane Sutt as Hober Mallow’s chief nemesis in “The Big and the Little”. At any rate, I would keep an eye on that guy.

However, the reunion is shortlived, because Poly Verisof, Brother Constant and Director Sermak usher Hober Mallow towards the Vault. Hober is still reluctant to go and his reluctance increases when he almost stumbles over the charred remains of Warden Jaeggar Fount. “Wait a minute, do you mean that used to be a person?” And frankly, whatever one thinks of the man, it does seem insensitive to just leave the charred remains of Jaeggar Fount lying around rather than removing and burying them – or whatever the Church of the Galactic Spirit does.

However, Hober’s protests are ignored and he’s literally sucked into the Vault. To everybody’s relief, the Vault does not incinerate Hober, but then it specifically asked for him, so incinerating him would be very rude. Poly Verisof and Brother Constant briefly argue what to do now and then decide to go after him. Cause Brother Constant really likes Hober Mallow and nothing in the galaxy could keep Poly Verisof from going into that Vault to meet Hari Seldon again. Director Sermak refuses to go, because he considers himself too important to risk incineration. “Governance depends on me continuing to govern.” No, dude, it doesn’t. You’re not important to this story at all.

In true Time Lord fashion – yes, wrong franchise, I know – the Vault is bigger, much bigger, on the inside than on the outside. Time also passes differently in and outside the Vault, because when Poly and Constant enter a few minutes after Hober, they find a very exhausted as well as hungry and thirsty Hober Mallow who claims to have been wandering the Vault for two days. Hober also admits to having peed and pooped in the Vault, which is totally on point for the character as he is portrayed in the TV series.

A few moments later, Director Sermak also appears. Apparently, the time difference inside and outside the Vault is very inconsistent. When Brother Constant asked whatever happened to the importance governing Terminus, Director Sermak replies that he left Jorane Sutt in charge. That will probably turn out to be a very bad idea.

Together, our four intrepid explorers wander through the Vault. Both Hober Mallow and Director Sermak would clearly love to be somewhere else, Brother Constant is torn between awe and unease and Poly Verisof is elated to be wandering about inside the math of Hari Seldon. He’s also inside Hari Seldon himself, which none of our four heroes really seem to be aware of.

After a fairly brief period of wandering about – apparently, the Vault wanted not just Hober Mallow but at least one Foundation priest as well – our four intrepid explorers step into a remarkably realistic replica of Hari’s study on Terminus and are greeted by none other Hari Seldon himself – or rather his hologram. The Prime Radiant is resting on his desk, even though Salvor absconded with it 134 years earlier. Hari explain that it is a quantum computer and can exist in two places at once.

Otherwise, Hari is the perfect host. He offers them food – which Hober hungrily devours – and wine. When someone asks, where Hari got the food and wine from, he replies that they are made from his body with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer.

Taking in the people in weird red robes, Hari notes with satisfaction that the Foundation appears to have entered its religious phase, just as he predicted. Brother Constant near faints with awe, whereas Hari doesn’t seem to be entirely sure what to do with people who think he’s a prophet and worship and resorts to patting her on the head like a dog.

Poly Verisof introduces himself and after some prompting, Hari does indeed remember having met Poly as a little boy. Hari also shows more interest in Poly than in Brother Constant, because he clearly recognises that Poly is smart – he realises that the Vault is a tesseract – and that he could’ve or should’ve been more than the washed up priest of a sham religion. Though in both the books and the TV series, Poly Verisof is a highly respected man as the high priest of Scientism a.k.a. the Church of the Galactic Spirit (Hari asking Brother Constant what exactly they’ve called their religion is really funny). Book Poly also knows that the whole thing is a scam and is indeed one of the few priests aware of this. TV series clearly takes the whole thing very seriously, as does Brother Constant.

As for Director Sermak, Hari knows who he is, but has zero interest in him and basically dismisses him with “Nice suit. And now could you just leave govern Terminus or compile the Encyclopaedia Galactica or whatever it is that you do.”

The question of course remains just how Hari, who is after all a sentient hologram inside a Vault, knows who Director Sermak is and knows enough about Hober Mallow to specifically ask for him. I guess while Hari’s consciousness is sleeping, the Vault automatically monitors communications and identifies people who might be useful to furthering the plan. Besides, Hari tells Hober that he has heard about him, his less legal exploits and his impressive number of bedmates – note the gender-neutral term.

Brother Constant wants to know why in the universe the Vault incinerated Warden Jaeggar Fount. Hari replies that he detected the warden trying to enter the Vault and felt the need to kill him, because he fears that otherwise the warden might have declared himself the one true prophet. Besides, a god has to show divine wrath at some point to be taken seriously. Apparently, fake religions and prophets are fine for Hari Seldon, but not for anybody else.

That said, the Vault killing the warden was just as unnecessary and out of character as Bel Riose killing the scavengers. Hari’s explanation also feels weak, almost as if one of the writers realised, “Oops, we had the Vault incinerate a guy and turn him into a charred black spot on the floor two episodes ago, so we’d better come up with a good explanation for that.”

As for why Hari woke up and called everybody into the Vault – or rather, he called for Hober Mallow, cause the others just tagged along – Hari wants to prevent a war. This actually does track with the books, because in “The Big and the Little”, Hober Mallow wins the war with Korell by not engaging and waiting for their systems to break down and the Foundation’s economic embargo doing its work. And in “The General”, all out was with the Empire is averted by Latham Devers (whom we haven’t seen yet, unless he is replaced by Hober Mallow) and and Ducem Barr undermining Bel Riose and ultimately convincing the Emperor – who is actually named Cleon – that Riose is a greater threat than the Foundation. Indeed, the fact that the Seldon Plan and its executors will always try to resolve crisises non-violently and with as little bloodshed as possible is one of the things I always loved about the books. I’m glad that the series is at least sticking to that aspect.

But in order to avert all-out war with the Empire, Hari needs everybody’s help. He dismisses Director Sermak and basically tells him, “Continue doing whatever you’re doing”. However, Hari does have a job for Poly and Brother Constant, namely travel to Trantor as peace envoys and spread the good word of Hari Seldon at the heart of the Empire. Oh yes, and maybe don’t use one of your jump ships, cause we don’t really want the Empire to know about Foundation technology.. Why do I fears that he’s been just sent Poly and Brother Constant to become martyrs for the cause?

As for Hober Mallow, Hari wants to speak with him alone. So he waits until everybody has left on their respective errands and then asks Hober a few questions about himself. We learn that Hober Mallow is still from Smyrno and that he does not come from a privileged background, had a violent father and little formal education and has basically survived by his own wits. Hari tries to bond with Hober over the shared experience of having a violent father (as revealed in the first episode of the season), but Hober isn’t having any of it.

He calls Hari out on his bullshit and tells Hari that he has no right to criticise Hober, considering Hari has a whole church of people who worship him. Hari admits that he knows that it’s all bullshit, but that religion is a phase that all successful civilisations go through and that eventually it will be replaced by something else. The latter is exactly what happens in the books, when the Foundation shifts from exerting its religious influence to exerting its economic influence during Hober Mallow’s time.

That said, I do have some quibbles with the first statement. Whether you believe that religions are a necessary phase for successful civilisations or not – and personally, I think religions can as much a force for evil than as for good and can hinder civilisational development as much as further it – Scientism a.k.a. the Church of the Galactic Spirit is a scam used by the Foundation to keep their aggressive neighbours in the Four Kingdoms under control and to expand their influence over the Outer Rim. It’s literally Karl Marx’s “opiate for the masses”. The reason the Foundation becomes a successful civilisation is because it deploys a religion it knows is a scam to keep potential enemies under control and gradually absorb them.

As for whether religion is a necessary phase for a successful civilisation, I’m not sure how Asimov would have responded to that statement. He was an atheist, but did show interest in religion, though it always seemed to be along the line of, “What is this, what purpose does it serve (one could view Foundation is one attempt to answer that question) and why do people believe in it?” Meanwhile, his contemporary L. Sprague De Camp quite clearly describes religion of any kind as a force that hinders progress and needs to be kept down in his 1939 alternate history novel Last Darkness Fall.

But while Hari and Hober both know that the Church of the Galactic Spirit is a scam, in the TV series many Foundationers actually seem to believe in it. Not just Poly Verisof, who has a drug and alcohol problem, but also Brother Constant who is the daughter of the Director and therefore belongs to the Foundation’s ruling class, even if she is Thesbian, i.e. not from Terminus. In short, in the show the Foundation has violated the rule of drug dealers to never consume your own wares and has decided to partake in some of the opiate intended for the masses elsewhere.  It’s certainly interesting that even though the TV-series shows that the “miracles” performed by the Foundation missionaries are fake, so far the show can’t quite bring himself to openly say, “Yes, it’s all fake and used to control the gullible.” Which again makes me wonder why it is apparently impossible to show a fake religion that’s explicitly used to control the population in 2023, when it was possible to write about thsi in the 1940s without any problems or pushback?

Hari also has a job for Hober Mallow. For while Poly Verisof and Brother Constant will travel to Trantor as the friendly and peaceful face of the Foundation, Hari knows that this may not be enough and that he also needs a dagger behind the back to do the job, if diplomacy fails. And that dagger is Hober Mallow.

Once Hober Mallow emerges from the Vault, he tells Poly Verisof and Brother Constant that Hari Seldon has decreed that Hober is supposed to take their ship, the Spirit. I’m pretty sure that Hari Seldon never actually said that and Brother Constant is slightly doubtful as well and tells Hober to make sure to feed the bishop’s claw she keeps as a pet and beast of burden.

Constant also tells Hober quite blatantly that she would love to become one of his bedmates. Hober manfully tries to refuse and tells her he’s not a robe chaser and not really interesting in deflowering virgins. Brother Constant tells him that no fear, she’s no virgin and absolutely knows what to do. Hober says, “Well, maybe after the mission”, whereupon Brother Constant replies that she has the premonition that if it doesn’t happen now, it will never happen. There’s something ominous about this, almsot as if either Brother Constant or Hober Mallow or both will not survive this mission. Of course, we know that Hober survives, though I have no idea what will happen to Constant, since she does not exist in the books. I wonder if Brother Constant is the show’s replacement for Jaim Twer, a former priest turned spy for the Foundation who accompanies Hober Mallow on his mission to Korell in the novels, or maybe even Ankor Jael, Hober Mallow’s occasional nude sunbathing partner cum sounding board.

I like the banter between Hober and Constant and they have a lot of chemistry. Dimitri Leonidas and Isabella Laughland are both great in their roles. However, it does annoy that the character who’s as close to canonically gay as anybody in the entire Foundation saga has sexual tension with a woman in the TV show. That said, the repeated use of the gender neutral term “bedmates” suggest that Hober is bisexual or pansexual.

In general, this episode was fun and I was thoroughly entertained while watching it. However, it’s also notable in spite of lots of things happening, the plot doesn’t progress a whole lot. The most important things in this episode were Bel Riose learning that the Foundation has technology that is far superior to the Empire’s, a revelation that was buried among unnecessary action scenes which did nothing at all to advance the plot and made Bel Riose look like a trigger-happy jerk, and Hari Seldon giving missions to Poly Verisof, Brother Constant and Hober Mallow and also admitting to Hober that the Church of the Galactic Spirit is a phase and a scam. The Empire plot strand had some progress as well, though I have no idea how relevant Sareth and her suspicions are, because none of that happens in the books.

All crucial scenes, even the Trantor scenes, were scenes of people talking, which is probably why we got those unnecessary action scenes on Siwenna and the equally unnecessary background sex scenes on Trantor. Because the showrunners seem to be terminally afraid to let Foundation be what ninety percent of the books are, namely people talking. Of course, the books as they are would not make for compelling television and there are plenty off-screen action scenes that could be put on screen. But could we maybe add action scenes that make more sense than Bel Riose gunning down random scavangers and that don’t look like they wandered in from an episode of The Mandalorian like most of the action scenes involving Gaal Dornik and Salvor Hardin.

Talking of Gaal and Salvor, they as well as Brother Day and Demerzel are absent this episode, though Gaal does provide some voice over narration about sexual attraction, how it causes indivual people to be born and how psychohistory can’t predict any of that. Now I’m sure Day and Demerzel were way too busy with each other to note Day’s bride-to-be trying to seduce his clone brothers. As for Gaal and Salvor, I find that I didn’t miss them at all, because neither is supposed to even be in the story anymore at this point. Others disagree, for example Geek Girl Authority reviewer Julia Roth explicitly notes that she misses Gaal and Salvor.

All in all, I find that so far, I enjoy this season of Foundation more than season 1, even though it still has comparatively little to do with the books. I guess part of the reason is that Hober Mallow, Brother Constant, Poly Verisof, Bel Riose and Glawen Curr, as they are portrayed in the series, are more compelling characters than perpetually whiny Gaal and Salvor Hardin, who was turned from the smooth operator of the books into a not particularly interesting action girl character. Of course, both Hober Mallow and Poly Verisof are greatly changed from their book counterparts as well (though Bel Riose is fairly constant), but they are so much fun to watch that I’m more willing to go along with the changes.

Anyway, onwards to episode 5.