The opening quotation isn’t significant to the story, but it amuses me it as it applies to my day job.
In Foundation, Hari Seldon, the Galaxy’s preeminent psychohistorian, makes a startling prediction or scientific prophecy: the fall of the Galactic Empire and 30,000 years of chaos before a new galactic empire emerges. Shortly before his death, Seldon surreptitiously creates the Foundation, a consortium of his followers intent upon mitigating the 30,000 years down to 1,000 – a possibility under Seldon’s prediction.
In Foundation and Empire, the Galaxy is several hundred years into the interregnum. The Foundation has already survived several “Seldon Crisis,” an eventuality Seldon predicted would make the difference between 30,000 and 1,000. But an unforeseen threat emerges. An enigmatic and powerful conqueror known as The Mule subdues the crumbling remnants of the Empire, other independent worlds, and even the Foundation. This would seem to doom Seldon’s plans, but even as the Foundation crumbles, there is renewed hope. There are vague rumors of a Second Foundation at the far end of the Galaxy.
Hope to find the Second Empire seems to lie with an unlikely group: husband and wife team Toran and Bayta Darrell; prominent Foundation scientist Ibling Mis; and the Mule’s jester, Magnifico, who has defected to the custody of the Foundation trio, and who is particularly devoted to Bayta.
Like Foundation, the first in the trilogy, Foundation and Empire, ends abruptly and without closure. To find out how it all ends, I’ll take up the third book Second Foundation. The title can be confusing. Second Foundation is the third book in the trilogy: Foundation (#1), Foundation and Empire (#2), Second Foundation (#3). The title refers to the second mysterious Foundation hidden somewhere and presumably the last hope of defeating The Mule and reducing the interregnum from 30,000 to 1,000 years.
My rating is 3 ½ out of 5 stars
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