This book is divided into two separate stories, the first is when the Foundation butts up against the old Empire, still dreaming of its return to its glory days.   The Empire sends one of its generals, Bel Riose, to conquer the Foundation worlds and the Foundation itself: has Seldon’s Plan foreseen this and who will eventually win?

The second story is about a mutant, known as “The Mule”, who is slowly taking world after world to form a new empire of his own making.

Both great stories taking us on a full tilt ride around Isaac’s galaxy of the future.

Very enjoyable and not very put downable either.

Next up is Second Foundation.

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Finally, after months of reading through “Robots” and “Empire” we get onto the original Foundation books.

The decline of the Galactic Empire is in full swing, the Foundation is firmly settled on the planet Terminus, and the shenanigans of the Seldon Crises begin.

It’s now up to the Foundation to navigate through each crisis in order to shorten the chaos of a fractured galaxy down to around 1000 years when the second Galactic Empire will bring peace and stability back.   If they don’t do it then it will be over 10000 years of chaos and barbarism instead: no pressure there then?

Once again, the most excellent writing from one of the great writers of all time.

And then it’s straight into Foundation and Empire for some more crises.

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Continuing on from Prelude to Foundation.   We finally begin to see Trantor in decline and Hari trying to hold the Psychohistory project together.

It’s hard to say much about this novel without spoiling the plot completely.   But, it is good and is an absolute must read before embarking on the original Foundation novels.

And that’s exactly where we go next, to Foundation.

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The book that introduces us to Hari Seldon and Psychohistory, and also the further adventures of robots.

This was written after all the main Foundation novels in order to give some much needed background and context to Hari Seldon, Psychohistory and the fall of the Galactic Empire.

It’s mostly a good old chase around Trantor, the centre of the Galactic Empire, with everyone hunting Hari in order to control the results of Psychohistory.

Super good and super engaging.   Another great story from a master story teller.

And this leads straight into Forward the Foundation.

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The third and last of the Empire novels and finally we get to Trantor as a galactic empire.

This time we’re back on the radio-active Earth sometime in the far flung future.

Earthers are still despised throughout the galaxy but one group of Earthers have a plan to sort all the rest of the galaxy out and finally put them in their place.

But an archeologist arrives on Earth with a few weeks to kill before the rest of his team turn up and goes off to see the sights.   On his travels he stumbles into the plot and all kinds of troubles erupt.

Another good story from Isaac, but once again, i’m left wondering how Homo sapiens are ever going to achieve any of this galactic stuff when all we can think to do is to fuck each other over at every opportunity.

And so all that’s left now is to dive into the Foundation books, beginning with Prelude to Foundation.

Bring it on…

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