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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The second of three novels that bridge from the robot stories into the Foundation stories. This one has the early days of Trantor as a fledgling galactic empire.

This story concerns a planet, Florina, that is being held in slavery to farm a fibre known as kyrt.   Kyrt cannot be grown on any other planet, even when the soil and lighting is matched, and so Sark, the slaver planet, is the sole supplier of this super fibre to the rest of the galaxy.

One day, a scientist, working for Trantor, discovers that Florina is going to be destroyed, but the scientist vanishes before anyone finds out.   Thus begins the search by Trantor, Sark and others to find this scientist.

Meanwhile the scientist has had his brain wiped with a psychic probe and is being forced to work as a slave on Florina, but his memories are slowly returning.

A really fun search, chase, escape, run away and back again, ensues.

Will all be revealed before the end?

Another brilliant piece of writing by Isaac.

Next up is Pebble in the Sky.

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The first of three novels that bridge from the robot stories into the Foundation stories, although i’m not quite sure how it fits in with either.   There’s no robots or any mention of Trantor.

But it’s set somewhere in the galaxy during the appropriate time frame, so we’ll just go along with it and enjoy a good little story.

I think this shows a time after the diaspora of the settlers throughout the galaxy when various planets start to take control and dominion over their little corners, and start bullying and being generally nasty to the planets they control.   Nothing much changes with Homo sapiens, always wanting dominion over others just for the sake of it.

This is a good little story about one of those little empires in their tiny little corner of somewhere in space.

Next up is The Currents of Space.

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Elijah has been dead for many decades, but Gladia, Daneel and Giskard are still going strong, as is Earth and its second galactic-diaspora, settling any empty planets that are suitable.

On Aurora, Hans Fastolf has just died leaving a vacuum that Kelden Amadiro is eager to fill, in order to enable him to take his ultimate revenge upon Earth and the Settlers.

Daneel and Giskard know that something is planned, but have no idea what it is.

Meanwhile, on Solaria, all the humans have disappeared and been replaced by overseer robots who only recognise people with Solarian accents as human — under the three laws.   This leads Daneel to creating the Zeroth law in order to save humanity.

And there’s lots more besides.

Another super well written sci-fi novel from one of the masters of the genre.

Next up in Robots and Foundation will be The Stars, Like Dust.

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Our favourite detective duo, Daneel and Elijah, are back at it.

This time it’s off to the planet Aurora, where there’s a murder to solve: the murder of a humanoid robot.

Into the mix we have a second robot, Giskard, who isn’t all he seems to be.

And unlike Elijah’s trip to Solaria, on Aurora he is going to have to go outside a lot: scary!!!

Adding to the pressure of the investigation on Elijah is that Earth will only be given Spacer help in moving out to new planets if he solves it in the short time he has.   If he doesn’t his life on Earth will be ruined because Earth is expecting him to get it the help it desperately needs.

A really enjoyable cast of characters, including a couple of old friends, one from Spacetown and one from Solaria.

Really well written and totally enjoyable all the way through.

Next up is Robots and Empire

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This is in the collections, The Complete Robot and Robot Visions.

Daneel is passing near Earth when the spaceship he is on has a legal issue with two passengers, so he stops in at Elijah’s office to get some help resolving the situation.

Admittedly, you already know which mathematician is lying long before the big reveal, but you read it anyway just coz you want to see how Elijah comes to the same conclusion.

All in all, a nice little novella to bridge the gap between The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn.

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