Book Review: "Foundation and Empire" by Isaac Asimov

Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov (Avon, 1966)

I started reading this immediately after reading Foundation. That’s not always the case with me for series or sequels. For example, while I’ll return to Jack L. Chalker’s Well World series and Larry Niven’s Ringworld series based on the strengths of the first books—which I also read recently—I wasn’t driven to do so immediately. With the Foundation series, however, after all these years, I had to. It’s just that good. Again, what was I waiting for?

Like Foundation, Foundation and Empire is also a fix-up, collecting two short stories published over the course of several issues of Astounding Science Fiction. The novel combines “Dead Hand” (Astounding, April 1945)—here, the section titled The General—and “The Mule” (Astounding, November-December 1945). Both continue Asimov’s ongoing exploration of the activities and impact of various kinds of men after the collapse of the Empire.

While Foundation considers the role of the psychohistorians, encyclopedists, mayors, traders, and merchant princes, Foundation and Empire narrates the first steps of a returning Empire, considering the generals, as various leaders reclaim border planets while vying for power against the Foundation. And the Mule is a very special leader indeed. You see, he’s a mutant.

Both sections—stories, really—of the novel are excellent, but it is the Mule (“The Mule”) that sings. The character Ebling Mis might remind readers of Hari Seldon. Bayta Darell might remind you of Teela Brown from Niven’s Ringworld. She doesn’t have the same luck, but her realization of why she and her husband Toran seem to be present for the occurrence of so many notable events struck me as a similar epiphany.

In the end, the Mule is humanized. Readers will empathize. And the Darells are left to continue to search for the Second Foundation, on the opposite end of the galaxy. Just as I searched for the next novel, Second Foundation, in a few boxes of paperbacks we have in our library. I don’t have the next book easily at hand, so I can’t continue reading the series immediately like I want to. Instead, I’ve turned momentarily to Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Hopefully my copy of Second Foundation isn’t on the opposite end of the galaxy, too.

(Interestingly, my copy of the mass-market paperback, the thirty-second printing of Avon’s 1966 edition of the 1952 novel, was missing a page of text: Page 94. Very little text was on that page, so I transcribed it from an online copy using a Bic Flair pen.)

Book Review: "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

Foundation by Isaac Asimov (Ballantine, 1983)

I’ve been reading science fiction, fantasy, and horror for about as long as I’ve been able to read—since before kindergarten. And I’ve never, ever read Foundation. I’ve long known that it’s a classic, that it’s one of the best sf series ever. In fact, in 1966, it received a Hugo for Best All-Time Series, beating out no less than Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom series and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. (I bet that inspired some lively conversations among fen.) But I’ve never, ever read it.

Why? It was supposed to be daunting, convoluted, complicated. It took place over the course of something like 30,000 years and was therefore way multigenerational. As a preteen, I’d fizzled out reading Frank Herbert’s Dune series midway through Heretics of Dune when I realized that I didn’t really know who anyone was anymore. (Having reread Dune during the pandemic, I intend to take another stab at it; who knows whether that experience will hold.) And I was put off by the idea of a series focusing primarily on conversation, psychology, and politics—with characters who don’t stick around. So I’ve avoided and neglected it despite reading and enjoying much other Asimov.

When the television show came out, I returned to the idea, wanting to read at least the first novel before watching the Apple TV+ program, and last month, I finally turned to it. But even the TV show wasn’t the real reason why. You see, I learned that Foundation is a fix-up.

Yes, though a novel, Foundation is in fact the melding together of several short stories. The book, originally published in 1951, contains the stories “Foundation” (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1942), “Bridle and Saddle” (Astounding, June 1942), “The Big and the Little” (Astounding, August 1944), and “The Wedge” (Astounding, October 1944). They are reprinted in the novel as the sections “The Encyclopedists,” “The Mayors,” “The Merchant Princes,” and “The Traders.” And the first section of the novel, “The Psychohistorians,” was written last as an introductory section to the first Gnome Press edition of the book in order to help it begin less abruptly.

Despite the long time frame, the multiple characters, and the wide-ranging aspect of the series, the series of novels is in fact quite manageable because it was written and originally published in pieces and parts. The same is true for the next two novels in the series. Foundation and Empire combines “Dead Hand” (Astounding, April 1945) and “The Mule” (Astounding, November-December 1945), and Second Foundation incorporates “Now You See It…” (Astounding, January 1948 and June 1949) and “...And Now You Don’t” (Astounding, November 1949 to January 1950). That means that not only can you take breaks while reading the books if you need to, the books are designed for readers to do so in a logical and story- —or stories- —serving manner.

So I finally read Foundation. And it was grand. Asimov’s introductory remarks, “The Story Behind the ‘Foundation,’” goes far to detail the history of the book and series, as well as situate it in the writer’s life and career. “[T]o make sure that [John] Campbell really meant what he said about a series, I ended ‘Foundation’ on a cliff-hanger,” Asimov wrote. He even writes about the popularity of the series and how he kept getting called back to it to write more even though he’d moved on to other projects. An interesting background story.

And the novel itself? Even if read in several sittings rather than as its pieces and parts? Excellent. Foundation effectively tells the tale of a society as it falls and struggles to rise again, as various parts of society—different social functions and groups—pass the baton to rebuild. The psychohistorians give way to the encyclopedists, who hand things over not entirely willingly to the mayors, who pave the ground needed by the traders and merchant princes to emerge. The book is still largely political and the narrative predominantly conversational, but it’s an interesting look at social forces at work—even religion. Not sure how I would’ve taken to it as a younger man, but at my current age, I loved it.

So I started reading Foundation and Empire immediately after finishing Foundation. I don’t always do that with series. I’ll take a break and read other books before picking up Larry Niven’s The Ringworld Engineers (having recently read Ringworld), which I’ll probably read before returning to Jack L. Chalker’s Well World and Exiles at the Well of Souls. Wanting to remain immersed in a series’ world is a good sign that I’m enjoying a book. Sometimes you just don’t want the book to end.

I’ve also watched the first few episodes of Foundation on TV. I recommend you read at least “The Psychohistorians” before doing so yourself, but already the program is different enough from the book that I don’t think Asimov’s characterizations or narrative will suffer dipping into both. Personally, I’m glad the show was produced. It helped pull me back to a series I’ve too long neglected. A series I need to now read to completion.

Quotes of Note: Isaac Asimov, "Foundation and Empire" II

Quotes of note from Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 32nd printing of the 1966 Avon mass-market paperback.)

"[T]here were three classes. first, there were the many who knew little and we're very confident... ... Then there were those who knew a little more and were less confident. ... Lastly, there were the very few who knew considerable and we're not confident at all." (pp. 128, 129, and 131) 

"It isn't a gut-beating when you stay where you fought, and the gut-beater leaves in a hurry." (p. 128) 

"Wars don't just start by themselves... ." (p. 129) 

"[S]o far there's been more drinking than thinking, and more wooing than doing... ." (p. 133) 

"More often than not, good players are idiots otherwise." (p. 138) 

"Divided action plays into the hands of the enemy." (p. 146) 

"What isn't dangerous?" (p. 155) 

"You're all the stirring my mother-complex can stand." (p. 155) 

"Beliefs can't be shaken short of a major shock... ." (p. 157) 

"My profession has resulted in just a bit of independent thinking." (p. 158) 

"The plutocrats have always been against us." (p. 160) 

"A thorough alarm system outside meant few guards within." (p. 168) 

"[L]eave heroics for the fools who are impressed by it." (p. 169) 

"Visitors ... are a convenient thing to have." (p. 184) 

"[T]he mistiness of distance hides the truth." (p. 184) 

"Nothing you ask is idle... ." (p. 184) 

"[T]he friend of a conqueror is but the last victim... ." (p. 185) 

"[B]oasts are wind and deeds are hard." (p. 185) 

"[S]omehow I thought emperors were greater and wiser than ordinary men." (p. 187)

"[I]n war or disaster, when industry breaks down, the people starve." (p. 196) 

"[H]uman reaction to stimuli would remain constant." (p. 206) 

"I forget sometimes ... who my friends are." (p. 211) 

"[P]sycho-history worked best where the individual working units -- human beings -- had no knowledge of what was coming, and could therefore react naturally to all situations." (p. 211-212) 

[P]sycho-history could predict only probabilities, and not certainties. There was always a margin of error, and as time passed that margin increases in geometric progression." (p. 212) 

"If a strong man can lift five hundred pounds, it does not mean that he is eager to do so continuously." (p. 220) 

"Intuition or insight for hunch-tendency ... can be treated as an emotion." (p. 221) 

"The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty per cent is the figure usually given." (p. 221) 

Quotes of Note: Isaac Asimov, "Foundation and Empire" I

Quotes of note from Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov:

(Page numbers gleaned from the 32nd printing of the 1966 Avon mass-market paperback.)

"[A]n uninformed public tends to confuse scholarship with magicianry... ." (p. 13)

"I connect scholarship with nothing but the means of answering difficult questions." (p. 13)

"[W]here is the stagnant planet that does not claim to have been a land of overflowing wealth in older days?" (p. 17)

"Circulation ceases first at the outer edges." (p. 17)

"Does it matter who speaks first?" (p. 20)

"[T]he essential in running a risk is that the returns justify it." (p. 20)

"If a man comes with ships and wealth, with overtures of friendliness, and with offers of trade, it is only sensible to refrain from antagonizing him, until we are certain that the profitable mask is not a face after all." (p. 21)

"Patriotism be damned... ." (p. 23)

"[L]aws help those who help themselves." (p. 24)

"The times make the man... ." (p. 24)

"[T]he mere act of not being a traitor is ... a long way from agreeing to be an active helper." (p. 26)

"I always find it difficult to penetrate another person's mysticism." (p. 28)

"[W]e stand clasped tightly in the forcing hand of the Goddess of [Psycho-]Historical Necessity." (p. 29)

"[T]he dead hand of the mathematics of human behavior ... can neither be stopped, swerved, nor delayed." (p. 30)

"There have been a wearisomely large number of precedents in history." (p. 31)

"[T]here is not a biped extant who can study a disease before his eyes with those same eyes." (p. 32)

"He is a dreamer of ancients times, or rather, of the myths of what ancient times used to be. Such men are harmless in themselves, but their queer lack of realism makes them fools for others." (p. 34) 

"I would not wish to be served entirely by incompetents." (p. 34) 

"An incompetent traitor is no danger. It is rather the capable men who must be watched." (p. 34) 

 "[E]ven a romantic idiot can be a deadly weapon when an unromantic rebel uses him as a tool." (p. 35) 

"You'll find [extraneous authority] inconvenient... ." (p. 40) 

"Good treatment is what I mostly crave... ." (p. 42) 

"I'm a man of business. If it adds up to a plus mark, I'm for it." (p. 44) 

"[T]here is a difference between boldness and blindness." (p. 49) 

"[I]t was the ... yoke and not the villain that mattered." (p. 54) 

"There are sources of power greater than the atoms." (p. 59) 

"I crave to be on the winning side... ." (p. 61) 

"Because you don't hear the wheels turning and the gongs beating doesn't mean it's any the less certain." (p. 67) 

"A trader has to be something of everything." (p. 68) 

"Words are a pretty fuzzy substitute for mathematical equations." (p. 80) 

"A courtier who becomes too rich, or a general who becomes too popular is dangerous." (p. 81) 

"You can always tell a woman's weight by her upper arm... ." (p. 87) 

"[I]t was falling apart of the triple disease of inertia, despotism, and maldistribution of the goods of the universe." (p. 89) 

"The laws of history are as absolute as the laws of physics, and if the probabilities of error are greater, it is only because history does not deal with as many humans as physics does atoms, so that individual variations count for more." (p. 90) 

"'[I]ntelligence,' 'espionage,' and 'spy stuff' are at best a sordid business of routine betrayed and bad faith." (p. 95) 

"[S]ociety is much more easily soothed than one's own conscience... ." (p. 95) 

"[M]y duty is primarily to the state, and not to my superior." (p. 99) 

"[H]e serves most faithfully who serves Truth." (p. 100) 

"The owners sell ... at ample profits. The government collects huge taxes. Everyone has fun. Nobody loses. Simple!" (p. 111) 

"Gratitude is best and most effective when it does not evaporate itself in empty phrases." (p. 113)

"In our business it is better to overdo suspicion than the opposite." (p. 116) 

"[T]he element known as 'pure science' was the freest form of life... ." (p. 120)

Quotes of Note: Isaac Asimov, "Foundation" II

Quotes of note from Foundation by Isaac Asimov:

(Page numbers gleaned from the March 1983 Ballantine mass-market paperback.)

"Religion is one of the great civilizing influences of history... ." (p. 106)

"You don't question a god." (p. 109)

"[Y]ou must expect to be bored, when you refuse to announce your identity." (p. 115)

"I have always believed in direct action. I have believed in carving a straight path to my objective and following that path." (p. 117)

"You might find it advisable ... to avoid certain subjects." (p. 117)

"[D]ifficulties vanish when faced boldly... ." (p. 117)

"The divine king himself may not maintain his kingship without the consent of the Spirit." (p. 124)

"[I]t is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works... ." (p. 125)

"A fire eater must eat fire even if her has to kindle it himself." (p. 131)

"The terms I use are at best mere approximations." (p. 132)

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" (p. 137)

"I am in the hands of the Galactic Spirit and walk cheerfully in the way he points out." (p. 139)

"Death ... is so absolute and irrevocable a phenomenon that certainly there must be some alternative." (p. 142)

"A trader has to know a little of everything." (p. 143)

"A rose can grow from the mud... ." (p. 149)

"As a general rule, politicians start shouting '... Crisis' at every ... campaign." (p. 161)

"Any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives. The real service to the state is to detect it in embryo." (p. 166)

"To succeed, planning is insufficient. One must improvise as well." (pp. 169-170)

"[N]o trader would hit space if he couldn't pick his own crew." (p. 170)

"Thou shalt not stand idly by to the hurt of thy fellowman. ... Even as thou dealest with the humble and defenseless, thus shalt thou be dealth with." (p. 176)

"Cursed be the traitor who abandons his fellowman to evil and to death. Deafened be the ears that are deaf to the pleadings of the helpless. Blind be the eyes that are blind to innocence. Blackened forever be the soul that consorts with blackness... ." (p. 177)

"The true wealth is the love of one's people." (p. 182)

"Fighting and scars are part of a trader's overhead. But fighting is only useful when there's money at the end, and if I can get it without, so much the sweeter." (p. 196)

"Memories sting when they come suddenly." (p. 197)

"It's out of fashion in these decaying times to be a scholar." (p. 199)

"The less you speak, the less suspicion you will draw upon yourself." (p. 201)

"Eternity is a long time." (p. 206)

"[A]ny dogma, primarily based on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will never be turned on the user." (p. 213)

"Custom is higher than law, at times." (p. 214)

"A known enemy is relatively safe." (p. 218)

"People endure a good deal in war." (p. 231)

"What business of mine is the future?" (p. 235)

Quotes of Note: Isaac Asimov, "Foundation" I

Quotes of note from Foundation by Isaac Asimov:

(Page numbers gleaned from the March 1983 Ballantine mass-market paperback.)

"[C]hildishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child." (p. 5)

"[P]sychohistory [is] that branch of mathematics which deals with the reactions of human conglomerates to fixed social and economic stimuli... ." (p. 14)

"A further necessary assumption is that the human conglomerate be itself unaware of psychohistoric analysis in order that its reactions be truly random... ." (p. 14)

"[P]sychohistory is a statistical science and cannot predict the future of a single man with any accuracy." (p. 21)

"Calculations upon one man mean nothing." (p. 21)

"Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty." (p. 23)

"[T]he overall history of the human race [can] be changed ... with great difficulty." (pp. 24-25)

"The psychohistoric trend of a planet-full of people contains a huge inertia. To be changed it must be met with something possessing a similar inertia. Either as many people must be concerned, or if the number of people be relatively small, enormous time for change must be allowed." (p. 25)

"The fall of Empire ... is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity—a hundred other factors. It has been going on ... for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to be stopped." (p, 27)

"The sum of human knowing is beyond any one man; any thousand men." (p. 28)

"We're all scholars more or less." (p. 43)

"Encyclopedias don't win wars." (p. 47)

"[W]hat ... made physical scientists such poor administrators ... might be merely that they were too used to inflexible fact and far too unused to pliable people." (p. 50)

"A great psychologist ... could unravel human emotions and human reactions sufficiently to be able to predict broadly the historical sweep of the future." (p. 55)

Things were different in the old great days. We aren't the men we used to be. (p. 60, paraphrased)

"Violence ... is the last refuge of the incompetent." (p. 65)

"[P]ure deduction is found wanting. ... [W]hat is needed is a little sprinkling of common sense." (p. 67)

"We cannot stop the Fall. We do not wish to, for ... culture has lost whatever virility and worth it once had." (p. 74)

"It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for sublety." (p. 89)

"Courtiers don't take wagers against the king's skill. There is the deadly danger of winning." (p. 97)