Foundation and Empire (Isaac Asimov)

This book is divided into two halves. In the first half, the Foundation has expanded to become the technological capital of the galaxy, and what remains of the old crumbling Empire has now caught wind of it. General Bel Riose, who commands with unparalleled prowess, decides to attack the Foundation with an armada of overwhelming force in the hopes of reclaiming forgotten glory. Needless to say Asimov describes in an exciting fashion, as always, how the Foundation is undefeatable thanks to Seldon's laws of Psychohistory. However, in the second half, an anomaly is inserted into the equasions and when Seldon appears as a holograph to help his people through another crisis, they find that history had not played out as intended. A powerful entity known as "the mule" had started conquering worlds and seemed to have the power to bend the minds entire planets to his will. How could one individual divert the destiny of a galaxy and defy the laws of Psychohistory? What could the Foundation do against such a powerful enemy?

I'm not going to give away too much of the plot, but it was more exciting than expected. Asimov still manages to keep the time-consuming introspection to a minimum and cuts straight to the interesting parts. Like it's predecessor, this book showed its age in one particularly funny scene: An enemy nuclear field suppressor had just deactivated all nuclear-powered devices and someone shouted, "my watch has stopped!" Naturally everyone lifted their watches to their ears to check if they were still running, because I assume nuclear-powered watches tic like regular mechanical watches.

A recurring theme in this series is how history is not directly shaped by the actions of individuals. Consequently, when the mule character was introduced I was wondering how it would be explained that he single-handedly forced history to deviate when nobody else before him had managed. The explanation is satisfactory for purpose of the plot, but I'd be interested in knowing Asimov's personal view on the subject of mass action. One aspect of the novel that is clearly reflected in the real world though, is how even unforgettable events fade away from memory with time. In the book, a whole planet, Terminus, was originally dedicated to countering the fall of the Galaxy, but after 300 years essentially everyone has forgotten what the Foundation's purpose originally was, and many don't believe the official account of history.

Asimov's whole mythos is quite believable and exciting. I'm looking forward to the next episode in the series!