Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

200 years after its birth, the Foundation has turned into the 2nd most powerful state in the Galaxy, after the Empire. This has of course not gone unnoticed by the latter; well... by one young, but very patriotic, military general of the Empire. Long story short, general Bel Riose makes enough of a fuss, that the Empire grants him enough ships to launch a full scale attack on the Foundation.

And for a while, his efforts yield a number of resounding victories, even though the Foundation is not exactly standing idly by...



I greatly enjoyed the first half of the story wherein the Foundation is finally forced to engage in actual warfare with the enemy. And not just a few battles for show, but outright annihilation, which (had I not read the series before), would've seriously made me fear for its survival. Plus, the enemy's protagonist presented quite a charismatic picture, with his stubborn determination to figure out the Foundation's secret(s).If only Asimov had had a better grip on character development. Or at least known someone to point out general Bel Riose's peculiar mood-swings: from self-assured military commander to cackling cartoon villain and back again.

In contrast, Lathan Devers made for a rather poor hero. I can see why the would substitute him for Hober Mallow, although I don't approve of the whole "prophetic writing" route. One of psychohistory's iron-clad rules, is that it emphatically cannot operate on individuals, and needs an entire planet's worth of people for any sort of accuracy. A fact that the book's second half explores in great detail.



... and speaking of this second half: how did it turn out sssssooooo boringly, when it tackled the first ever divergence from the plan?!

It started out intriguingly enough, with a mysterious man (known only as the Mule) managing to conquer an entire sector of the Galaxy in no time at all. This put the Foundation's underground resistance on edge, so they sent a couple of newlyweds to do a bit of spying on the matter. And this is where things were meant to turn all exciting and action-packed, with the couple taking center stage as they attempt to flee the mysterious Mule, running across half the Galaxy.

Unfortunately I ended up really disliking all the protagonists (including poor stressed out Magnifico), so the whole experience became a rather dull one for me. Save for the ending of course, which was once again unquestionably badass.

Score: 3.7 / 5 stars

I had initially decided on a 3 star rating, mainly due to the whole Galaxy-wide chase turned into a reading chore. Still, that would greatly diminish the masterfully done first part, not to mention the entire brilliant plot idea of the Mule-arc.

Speaking of which: someone please tell me that the depiction of the Mule in Terminator-style is a giant misdirection... *cries in fangirl*

==================
Review of book 1 (chronological order): Prelude to the Foundation
Review of book 3 (chronological order): Foundation
Review of book 5 (chronological order): Second Foundation