Review of Foundation and Empire (The Foundation Trilogy, Book 2)

I finished reading Foundation and Empire (The Foundation Trilogy, Book 2) by Isaac Asimov.📚

The second issue in the Foundation series. The Foundation was established and has survived the first few crises. But now, the next big problem stands on the threshold. The Empire is showing its spaceships again. Will the Foundation be strong enough to survive the thread of the eager general sent by the Empire?

Opinion

Please note that from here on out, the text can contain spoilers of the book.

I had my troubles reading the second book, which is mainly related to not having characters I like or care for very much. But on a positive note, we got a woman mainly in the driving seat now. The book starts with a big time jump, so I took a while until I found my bearings.

The chapters with the POV from the Empire were a refreshing addon to this book. I was a bit let down by the end of part one. I expected a lot of action and infiltration of the Empire. But then you turn the page, and the war is over. In hindsight, this makes sense. The whole premise of Seldon’s plan is that the action of single humans does not matter at all. And this was driven home quite neatly.

But now I wonder whether I need to read further as the outcome of the Foundation is already evident. It wins all the time – unless you get an extraordinary enemy, which also Harri Seldon could not think about! SO reading further was the right move.

At the moment, I’m not sure if I will ever read the next issue. Perhaps after some time when my TBR-List is not so full anymore, maybe.

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• /the-foundation-trilogy
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