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Synopsis: The Mule, a power-hungry mutant with mental powers strong enough to derail the Seldon Plan, has been thwarted, but he remains to be defeated. And even if he can be defeated, will it be possible to put the Seldon Plan back on track? Will the First Foundation even want to?
WARNING! The comments contain spoilers to the previous book in the series Foundation and Empire proceed at your own risk :)
Comments: Again, this book contains two stories written for the pulp magazines of the 1940s. And again the quality of the writing is still puplish (well...) Yet again, it makes no difference. In fact, one can see that Asimov's skills show improvement over Foundation and Empire, not much, perhaps, given the small time span between the actual writing, but some.
In many ways Second Foundation is the best book in the series. This time the stories deal with a mystery: where is the Second Foundation? Seldon's hint from centuries before, Star's End, can be interpreted in many ways. First The Mule then the First Foundation will seek and find it... or will they?
It is rather difficult to write a comment for the book's second story without spoiling the outcome of the first story but I will try.
The real location of the Second Foundation comes as a surprise. Yet thinking back on it such a location seems inevitable. The genius in this book is suggesting credible alternatives that intelligent people will believe.
The second story again features a female central character. This time a teenage girl with romantic notions of adventure, a little reminiscent of the old fashioned teen detectives no one seems to remember (I hardly do).
There is, as in al of the Good Doctor's work, a lot of dialogue and not much action. Some of the dialogue scenes can get wearisome (especially those near the end of the first story), and at times they hardly seem believable. We have the cliche villain explaining himself to a t, for example, which always struck me as dumb. Of course villains have a right to be dumb, but such idiocy does tend to make me loose my respect for them.
And The Mule is someone you can respect. He is the one really smart adversary the Foundation has to overcome. The tin-pot tyrants in Foundation and the Imperial General in Foundation and Empire depend much more on brute strength and numbers. The Mule, while he has both, depend much more on wits and cunning. So it is particularly painful to see him, at the end, engage in such a demeaning cliche.
At least The Mule is not defeated by his own stupidity. Not at all. He may be deceived, but it takes a lot of effort and ingenuity to do that. No. The Mule looses because the opposition is better. Think of two Grand Masters playing chess, or a close tennis match. Both players will make mistakes, both players will play to their limits, yet one will win and the other one will loose.
The Second Foundation shows that it makes a habit of being competent. At the end of the second story we see this most clearly. They are not people who depend on the enemy to make a stupid mistake they can exploit, they plan carefully instead. They win., always, on their own merits; or they loose (not that the loss is ever permanent, but the principle does apply. Think of how America lost at Pearl Harbor yet won the war in the end).
All this makes Second Foundation a delightful book to read. Intelligent adversaries matching their wits and skills, what's not to like?
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