It is the time of the final death trashings of the long tentacles of the human empire that ruled over thousands of worlds across the galaxy. Foundation and Empire consist of two stories, the first covering the empire's final, feeble attempt in conquering the Foundation, the second chronicles the fall of the Foundation in the hands of an unexpected variable.
The first part of the story is called The General. Bel Riose, a general of the Galactic Empire is one of the few people in the crumbling dynasty, who still feels it necessary to put the Foundation in check. He manages to organize a military campaign despite the once-mighty fleets of the Empire are showing their age at the hands of a society that is slowly forgetting their former technological prowess.
It's not only the Empire that has problems. After centuries of following the path laid before them by Hari Seldon, the Foundation and its leaders have fallen into a smug sense of self-importance. The leaders of the Foundation are merchants, not soldiers, and haven't prepared for a genuine possibility of war. So, instead of fighting, all they can do is buy time on the hopes of some sort of miraculous victory.
Ducen Barr, a patrician of a world Siwenna is dragged on the war by Riose, who wants to utilize Barr's knowledge of the fabled science of Psychohistory and the Foundation. This understanding makes Barr important to Riose, so he forces the old man to be close at hand at all times. But little does Riose realise, that Barr harbours ill feelings towards the Empire and is more than willing to hitch together with a spy of the Foundation, Lathan Devers.
Little do any of the players in the narrative realise that the conclusion is quite different from what anyone expected: the predictions made by Seldon are still in the full swing, all variables in place. In the end, the downfall of the Empire is on the hands of those who are in charge, not the underlings who try to please it. Nothing is as dangerous as a strong ruler who sees cloaks and daggers in every shadow.
Now, the second part of the story is The Mule, a tale of the unforeseen variable, a mutated warlord, who does not fit in with the predictions calculated by psychohistory. It usually takes more than one man to alter a course of history, but this time around a mutant who can alter peoples emotions is more than enough to get even the best prediction out of whack.
A century after the war, once the glorious Empire is now an assortment of 20 planets whereas the Foundation has grown to be the biggest power of the galaxy. The whole galaxy is now aware of the Seldon-plan, spread by the merchant fleets of Foundation. When the Mule begins his war against the Foundation, it is assumed he is just one variable in the Seldon plan, waiting for his inevitable fall. That fall never comes as the Mule flattens his opposition with ease.
Bayta Darell and her husband Toran embark on a journey with a psychologist Ebling Mis and the Mule's escaped personal jester Magnifico Giganticus, to find the location of the fabled Second Foundation. Mis, who has studied psychohistory, is convinced that is the only way they can beat the Mule. This information they hope to find from the ancient libraries of Trantor, the former capital planet of the Empire.
In the end, Darrell's don't manage to find the Second Foundation. Mis finds it but takes the information to his grave, foiling Mule's plans as well. So while the mutant is now the most powerful man in the galaxy, the Second Foundation still exists, abiding its time, readying itself for the future conflict with the empire of the Mule.
Of the two stories presented in Foundation and Empire, the Mule is the stronger one. While The General isn't a bad story as such, the setting and the narrative of the Mule works better thanks to the personal narratives tied to the mysterious and enigmatic leader who seems to topple his opposition with ease.
And so has the saga of the Foundation nudged forwards another couple of hundred years. First, the defeat of the Empire, then the defeat of the Foundation. But it's not yet over for the plan devised by the man now centuries dead. Of the tree Seldon planted, one branch still lives.
The ending of the Mule lays in the foundation for the 3rd book of the original Foundation trilogy. In the end, the Mule promises he will find the Second Foundation and that is what the 3rd book will cover. The tales told in Foundation and Empire are, again, more about large scale history rather than individual narratives, but the Mule is, as a whole, the stand-out character, whom I believe most of the readers of the saga will remember over others. He is the counterpoint for Hari Seldon's predictions, the unforeseen variable throwing a peg in the cogs of the great machine Seldon put in motion.
A single person is usually too insignificant to have a proper cause in the flow of grand events, but at times, a person capable of swaying the flow of time can step forth. In this story, this person, the Mule, does so because of mutated abilities and cunning. In reality, that happens by using the naivety and the gullibility of the masses, be it by money or promises or fearmongering. The Mule with his powers can alter the opinions of the masses by tinkering directly with their emotions. With this ability, he takes what he believes he is owed because of the malice and ridicule he has received through his youth and childhood.
To conquer a galaxy in order to show you bullies. It's not perhaps the best reason to start a war that kills millions of people, but that's what the Mule does and succeeds in. And maybe there is a lesson there for people about how they are played by the forces that be.
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