The third book in the original Foundation trilogy. Like the previous book, there are two parts, which are two separate stories. The first part is a continuation of where we left off in the previous book: the Mule is searching for the Second Foundation to complete his conquest of the galaxy. Because of the power of the Second Foundation, the Mule does not succeed - but unfortunately the Second Foundation had to reveal themselves to the First Foundation in order to do so. This brings us to the second part of the book: the Mule has passed on, and the Foundation is once again its own master. Because the Foundation knows of the Second's existence (and their superiority) they seek to destroy it. This part has a bit of a convoluted plot, but by the end, the Foundation is convinced that they have destroyed the Second Foundation (they haven't).

Upon finishing this book, I am convinced that Asimov (at least when he wrote these first three books) was a misogynist. In this book especially, women are almost always described as being interested in trivial things (like clothes, appearance) - women are trivial. At first it might seem that this is not entirely the case with Arcadia, since she often outsmarts the men in the story, and plays a major role in the "defeat" of the Second Foundation. However, by the end of the story, we find that she was mentally "adjusted" by the Second Foundation at birth to be intelligent - so basically, the only reason an intelligent woman exists is because a bunch of powerful men decided it should be so. Even Arcadia's grandmother, Bayta, is suggested to have been controlled to an extent by the Second Foundation. Women are never involved in official politics, are always interested in trivial things, and are sometimes useful to men. I'm sorry Asimov, I love you, but your a misogynist.

The first part of the book has some very interested discussions on mind control and emotional control. However, these themes were introduced in the previous book, so this serves more as an elaboration (at the risk of being overkill). Although it is a logical continuation of the Mule's story, and set's up the second part quite nicely.

Something that disturbed me about the Foundation in this book was how, at the end, they killed the supposed Second Foundationers in completely cold blood. I understand wanting to be in control of your own destiny, but mass murder is pretty extreme. The way in which the Second Foundation sacrificed these people was also a bit disturbing - killing 50 people for the sake of the Seldon plan? That's starting to sound like religious extremism to me. As for the Seldon Plan itself, this act complicates its role for the Foundation. If Seldon intended for the Second Foundation to be a part of the plan, doesn't this suggest that the Foundation have abandoned the plan? These complications are something I like about the Foundation - it's not exactly "good", in a heaven vs. hell kind of way, but we are still seeing everything from its perspective (they aren't exactly "bad" either). For me, this adds a sort of "reality" to the world Asimov is creating. Its interesting stuff.

Recommended. If you want to read this one, at least read "Foundation" and "Foundation and Empire" first. ( )

Asimov presents ideas that are astounding even today and presents his own thesis in some aspect of the story of humanity. This landmark work, along with other books of the series, is a must-read for science fiction fans, if only for the importance it had with the genre. And with this series, along with his other works, Isaac Asimov demonstrates why he is one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century and one of its greatest writers, if just in terms of ideas, and not in style. His first Foundation trilogy is a true classic (more) ( )

The last in the original Foundation trilogy, this tells how the Mule tries to find the Second Foundation and then how the Second Foundation restores the Seldon Plan to its original course after the disruption caused by the Mule.

Both parts have lots of twists and turns in the plot and are a fun ride but the second part overshadows the first. I must admit, though, I do find the final answer given for the puzzle of the whereabouts of the Second Foundation unconvincing. ( )

Kind of disappointing. The first, shorter story (of two) is good. The second story has no likable characters; I wouldn't have guessed that characters are so important to this kind of science fiction, but they are. Also, by the time the second story starts, there's no side that you could call the good guys; I can't go into why without spoilers, so I'll just say that I don't think Asimov intended the audience to feel that way. ( )

Satisfying conclusion to a great trilogy. Nothing more to add to the comments made on the first two books. ( )

Plans within plans, discoveries, and battles fought over the possibilities of the Second Foundation of Hari Seldon.

Second Foundation : Search by the Mule - Isaac Asimov
Second Foundation : Search by the Foundation - Isaac Asimov

Mule's men, Speakers and revelations.
3.5 out of 5

Smart girls, space war, scans, special people, and Star's End.

3.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/07... ( )

Second Foundation concludes the original Foundation Trilogy (it was preceded by Foundation and Foundation and Empire), and almost manages to recapture the energy and sense of fun of the first book that was nearly frittered away by the doldrums of the second. Consisting of two previously published stories (well, a novelette and a novella: "Now You See It --," retitled here as "Part I: Search By the Mule," and "-- And Now You Don't," retitled here as "Part II: Search By the Foundation"), Second Foundation explores the aftermath of the (First) Foundation's biggest defeat, at the hands of a super-powerful, telempathic mutant, called The Mule (his more dignified title, once he's essentially assumed control of the [First!] Foundation's budding empire, is "First Citizen," probably a play on Asimov's part on the Roman title "Princeps," from whence comes the word "prince"; incidentally, The Mule's psionic powers -- the ability to read and manipulate the emotions of another person -- are at least as powerful as those of Professor Charles Xavier of Marvel Comics' X-Men comic books, given that The Mule is capable of altering and controlling an effectively infinite number of people at the same time), and the search by some members of the First Foundation for the nigh-mythical Second Foundation -- hence the book's title.

The Foundation, of course, was the creation of one Hari Seldon, who managed to wed statistical analysis to mass psychology and thus was able to predict with phenomenal accuracy the shape and flow of large human societies (at least 40 billion people were needed as a sample in order to get accurate predictions), and recruited enough followers to form a small, select scientific society to guide human history from the shadows and ensure that "civilization as we know it" (in this case, in the galactic empire sense) and scientific knowledge won't be lost to hundreds or thousands of years of barbarism when the original galaxy-spanning Empire, as empires must, falls. Whereas the First Foundation was a public, technocratic organization, the Second Foundation was a super-secret, inward-looking group of psychologists -- "parapsychologists" wouldn't be inapt here, given how much they seek to reactivate their own dormant "wild talents," to use Jack Vance's phrase for psionic powers, such as telepathy and telempathy -- who were set up to make sure that the First Foundation didn't fail, or become suborned by corrupting influences.

The first section of Second Foundation is by far the weaker: pat, rote, more of an amusement or exercise than a developed story. The second section starts out even worse, given Asimov's inept handling of the POV of a 14-year-old girl genius named Arcadia (later styled "Arkady") Darell, granddaughter of a major character from the second part of Foundation and Empire, but once he gets the plot rolling it picks up nicely enough. (Give it about twenty pages.) This second section comes the closest of any of the original trilogy to wedding conspiracy theory to pulpy sci-fi ("'It's always easy to explain the unknown by postulating a superhuman and arbitrary will'"; p. 171), which to my mind is a good thing. If Second Foundation doesn't come to a finish quite as rousing as Asimov apparently intended, at least it makes a fitting conclusion to the original trilogy.

That said, the original trilogy did not endear itself to me to the point where I feel even a half-hearted desire to read any of its continuations, either by Asimov himself (some thirty years later...), or by his estate-sponsored successors (Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and David Brin, among others). The only response I have to the fact that the Foundation Trilogy won a special, one-time Hugo Award in 1966 for the best all time science fiction series is, "What was the competition, aside from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings?" ( )

Omigod, Arkady. How a self-important, ridiculous dude like Asimov wrote such a fun fourteen year-old girl is beyond me. I wonder if I would have liked her character as much when I was a teen, or if it's the adult perspective that makes her so enjoyable. At the end is a fantastic satire of the "reveal", with four going in sequence, three right after another and then BAM, the fourth after a bit at the end. It's a hella snap and whether or not Asimov meant it as such a satire, it works wonderfully that way. ( )

I am starting to think that there is something missing in the Foundation trilogy. Specifically, there isn't much action. Most of it is just people talking at each other -- with pages and pages of dialog. This makes these three books much harder to read (and therefore less compelling) than those elsewhere in the extended Foundation Series.

I did enjoy this book, I just feel that I could have done with some more action to make it less hard work.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asi... ( )

The conclusion of the story. I hope it's not a spoiler to say that the big question is, Where's the second foundation? and there is no shortage of answers. It's clever, but I still find that its biggest weakness is that it relies too much on cleverness and falls short on real emotional force.

Second Foundation picks up where Foundation and Empire left off - with the Mule hunting for the Second Foundation, which constitutes the only real threat to his hegemony. Like Foundation and Empire, the book is divided into two main parts.

The first part details the Mule's continued efforts to find the Second Foundation, and the Second Foundation's attempts to foil those efforts. Finally, the Second Foundation protects itself by simply modifying the Mule's thoughts so that he has no interest in finding them. Since the Mule is a mutant, the Second Foundation reasons that the plan can be placed back on track after he dies and his ability to control other people dies with him.

The second half of the book takes place after the Mule's death and covers the Second Foundation's efforts to hide itself once more following their "outing" during the reign of the Mule. It is revealed that the Second Foundation was a mirror of the original Foundation - while the Foundation was stocked with experts in the physical sciences and specifically included no psychohistorians, the Second Foundation was made up of psychohistorians and experts in "mentalics" (telepathy and related psionic abilities). With the Mule gone, the Foundation regains its independence and smashes his now leaderless empire. But, they are offended that they might be manipulated by the Second Foundationers and try to find them themselves, using their physical science expertise to develop an anti-telepath device. Knowing only that the Second Foundation is at "stars end" or the "other end of the galaxy" they reason the Second Foundation must also be on Terminus (since that would be the "end" if you went around the galactic disk), and find and eliminate what they think is the threat.

They are wrong, of course, and the whole affair was set up by Second Foundationers to hide their existence again. Since they are made up of experts in psychohistory, they have been safeguarding the plan and keeping it on track (the Mule notwithstanding), but they couldn't do that if the Foundation knew they were being manipulated, so they arranged to hide again, and return to "stars end" - Trantor.

The events in this book are, to me, what separates the Foundation books from most of the science fiction that preceded it. Instead of huge battles between starships settling things, the battles are a sideshow. What is more important is the manipulation of the people who control the starships, and the ability to misdirect, allowing for the manipulators to take a long view of history. This book shows the mechanics of the Seldon plan, without cheapening them, which is a difficult task (many books that expose the hidden details of a setting or plot often detract from its impact, see for example, Prelude to Foundation and the other later written Foundation books). The book is disturbing in some ways, as an elite group of self-appointed shepherds end up directing things from the shadows, which I find to be an unsettling prospect (the wisdom of which is annoyingly never really examined in any of the books of the series, not the original trilogy, not the sequels, and not the prequels). This, with the rest of the original Foundation trilogy, should be on every science fiction reader's bookshelf. ( )

An excellent part of the Foundation story; Arkady is a fun character and the story-telling is top notch. ( )

One of the best science fiction novels of all time. Not complicated, but quite amazing in scope. If you are looking for a lot of action or giant space battles, this isn't the book for you, but it is a good examination of what human politics would be like on a galactic scale. ( )

Second Foundation is a fitting end to the trilogy (or whatever it was, I can't quite get the exact number of books down straight). The plot ties together quite a few loose ends but also manages to leave quite a few ends completely resolutely untied. The whole concept of the Second Foundation is a disturbing and as I look back on the whole series, I'm kind of reminded of Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlantis. In that small volume, Bacon posits the existence of a fictional society that is completely run by scientists. Both Foundations have a bit of that but Asimov has the Second Foundation, the "psychologists" pulling the strings. I don't know if the parallels were intentional, but there are similarities.

And like The New Atlantis, there's a lot of that bothers me. The whole concept of the Foundation winds up with a sort of positivist triumphalism that grates on my nerves. Our betters have conceived of a plan to control fate and only they can ensure its implementation. The rest of us are kept in the dark and move along like puppets at their beck and call. I'm not railing against science in the least, but the idea that science bequeaths superior general intelligence to its practitioners goes against my democratic tendencies. Are they really so much superior to the rest of us that they and only they can guide us? In point of fact, even that is an oversimplification of the Foundation. One man, Hari Seldon, and his trained followers can lead us. Gad-freakin-zooks.

The character of the Mule, in that light, really doesn't stand out as much of a villain to me. He's not really a hero (Asimov turns him into a genocidal maniac by the end), but he's more complex. His manipulation isn't any different than that of the Second Foundation in any meaningful sense, except that his is more individualists and theirs is committed to a plan. Is this any different than those committed to an unerring religious prophecy? Seldon's math is so complex that few even understand its basic precepts. The people follow it blindly and knowing only the vaguest outlines.

And this is why I loved the Foundation trilogy so much. It made me think in a way that few books have, science fiction or otherwise. I don't know Asimov's intent or specific bias in writing the book (though I have my suspicions), but that doesn't matter to me. His writings engaged me and forced me to look at things in an entirely different manner. Can science become a new form of religion? Can we trust our futures to the teachings of the scientists? All good questions worthy of consideration and dialogue. For me this is what a great writer can do. Asimov's technical writing isn't all that inspiring and his characters are all a bit flat. His plot development isn't all that engaging to me, either. But despite all these literary problems (and there are more), this is worth a read. ( )

A great conclusion to the story of The Mule and the unveiling of the Second Foundation. ( )

Reviewed March 1998

Again another detailed woman character who leads us into adventure, and also again we learn that she doesn't control her new destiny. We see the end of the Mule and the next crisis of Sheldon. Again Asimov leaves you wanting more, I can't imagine fans of this series having to wait until 1982 for the next in the series, "Foundation's Edge" for more answers/questions...

12-1998 ( )

really good, though sometimes wish the 1st Foundation knew they got beat ( )

While the concept in itself is very good, Asimov doesn't quite manage to keep it up in this book. Or, should I say, these two books. This is a compilation of two short stories, and it shows. They are more or less completely separated from each other, except for the basic premise that binds all the books together.

The language is nice and reads in a very relaxing way. It doesn't demand too much of you and stays in the background, letting you focus on the more important parts of the book. Most of the time, this is good. Still, it would be good if it somehow managed to hide the fact that the twists in the plots are not very good and that the oh so smart people sometimes seem to be less than that. ( )

Second Foundation is a novel in two parts: Part I describes the Second Foundation's game of cat-and-mouse with the Mule and his eventual defeat; Part II describes the Second Foundation's cat-and-mouse game with the First Foundation.

Unlike the first two novels in the series, this third novel is chock full of intrigue and plot twists galore. The entire premise of the Second Foundation is subterfuge - its existence was never really disclosed - its location never mentioned - and its purpose was never clearly defined. As deduced in "Foundation and Empire", Hari Seldon's Plan for the Second Foundation was to handle crises that the First Foundation couldn't. And the Mule was the first of those crises. I actually suspected the primary Second Foundationer from the moment of his entry - but the final confrontation between the Mule and Second Foundation was not at all what I suspected. And, in fact, what happened to the Mule seems to mirror Robert Jordan's concept of "gentling" of male channelers in Jordan's "Wheel of Time" universe.

But if the first part of the novel was full of mystery and plot twists, the second part was a Gordian knot of "double double double doublecrosses". The audacity of Asimov to suggest that any psychological science could progress to the point where the plot of this story could have been planned and executed is just phenomenal. If not for the entire premise of the Seldon Plan, then the neatness with which the knots get untangled at the end would make the story seem like an incredibly cheesey gumshoe mystery with layers of the onion unpeeling to unravel deeper and deeper conspiracies. But, given the Seldon Plan, it all fits and is perfectly consistent... and incredibly deep. And, again, if not for the fact that the series spans centuries, then a plot that takes decades to come to fruition would seem contrived...

To a great extent I empathize with the First Foundationers... and I'm curious as to who Asimov and his successors handle the final consolidation of the two Foundations... Hopefully one of the sequels will detail that integration...

Ready 1/2008 ( )

The worst of the lot.I'd suggest just reading the first one. ( )

http://www.scifi-review.net/second-fo... ( )

Conclusion of the original Foundation trilogy, this is an excellent tie-off of the novellas and short stories that made up the first two volumes. Here more than the other two, you can appreciate how amazing Asimov's future history vision was. ( )

Worth it just for the confrontation between The Mule and the First Speaker. ( )

3/4

The conclusion of Asimov's classic trilogy. It is commonly considered the greatest science fiction series ever, but I disagree with that. The jumps from one age to the next are too abrupt, with little chance to absorb the characters. The third book is the exception, resolving the problem of the Mule in the first half, and then the question of the Second Foundation in the second. It also introduces one of Asimov's more engaging characters, a 14-year old girl named Arkady. The intended surprise ending is not quite a surprise, because the constant plot twists have by now prepared the reader to expect what finally concludes the story. A fine series, nonetheless. ( )