This second entry in to the Foundations series initially sees a continuation of the same crisis-response setup from the first book. If I recall correctly, the first book had 3 crises, so this book begins with the fourth. That is the first real meeting of the old Galactic Empire and Foundation. An Empire General named Riose is made aware of the long term belief of Hari Seldon, that Foundation would eventually become the second galactic empire, and he sets out to militarily ensure it doesn't happen. The Foundation response is to try out spycraft, and it's not one they are very good at, each deception failing. But the eventual result is the same as the Empire is proven to be incapable of expansion at this stage. A weak emperor is the inevitable target of strong generals. A strong Emperor can only remain strong as long as no one of his subjects gains too much power, and as Riose begins to succeed, he becomes the object of suspicion and is stopped.
The fifth crisis sees the foundation in a much different position than we've seen it before. The leader is a mayor handed power by dynasty, the son of a mayor who was the son of a mayor, and is not as effectual as the job demands. There is dissent from other power bases, notably the traders who are a source of corruptive greedy rot in the foundation, or democratic idealists, depending on who is describing them. The fifth crisis then is a civil war, resolvable by a new social agreement that balances that power. Only, this fifth crisis doesn't occur, because instead a new external power known as 'The Mule' is making inroads in the sector and eventually manages to conquer foundation itself. Asimov does a great job of drawing the reader in to assuming first that a civil war is imminent, and yet by the time of Hari Seldon's post-mortem analysis of the crisis, the idea of that being the crisis that Seldon might expect is a surprise. The Mule is set up as an unexpected variable, a mutant who we might assume can not be subject to the mass-human analysis that is psycho-history.
That leaves about a third of the book which is used as an extension of the same set of characters to follow a little of the downfall of Foundation, and to learn a little about the Mule. The democratic underground that had been in place to resist the autocratic mayor of foundation now sets it's sights on the mule instead and yet dwindles quickly under his power. That power becomes revealed as being emotional manipulation in a sort of superpower way, that can lead whole planets or individuals to despair or to certain rational devotion. It's all a bit silly and seems like a diversion away from sci-fi, even moreso than the strange powers of prophesy that psychology are given in this series, at least to my modern eye. But I'm here for the ride now. Anyway, the mule is revealed at the end to have been a present character throughout this whole era, the clown, with the goal of inducing emotional manipulation from within, first to easily take the foundation and then to reveal the location of the second foundation. This second foundation remains a secret though, revealed in the first book as being set up across the other side of the galaxy, but with no more information. All roads lead to it being the source of resolution though, and it appears to be the topic of the final book of the trilogy. I picked it up the other day so I'll get to that soon.
Not straight away though. I'm tired of Asimov for now.
Finished reading - 28/06/26