The last of the foundation trilogy picks up where the second left off. The Mule, having taken out the first foundation is now focused on finding the second foundation in order to erase that too. He sends a general named Hans Pritcher (from the second book iirc), along with an 'unconverted' named Bail Channis, to find it and of course they do. All the while, however, the Mule has been tracking them as he knows Channis to be a covert foundationer. The first section of the book ends in a battle of psychic powers between first the Mule and Channis and then 'The First Speaker' (who we assume to be the leading second foundationer) and the mule. This amounts to essentially aggressive expositionary dialogue, which is far from the best sci-fi I've ever read. Anyway, it ends with the Mule losing, having his mind cleansed and being sent off to his own empire a more peaceful man to die off naturally, giving the second foundation it's space to manifest.
The second part takes place in a post-Mule galaxy, where the first foundation has risen again to become powerful once again, but there is an intense paranoia about this second foundation being somwhere out there, all-powerful and able to destroy them. This last part of the trilogy follows some of these first foundationers as they seek the location of the second foundation and all the while we get snippets of analysis fromt eh second foundation. It's heavy with paranoia, in a way that makes me wonder if there is an intentional allusion to the red scare paranoia that may have been happening at the same time...? It's too much though. By the end, everyone is a suspect, everyone has a theory and each character seems to get the chance to expound their theories at length before they are bowled over by the flimsiest rebuttal. Maybe I'm being overly harsh; the read could be enjoyable enough, but I'm just disappointed at what seems like a wasted start.
While I enjoyed the first in the trilogy, it was obvious that it was not a self-contained story in itself, but also that it would require some significant change for further books. The trend of that first story was unsustainable over hundreds more pages. But I feel like Asimov really doesn't pull it off. The centuries spanning story places all the events within a historical context that is outside of a normal frame of reference, but at the same time it feels like he wants to pull at the threads in a smaller time span for a lot longer. I don't know if I'm really expressing the opinion I'm forming... I am very unlikely to read this full trilogy again though.
Finished reading - 30/07/26