Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Cover art by Stephen Youll
Published by Bantam Books
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
Foundation and Empire is the middle volume of the original Foundation Trilogy, which was a fix-up of the various Foundation stories Isaac Asimov had written for John W. Campbell at Astounding (which would later be renamed Analog, a magazine that has continued over the decades under the editorship of various individuals from Ben Bova to Stan Schmitt). Unlike Foundation, which was made up of a number of short stories (the first of which was actually written last, specifically for the compilation), this volume consists of two novellas. The first was called "Dead Hand' in its Astounding publication and was retitled "The General" for its book-length publication, while the second was titled "The Mule" in both forms.
One may ask why we should even bother with a critical examination of such an old novel. The science has accumulated an enormous amount of Zeerust in the decades since the two novellas were originally written, the social extrapolation is effectively non-existent (as in, everybody conforms to social norms that were current in the 1930's and 40's), and the characterization is thin as cardboard. One critic has even condemned "The General" as little more than a rewrite of the story of Emperor Justinian I and Belisarius, recycled In Space.
And there is a fair amount of truth in it, even if the Galactic Empire of Cleon II is still based on Trantor, rather than paralleling the shift of the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome proper to Byzantium/ Constantinople (although a parallel event would come later, with the movement of the Imperial capital to one of the twenty agro-worlds, subsequently renamed Neo-Trantor). However, it may be more productive to consider how much Asimov's retelling of the early days of the Byzantine Empire (who considered themselves Romans even as they spoke Greek rather than Latin) inspired readers to take a look at materials on the historical era of Justinian and Belisarius, and to write their own takes on it.
Harry Turtledove is one of the most obvious ones. Like Asimov, he is Jewish, but he is by training a historian rather than a chemist, and his specialty was Byzantine history -- but given that one of his early novels is a fairly close homage to "The General," told in a more modern style, it's a good guess that the novella played at least some role in putting him on the career path he followed.
However, one may also wonder about how much influence the Foundation series had on David Drake, who has produced not one, but two science fictional 'verses based upon the story of Belisarius. Both of these series grew out of Jim Baen's program of developing up-and-coming writers by partnering them with established writers. The first, which Mr. Drake did with S.M. Stirling right after the latter's breakout success with the Domination of the Draka series, was given the overall series title of The General, and was also the story of Belisarius recycled In Space -- except with a major twist: the hero had the advice of a military AI known as Center, and instead of being a tragic hero, he succeeds in reuniting his homeward, and his mind is subsequently scanned and put on chips along with copies (or forks, although the distinction is probably of interest only to software engineers and players of Eclipse Phase) of Center and cast out in space in hopes of helping other heroes perform similar feats on their homeworlds, ultimately restoring the lost Galactic Empire.
The second of David Drake's sf retellings of the story of Belisarius was a collaboration with Eric Flint, right when the latter's Ring of Fire series was really taking off after the resounding success of 1632, which the latter had originally planned as a one-shot like his original novel Mother of Demons. Unlike the earlier series, this one would not be a future Belisarius figure in space. Instead, it would be an alternate history with Belisariuis himself, and would involve time travel. In the distant future, two visions of humanity strive against each other, one dedicated to freedom and the other to purity. In desperation, they are each sending an emissary back to a time they view as a critical juncture, and are trying to build up their chosen people -- Constantinople in the case of those dedicated to freedom and India in the case of those dedicated to purity -- in hopes of crushing forever the path they find detestable.
No doubt there are other, less well-known authors who have been inspired by this part of Asimov's Foundation trilogy to explore its historical models and write their own stories of the Belisarius who might have been. But there's another important thing to consider in examining this part of the Foundation Trilogy: it's the last time that Asimov wrote a Foundation story that followed the pattern he'd developed in his original discussions with Campbell.
In theory the concept of the Seldon Crisis, and of Hari Seldon leaving a sort of time capsule of announcements to guide the Foundation through them was a structure on which Asimov could build an infinite supply of stories, all the way to the Second Empire that was promised by the beginning. In practice, it proved to have one major problem: it soon became predictable, and significantly reduced the agency of the protagonists, and thus the investment of readers.
As a result, Asimov decided it was necessary to throw a monkeywrench into the works. But how to go about disrupting the Seldon Plan when the whole premise of the Foundation 'verse was the idea that psychohistory made the future predictable, much as the gas laws and other scientific discoveries made the weather predictable?
There was one significant presupposition in Hari Seldon's formulation of psychohistory: that no one individual could have any substantial effect on the flow of history. So the obvious solution for the problem of the Foundation stories becoming increasingly predictable, and thus dull, was to introduce a character who could turn the course of history. In other words, either a superhero or a super villain, albeit without the costumes from the comic books.
Enter the Mule, a mysterious conqueror who is able to dominate people's minds and wills. Enemies become his most loyal servants. He sweeps all resistance away, taking over planets and finally the small star-nation formed around the world of Kalgan, which had once been a vacation spot but under the rule of a warlord had become an aggressive polity. And then the Mule sets his sights on the Foundation.
Much has changed in the Foundation since the days of Salvor Hardin. The Mayorship has become hereditary, and the current Mayor, the third of his line, is little more than a bully in a position of political power. He's also the sort of man who's just as apt to shoot the messenger as to deal with the news -- which does not put him in good stead when Elbing Mis warns him that a Seldon Crisis is imminent, Particularly since the crisis that is brewing -- the rebellion of a significant part of the Foundation's trade empire against Terminus and its Mayor -- is just about to be rendered utterly irrelevant.
The scene in the Time Vault is one of the most dramatic in the whole Foundation Trilogy to that point. The characters assemble fully expecting the hologram of Hari Seldon to appear and tell them what they are facing and what they need to know to get through the current crisis -- and the recorded prediction has absolutely nothing to do with the Mule's armada bearing down on Terminus, preparing to conquer the Foundation. Some of the Traders sheepishly admit that yes, they were considering a rebellion against Terminus and its Mayor -- but there is no time for discussion before the Time Vault shuts down and everyone realizes that the Mule's fleet has arrived with its mysterious nuclear suppressor field, which shuts down most of the Foundation's tech. And thus Terminus falls, leaving only scattered Traders to resist the Mule.
Thus begins the desperate search of of Toran and Bayta Darrell, accompanied by Elbing Mis and Magnifico Giganticus, a tall, lanky mutant who was formerly the Mule's court jester, before he fled that service in terror of the monster who was conquering the galaxy. With the Foundation under the Mule's thumb, they are hoping to find something useful in the old core worlds of the galaxy.
Some time in the century between the last installment of the Foundation saga and this one, Trantor itself was sacked by space pirates and devastated to the point that the Imperial court fled to one of the nearby agro-worlds that once provided the Imperial capital with food. Renamed Neotrantor -- "New Trantor" -- it is a mere shadow of the former glory of the Empire, which makes the pretensions of its court all the more ridiculous -- except that they are willing to back their power with brutality in order to extract the proper deferences from the lower orders of society, including amusements from the Mule's former jester Magnifico.
The jester plays his Visi-Sonor and everything changes. Suddenly those who would abuse him are naught but human wreckage, and his companions are shuddering in fear with what they have experienced. But it is their opportunity to escape the grasp of an emperor who cannot bear to acknowledge that his has no real power on the galactic scene, and to flee to Trantor itself, where they may finally discover what they seek.
It's a world utterly changed from the magnificence we saw at the beginning of Foundation. The giant metal towers that once covered the entire world now lie in ruins. The few survivors scratch out a living in the few small spaces where the original soil of Trantor has been exposed. They're a simple folk, barely literate, utterly uninterested in what is left of the Imperial University and its library, which were said to have been defended during the Sack by makeshift weapons produced by the students.
And as they are searching through the library, Han Pitcher reappears, now an agent of the Mule -- and for the first time they realize the Mule's secret power, and just who the Mule actually is. The key is the realization that they've been present at way too many critical events for it to have been coincidence -- they must have been carrying the source of the Mule's power with them. At that realization, the Mule identifies himself and makes a full confession, telling his tragic story of growing up unwanted and unloved, learning first-hand just how cruel children can be to one who is different -- until he discovered he also had a power to change people's emotions at will.
It's interesting that he uses a baseball metaphor at a critical juncture of this confession, suggesting that the game has survived in some recognizable form, although it has never been otherwise mentioned. And then he finishes his speech with his explanation of why he held back on his conquests after taking Terminus: a shadowy organization known only as the Second Foundation. An organization whose name will provide the title for the third and final book of the original Foundation trilogy, Second Foundation.
As I consider the story of the Mule, and how his insertion disrupted what had been a problematically predictable storyline of Seldon Crises met and surmounted, I wonder whether the Mule's story could have been Frank Herbert's inspiration in creating Maud'dib (Paul Atreides) in Dune. Interestingly enough, Mr. Herbert's original plan for Dune appears to have been the story of Pardot Kynes and his multi-generation plan to make Arrakis a green and beautiful world. However, the early drafts proved unsatisfactory, and it was only when Herbert introduced a Hero into the story of the Fremen that he got a story that would become one of the great classics of science fiction.
Buy Foundation and Empire from Amazon.com
Review posted July 17, 2021.
