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Authors: James Gunn
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The second volume of the
Trilogy,
titled
Foundation and Empire,
consists of two novellas. The first, "The General" (called "Dead Hand" in the April 1945
Astounding
), takes place about forty years after "The Merchant Princes.'' The central action is the attempt by Bel Riose, an ambitious and capable young general for the decaying Empire, to conquer the Foundation, whose reputation for trade and science by now has reached Trantor. The Merchant Princes, the only Foundation leaders, are without ideas about how to repel Riose's attack; they send a young trader, Lathan Devers, in a ship to be captured by Riose. The Emperor becomes suspicious of Riose's request for more ships to attack the Foundation and sends his privy secretary, Brodrig, to investigate. But Brodrig joins Riose with the hope of using Foundation technology to conquer the Empire and restore its glory. Riose's authority on the Foundation is Ducem Barr. Barr and Devers escape in Devers's ship to Trantor with a message that implicates Brodrig in a plot with Riose. Though they are unable to break through bureaucratic barriers to reach the Emperor, they learn, as they are leaving Trantor, that Riose and Brodrig are under arrest. The crisis has resolved itself: a weak general was no threat to the Foundation and the Emperor would not have tolerated a strong general lest he seize the throne. Only the combination of a strong Emperor and a strong general could endanger the Foundation, but a strong Emperor remains strong by permitting no strong subjects. Even a strong Emperor who was also a general could not risk engaging himself in foreign wars for fear of rebellion springing up in his absence. Under any circumstances, the Foundation had to win out.
Trilogy,
titled
Foundation and Empire,
consists of two novellas. The first, "The General" (called "Dead Hand" in the April 1945
Astounding
), takes place about forty years after "The Merchant Princes.'' The central action is the attempt by Bel Riose, an ambitious and capable young general for the decaying Empire, to conquer the Foundation, whose reputation for trade and science by now has reached Trantor. The Merchant Princes, the only Foundation leaders, are without ideas about how to repel Riose's attack; they send a young trader, Lathan Devers, in a ship to be captured by Riose. The Emperor becomes suspicious of Riose's request for more ships to attack the Foundation and sends his privy secretary, Brodrig, to investigate. But Brodrig joins Riose with the hope of using Foundation technology to conquer the Empire and restore its glory. Riose's authority on the Foundation is Ducem Barr. Barr and Devers escape in Devers's ship to Trantor with a message that implicates Brodrig in a plot with Riose. Though they are unable to break through bureaucratic barriers to reach the Emperor, they learn, as they are leaving Trantor, that Riose and Brodrig are under arrest. The crisis has resolved itself: a weak general was no threat to the Foundation and the Emperor would not have tolerated a strong general lest he seize the throne. Only the combination of a strong Emperor and a strong general could endanger the Foundation, but a strong Emperor remains strong by permitting no strong subjects. Even a strong Emperor who was also a general could not risk engaging himself in foreign wars for fear of rebellion springing up in his absence. Under any circumstances, the Foundation had to win out.
"The Mule" (
Astounding,
November, December 1945) takes place 105 years after the execution of Riose and Brodrig. Toran, son of a small trader on Haven, and Bayta, a Foundation citizen who is unhappy about the way the wealthy traders have accumulated power, have just been married. They arrive on Haven to learn that Toran's father and uncle are worried about Foundation tax collectors and are speculating about a new and mysterious conqueror of worlds called "The Mule." The
worlds have fallen without battle, the most recent of them the pleasure world Kalgan. Toran and Bayta are sent to Kalgan to stir up a war between the Mule and the Foundation; in the conflict the small traders on Kalgan hope to win their freedom. A disturbance on the beach leads Toran to intervene on behalf of the Mule's court Fool, Magnifico, who has fled the Mule's cruelty. Toran and Bayta then flee, accompanied by Magnifico and Han Pritcher, a Foundation spy.
Astounding,
November, December 1945) takes place 105 years after the execution of Riose and Brodrig. Toran, son of a small trader on Haven, and Bayta, a Foundation citizen who is unhappy about the way the wealthy traders have accumulated power, have just been married. They arrive on Haven to learn that Toran's father and uncle are worried about Foundation tax collectors and are speculating about a new and mysterious conqueror of worlds called "The Mule." The
worlds have fallen without battle, the most recent of them the pleasure world Kalgan. Toran and Bayta are sent to Kalgan to stir up a war between the Mule and the Foundation; in the conflict the small traders on Kalgan hope to win their freedom. A disturbance on the beach leads Toran to intervene on behalf of the Mule's court Fool, Magnifico, who has fled the Mule's cruelty. Toran and Bayta then flee, accompanied by Magnifico and Han Pritcher, a Foundation spy.
The Mule uses the kidnapping of his Fool as a pretext for an attack on the Foundation. He wins battle after battle until finally, at the very moment a projection of Seldon appears in the Time Vault with comments that reveal Seldon had not foreseen this crisis, the Mule conquers Terminus itself. Toran, Bayta, scientist Ebling Mis, and Magnifico escape to Haven, but it too comes under attack. Before Haven falls, the four are sent to Trantor so that Mis can search the ancient Imperial Library for information that might lead to the Second Foundation and then to its help against the Mule. Trantor is in ruins, virtually destroyed by a rebellious general. The four escapees are captured by the heir to what is left of the Empire. Magnifico kills him with the aid of a music-and-image-creating machine called a Visi-Sonor, and they escape to the Library, where an agricultural community has grown up. Mis searches the records, but he is ill and visibly growing weaker. On the verge of death, as he is about to reveal the location of the Second Foundation, Mis is shot and killed by Bayta. Bayta has decided that Magnifico, the Fool, is really the Mule. His mysterious advantage is his ability to adjust people's emotions. Everywhere they have taken him he has sown despair, has adjusted the minds of key leaders to surrender at the crucial moment, and has pushed Mis to discover the location of the Second Foundation so that he can remove that threat as well. His critical mistake was to leave Bayta unadjusted. She had been the only person who had liked him without his interference, and he had valued too highly this natural feeling. The novella ends with the Mule's temporary defeat but his continued determination to find the Second Foundation. Whatever his victories, however, they cannot last beyond his death because, like his namesake, the Mule is sterile.
"Search by the Mule" ("Now You See It . . ." in the January 1948
Astounding
) begins the third volume of the
Trilogy,
titled
Second Foundation,
which consists of two novellas. "Search by the Mule" picks up about five years after "The Mule.'' The Mule has consolidated his empire while, through an adjusted Han Pritcher, he has continued his search for the Second Foundation. Now he sends Pritcher out again with the capable but unadjusted Bail Channis. For the first time in the
Trilogy,
the Second Foundation psychologists make an appearance, discussing the situation. It had been discovered in old records that the Second Foundation had been established at "Star's End." Channis decides that "Star's End" must refer to a world called Tazenda, which is isolated in space by a dark cloud of interstellar gas. Pritcher and Channis land on Rossem, a poor, cold, agricultural planet in Tazenda's sphere of influence. After some inquiries, Pritcher accuses Channis of treason to the Mule: Channis found the location of the Second Foundation too easily. But the Mule arrives, having traced their ship, and reveals that he has used Channis, whom he suspects of being a Second Foundation agent, to lead him to the Second Foundation. He has destroyed Tazenda, the Mule says, but then Channis admits, under pressure, that Rossem, not Tazenda, is the location of the Second Foundation. The First Speaker, the leading psychologist of the Second Foundation, enters and reveals that Channis was convinced that Rossem was the location but that was false. The Mule has been lured to Rossem; in his absence Second Foundation psychologists can sow rebellion on Kalgan. The Mule realizes how he has been tricked, and in his moment of lowered defenses the First Speaker enters his mind and reconstructs his memories, eliminating the Mule as a danger.
Astounding
) begins the third volume of the
Trilogy,
titled
Second Foundation,
which consists of two novellas. "Search by the Mule" picks up about five years after "The Mule.'' The Mule has consolidated his empire while, through an adjusted Han Pritcher, he has continued his search for the Second Foundation. Now he sends Pritcher out again with the capable but unadjusted Bail Channis. For the first time in the
Trilogy,
the Second Foundation psychologists make an appearance, discussing the situation. It had been discovered in old records that the Second Foundation had been established at "Star's End." Channis decides that "Star's End" must refer to a world called Tazenda, which is isolated in space by a dark cloud of interstellar gas. Pritcher and Channis land on Rossem, a poor, cold, agricultural planet in Tazenda's sphere of influence. After some inquiries, Pritcher accuses Channis of treason to the Mule: Channis found the location of the Second Foundation too easily. But the Mule arrives, having traced their ship, and reveals that he has used Channis, whom he suspects of being a Second Foundation agent, to lead him to the Second Foundation. He has destroyed Tazenda, the Mule says, but then Channis admits, under pressure, that Rossem, not Tazenda, is the location of the Second Foundation. The First Speaker, the leading psychologist of the Second Foundation, enters and reveals that Channis was convinced that Rossem was the location but that was false. The Mule has been lured to Rossem; in his absence Second Foundation psychologists can sow rebellion on Kalgan. The Mule realizes how he has been tricked, and in his moment of lowered defenses the First Speaker enters his mind and reconstructs his memories, eliminating the Mule as a danger.
"Search by the Foundation" (". . . And Now You Don't" in
Astounding,
November, December 1949, January 1950) concludes the
Trilogy.
It opens about seventy years after the end of "Search by the Mule," as a group of conspirators gather in the home of Dr. Toran Darell on Terminus at the instigation of a new arrival named Pelleas Anthor. They believe that people in key positions in the Empire may be under the mental control of the Second Foundation. Such control would show up on encephalographs. To be controlled in this way would be an intolerable limitation of these people's freedom. The conspirators are determined to locate the Second Foundation. One of them, a librarian named Homir Munn, is sent to Kalgan to search the Mule's old palace for information. Unknown to him, he carries a stowaway who had eaves-dropped on the conversation, Darell's romantic, fourteen-year-old daughter Arcadia, more familiarly known as Arkady, who is Bayta's granddaughter.
Astounding,
November, December 1949, January 1950) concludes the
Trilogy.
It opens about seventy years after the end of "Search by the Mule," as a group of conspirators gather in the home of Dr. Toran Darell on Terminus at the instigation of a new arrival named Pelleas Anthor. They believe that people in key positions in the Empire may be under the mental control of the Second Foundation. Such control would show up on encephalographs. To be controlled in this way would be an intolerable limitation of these people's freedom. The conspirators are determined to locate the Second Foundation. One of them, a librarian named Homir Munn, is sent to Kalgan to search the Mule's old palace for information. Unknown to him, he carries a stowaway who had eaves-dropped on the conversation, Darell's romantic, fourteen-year-old daughter Arcadia, more familiarly known as Arkady, who is Bayta's granddaughter.
Meanwhile, the First Speaker and an apprentice for speakerhood discuss Seldon's Plan, which contemplated the development of a future civilization based on mental science and led by Second Foundation psychologists. Now that citizens know about the existence of the Second Foundation, they have begun to believe that it will prevent all mishaps. They are failing to exercise normal initiative; the predictions of Seldon's
Plan may not work out. Another group is actively fighting the idea of a ruling class of psychologists. The Second Foundation has had to adopt a project with a low probability of success, to preserve the Plan and themselves, by working with individuals rather than large groups. Arkady proves helpful on Kalgan by persuading Lord Stettin's mistress, Lady Callia, that Munn intends to prove that the Second Foundation does not exist and that Lord Stettin, the ruler of Kalgan, is destined to unite the Galaxy instead of the Foundation. Stettin permits Munn's research in the old palace, but also decides to marry Arkady. Callia helps Arkady escape, and Arkady suspects that Callia is a member of the Second Foundation. Arkady is almost captured at the spaceport on Kalgan but is saved by Preem Palver and his wife, trading representatives of their farm cooperative on Trantor. They take Arkady back to Trantor. Stettin attacks the Foundation and forces its fleets back to its original group of planets. In a final battle, however, Stettin's fleet is wiped out.
Plan may not work out. Another group is actively fighting the idea of a ruling class of psychologists. The Second Foundation has had to adopt a project with a low probability of success, to preserve the Plan and themselves, by working with individuals rather than large groups. Arkady proves helpful on Kalgan by persuading Lord Stettin's mistress, Lady Callia, that Munn intends to prove that the Second Foundation does not exist and that Lord Stettin, the ruler of Kalgan, is destined to unite the Galaxy instead of the Foundation. Stettin permits Munn's research in the old palace, but also decides to marry Arkady. Callia helps Arkady escape, and Arkady suspects that Callia is a member of the Second Foundation. Arkady is almost captured at the spaceport on Kalgan but is saved by Preem Palver and his wife, trading representatives of their farm cooperative on Trantor. They take Arkady back to Trantor. Stettin attacks the Foundation and forces its fleets back to its original group of planets. In a final battle, however, Stettin's fleet is wiped out.
The conspirators gather once more in Darell's home, each claiming the solution to the mystery of the Second Foundation. Munn says there is no Second Foundation, but an encephalograph reveals that his mind has been tampered with. Anthor says that the Second Foundation must be on Kalgan, where everything, including the tampering with Munn's mind, has happened. Then Darell reveals a message from Arkady: "A circle has no end." From this he has deduced that the Second Foundation is on Terminus itself. He has invented a device that creates Mental Static and renders helpless minds capable of advanced mental science. Anthor collapses when it is turned on. Other Second Foundation members on Terminus will be sought out and neutralized.
In the final chapter the First Speaker reveals to the apprentice that his plan has worked. Fifty men and women of the Second Foundation have been sacrificed, but the Foundation is convinced that the Second Foundation has been destroyed, and Seldon's Plan has been restored. The Second Foundation is actually located on Trantor, where its psychologists are simple farmers. Why is the Second Foundation described as being at "the opposite end of the Galaxy"? From its periphery, the opposite end of a spiral is its center, and the Galaxy is a double spiral. Moreover, in social terms the opposite end of the extremities is the heart, and Trantor was once the heart of the Empire. What about "Star's End"? An old saying goes: "Stars end at Trantor." The First Speaker is Preem Palver.
Asimov abandoned
The Foundation Trilogy
with "Search by the Foundation" because it had grown too difficult to bring the reader up to date
on everything and because he was tired of it. In his autobiography he reveals that while he was writing "Search by the Foundation" (". . . And Now You Don't") he "disliked it intensely and found working on it very difficult." Even Campbell's persistent demand for open endings that would allow sequels could not persuade Asimov. The future history that had envisioned one thousand years of Seldon's Plan ended after less than four hundred (more than thirty years later Asimov agreed to write a fourth volume which became
Foundation's Edge
and Asimov's first bestseller, and then
Foundation and Earth,
but that is a story for Chapter 8). Nevertheless, Asimov used his concept of a humanly inhabited Galaxy, of an outward movement of humanity from Earth until Earth itself was forgotten, and of the rise of an Empire and its eventual fall as the background for half a dozen later novels and several dozen shorter stories, and eventually found a way to tie nearly all his novels into a self-consistent future.
The Foundation Trilogy
with "Search by the Foundation" because it had grown too difficult to bring the reader up to date
on everything and because he was tired of it. In his autobiography he reveals that while he was writing "Search by the Foundation" (". . . And Now You Don't") he "disliked it intensely and found working on it very difficult." Even Campbell's persistent demand for open endings that would allow sequels could not persuade Asimov. The future history that had envisioned one thousand years of Seldon's Plan ended after less than four hundred (more than thirty years later Asimov agreed to write a fourth volume which became
Foundation's Edge
and Asimov's first bestseller, and then
Foundation and Earth,
but that is a story for Chapter 8). Nevertheless, Asimov used his concept of a humanly inhabited Galaxy, of an outward movement of humanity from Earth until Earth itself was forgotten, and of the rise of an Empire and its eventual fall as the background for half a dozen later novels and several dozen shorter stories, and eventually found a way to tie nearly all his novels into a self-consistent future.
Other authors have used the background as well, taking it not so much directly from the
Trilogy
as from the assumptions about the future (to which the
Trilogy
contributed) that became the shared property of a generation of science-fiction writers. What author Jack Williamson called "the central myth of the future" begins with the expansion of humanity into the galaxy in the same way that Europe ventured forth in the Age of Exploration to discover and then to colonize the rest of the world. The myth was not original with Asimov; it was developed by many writers, particularly by E.E. "Doc" Smith and Edmond Hamilton in the magazine period. But Asimov said it best and most completely in his series of stories published in
Astounding
between 1942 and 1949. It has since been used by writers as diverse as Jerry Pournelle and Ursula K. Le Guin. Moreover, Asimov described a totally human galaxy, partly to avoid Campbell's prejudice against relationships between humans and aliens in which the humans were inferior. In some ways readers may have preferred an all-human galaxy.
Trilogy
as from the assumptions about the future (to which the
Trilogy
contributed) that became the shared property of a generation of science-fiction writers. What author Jack Williamson called "the central myth of the future" begins with the expansion of humanity into the galaxy in the same way that Europe ventured forth in the Age of Exploration to discover and then to colonize the rest of the world. The myth was not original with Asimov; it was developed by many writers, particularly by E.E. "Doc" Smith and Edmond Hamilton in the magazine period. But Asimov said it best and most completely in his series of stories published in
Astounding
between 1942 and 1949. It has since been used by writers as diverse as Jerry Pournelle and Ursula K. Le Guin. Moreover, Asimov described a totally human galaxy, partly to avoid Campbell's prejudice against relationships between humans and aliens in which the humans were inferior. In some ways readers may have preferred an all-human galaxy.
This, however, does not completely explain the
Trilogy'
s popularity. The reader must delve into what the series is about and how its narrative is handled.
Trilogy'
s popularity. The reader must delve into what the series is about and how its narrative is handled.
One significant aspect of the series is Asimov's invention of psycho-history, with its implications for determinism and free will. Psychohistory was put together out of psychology, sociology, and history not hard sciences, which Campbell had a reputation for preferring, but at best soft sciences: a behavioral science, a social science, and a discipline that has difficulty deciding whether to define itself as a social science or a humanity. Actually, as Asimov pointed out in his 1953 essay "Social
Science Fiction," Campbell had encouraged social science fiction from his first days as an editor. Moreover Campbell had pointed out the logical basis for using the soft sciences for the kind of extrapolation he preferred, in his 1947 essay for Lloyd A. Eschbach's
Of Worlds Beyond
"The Science of Science Fiction Writing":
Science Fiction," Campbell had encouraged social science fiction from his first days as an editor. Moreover Campbell had pointed out the logical basis for using the soft sciences for the kind of extrapolation he preferred, in his 1947 essay for Lloyd A. Eschbach's
Of Worlds Beyond
"The Science of Science Fiction Writing":
To be science fiction, not fantasy, an honest effort at prophetic extrapolation of the known must be made. Ghosts can enter science fiction if they're logically explained but not if they are simply the ghosts of fantasy. Prophetic extrapolation can derive from a number of different sources, and apply in a number of fields. Sociology, psychology, and parapsychology are, today, not true sciences: therefore instead of forecasting future results of applications of sociological science of today, we must forecast the development of a science of sociology.
Psychohistory is the art of prediction projected as a science; later it might have been called "futurology" or "futuristics." The ability to predict or foresee the future has been a persistent notion in science fiction almost from the genre's beginnings. Hundreds of stories have been based on various mechanisms for doing it and the various out-comes of attempts. One might cite as examples Robert Heinlein's first story, "Life-Line," Lewis Padgett's "What You Need,'' and James Blish's "Beep." What Asimov brought to the concept was the science of probabilities as a mechanism, the element of uncertainty for suspense, and the philosophical question "What is worth predicting?" for depth. His method statistical probability prohibited the prediction of any actions smaller than those of large aggregates of population. Four decades earlier, incidentally, H.G. Wells had told the Sociological Society that a science of sociology was impossible because everything in the universe was unique and sociologists could not deal with sufficiently large numbers to handle those things statistically, as physicists did. Asimov could deal with large numbers, and he defined psychohistory, in the epigraph quoted from the
Encyclopedia Galactica
for Section 4 of "The Psychohistorians," as "that branch of mathematics which deals with the reactions of human conglomerates to fixed social and economic stimuli. . . . Implicit in all these definitions is the assumption that the human conglomerate being dealt with is sufficiently large for valid statistical treatment. . . . A further necessary assumption is that the human conglomerate be itself unaware of psychohistoric analysis in order that its reactions be truly random." Finally, Asimov answered the question "What is worth predicting?" Not individual human lives but a great event whose consequences might be avoided, such as the fall of
an empire and the dark ages of barbarism, war, hunger, despair, and death that would follow.
Encyclopedia Galactica
for Section 4 of "The Psychohistorians," as "that branch of mathematics which deals with the reactions of human conglomerates to fixed social and economic stimuli. . . . Implicit in all these definitions is the assumption that the human conglomerate being dealt with is sufficiently large for valid statistical treatment. . . . A further necessary assumption is that the human conglomerate be itself unaware of psychohistoric analysis in order that its reactions be truly random." Finally, Asimov answered the question "What is worth predicting?" Not individual human lives but a great event whose consequences might be avoided, such as the fall of
an empire and the dark ages of barbarism, war, hunger, despair, and death that would follow.
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