Foundation and empire are a novel of Isaac Asimov writes in 1952. It belongs to the Cycle of Foundation and breaks up into three parts: the general, the Mule and the Clown.

Fast summary

The Foundation, installed with the borders of the galaxy , on Terminus, its immediate environment, the four kingdoms sees, to change gradually, with a major rupture: the loss of control by the Empire on these distant territories. It becomes thus very vulnerable, not having any army and few resources…

The changes will be numerous and will relate to the statute even Fondation: it will not act more than one simple community whose vocation would be the drafting of the Encyclopeadia Galactica, but indeed of an autonomous planet, with its organization, its objectives and its own population. This period will be marked by the advent of the Mayors of Terminus.

The merchants will be the second wind of the change: the modifications in the political structures around oblige the Fondation to begin in a process of more radical change and to find its levers of the capacity.

Summary

The general

See also: Beautiful Riose

Beautiful Riose, general of the Empire having ideas of size, questions Ducem Barr on what it knows about the Foundation. It decides following this maintenance to annex the Foundation, become too independent. The little of information on the remote institution is compensated by the dissimulated removal of a descendant of Hober Mallow by the general. This merchant of the Foundation had visited a planet whereas Riose was there also. A dignitary of the Foundation, Lathan Towards, lets himself capture and infiltrates as spy.

Meanwhile, the Emperor sends Broding, his secretary deprived in whom it has any confidence, to supervise Bel Riose, this last inexplicably asking for reinforcements to fight against an unimportant enemy with the eyes of the Empire. Questioned by the secretary of the Emperor, Lathan Towards advertisement which the Foundation has the capacity to transmute metals. This makes it possible the Foundation to obtain a considerable richness, and would thus give an unquestionable advantage to Riose in the conquest of the Empire. The two members of the Foundation expect an arrest of the general by the secretary. However, it appears whereas the secretary is ready to join Bel Riose to reverse the Emperor.

Towards, associated with his/her companion Ducem Barr, decides to flee before passing to the psychosonde. In their escape, they manage to recover a capital proof of the treason of the general and the secretary, and inform the Emperor of it. However, after weeks of paperwork and corruption on Trantor, the imperial capital, an officer dissuades some, because he sees in their haste to meet the Emperor an attempted murder. Finally, the general as the secretary are stopped and carried out by the Emperor who suspects a coup d'etat. The Empire is not then any more a danger to the Foundation.

The Mule

See also: Mule (cycle of foundation)

Bayta and Toran, to the pay of the merchants, goes on Kalgan to meet the Mulet there, on indication of the Fran father and the uncle Randu. The goal of this perilous voyage is to cause a Crise Seldon, in the hope to improve the situation of the merchants.

The captain Han Pritcher tries to convince the mayor Indbur that a new enemy, the Mule, is a threat for the Foundation. Pritcher reveals with the group the fuzzy origins of the Mule, being based only on what it can be sure: that the Mule is mutant endowed with the capacity to influence the human emotions.

Following a coincidence, Bayta and Toran meet the clown of the Mule, Magnifico, which seems to hold capital information on this last. They decide to bring back it, with the assistance of Prichter, in Terminus. This removal is bread blessed for the troops of the Mule which attack the Foundation. The independent Merchants, although being opposed to the hereditary capacity of the Mayor, unite their forces vis-a-vis the inexorable projection of the Mule which conquers the allies of the Foundation one by one.

The clown, drowned in a constant terror of his Master, does not reveal any capital information allowing to identify the Mule. Seldon appears and speaks about the crisis of the independent Merchants, event which should have become serious if the Mule, actor unexpected of the scene of the History, had not upset the order of the involved forces. Termini fall into an attack flash and is from now on under the control of the Mule.

The clown

See also: Clown (cycle of foundation)

On Terminus in prey with panic, the two Bayta husbands and Toran as well as the scientist Put Ebling and the Magnifico clown leave for a bastion the merchants. During this time, Han Pritcher, which is implied in resistance, will be seen, a little later during a suicide attack missed against the Mule, converted by the paranormaux capacities of this one. It will dedicate from now on an unbounded admiration and obedience to him.

The clown, the husbands and the scientist leave then for Trantor where Mis hears, starting from the imperial library, to find the bases of the Psychohistoire, science which the Foundation is unaware of, and to make use of it to locate the Second Foundation. The Second Foundation and a myth launched by Seldon itself, and that no one forever proven. The latter is famous being a secret society of psychohistoriens, guards of the Plan Seldon, equipped them also with psychic capacities.

Intercepted by Han Pritcher, they also pass by Néotrantor, pseudo-seat of the imperial Capacity after the fall of Trantor after the Grand Plundering. The clown saves them by killing the young emperor thanks to an musical instrument, the Visi-Sonor.

Arrived on Trantor, Ebling Mis is plunged in its research with an intensity which degrades little by little its physical integrity. However, when failing, it prepares, in prey with an immense surprise, to reveal the site of the Second Foundation, it is killed with the hand even of Bayta. The wife of Toran thus claims to prevent the Mule thus is informed of this capital information. She indeed deduced that the clown, able to kill by the thought, is not other than the Mule which, being made pass for its own servant, can influence the spirits of crowd of the worlds that he is on the point of conquering. The Mule does not do anything to refute this conclusion. Besides he exerted a mental control on Toran and the scientist, feeding his research been obstinated until death, pushing back the suspicions of the husband, and communicating with his fleet. The suspicion of Bayta, which it had to keep secret until the last moment, was not possible that because the Mule hesitated to employ of its capacity of persuasion. Thus it reveals its love for it, its life and the origin of its nickname. It will end up their leaving the safe life by friendship, therefore melancholic person with the conquest of the Second Foundation.

Place in the cycle of foundation

See also: Cycle of Foundation

• Prelude to Foundation

• the Paddle of Foundation
• Foundation
• Foundation and Empire
• Second Foundation
• struck down Foundation
• Ground and Fondation