Foundation and Empire is the second book in the Foundation series. It picks up roughly 40 years after the first book concluded and contains two more stories following the progression of the Foundation. The first book, Foundation, was heavily idea driven, with scant focus on characters and a rather simple overarching plot. The first story in Foundation and Empire examines the next crisis in the history of the Foundation and is similar to the earlier stories in length and overall structure. The second story, however, diverges from the established formula. This is partially a matter of length; this story was more than twice as long as any of the preceding ones. As a result, Asimov was able to go more in depth with his characters, and while they are far from perfect, I still enjoyed this additional layer of storytelling. It also provided enough space for a more complicated plot. While this story still relied heavily on dialogue there is also action present, and we get to witness some important events instead of having them simply related to us after the fact. While the earlier stories had not quite gotten redundant, I welcomed this change of pace. The end of Foundation and Empire nicely sets up a new avenue of exploration for the next book in the series. Asimov did an excellent job continuing the exploration of the ideas introduced in Foundation, and I am excited to continue the series.

Content Analysis

Profanity/Language: 1 mild obscenity.

Violence/Gore: Mention of suicide; mention of murder; the deaths of a character’s family is mentioned; report of interrogation involving physical violence and drugs; report of accidental violent death; two spaceships are blown up, no detail; a few instances where a character threatens another; a character is knocked unconscious; three instances where characters are shot and killed, little detail; a character attempts to assassinate another in a method that would likely be suicidal; characters are knocked unconscious and tied up; a character kills another using mental torture, no detail.

Sex/Nudity: Mention that a character is illegitimate; an older man is implied to be experienced with women; characters discuss marriage; a married couple goes on a honeymoon; a married couple kisses; a male character looks at a woman lustfully and implies he wants to rape her.

Mature Subject Matter:

Suicide; murder; war; assassination; death; mind control.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

Characters smoke; characters drink alcohol.