Foundation and Empire

Foundation

Content Ratings

Mild Romance

A romantic relationship between two central characters is present in the Mule storyline, involving genuine emotional attachment and a surprising revelation about one partner's identity; the romance is emotionally significant but entirely chaste.

Moderate Themes

The story confronts the fragility of any designed historical plan when faced with the unpredictable individual, the ethics of emotional manipulation, and the terror of free will being psychically stripped away.

Mild Violence

Military conflict and the subjugation of planets occur at the story's margins; the Mule's power to emotionally lobotomize individuals is depicted as a form of psychic violence with disturbing consequences.

Synopsis

In two linked narratives, the Foundation faces its greatest threat yet: first from a resurgent Empire led by a capable general, and then from the Mule, a mutant with the psychic power to bend men's emotions, whose rise no amount of psychohistorical prediction could foresee. The second installment of the original trilogy deepens the scope of Asimov's universe with a more personal story at its center. A pivotal entry in which the limits of Seldon's grand plan are exposed.