Base and Empire

Author: Isaac Asimov
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Traditionally, the past is history, and yesterday is history. However, Isaac Asimov was different. His Foundation series wrote "the history of the future," "the history of a distant future," and "the history of tomorrow!" Asimov, this "historian of the future," this "American Sima Qian," used an "epic" brushstroke and the grand chapters of the Foundation series to narrate the thrilling and stories coming from the "Galactic Empire," from Foundation (often referred to simply as "Foundation"), from the Second Foundation, and from that "Mule," offering the "history of the future" to readers in a vivid and captivating way. Asimov's science fiction always introduced refreshing and fantastical elements, becoming a model for later science fiction. The reason a master is a master is precisely because they can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary with a single stroke. His three great series—the Robot, Empire, and Foundation—each have their own "charm," and even now that we are very familiar with his works, we still cannot help but admire his creativity back then. Foundation and Empire is the second book in the Foundation trilogy. At this point, the Foundation, founded by the great psychohistorian Hari Seldon, has already firmly established itself at the edge of the galaxy, but it still faces pressure from the Galactic Empire. The dying Empire still possesses the most powerful military force in the galaxy. An ambitious general leads a space fleet toward the Foundation, and the scholars and scientists living on the asteroid where the Foundation is located can only hope for a sliver of hope to escape disaster, all tied to the words left behind by Seldon before his death. However, even Seldon could not have foreseen that there was an even more threatening external force lurking in the galaxy—the "Mule," a galactic mutant. In the face of the Mule's strange mental powers, even the strongest person would bow in submission and become a loyal slave. The Mule's black fleet accepted the three hundred years of history without a fight, seeking to conquer the universe. Both the Mule and his loyalists are searching for the Second Foundation, and the Mule's Wave Search operation is stopped by an ordinary woman named Bette, thus giving the Second Foundation enough time to prepare for its counterattack plan.