Second Foundation begins with the Mule and his quest to control the universe. He has conquered all that he can with amazing mind control powers and an army to back him. He has thrown a wrench into Hari Seldon’s plan and conquered the First Foundation, but his paranoia feels the mysterious Second Foundation which may be myth or legend still poses a threat.

I enjoyed this book and the continuing saga of the foundation; until I realized I had missed an entire book in the series and didn’t even notice. So I ordered this book from the library, and not really paying attention just assumed the book titled Second Foundation was the second book in the series. Oops. This is book three and I missed book two, Foundation and Empire. I didn’t notice until today, when I went to look up this book and saw the books in order. One of my complaints in the first novel was the continual jumps through time that pushed the plot forward by hundreds of years and made it hard to connect with the characters. When I picked up this book and started reading I didn’t even find it odd that it was hundreds of years in the future and I didn’t know any of the characters. I’m trying very hard not to let my glaring mistake cloud my judgement of the book.

This book only has one major jump forward, so you have some time to connect with each set of characters. The characters this time through were also far better written, more developed, and the second half even has a strong female lead. However, the paradoxical thinking concerning predestination and mind control just seemed redundant and pointless after a while. If everything is predestined, then every choice you will ever make isn’t really a choice. If everything isn’t predestined, than your individual choices and actions matter. Either way though, you won’t ever know the answer. Should I do A or should I do B? What if my mind has been tampered with and I should do the opposite of what I think I should do? Or maybe I should do what I think I should do because if they had controlled my mind they would expect me to wonder if it had been tampered with and do the opposite of what I think I should do. Wow. Those kind of conundrums repeatedly get old fast. I read the synopsis of the second book in the series and it sounded like it had more action and some attempted plot twists. I am debating now whether to go back and read it too.