Opinion seems to be divided on the relative merits of each of the foundation novels, but in my mind, this is definitely a weaker novel. The story is less fractured, but even though we have more time to get to know the characters, they turn out to be far less interesting than those of the first book, such as Salvor Hardin and Hober Mallow. Bayta and Toran just bob along in the tide of history and the only interesting feature is the mysterious Mule. I hope he sticks around in the third book so we can get to know him better.
Honestly this book felt like a filler device: necessary to flesh out the historical details and introduce a great conflict between the Mule and the Second Foundation.
There were however a few pieces of dialogue that stuck with me. I liked the irony in Ebling Mis' swearing using the word unprintable
...taking care of every little piece of their unprintable lives.and could just picture him busting out a frustrated:
Ga-LAX-y!
I also loved this characterisation of Mayor Indbur, it reminded me of a former manager of mine:
Mayor Indbur, third of his name, and second mayor of Foundation history to be so by right of birth, recovered his equilibrium, and lifted another sheet of paper from the neat stack at his left. It was a report on the saving of funds due to the reduction of the quantity of metal-foam edging on the uniforms of the police force. Mayor Indbur crossed out a superflous comma, corrected a misspelling, made three marginal notations, and placed it upon the neat stack at his right. He lifted another sheet of paper from the neat stack at his left...
3 stars.
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