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Informationen zum Autor Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was an American writer and biochemist, widely recognized as one of the central figures in science fiction. His work includes the Foundation series and the Robot stories, which introduced influential concepts such as the Three Laws of Robotics. Known for clarity of exposition and conceptual precision, Asimov's writing spans both fiction and non-fiction, and has played a major role in shaping the intellectual framework of modern science fiction. Klappentext The third novel in Isaac Asimov's classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation series The Foundation lies in ruins-destroyed by a mutant mind bent on humanity's annihilation. But it's rumored that there's a Second Foundation hidden somewhere at the end of the Galaxy, established as insurance to preserve the knowledge of mankind. Now a desperate race has begun between the survivors of the First Foundation and an alien entity to find this last flicker of humanity's shining past-and future hope. Yet the key to it all might be a fourteen-year-old girl burdened with a terrible secret. Is she the Foundation's savior-or its deadliest enemy? Unforgettable, thought-provoking, and riveting, Second Foundation is a stunning novel of adventure and ideas writ huge across the Galaxy-a powerful tale of humankind's struggle to preserve the fragile light of wisdom against the threat of its own dark barbarism. THE MULE It was after the fall of the First Foundation that the constructive aspects of the Mule's regime took shape. After the definite break-up of the first Galactic Empire, it was he who first presented history with a unified volume of space truly imperial in scope. The earlier commercial empire of the fallen Foundation had been diverse and loosely knit, despite the impalpable backing of the predictions of psychohistory. It was not to be compared with the tightly controlled "Union of Worlds" under the Mule, particularly during the era of the so-called Search. . . . ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA* Chapter One Two Men and the Mule There is much more that the Encyclopedia has to say on the subject of the Mule and his Empire but almost all of it is not germane to the issue at immediate hand, and most of it is considerably too dry for our purposes in any case. Mainly, the article concerns itself at this point with the economic conditions that led to the rise of the "First Citizen of the Union"—the Mule's official title—and with the economic consequences thereof. If, at any time, the writer of the article is mildly astonished at the colossal haste with which the Mule rose from nothing to vast dominion in five years, he conceals it. If he is further surprised at the sudden cessation of expansion in favor of a five-year consolidation of territory, he hides the fact. We therefore abandon the Encyclopedia and continue on our own path for our own purposes and take up the history of the Great Interregnum—between the First and Second Galactic Empires—at the end of that five years of consolidation. Politically, the Union is quiet. Economically, it is prosperous. Few would care to exchange the peace of the Mule's steady grip for the chaos that had preceded. On the worlds that five years previously had known the Foundation, there might be a nostalgic regret, but no more. The Foundation's leaders were dead, where useless; and Converted, where useful. And of the Converted, the most useful was Han Pritcher, now lieutenant general. In the days of the Foundation, Han Pritcher had been a captain and a member of the underground Democratic Opposition. When the Foundation fell to the Mule without a fight, Pritcher fought the Mule. Until, that is, he was Converted. The Conversion was not the ordinary one brought on by the power of superior reason. Han Pritcher knew that well enough. He h...
