Foundation and Empire (Foundation #2)

Foundation and Empire is potentially easier to follow than the first Foundation book due to being split into two parts instead of four, while also quick to get bogged down, sometimes hard to grasp and easy to lose interest.

The payback for reaching the end isn't quite there, although still a surprise, rather clever and enough to make you read the final installment, Second Foundation (Foundation #3) to see how it gels together and why these books have become such a legend.

But there's not much to rave about and is quite stagnant for multiple reasons:

The reliance on a regal hierarchy or supremacy is tiring, formal and stuffy with its palaces, lordships and protocol, as well as being regimented and fuzzy to understand - more of a personal niggle than a major gripe. And the main characters are difficult to identify with or love, although there is a strong and recognizable female protagonist, Bayta.

The real issue is the constant reliance on dialogue to tell the story while pouring through chatter and conjecture to figure out what's going on, the way Isaac Asimov jumps to new chapters with no linkage or connection, and introduces new characters and scenarios while expecting you to piece it all together with less than compelling building blocks. When you get to the end of book six there's a sort of roughshod explanation of how and why things happened, which is kind of sloppy story telling!

It's like being a fly on the wall and eavesdropping political discussions in that curious Isaac Asimov style of delivery, which isn't always enjoyable.

There's also the continuous reference to smoking and tobacco, weirdly jolting you back to the 1940s and 50s instead of a distant future.

It's a decent book and I'm still planning on finishing the trilogy, but not very rewarding, sometimes badly pieced together and old-fashioned in places.