Foundation, Part 3: Foundation and Empire

Foundation and Empire, the second novel in the Foundation series picks up more or less where the first novel leaves off.  This book follows much of the same plan that the first one does and, like any good sequel, it expands on the themes of the original.
Asimov picks up on the long arc of history that he set in motion in the first novel.  That is, the Foundation continues to consolidate influence as the sole remaining scientific powerhouse as the Galactic Empire continues its fall.  Now at a greater remove from the events in the first novel, Seldon, Psychohistory, the encyclopedists, and even the Foundation itself have taken on mythic tones.  As the empire falls apart, lines of communication and trade likewise deteriorate.  This isolates planets on the periphery of the galaxy that then revert to feudalism.  Where another author might summarize much of the above, Asimov creates separate scenes, interspersed through time and space to demonstrate these plot lines.  In a way, this helps to develop the drama of history, but it also undercuts it by revealing the artifice of the narrative.  The events that Asimov writes about are so far distant in time and space that they have to be -- essentially -- sped up.  Each of the narrative slices provides a peek into one time and place before shuttling off to the next.  This creates an exaggerated urgency because he can collapse events that might take place fifty or one hundred years apart to make them seem more causal, more immediate.  Whatever the actual events of history, Seldon's immediate influence has shifted.  While in the first novel, Seldon's holographic appearances were eagerly anticipated, Asimov reveals that two of the subsequent appearances had no audience.  In this sense, Seldon and psychohistory have become more totemic.
Then, two weird things happen.  First, people start talking about someone called the Mule.  There are all kinds of rumors about the Mule and about the powers that he has.  The other thing is that two of the characters meet a space clown named Magnifico.  If you are a reader like me, you will have noticed that Asimov goes to great pains not to describe the Mule and you will further suspect that this space clown actually is the Mule.  This turns out to be the case.  Also, the space clown Mule/Magnifico can essentially read people's thoughts and alter their emotions.
There are some cool scenes of the empire in decline.  As technology declines, colonists are forced to turn back to the soil and bartering.  The Mule wants to rebuild the empire but is frustrated in the end because he is unable to locate the mythical second Foundation that is located somewhere on the opposite side of the galaxy form the original Foundation.  The two separate Foundations are set up in the first novel but the second one has been kept more hidden.  Some of the characters speculate that the scientific first Foundation is countered by an emotional second Foundation which would be ideally suited to fighting against the Mule.
I lost track of where Seldon is in all of this.  Honestly, the space clown threw me a bit and the Mule seemed like a pretty dumb character so I glossed over parts of this book.
As sequels go, this isn't bad.  The book does play around with some of the same themes that made Foundation interesting and it extends other ideas.  However, this book also loses even more focus on the encyclopedia which is the thing that drew me to these books in the first place.