The Mule is a mysterious, highly capable man who bursts suddenly onto the galactic scene with his bloodless takeover of the wealthy planet Kalgan. His burgeoning kingdom threatens the Foundation then conquers it easily.

A small group of opponents to his conquest of the galaxy—Bayta, Toran, and Ebling Mis—take in a street clown, Magnifico. Magnifico is a spindly, large-nosed, and anxiety-ridden entertainer who tells them he served as court jester to the Mule, whom Magnifico describes as extremely large, cruel, and never without his dark glasses. Bayta realizes that Magnifico is the Mule himself. The Mule explains that he grew up rejected for his strangeness, later developed latent psychic powers, and uses them to control people’s emotions, convert them to his cause, and begin his vengeful conquest of star systems.

The Mule’s one weakness is Bayta, the only person ever to treat him as a friend and not an oddity. He basks in her favor, never once manipulating her mind as he does with everyone else, and doesn’t realize until too late that she has seen through his clownish disguise and will defeat him. As the book’s central antagonist, the Mule transforms from a dark mystery into a lovelorn figure with a

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