In Foundation's Edge the Foundation's councillor Golan Trevize had taken a decision with far-reaching consequences for the future of mankind, and today he is not convinced he made the right decision.  He doesn't know he took the wrong decision, he's just not sure he wasn't manipulated.  Blits assures him Gaia sure didn't, and she doesn't find evidence the Second Foundation even tried it.  But Trevize thinks that if he manages to find Earth he will be sure, since then he'll know for sure why all references to that planet have been removed from every library in the Galaxy.

But finding a planet, somewhere in the Universe yet without even so much as a clue where it could be is virtually impossible.  Still his friend Pelorat and Blits, acting both as Pelorat's partner and as Gaia's representative, accompany him as they see how important finding Earth is.  The first stop, the planet Comporellon, is a disappointment despite what seemed like a solid clue, and they only just get out of there.  They decide to go to the Spacer's planets, the first wave of colonized planets.  Today they are seen by some as "forbidden" planets, and again there hardly is any information about them, but Trevize finds a few.  They land on each, hoping to find more information about the whereabouts of Earth, but they find trouble in stead.  Dangerous dogs, a pretty agressive moss, and on Solaria they encounter a race of strangely evolved humans, that no longer have a distinct gender but they do have impressive cerebral powers.  Unfortunately they need to flee from there too without any information about Earth, but with a boy/girl that would otherwise have been killed, and that would have been their fault.

With some creative guessing they come pretty close to Earth, but end up on Alpha Centauri in stead.  Finally they seem to be in touch with direct descendants of Earth, but again they meet a hidden danger, and no useful information.  This time however that creative guessing has brought them close enough...

If you expect something about Hari Seldon or Psychohistory like in any of the other Foundation Novels, you're in for a disappointment.  In stead Asimov tries to bring some of his Robot novels and the Foundation series together.  If you read the robot novels you'll meet an old aquaintance, a very old one literally.  And though the eras of both "series" are some 20,000 years apart Asimov manages to make the mix not even feel stretched, but very natural in stead.

The novel is not perfect though, on he contrary.  It's major flaw is that almost nothing happens.  There is a succession of planet-hopping, and in the end it becomes clear that each of the hops contained some kind of a clue, or a seed for reaching a conclusion later on, but that doesn't prevent that this is the first Foundation novel that doesn't build up any tension, except for wondering how it will end.

Well, it's not really true that nothing happens.  The entire novel is filled with arguments between Blits/Gaia and Trevize, endless it seems.  And for hundreds of pages there is no real evolution in them, one tends to get a little tired of them.  Only near the conclusion they finally start to understand why the others thinks that way, and to be honest to me it felt a little too much.  Edit 50% of those arguments out and add 5% excitement and this would be a great story.  Now for me it just gets ***--, whereas most Foundation novels are clear *****.