List of Books Within The Foundation Universe
The Author's Note of Prelude to Foundation contains Asimov's suggested reading order for his science fiction books:
- The Complete Robot (1982) and/or I, Robot (1950)
- Caves of Steel (1954)
- The Naked Sun (1957)
- The Robots of Dawn (1983)
- Robots and Empire (1985)
- The Currents of Space (1952)
- The Stars, Like Dust (1951)
- Pebble in the Sky (1950)
- Prelude to Foundation (1988)
- Foundation (1951)
- Foundation and Empire (1952)
- Second Foundation (1953)
- Foundation's Edge (1982)
- Foundation and Earth (1986)
An expanded and corrected strictly chronological reading order for the books is listed below.
| C | Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | I, Robot | Robot short stories. First collection, which were all included in The Complete Robot, though it also contains a binding text, no longer in The Complete Robot. | |
| 1964 | The Rest of the Robots | Robot short stories. First collection, which were all included in The Complete Robot. | |
| 1 | 1982 | The Complete Robot | Collection of thirty-one Robot short stories written between 1939 and 1977. |
| 1986 | Robot Dreams | Robot short stories. Anthologized in a book with the same title. | |
| 1990 | Robot Visions | Robot short stories. Anthologized in a book with the same title. | |
| 1992 | The Positronic Man | Robot novel based on Asimov's short story The Bicentennial Man, co-written by Robert Silverberg | |
| 1948 | Mother Earth | Short story set between the early Earth era and the era of the Robot novels, at a time when the Spacer worlds were first being colonised. Contains some minor inconsistencies with later stories | |
| 2 | 1954 | The Caves of Steel | This is the first of the Robot novels. |
| 3 | 1957 | The Naked Sun | The second Robot novel. |
| 1972 | Mirror Image | Written after having received numerous requests to continue the story of detective Elijah Baley and his robot partner R. Daneel Olivaw, featured in his earlier novels The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun | |
| 4 | 1983 | The Robots of Dawn | The third Robot novel. Hugo Award nominee, 1984 Locus Award nominee, 1984 |
| 2000 | Mirage | Robot Mystery series by Mark W. Tiedemann. | |
| 2001 | Chimera | Robot Mystery series by Mark W. Tiedemann. | |
| 2002 | Aurora | Robot Mystery series by Mark W. Tiedemann. | |
| 2005 | Have Robot, Will Travel | Robot Mystery series by Alexander C. Irvine. | |
| 5 | 1985 | Robots and Empire | The fourth Robot novel. Locus Award nominee, 1986 |
| 1993 | Isaac Asimov's Caliban | Caliban trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen. | |
| 1994 | Isaac Asimov's Inferno | Caliban trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen. | |
| 1996 | Isaac Asimov's Utopia | Caliban trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen. | |
| 6 | 1951 | The Stars, Like Dust | This is the first of the Empire novels. |
| 7 | 1952 | The Currents of Space | The second Empire novel. |
| 8 | 1950 | Pebble in the Sky | The third Empire novel; however, it was Asimov's first full novel to be published. |
| 9 | 1988 | Prelude to Foundation | This is the first Foundation novel. Locus Award nominee, 1989 |
| 1997 | Foundation's Fear | Second Foundation trilogy by Gregory Benford. | |
| 10 | 1993 | Forward the Foundation | The second Foundation novel (although it was the last written by Asimov himself). |
| 1998 | Foundation and Chaos | Second Foundation trilogy by Greg Bear. | |
| 1999 | Foundation's Triumph | Second Foundation trilogy by David Brin. | |
| 11 | 1951 | Foundation | The third Foundation novel. Actually, it is a collection of four stories, originally published between 1942 and 1944, plus an introductory section written for the book in 1949. Published, slightly abridged, as part of an Ace Double paperback, D-110, with the title "The 1000-Year Plan", in 1955. |
| 12 | 1952 | Foundation and Empire | The fourth Foundation novel, made up of two stories, originally published in 1945. Published with the title 'The Man Who Upset the Universe' as a 35c Ace paperback, D-125, in about 1952. |
| 13 | 1953 | Second Foundation | The fifth Foundation novel, made up of two stories, originally published in 1948 and 1949. |
| 14 | 1982 | Foundation's Edge | The sixth Foundation novel. Nebula Award nominee, 1982; Hugo Award winner, 1983; Locus Award winner, 1983 |
| 15 | 1986 | Foundation and Earth | The seventh Foundation novel. Locus Award nominee, 1987 |
Another alternative is to read the books in their original order of publication, since reading the Foundation prequels prior to reading the Foundation Trilogy fundamentally alters the original narrative structure of the trilogy by spoiling what were originally presented as plot surprises. In that same Author's Note, Asimov noted that there is room for a book between Robots and Empire (5) and The Currents of Space (6), and that he could follow Foundation and Earth (15) with additional volumes.
Read more about this topic: Foundation Series
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