Foundation Series - List of Books Within The Foundation Universe

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:

  1. The Complete Robot (1982) and/or I, Robot (1950)
  2. Caves of Steel (1954)
  3. The Naked Sun (1957)
  4. The Robots of Dawn (1983)
  5. Robots and Empire (1985)
  6. The Currents of Space (1952)
  7. The Stars, Like Dust (1951)
  8. Pebble in the Sky (1950)
  9. Prelude to Foundation (1988)
  10. Foundation (1951)
  11. Foundation and Empire (1952)
  12. Second Foundation (1953)
  13. Foundation's Edge (1982)
  14. 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.

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