The story of our future begins with the Foundation. Named the best series of all time by the Hugo Awards, the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov unquestionably comprise one of the great masterworks of science fiction, unsurpassed for its unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building. Now, all seven volumes are together for the first time in this essential eBook bundle: FOUNDATION FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE SECOND FOUNDATION FOUNDATION’S EDGE FOUNDATION AND EARTH PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION FORWARD THE FOUNDATION For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. Only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humanity, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls this sanctuary the Foundation. But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. And mankind’s last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and live as slaves—or take a stand for freedom and risk total destruction. Praise for Isaac Asimov and his Foundation series “A true polymath, a superb rationalist, an exciting and accessible writer in both fiction and nonfiction, Isaac Asimov was simply a master of all he surveyed.”—Greg Bear “Asimov served wondrous meals-of-the-mind to a civilization that was starved for clear thinking about the future. To this day, his visions spice our ongoing dinner-table conversation about human destiny.”—David Brin “Isaac was still in his teens when I met him, a fan of mine before I was a fan of his. Writing for John W. Campbell back in the famous ‘golden age of science fiction,’ he became one of the founders of our field. With the Robot stories and the Foundation stories, he helped to shape science fiction as we know it.”—Jack Williamson “I grew up on the ABC’s of science fiction—Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke. There’s a reason Asimov’s name comes first, and not just because of the alphabet!”—Janis Ian “With his fertile imagination, his wit, and his prolific output, Isaac Asimov truly laid the foundation for all future generations of science fiction writers.”—Kevin J. Anderson “If anything can be said to have been the launch pad for space-age science fiction, it has to be the Foundation trilogy. It’s a classic. And it’s unforgettable.”—Jack McDevitt “The Foundation series is one of the masterpieces of science fiction. If you’ve never read these novels, then you’re in for a treat, and even if you’ve already read them, then you owe it to yourself to reread them, because they’re still great.”—Allen Steele “Quite simply, Asimov got me started.”—Liz Williams

There were a spectrum of opinions about Foundation, but our main criticisms were consistent. The book felt outdated. Part of that were the characters and the plot. It was all very mid-20th century sci-fi, what with the only male protagonists and their endless confidence and the almost complete lack of any diversity at all. It wasn't so much offensive as it just felt thin and tired, and we weren't really sure why we would want to read another story about such figures. But perhaps more damning was the vision of the future was really anachronistic. We understood why Asimov made the choice he did from his time, but reading about a far future where people are still reading paper newspaper or obsessed with nuclear power as the cutting edge just didn't make sense in 2021, and it was hard to ignore. Most of us still recognized and appreciated the key thesis of the book: the idea of science as the savior of civilization, that public policy can mitigate bad outcomes without curing them completely, and a plot arc that jumped generations between chapters because it's a story of a civilization and not individuals. We also acknowledged that reading Foundation alone without reading the trilogy was not fair to the book, because the plot really takes all three books to land, and most of us had read the whole trilogy before and remembered the larger arc being well executed. Nonetheless, the majority of us questioned seriously whether we could have even finished this book if we read it for the first time today. This led us down a really interesting rabbit hole about science fiction of the past, and why some of it becomes hopelessly outdated while other stories remain relevant even if the futures they paint are nonsensical. In the end, we could appreciate how Asimov's work was critical historically, but we couldn't find the same joy in reading it today.