Question regarding Asimov's Foundation series

[unicorngirl]

I just purchased this series a few months ago, and will pretty soon get around to reading them.
I have already read the Robot and Empire series.
My question is what is the best order to read the Foundation novels in?
I prefer chronological order, but if there is an order that Asimov intended these to be read in, I would like to know.

[Avatar]

IIRC, their published order and chronological order are the same.

--A

[Zarathustra]

Av, the Foundation trilogy was written in chronological order, but there is a LOT more to the series. He kept writing on it in the 90s, and it was always good. Some parts, like Foundation and Earth, I thought were just as good--if not better--in overall plot, especially the conclusion which wrapped up the entire 15 book series, including the Robots series and the Empire series. Really a big, conceptual payoff, which brought it all back home to the beginning.

However, the rest of the Foundation was written out of order, skipping before and after the trilogy. In 1988, in the foreward to Prelude to Foundation, he gave a guide to the entire series as it stood then (14 books). Listed chronologically:

1. The Complete Robot (published 1982).
2. The 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). {Edit: very good, also.}
14. Foundation and Earth (1983).

However, he didn't stop there. In 1993, "Forward the Foundation," was published, which fits between 9 and 10, I believe, right before the originally trilogy stars. That was a powerful read, for me. I've read a huge chunk of his hundreds of published books. Even his nonfiction and his letters. But this book was the last of his grand series that he wrote before he died (he died the year before this book was published). There is an image at the end that seems almost biographical, as if Hari Seldon were Asimov himself, looking back over the hundreds of books he has written, seeing this project that took him decades of the past to build up, and yet every bit of it was a glimpse of the future (like Seldon's mathematical formulas . . . ). As a huge fan of a recently deceased author, reading this scene was a powerful, emotional experience. Joy and sadness. Asimov knew his end was close, but he also knew the mark he would leave on our culture.

He was a brilliant mind who wrote virtually nonstop for 50? years. I'm not kidding. He boasted that he could write 90 words a minute, and he did so for 8 hours a day nonstop without ever revising anything. That's how you write (thanks Wikipedia): ". . . more than 500 books and an estimated 9,000 letters and postcards[2]. His works have been published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (all except the 100s, Philosophy).[3]"

He is truly one of the most prolific writers in all history. Read as much of his stuff as you can!

[Menolly]

I still miss his monthly column he wrote for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I grew up with those arriving monthly addressed to my Daddy, and Dr. Asimov's column was always the first thing I read in them.

[Zarathustra]

I still miss his monthly column he wrote for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I grew up with those arriving monthly addressed to my Daddy, and Dr. Asimov's column was always the first thing I read in them.

Was that the column that he would collect at the end of each year (or two?) and publish as a book? I've read at least a dozen of those books, if so. I taught myself the basics of astronomy, chemistry, and physics reading his nonfiction as a young teenager, long before I studied those things in college. His nonfiction literally opened up the universe for me. I had no idea that science writing could be so interesting. It was so much better than what I was learning in school.

I still can't get over, 10 books a year for 5 decades. Okay, time to stop blabbing on the Internet and work on my own book! I'll never catch Asimov this way!

[unicorngirl]

Malik,

Thanks for all the information.
From what you have said, I think I will read the Foundation series in chronological order.

[Avatar]

Ha, great post Malik, and thanks. I'll be back to check on it when I finally put the complete set together. Apart from the Robot books and The Stars Like Dust, I've only read the original Foundation trilogy from that list, and is all I really associate with "Foundation" despite sorta knowing that others existed.

The Elijah Bailey books are my favourite though.

--A

[Menolly]

I still miss his monthly column he wrote for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I grew up with those arriving monthly addressed to my Daddy, and Dr. Asimov's column was always the first thing I read in them.

Was that the column that he would collect at the end of each year (or two?) and publish as a book? I've read at least a dozen of those books, if so. I taught myself the basics of astronomy, chemistry, and physics reading his nonfiction as a young teenager, long before I studied those things in college. His nonfiction literally opened up the universe for me. I had no idea that science writing could be so interesting. It was so much better than what I was learning in school.

I can't answer, as I never saw these collections. It wouldn't surprise me though.

So many ideas he presented in those columns has stayed with me through the years, athough I couldn't just draw one out as an example. But when I hear of something in the news, it will strike a cord and I'll nod and say to myself, "Yep. Dr. Asimov explained that years ago."

[Worm of Despite]

Asimov really surprised me when he said that his favorite genre was the detective story. Then again, look at I Robot--a bunch of logic puzzles, with the characters acting as mere cogs to them.

But yeah--hard to imagine how encompassing a mind he had. Glad someone sorted out his best stuff before I had to...

[Avatar]

Haven't you read his murder-mystery stories? Damn...can't remember what the books were called...short stories...some club...Black Widowers, that was it. Some great ones, gotta say.
quite a few volumes in the series.

--A

[lucimay]

i absolutely would NOT read Prelude to Foundation BEFORE reading the original trilogy.

it wasn't WRITTEN before the original series and its SPOILERVILLE !!!!!

[unicorngirl]

i absolutely would NOT read Prelude to Foundation BEFORE reading the original trilogy.

it wasn't WRITTEN before the original series and its SPOILERVILLE !!!!!

Thanks, Lucimay.
Perhaps I should read the original trilogy first and then the rest in this order:
Prelude...
Forward...
...Edge
...and Earth

[lucimay]

i absolutely would NOT read Prelude to Foundation BEFORE reading the original trilogy.

it wasn't WRITTEN before the original series and its SPOILERVILLE !!!!!

Thanks, Lucimay.
Perhaps I should read the original trilogy first and then the rest in this order:
Prelude...
Forward...
...Edge
...and Earth

yes exactly.

[Zarathustra]

Sorry about the potential spoiler. I haven't read this stuff for 15 or 20 years (time for a reread).

I'm not sure what you mean about spoilers. How can the past spoil the future? Are we talking Second Foundation stuff? If so, that would be a shame to spoil, since it was one of the greatest mysteries of the entire series.

God, this was a brilliant story.

Unicorngirl, have you read any Asimov? If not, be prepared for very dry writing style. Asimov was mostly about plot. Very complicated, intelligent plots. Not much in terms of character development or scenery. More cerebral than emotional.

[unicorngirl]

Yes, I have read much of Asimov.
The Foundation series has just been last on my list.
I agree with you about his writing style, which is probably why I prefer his short stories to his novels.
So far, the robot series has been my favorite, especially The Robots of Dawn and Robots and Empire.

Some writers I enjoy for their ideas and philosophy, others I enjoy for their character development.

Perhaps that is why SRD is my favorite author. He manages to incorporate both into his writing quite nicely.

[lucimay]

well i don't know about you malik but all MY questions from the previous books were answered in Prelude to Foundation. so thats why i called it Spoilerville. for me it was the key to the series. so i really don't recomment reading it out of publishing order. that is my OPINION, which i formed having read the books as they were published. (well not the trilogy...i'm not quite THAT old) but you know what i mean.
i read the books published subsequent to the trilogy in the order they were published. i think Prelude was number six wasn't it? (too lazy to scroll up and check your listed pub dates)

i stopped with that one too. if there were any published after Prelude, i didn't read them. *shrug* like i said, it answered all my questions.

[Zarathustra]

Perhaps that is why SRD is my favorite author. He manages to incorporate both into his writing quite nicely.

Great point. That's why he's my favorite, too.

Luci, like I said, I don't remember the details. I remember Prelude as (spoiler tagged just in case this is too much, but I don't think it gives anything away)

Spoiler

Seldon's adventures on the the capitol planet (can't even remember its name!) which gave him the experiences that led to insights he used to develop his psychohistory.

I mainly remember it being my least favorite of the 7. There was one published after Prelude, Forward the Foundation. I wrote a brief description above.

[lucimay]

yes exactly. which is why it answered all my questions. while Seldon was putting it together, so was i. i loved that book for exactly that reason.
it was my favorite for that reason.

but its been nearly 3 decades since i read the original trilogy so i don't remember them all that well.

i just remember the AH HA-ness of Prelude for me.

[Orlion]

Let's not forget the End of Eternity, which comes before everything!

Also, I'm under the impression that Nemesis fits in the series somehow (I think it's a book one of the characters are reading in the prequel Foundation books???), though I'm not entirely sure about this...

[wayfriend]

The Foundation series is becoming movies, I hear. [link]