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Foundation (Asimov)

edited 2026-05-21

A complete reading order for Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe — the Robot, Empire, and Foundation series Asimov retroactively braided into a single 20,000-year future history. Covers all fifteen Asimov novels and short story collections, the estate-authorized Second Foundation Trilogy by Benford, Bear, and Brin, and Apple TV+'s ongoing adaptation. Includes both publication order and Asimov's own recommended chronological reading order from his Author's Note to Prelude to Foundation.

sections3items22completed0 / 22 · 0%first1950latest2025
page order
books16 items · 16 unwatched
01COLLECTION
1982A comprehensive collection of Isaac Asimov's robot short fiction, published April 9, 1982 by Doubleday. Gathers 31 of Asimov's 37 robot stor…
557 pp
02COLLECTION
1950A fixup collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, published December 2, 1950 by Gnome Press. The stories were origin…
253 pp
03NOVEL
1954The first Robot novel by Isaac Asimov, published February 4, 1954 by Doubleday after serialisation in Galaxy magazine. In a far-future New Y…
224 pp
04NOVEL
1957The second Robot novel, published January 1957 by Doubleday after serialisation in Astounding Science Fiction. Detective Elijah Baley is sen…
187 pp
05NOVEL
1983The third Robot novel by Isaac Asimov, published in 1983 by Doubleday after a 26-year gap from The Naked Sun. Detective Elijah Baley travels…
419 pp
06NOVEL
1985The fourth Robot novel, published September 20, 1985 by Doubleday. Set two centuries after Elijah Baley's death, with Earth resuming the col…
383 pp
07NOVEL
1952The third-written Galactic Empire novel by Isaac Asimov, published in 1952 by Doubleday. Set as Trantor rises to dominance, the novel follow…
217 pp
08NOVEL
1951The second-written Galactic Empire novel by Isaac Asimov, published February 1951 by Doubleday. Set well before the founding of the Galactic…
218 pp
09NOVEL
1950Isaac Asimov's first published novel, released in January 1950 by Doubleday. Joseph Schwartz, a retired tailor from 20th-century Chicago, is…
223 pp
10NOVEL
1988The first Foundation prequel, published November 1988 by Doubleday. A young Hari Seldon, fresh off presenting his first paper on psychohisto…
403 pp
11NOVEL
1993The second Foundation prequel and Isaac Asimov's final novel, published posthumously in 1993 by Doubleday a year after Asimov's death. Spann…
417 pp
12NOVEL
1951The first Foundation novel, published August 30, 1951 by Gnome Press as a fixup of five stories Asimov had serialized in Astounding Science…
255 pp
13NOVEL
1952The second Foundation novel, published in 1952 by Gnome Press. Comprises two novellas: 'The General' follows the Foundation's clash with the…
247 pp
14NOVEL
1953The third Foundation novel, published May 15, 1953 by Gnome Press, completing what is commonly called the original Foundation trilogy. The n…
210 pp
15NOVEL
1982The fourth Foundation novel, published June 1, 1982 by Doubleday — Asimov's return to the Foundation series after a 29-year gap. Five centur…
367 pp
16NOVEL
1986The fifth Foundation novel, published in 1986 by Doubleday as a direct sequel to Foundation's Edge. Golan Trevize, Janov Pelorat, and the Ga…
356 pp