The Foundation universe describes a future history of humanity's colonization of the galaxy, spanning nearly 25,000 years, created through the gradual fusion of the Robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation book series written by American author Isaac Asimov.
Works set in the universe
Asimov's Greater Foundation series Merging the Robot, the Empire and the Foundation series The Foundation series is set in the same universe as Asimov's first published novel, Pebble in the Sky, although Foundation takes place about 10,000 years later. Pebble in the Sky became the basis for the Galactic Empire series. Then, at some unknown date (prior to writing Foundation's Edge) Asimov decided to merge the Foundation/Galactic Empire series with his Robot series. Thus, all three series are set in the same universe, giving them a combined length of 18 novels, and a total of about 1,500,000 words. The merger also created a time-span of the series of around 20,000 years.
The Stars, Like Dust states explicitly that the Earth is radioactive because of a nuclear war. Asimov later explained that the in-universe reason for this perception was that it was formulated by Earthmen many centuries after the event, and which had become distorted, due to the loss of much of their planetary history. This work is regarded by Asimov as part of the Empire series, but does not directly mention either Trantor or the other Spacer worlds. One character is said to have a Visi-Sonor, the same musical instrument that is played by the clown Magnifico in Foundation and Empire.
Asimov integrated the Robot series into his all-encompassing Foundation series, making the robot R. Daneel Olivaw appear again twenty thousand years later in the age of the Galactic Empire, in sequels and prequels to the original Foundation trilogy; and in the final book of the Robots series, Robots and Empire, Asimov describes how the worlds that later formed the Empire were settled, and how Earth became radioactive (which was first mentioned in Pebble in the Sky).
Standalone novels set in the universe While not mentioned in the "Author's Note" of Prelude to Foundation, the novels The End of Eternity (1955), Nemesis (1989), and The Positronic Man (1992) (written by Robert Silverberg) are related to the greater Foundation series.
The End of Eternity is vaguely referenced in Foundation's Edge, where a Gaian character in Foundation and Earth mentions the Eternals, whose "task it was to choose a reality that would be most suitable to Humanity." (The End of Eternity also refers to a "Galactic Empire" within its story.) Asimov himself did not mention The End of Eternity in the series listing from Prelude to Foundation. As for Nemesis, it was written after Prelude to Foundation, but in the author's note Asimov explicitly states that the book is not part of the Foundation or Empire series, but that someday he might tie it to the others.
In Forward the Foundation, Hari Seldon refers to a 20-thousand-year-old story of "a young woman that could communicate with an entire planet that circled a sun named Nemesis", a reference to Nemesis. Commentators noted that Nemesis contains barely disguised references to the Spacers and their calendar system, the Galactic Empire, and even to Hari Seldon which seem to have been deliberately placed for the purpose of later integration into the Foundation universe. According to Alasdair Wilkins, in a discussion posted on Gizmodo, "Asimov absolutely loves weird, elliptical structures. All three of his non-robot/Foundation science fiction novels — The End of Eternity, The Gods Themselves, and Nemesis — leaned heavily on non-chronological narratives, and he does it with gusto in The Gods Themselves."
In The Robots of Dawn, Dr. Han Fastolfe briefly summarizes the story from "The Bicentennial Man" (1976), which was later expanded by Robert Silverberg into the novel The Positronic Man (1992).
Works set in universe The foreword to Prelude to Foundation contains the chronological ordering of Asimov's science fiction books. Asimov stated that the books of his Robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation series "offer a kind of history of the future, which is, perhaps, not completely consistent, since I did not plan consistency to begin with." Asimov also noted that the books in his list "were not written in the order in which (perhaps) they should be read."
Forward the Foundation, does not appear in Asimov's list, as it was not yet published at the time, and the order of the Empire novels in Asimov's list is not entirely consistent with other lists. For example, the 1983 Ballantine Books printing of The Robots of Dawn lists the Empire novels as: The Stars, Like Dust, The Currents of Space, and Pebble in the Sky.
The following works are listed in chronological order by narrative: Robot series (I): Short stories about robots, set from the 20th to 22nd centuries (1995–2180), collected in The Rest of the Robots (1964), The Complete Robot (1982), Robot Dreams (1986), Robot Visions (1990) and Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection (1995) I, Robot (1950) — a fixup novel composed of 9 short stories about robots, set in the 21st century (1998–2052) on Earth The Positronic Man (1992) — a standalone robot novel, written by Robert Silverberg, based on Asimov's 1976 novelette "The Bicentennial Man", set from the 22nd to 24th centuries (2160–2360) Nemesis (1989) — a standalone novel, set in the 23rd century (2236) in a star system about 2 light years from Earth, when interstellar travel was new Robot series (II): "Mother Earth" (1949) — short story, set in the 25th century (2421) The Caves of Steel (1954) — first novel, set in the 35th century (3421) on Earth The Naked Sun (1957) — second novel, set in the 35th century (3422) on the Spacer planet Solaria "Mirror Image" (1972) — short story, set in the 35th century (3423) The Robots of Dawn (1983) — third novel, set in the 35th century (3424) on the Spacer planet Aurora Robots and Empire (1985) — fourth novel, set in the 37th century (3624) on Earth, Solaria, Aurora, and Baleyworld Galactic Empire series The Stars, Like Dust (1951) — first novel, set in the 49th century (4850), thousands of years in the future before the founding of a Galactic Empire The Currents of Space (1952) — second novel, set in the 112th century (11129), set thousands of years in the future during Trantor's unification of the galaxy into a Galactic Empire Pebble in the Sky (1950) — third novel, set in the 125th century (12411), primarily set thousands of years in the future on Earth, when the galaxy is unified into a Galactic Empire "Blind Alley" (1945) — short story, set in the 126th century (12561–12562) Foundation series Prelude to Foundation (1988) — first novel, set in the 237th century (23604) Forward the Foundation (1993) — second novel, set in the 237th century (23612–23653) Foundation (1951) — third novel, set from the 237th to 239th centuries (23651–23812) Foundation and Empire (1952) — fourth novel, set from the 239th to 240th centuries (23847–23963) Second Foundation (1953) — fifth novel, set from the 240th to 241st centuries (23968–24029) Foundation's Edge (1982) — sixth novel, set in the 242nd century (24150) Foundation and Earth (1986) — seventh novel, set in the 242nd century (24150) The End of Eternity (1955) — a standalone novel, about Eternity, an organization "outside time" which aims to improve human happiness by altering history
Timeline
Other authors contributing to the expanded series Asimov's novels covered only 500 of the expected 1,000 years it would take for the Foundation to become a galactic empire. The novels that were written after Asimov did not continue the timeline but rather sought to fill in gaps in the earlier stories. The Foundation universe was once again revisited in 1989's Foundation's Friends, a collection of short stories written by many prominent science fiction authors of that time. Orson Scott Card's "The Originist" clarifies the founding of the Second Foundation shortly after Seldon's death; Harry Turtledove's "Trantor Falls" tells of the efforts by the Second Foundation to survive during the sacking of Trantor, the imperial capital and Second Foundation's home; and George Zebrowski's "Foundation's Conscience" is about the efforts of a historian to document Seldon's work following the rise of the Second Galactic Empire.
Also, shortly before his death in 1992, Asimov approved an outline for three novels by Roger MacBride Allen, known as the Caliban trilogy, set between Robots and Empire and the Empire series. The Caliban trilogy describes the terraforming of the Spacer world Inferno, a planet where an ecological crisis forces the Spacers to abandon many long-cherished parts of their culture. Allen's novels echo the uncertainties that Asimov's later books express about the Three Laws of Robotics, and in particular the way a thoroughly roboticized culture can degrade human initiative.
After Asimov's death and at the request of Janet Asimov and the Asimov estate's representative, Ralph Vicinanza approached Gregory Benford and asked him to write another Foundation story. He eventually agreed, and with Vicinanza and after speaking "to several authors about [the] project", formed a plan for a trilogy with "two hard SF writers broadly influenced by Asimov and of unchallenged technical ability: Greg Bear and David Brin."Quotes from the Author's afterword in Foundation's Fear (Benford) Foundation's Fear (1997) takes place chronologically between part one and part two of Asimov's second prequel novel, Forward the Foundation; Foundation and Chaos (1998) is set at the same time as the first chapter of Foundation, filling in the background; Foundation's Triumph (1999) covers ground following the recording of the holographic messages to the Foundation, and ties together a number of loose ends. These books are now claimed by some to collectively be a "Second Foundation trilogy", although they are inserts into pre-existing prequels and some of the earlier Foundation storylines and not generally recognized as a new Trilogy.
In an epilogue to Foundation's Triumph, Brin noted he could imagine himself or a different author writing another sequel to add to Foundation's Triumph, feeling that Hari Seldon's story was not yet necessarily finished. He later published a possible start of such a book on his website.
More recently, the Asimov estate authorized the publication of another trilogy of robot mysteries by Mark W. Tiedemann. These novels, which take place several years before Asimov's Robots and Empire, are Mirage (2000), Chimera (2001), and Aurora (2002). These were followed by yet another robot mystery, Alexander C. Irvine's Have Robot, Will Travel (2004), set five years after the Tiedemann trilogy.
In 2001, Donald Kingsbury published the novel Psychohistorical Crisis, set in the Foundation universe after the start of the Second Empire.
Novels by various authors (Isaac Asimov's Robot City, Robots and Aliens and Robots in Time series) are loosely connected to the Robot series, but contain many inconsistencies with Asimov's books, and are not generally considered part of the Foundation series.
In November 2009, the Asimov estate announced the publication of a prequel to I, Robot under the working title Robots and Chaos, the first volume in a prequel trilogy featuring Susan Calvin by fantasy author Mickey Zucker Reichert. The first book was published in November 2011 under the title I, Robot: To Protect, followed by I, Robot: To Obey in 2013 and I, Robot: To Preserve in 2016.
Stories set in the Foundation universe, including works by other authors The following works are listed in chronological order by narrative: