This landmark adult science fiction series is set in a galactic empire spanning millions of worlds, where a mathematician predicts the empire's inevitable collapse and works to preserve the sum of human knowledge in order to shorten the coming dark age from thirty thousand years to a single thousand. The series follows the Foundation he establishes across centuries of political upheaval and crisis, and is considered one of the most influential works in the history of science fiction.
As the Galactic Empire begins its long decline, mathematician Hari Seldon uses the science of psychohistory to predict the coming dark age and establishes the Foundation on a remote planet to preserve civilization and shorten the period of chaos from thirty thousand years to one. Told through a series of linked stories spanning generations, the novel follows the Foundation's crises and political maneuverings as it navigates the collapse around it. A cornerstone of science fiction, sweeping in scope and propelled by ideas rather than action.
In two linked narratives, the Foundation faces its greatest threat yet: first from a resurgent Empire led by a capable general, and then from the Mule, a mutant with the psychic power to bend men's emotions, whose rise no amount of psychohistorical prediction could foresee. The second installment of the original trilogy deepens the scope of Asimov's universe with a more personal story at its center. A pivotal entry in which the limits of Seldon's grand plan are exposed.
The hunt for the secret Second Foundation intensifies on two fronts: the Mule seeks it to neutralize the only power that can stop him, while the First Foundation, having defeated the Mule, now fears the Second Foundation's hidden mental influence over their destiny. The final volume of the original trilogy resolves the trilogy's central conflict through clever misdirection and a revelatory ending. A satisfying and intellectually playful conclusion to Asimov's original grand design.