Foundation
The first novel in Isaac Asimov’s classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation series
THE EPIC SAGA THAT INSPIRED THE APPLE TV+ SERIES FOUNDATION • Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read
For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, 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 his sanctuary the Foundation.
The Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are among the most influential in the history of science fiction, celebrated for their unique blend of breathtaking action, daring ideas, and extensive worldbuilding. In Foundation, Asimov has written a timely and timeless novel of the best—and worst—that lies in humanity, and the power of even a few courageous souls to shine a light in a universe of darkness.
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The series takes place thousands of years in the far future. Earth has become a forgotten and mythical world. Humanity has colonized millions of planets harboring quadrillions of human inhabitants across the Milky Way galaxy. A galactic empire has ruled the entire galaxy for twelve thousand years. One individual, a mathematician and social scientist on the capital world of Trantor by the name of Hari Seldon using a revolutionary field known as psychohistory envisions the imminent decline and fall of the galactic empire with a time period of thirty thousand years of barbarianism to endure before another empire arises from the ashes.
In order to influence galactic events and shorten the interregnum to a mere thousand years, Seldon ambitiously decrees the resettlement of the greatest minds within the Empire to a bleak and enigmatic world known as Terminus at the edge of the galaxy. It is this world where Seldon hopes would serve as a sanctuary for the inception of an establishment to preserve knowledge in order to initiate the salvation of human civilization. The organized plan would henceforth be declared to be known formally as the Foundation. The haven of the proposition would culminate in the development of an Encyclopedia Galactica that will become the guardian of humanity's collective insight.
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