One of my favorite writers is Isaac Asimov. I am at the moment in the process of re-reading the complete series of books included in the Foundation Universe series (15 books). I am reading them in the order as suggested by Asimov himself before he passed away.
For thoose of you that do not know who Asimov is, or what the Foundation series are. I would like to point out the fact that the Foundation series was awarded the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series in 1966 in competition with the well known Lord of the Rings series written by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Below is a list of the books and the order to read them. The table contains the order no, the year the book was published, the name of the book and some comments.
| 1 | 1982 | The Complete Robot | Collection of thirty-one robot short stories written between 1939 and 1977. |
| 2 | 1954 | The Caves of Steel | This is the first of the robot novels. |
| 3 | 1957 | The Naked Sun | The second robot novel. |
| 4 | 1983 | The Robots of Dawn | The third robot novel. Hugo Award nominee, 1984. Locus Award nominee, 1984 |
| 5 | 1985 | Robots and Empire | The fourth robot novel. Locus Award nominee, 1986 |
| 6 | 1951 | The Stars, Like Dust | This is the first of the Empire novels. |
| 7 | 1952 | The Currents of Space | The second Empire novel. |
| 8 | 1950 | Pebble in the Sky | The third Empire novel, however, it was Asimov’s first full novel to be published. |
| 9 | 1988 | Prelude to Foundation | This is the first Foundation novel. Locus Award nominee, 1989 |
| 10 | 1993 | Forward the Foundation | The second Foundation novel (although it was the last written by Asimov himself). |
| 11 | 1951 | Foundation | The third Foundation novel. Actually, it is a collection of four stories, originally published between 1942 and 1944, plus an introductory section written for the book in 1949. Published, slightly abridged, as part of an Ace Double paperback, D-110, with the title “The 1000-Year Plan”, in 1955. |
| 12 | 1952 | Foundation and Empire | The fourth Foundation novel, made up of two stories, originally published in 1945. Published with the title ‘The Man Who Upset the Universe’ as a 35c Ace paperback, D-125, in about 1952. |
| 13 | 1953 | Second Foundation | The fifth Foundation novel, made up of two stories, originally published in 1948 and 1949. |
| 14 | 1982 | Foundation’s Edge | The sixth Foundation novel. Nebula Award nominee, 1982. Hugo Award winner, 1983. Locus Award winner, 1983 |
| 15 | 1986 | Foundation and Earth | The seventh Foundation novel. Locus Award nominee, 1987 |
Hope you will enjoy reading this series as much as I am.