Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series

I’m getting really into reading second hand science fiction from the
1950s onwards. I read a few (but nowhere near all) of the Foundation
series as a child, and I remember liking them a lot. Stolen from Wikipedia
as well as other online sources, here is a list of the books in The
Foundation series in Asimov’s suggested reading order:

Year Title Notes
1950 I,
Robot
Robot
short stories
. First collection,
which were all included in The Complete Robot, though it also contains
binding text (Mind and Iron), no longer in The Complete Robot.
1964 The
Rest of the Robots
Robot
short stories
. This collection
isn’t recommended, as the stories appear in The
Complete Robot
as well.
1982 The
Complete Robot
Robot
short stories
. Collection of
Asimov stories written between 1940 and 1976.
1986 Robot
Dreams
Robot
short stories
. Anthologized in a
book with the same title.
1990 Robot
Visions
Robot
short stories
. Anthologized in a
book with the same title. This
collection contains Mirror Image, which is referenced in The Robots Of
Dawn and occurs after The Naked Sun
.
1992 The Positronic Man Robot novel based on
Asimov’s short story The Bicentennial Man, co-written by Robert
Silverberg.
1954 The
Caves of Steel
Robot novel.
1957 The
Naked Sun
Robot novel.
1983 The
Robots of Dawn
Robot novel.
1985 Robots
and Empire
Robot novel.
1993 Isaac
Asimov’s Caliban
Caliban trilogy by Roger
MacBride Allen. These three books were quite hard to get, as they’re no
longer for sale.
1994 Isaac
Asimov’s Inferno
Caliban trilogy by Roger
MacBride Allen. These three books were quite hard to get, as they’re no
longer for sale.
1996 Isaac
Asimov’s Utopia
Caliban trilogy by Roger
MacBride Allen. These three books were quite hard to get, as they’re no
longer for sale.
1951 The
Stars, Like Dust
Galactic Empire series.
1952 The
Currents of Space
Galactic Empire series.
1950 Pebble
in the Sky
Galactic Empire series.
1988 Prelude
to Foundation
Foundation novel.
1993 Forward
the Foundation
Foundation novel.
Finished by Asimov’s wife after his death from unfinished work.
Combines a series of short stories: “Forward the Foundation”, became
Part I, “Eto Demerzel”. “Cleon the Emperor” became Part II, “Cleon I”,
and “The Consort” became Part III, “Dors Venabili”. Also includes
“Wanda Seldon” and “Epilogue”.
1951 Foundation Foundation trilogy.
1952 Foundation
and Empire
Foundation trilogy.
1953 Second
Foundation
Foundation trilogy.
1997 Foundation’s
Fear
Second Foundation
trilogy by Gregory Benford. The general concensus seems to be that this
book isn’t very good, but the other two are worth reading. Perhaps skip
this one (although the other two will make less sense unless you read a
plot synopsis of this book).
1998 Foundation
and Chaos
Second Foundation
trilogy by Greg Bear.
1999 Foundation’s
Triumph
Second Foundation
trilogy by David Brin.
1982 Foundation’s
Edge
Final chronological
Foundation books.
1986 Foundation
and Earth
Final chronological
Foundation books.

Next step, read them.

Update:
this
amazon list is also useful
as it
has a guide to the short story books and how they overlap, as well as a
bunch more robot books written by other authors.

Update:
this Foundation
Series timeline
is useful too.

Update:
this page
contains a useful list mapping short stories to later Foundation books
.