Isaac Asimov - Foundations Edge

See what science fiction and fantasy authors
from A to Z are still saying about
Isaac Asimov:

The extraordinary and grand concept which forms the basis of Asimovs trilogy was what drew me to science fiction originally.Brian W. Aldiss

With his fertile imagination, his wit, and his prolific output, Isaac Asimov truly laid the foundation for all future generations of science fiction writers.Kevin J. Anderson

A true polymath, a superb rationalist, an exciting and accessible writer in both fiction and nonfiction, Isaac Asimov was simply a master of all he surveyed. Beloved entertainer, pioneer, author of many of the most endearing and lasting stories of the twentieth century, he will probably be best known as the creator of Hari Seldon, Lije Baley, R. Daneel Olivaw, Trantor, the Encyclopedia Galactica, and the idea that robotsour eternal servantsmust play by the rules, even when they seem not to.Greg Bear

Isaac Asimov was not only one of the most important writers in science fiction, he was one of the best and brightest people ever. Read I, Robot to see this sparkling genius at his best.Ben Bova

Asimov served wondrous meals-of-the-mind to a civilization that was starved for clear thinking about the future. To this day, his visions spice our ongoing dinner-table conversation about human destiny.David Brin

Asimov is the reason I started reading science fiction. I cut my teeth (figuratively) on The Caves of Steel and followed it up with The Naked Sun. Some writers show us a different way of looking at the world, but Isaac Asimov opened up the door to the universe and invited us to come along for one hell of a fabulous ride.Esther Freisner

Isaac Asimovs ability to take the Big Ideas so crucial to the sense of wonder in science fiction and embody them in compellingly human stories and settingsparticularly in his robot stories, Foundation works, and other speculative fiction both long and shortraised the bar high for all of us who have followed him in the tradition of idea-driven science fiction. Asimov was a law unto himself, yet he gave his fellow writers lawsof robotics, and psychohistorythat have shaped all of us who have tried to write of machine intelligence or of human civilizations vast in time and space. This is his great and vital legacy.Howard V. Hendrix

Asimovs Foundation trilogy was the pivotal touchstone in my life in creative fiction. His vision and scope spanned the galaxy across eons and at the same time he told deeply personal stories of living characters. The writer I am sprang from the boy that these books touched back then. They continue to move me still. Thank you, Isaac, for opening my mind and life to the possible.Tracy Hickman

I grew up on the ABCs of science fictionAsimov, Bradbury, Clarke. Theres a reason Asimovs name comes first, and not just because of the alphabet!Janis Ian

Asimovs Foundation series stands the test of time. They were among the first science fiction books I ever read and I still enjoy them today as an adult. The genre owes much to his sprawling vision of galactic empire.Karen Lowachee

The idea of robots rising up against their human masters is at least as old as the word robot itself. Asimov was unique in treating this as simply an engineering problem, which he solved with his famous Three Laws of Robotics. This by itself would have earned him a spot in history, but he went on (and on!) to explore the ramifications and unintended consequences of his solution. In so doing, he crafted one of the most vibrant, original, and enduring future histories the field of science fiction has ever seen, or probably ever will. Reader, you are in for a treat.Wil McCarthy

If anything can be said to have been the launchpad for space age science fiction, it has to be the Foundation trilogy. Its a classic. And its unforgettable.Jack McDevitt

Im sure there will be more Foundation stories, and more robot stories, and more science fictional mysteries, because those are Isaacs legacies to us. But reading them wont be quite the same. There was only one Isaac Asimov; there will never be another.Mike Resnick

The Foundation series is one of the masterpieces of science fiction. If youve never read these novels, then youre in for a treat, and even if youve already read them, then you owe it to yourself to reread them, because theyre still great.Allen M. Steele

Quite simply, Asimov got me started.Liz Williams

Isaac was still in his teens when I met him, a fan of mine before I was a fan of his. Writing for John W. Campbell back in the famous golden age of science fiction, he became one of the founders of our field. With the robot stories and the Foundation stories, he helped to shape science fiction as we know it.Jack Williamson

Bantam Spectra Books
by Isaac Asimov

THE FOUNDATION NOVELS
Prelude to Foundation
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundations Edge
Forward the Foundation

THE ROBOT NOVELS
I, Robot
The Caves of Steel
The Naked Sun
The Robots of Dawn

Nemesis
The Gods Themselves
Fantastic Voyage

With Robert Silverberg
Nightfall
The Positronic Man

FOUNDATIONS EDGE
A Bantam Spectra Book / published by arrangement with Doubleday

PUBLISHING HISTORY
Doubleday hardcover edition published 2002
Bantam mass market edition / November 1981
Bantam mass market reissue / September 2004

Published by
Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York

All rights reserved
Copyright 1982 by Nightfall, Inc.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-21182
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
For information address: Bantam Books, New York, New York.

Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

eISBN: 978-0-553-90093-4

v3.1

To the memory of Judy-Lynn del Rey
(19431986,
a giant in mind and spirit)

THE FIRST GALACTIC EMPIRE WAS FALLING. IT HAD been decaying and breaking down for centuries and only one man fully realized that fact.

He was Hari Seldon, the last great scientist of the First Empire, and it was he who perfected psychohistorythe science of human behavior reduced to mathematical equations.

The individual human being is unpredictable, but the reactions of human mobs, Seldon found, could be treated statistically. The larger the mob, the greater the accuracy that could be achieved. And the size of the human masses that Seldon worked with was no less than the population of all the inhabited millions of worlds of the Galaxy.

Seldons equations told him that, left to itself, the Empire would fall and that thirty thousand years of human misery and agony would elapse before a Second Empire would arise from the ruins. And yet, if one could adjust some of the conditions that existed, that Interregnum could be decreased to a single millenniumjust one thousand years.