Foundation

Foundation
Isaac Asimov

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST ALL-TIME SERIESThe Foundation series is Isaac Asimov’s iconic masterpiece. Unfolding against the backdrop of a crumbling Galactic Empire, the story of Hari Seldon’s two Foundations is a lasting testament to an extraordinary imagination, one whose unprecedented scale shaped science fiction as we know it today.The Galactic Empire has prospered for twelve thousand years. Nobody suspects that the heart of the thriving Empire is rotten, until psychohistorian Hari Seldon uses his new science to foresee its terrible fate.Exiled to the desolate planet Terminus, Seldon establishes a colony of the greatest minds in the Empire, a Foundation which holds the key to changing the fate of the galaxy.However, the death throes of the Empire breed hostile new enemies, and the young Foundation’s fate will be threatened first.

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First published in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1953

Copyright © Isaac Asimov 1951

Cover design and illustration by Mike Topping © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Isaac Asimov asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Source ISBN: 9780008117498

Ebook Edition © March 2018 ISBN: 9780007381128

Version: 2018-09-24

Contents

Cover (#u938a39b3-fb78-5038-bc20-9c7aa5d4b71a)

Title Page (#u99c5bd74-e56d-587b-956a-05505ebde9bd)

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Part I: The Psychohistorians

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Part II: The Encyclopedists

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Part III: The Mayors

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Part IV: The Traders