Galactic Empire Series (Asimov)

The least-read of Asimov’s three future-history sequences: a set of early, largely standalone novels set in the long stretch after Earth has been left behind and before the Empire of the Foundation books decays. They are pulpier and smaller in scale than either neighbour — closer to adventure stories with a political spine — and they matter mostly as the bridge Asimov later used to weld his robot stories and his Foundation stories into one continuous history.

Context: Carded at series level because that is how the a16z list names it. Worth reading after Foundation rather than before; a16z’s own advice on Asimov is to start with the original Foundation trilogy and I, Robot and only then “see how it all ties together.”

Connections

• a16z Infra Reading List — where this is listed, in the classics tier.
• Isaac Asimov — the author.
• Foundation — the sequence this one leads into, and the Asimov Kyle has already read.
• Robot Series (Asimov) — the sequence it follows.
• Science Fiction — the genre.