Galactic Empire Series (Asimov)

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

Where I heard about it

• The a16z infrastructure team — on the a16z Infra Reading List, A tier in the Sci-fi — Classics section, under Isaac Asimov’s selected works.

About this edition

This is a series, not a single book, which 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.