Isaac Asimov
Trilogy: Foundation
Paperback
(Ballantine Books March 15, 1983)
Issac Asimov's famous science fiction trilogy, the Foundation Trilogy, made up of the first three "Foundation" Novels: Foundation (1983, copyright 1951), Foundation and Empire (1983, copyright 1952), and Second Foundation (1983, copyright 1953). The Foundation Trilogy was the winner of the Hugo Award for Best All Time Series, beating out Lord of the Rings. According to one review, this was "An accomplishment all the more remarkable given that the story driving the Foundation Trilogy - an epic tale of the fall and rise of future galactic empires -contains virtually none of the usual tropes that are associated with science fiction. The novels span the entire galaxy, but no extraterrestrials make an appearance. It depicts the future history of human society, but it's neither explicitly a utopian nor dystopian parable. There's plenty of futuristic technology-from faster-than-light spacecraft to personal force fields-but all of this serves as the background, not the driver, of the plot" -Gizmodo