While Isaac Asimov is best known for his Foundation series, he also wrote a series of novels set in the earlier Galactic Empire. These stories bridge the gap between his Robot stories and the later Foundation era, exploring the peak and stability of a galaxy-wide human civilization before its eventual decay.
Empire Novels[]
The original Empire novels are a loose trilogy, not directly connected by characters, but by their shared setting in the timeline of the Foundation universe The original Empire trilogy consists of:
- The Stars, Like Dust (1951)
- The Currents of Space (1952)
- Pebble in the Sky (1950) - Although published first, it is set last in the internal chronology.
Together, these novels depict a galaxy where humanity has settled thousands of worlds, Earth is largely forgotten and radioactive, and the Galactic Empire, centered on the planet Trantor, is at its height of power.
Greater Foundation Universe[]
Asimov later integrated the Robot, Empire, and Foundation series into a single, cohesive future history spanning thousands of years. The Empire series occupies the middle period:
Robot Series (Spacer era) -> Empire Series (Galactic Empire at its peak) -> Foundation Series (Fall of the Empire)
The novels The Stars, Like Dust and The Currents of Space are set before the Empire is fully unified, while Pebble in the Sky takes place when the Empire is well-established.