So currently right now I'm going through Asimov's Foundation series, most specifically the original trilogy of it from 1951-53. So far right And also one of the most influential to come out of the golden age of science fiction.
In the first book (which is also a fix up novel like "I, Robot") the Galactic Empire, which has ruled for over twelve thousand years, is slowly dying from entropy and corruption. The only person to see the future is one Hari Seldon, a pyschohistorian. And the future he sees is that of a dark age full of ignorance, barbarism and galactic conflicts.
For Seldon to save ages of wisdom and knowledge and the human race he gathers the greatest minds the Empire offers and takes them to a bleak world on the edges of the galaxy. And on that planet shall sit the beacon of hope for many future generations, the Foundation.
Like with "I, Robot" and Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles" the first novel of the trilogy is a fix up novel. Yes the, the different parts to it are short stories that appeared in pulp mags and follow the story thread that each of them present.
Each of these stories, like with "Martian Chronicles", is following the chronological story of the creation of the foundation by Hari Seldon and it's growth. A fictional history basically. The other stories around the growth revolve around other characters who also play important roles in it.
There are excerpts from the Encyclopedia Galactica, a fictional tome in the Foundation universe that also gets mention in a couple of the stories, that appear at intervals detailing specific parts of the Foundation's history. There is the science of psychohistory that acts like a form of sooth saying, only by scientific and mathematical means. Science itself being treated as some kind of magic. And of course savvy traders and salesmen. There is certainly a lot going in the first to say the least, both in ideas and world building.
The massive influence it has is also one that has been talked about to death, from being an inspiration to George Lucas's Star Wars and beyond. So far I'm still going the trilogy even as of right now, but I do know that Asimov himself had revisited the series a few decades later, which also included two prequel books. Maybe once I've finished the original trilogy I'll probably check those out.
by i-the-muso-1968