Foundation Set - Foundation, Vols 1-3 Author:Isaac Asimov Avon Books Nos. N304, 30627, and N306, published between 1966 and 1970. — Foundation Trilogy includes: — FOUNDATION (Foundation, Bk 1) — For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire had ruled supreme. Now it was dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, could see into the future -... more »- a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that would last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathered the best minds in the Empire -- both scientists and scholars -- and brought them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He called his sanctuary the Foundation.
But soon the fledgling Foundation found itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. Mankind's last best hope was faced with an agonizing choice: Submit to the barbarians and be overrun -- or fight them and be destroyed.
FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE (Foundation, Bk 2)
When the Galactic Empire began dying, the great psycho historian Hari Sheldon set up the Foundation to preserve human culture and shorten 30,000 years of chaotic barbarism to a mere millennium. Located on a bleak world at the edge of the galaxy, it seemed helpless before the greed of neighboring warlords. But somehow, by science and wit, it had survived and even gained control of a small federation of planets.
Yet it was still small And against it stood the greatest power of all -- the huge power of the Empire, mighty even in decay. When an ambitious general turned an Imperial fleet toward the Foundation, the only hope lay in the prophecies of Hari Seldon.
But even Hari Salon could not predict the birth and mutant talent of the Mule -- one small man with power greater than a dozen battlefleets.
Between big and little, the foundation seemed doomed.
SECOND FOUNDATION (Foundation, Bk 3)
It happened this way:
In the distant future, Man spread to a million worlds circling the blazing suns of the Milky Way --
Earthmen and aliens formed vast units, seething with old lusts and new passions ... and the pattern of history repeated itself.
The mighty culture of this First Galactic Empire was now crumbling into anarchy and decay!
For this Eon of Crisis, Hari Seldon, famous psycho-historian, having foreseen the 30,000 years of interstellar barbarism that would follow, established The Second Foundation -- a secret society of scientists.
Their aim: To save the universe -- if need be at the cost of their own lives!« less