It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall - those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire... the man who holds the key to the future - an apocalyptic power to be know forever after as the Foundation.

Udgivet af Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1905

Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov var en af sf-genrens kæmper. Asimov blev født i 1920. Han begyndte af skrive sf i 40'erne, deriblandt de noveller som endte med at blive til hans klassiske "Foundation" trilogi. Han er lige så kendt for sine Robot-noveller hvor Asimov kom med tre love som var nødvendige for at robotter kunne tjene mennesker. Senere i 80'erne begyndte Asimov at genoptage sine gamle serier og endte med flette dem sammen til én lang kronologi. Han skrev også flere "Foundation" bøger, selvom han aldrig nåede at gøre serien helt færdrig. Det har så David Brin, Greg Bear og Gregory Benford gjort for ham med deres egen trilogi.