JRPGfan said:
Im currently doing that, reading through the entire story line (cronologically). |
My recommendation (based on multiple readings) is to go in this order if this is your first time:
Foundation [FOUNDATION]
I, Robot / The Complete Robot (personally, I'd recommend I, Robot for a first timer)
Foundation and Empire [FOUNDATION]
Second Foundation [FOUNDATION]
The Stars, Like Dust-- [EMPIRE] (Optional)
The Currents of Space [EMPIRE] (Optional)
Pebble in the Sky [EMPIRE] (Optional, but this one is worth it)
The Caves of Steel [ROBOTS]
The Naked Sun [ROBOTS]
The Robots of Dawn [ROBOTS]
Foundation's Edge [FOUNDATION]
Foundation and Earth [FOUNDATION]
Robots and Empire [ROBOTS]
Prelude to Foundation [FOUNDATION]
Forward the Foundation [FOUNDATION]
While the chronology is out of order, this is roughly the order of Asimov's thinking. If you read the Foundation prequels before Foundation and the Foundation sequels, you'll spoil the story. The Foundation prequels give away the ending of the original Foundation trilogy AND the Foundation sequels - they were also written and published later. Same with Robots and Empire, these serve to connect the two timeslines, and the story means a great deal less without the background of the Foundation sequels and the Robot trilogy. Also, stylistically, it's VERY jarring if you read them in chronological order, Asimov wrote Foundation and I, Robot in the 1940s, and his style was nowhere near as developed as it was toward the end of his life. He had a lot of difficulty writing characters and writing visually in his early work, and they were largely plot focused and fast paced. His later works were slower paced, but far richer and more vibrant. Not saying his early works are garbage, there's a lot to love about the fast-plot paced early stories.
Anyway, the most important thing for first time readers are spoilers. The publishing order is best. So while the Foundation prequels, for example, come before the original trilogy and the sequels, it serves to conclude the story of the sequels rather than set them up. It's like trying to watch Back to the Future in Chronological Order, in other words.
As a bit of an explanation without spoiling anything:
* First read I, Robot and the original Foundation trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation). I like to start with the book Foundation, because it's such a great introduction to Asimov's writing as a whole. Also, if you finish with the prequels, you basically begin where Foundation starts.
* Next read the Empire series (The Stars Like Dust, Currents of Space, Pebble in the Sky), and this is optional - if you find yourself not liking any of these books, you can skip ahead, there's not a lot of narrative lost. Pebble in the Sky is the most significant of these books as it has SOME relevance, and it's also quite good as far as his early works go.
* Elijah Baley/Robot series (Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn) - this takes you more into Asimov's more developed writing style and really fleshes out the Spacer civilization.
* Foundation Sequels (Foundation's Edge, Foundation and Earth) - these don't follow The Foundation as closely as the original, they are stories that take place after regarding the search for the origin of humanity (think Xenosaga and Battle Star Galactica). They also the mark the first books of Asimov's later period, and his most developed writing style - characters are more vibrant than ever before.
* Robots and Empire, while chronologically quite a while before the Foundation sequels, they answer the questions that arise from the end of the Foundation sequels. So if you read this one first, you've spoiled the end of the Foundation sequels.
* Foundation prequels (Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation) come last, they answer ALL loose ends, why things happened in Foundation and the sequels the way they did, and a number of other things that even hinting at them would be a spoiler. Basically, if you read these books, you spoil a WHOLE LOT of the series. They also spoil Robots and Empire. They act as a way to fill in the blanks for basically all of the books that came before. Part of the reason these go at the end is because these two books chronicle the life of Hari Seldon and Chapter 1 of Foundation is re-examined at the end of the final book, and then you get to see a bit of what happened between chapter 1 and 2 of Foundation, and how the whole rest of the story was set up. It almost feels nostalgic when you get to the end, kind of like the Hobbits returning to the Shire for their last major conflict (which Peter Jackson cut) at the end of Lord of the Rings.
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