Foundation trilogy

Isaac Asimov has written a vast amount of books, both science fiction and works of popular science. His most popular work is probably his Foundation trilogy. The titles are Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. In the far future, humanity has spread throughout the galaxy and created a vast empire. The entire galaxy is governed from the planet Trantor located in the center of our galaxy. The scientist Hari Seldon discovers that the vast empire is coming to an end and that mankind will plunge into an era of barbarism lasting 30000 years before a new empire will arise. Seldon is the creator of a new science, psychohistory. This science can be used to predict changes in society and the future. Not only that, it can be used to alter the future as well. Seldon uses psychohistory to shorten the 30000 years of anarchy considerably and to keep scientific knowledge from being lost. Finally a new empire will be built. An organization called Foundation is established to this end. Just as Seldon predicited, the empire does crumble and the Foundation must begin its work of applying psychohistory to reshape the empire.


This series was written at the time of the Second World War and Asimov's idea that all great empires(read Germany) must come to and end is evident in the Foundation series. It is supposedly based on Edward Gibbon's famous book about the fall of the Roman Empire.
I remember being totally entranced by this series and it's really one of those stories you'll return to again and again. It may not be the most well written science fiction around, but then Asimov's main strength as a writer are his imaginative stories and his scientific learning, not his skill as a novelist.