Foundation
Isaac Asimov · first published 1951 · ISBN 9780345336279
Five interconnected stories spanning centuries trace the rise and fall of a galactic empire on the edge of collapse. Drawing on psychohistory (mathematics applied to human society), a mathematician founds a settlement designed to shorten the dark ages to come. It is less about individual characters than the vast machinery of history itself.
On our lists
Essential Science Fiction Novels
Foundation created the template for SF world-building at planetary scale. Any serious reader needs to understand how Asimov thought about civilization, technology, and time as plot devices that carry ideas.