It's been 40 years since I read all of the Foundation novels. Thanks for bringing back memories.

Asimov got the inspiration after reading Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"...also very good and a classic.

I think there is a strong hint in Asimov s short story “The last question,” as to what the final future of humanity is. Which, without giving spoilers, connects very strongly to his Foundation sequels.

Glad I found you. I don’t see any of the scifi, marvel or Star Wars oriented channels even discussing this show. Looking forward to the premier!

2:48 - Put a smile on my face. Foundation and Earth IS my favourite book of all time. The grandiose. The resolution to so many books. The sheer beauty of it all. I'd be terrified though if I were Golan meeting Daneel for the first time.

In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

I just started watching the series today and had to come here to understand the crazy timeline. Now I know there are books I need to read them all.

Wow I'm so delighted to have found your channel! Issac Asimov is by far my favorite author in both fiction and nonfiction. I've read more of his books than any other! Of course included in those are all the books he wrote that had even the most remote connection to the Foundation Universe! I think there are 14 or 15 of them. Even "The End of Eternity" answered an interesting riddle about that universe! They all have wonderful plot twists that I usually didn't see coming! I hope that is preserved in the Apple TV+ screen play. Already I'm loving this series even though there are some details rendered differently. The look of the show is amazing! Even though there are some significant plot details that differ from the books, I do think the overall theme of the storyline has been successfully conveyed! The Foundation Series will always be better than Star Wars, Star Trek or any of the modern takes on the theme of galactic exploration simply because of it's scope and of course the hero's and heroines of this saga are not super heroes, unless you consider the robot heroes super! Rationality is the virtue in these stories! That is what sets it apart!

Great video and explanation of the dating in the books. Very much looking forward to seeing this show when it airs.

Thanks. this helps. Think i've read most of these at one time or another but was a very long time ago in my timeline.

Arkady is a main character of the second part of second foundation she doesn't appear in Foundation and Empire, the main characters of Foundation and Empire are General Bel Rios (Belisarius type figure) of the first part, and Beyta Darrel of the second part. Great summary, I'm sure you just got them mixed because Beyta is the Grandma of Arkady.

I herniated my back recently and had a lot of bed rest time, as a result I ended up reading nearly all of the connected Asimov books, reading Foundation and I Robot consecutively, as I read these series I was floored to discover that they were connected. I think they might be one of my favorite science fiction series. Asimov has a brilliant way of looking at things directly, tangentially, retrospectively and speculatively.

Well done, I would add "The Last Question" dealing with entropy as an arbitrary end to the Asimov timeline, which would happen after Galaxia.

The Foundation time line starts at the end of The End of Eternity which reset time before that where technology and events were controlled stopping humanity travelling to the stars.

Don't forget the novella "Nemesis", mentioned in "Forward the Foundation" as an ancient part of that book's history.

What would be great is if every book and short story of the entire series would be collected in volumes. I mean,who wouldnt buy it? I sure as hell would.

Yeah time to read the complete 16 novels for the third time (I start from caves of steel, though). Great video Luigi!! Bravissimo!!

R.A.H. used the term "future history" so now that I am reminded of him I need to go reread a few stories of his also

The timeline can also be incremented with the other robot stories (I know the books are a mess, some stories doesn't even seem to fit the rest of the canon, but the "complete Robot" can be mentioned to englobe it all.) The robot series comprehend the first few centuries after the 2000's where humanity is exploring the solar system. There are, however, 3 works supposedly independent of the Robot-Empire-Foundation Timeline, maybe due to some minor discrepancies (just like some robot short stories), that actually fits in the universe in its general form, and I would love to see them included: 1) There's "The Gods Themselves", which is set in 2070 in a moon colony. 2) Later (24th-27th century) the "End of Eternity" also can be placed (despite its own timeline of far future without empire, there without foundation), with enriching plot to the future galatic series and also the foundation series. 3) "Nemesis" is a stand-alone by Asimov's own preface, and yet, Hari Seldon mentions the plot on "Forward the Foundation", and is set on 2236 without contradicting the empire series plot. I think is also a nice ... snippet... of "Foundations Edge" and "Foundation and Earth" And there's also the Lucky Starr series, that I'm not sure how they fit the canon, but obviously tries to mimic the same events to place itself, I believe it cover some (the early part) of that void after the Empire books and the long long long time until "Foundation", but I'm not sure on this

Great Job. It's been decades since I've read the series.

I had forgotten that the entries of the EG were from the "future". There is something Bedford, Brin and Bear could have covered. Thanks for the video.

I really like that note you picked up on about the date of the publishing from the encyclopedia. I never noticed that

I believe The Stars, Like Dust happened before The Current of Space because Trantor controls half of the galaxy in The Current of Space.

You forgot to put Robots and Empire in the Robot series

I was relaxing and watching this video and it made me happy to have read all these books and to listen to your retelling it was fun .

While a bit contentious within the fandom, Nemesis is kind of a possible prequel to all of it. I only mention it, because I found it as a child at my public library in about 1990. Because of it, I discovered Foundation.

Good job Luigi , I just subscribed.

very thorough. Thanks for this.

Hey, great job with the time line. Thank you! Just one thing, Arkady Darell is not the main character in Foundation and Empire, but the main character in Second Foundation Part II: Search by the Foundation.

the End of Eternity should be mentioned as Eternity's demise make the Galactic Empire possible.

Have bought, sold, sought & rebought the complete series from cSusanCalvin's Robots thru 2 Encyclopaedia Galactica c500+ FE .. mind blowingly epic. The "Encyclopaedia" was the excuse 4 the establishment o/t (1st) Foundation. Real reason was as Yin 2 the 2nd Foundation's Yang upon completion 1000FE

In my head-canon, DUNE takes place after FOUNDATION, with the break being the Butlerian Jihad "ending" the era of ai (aka "thinking machines" and other advanced tech). Hari Sheldon creates Foundation in order to preserve human progress, in the face of an impending "dark era" (the era that is the Dune Saga).

A very lovely and succinct breakdown! Hey, I would like to recommend to you the "Seldon Crisis Podcast" There, a team of 3 or 4 do voice acting of some scenes, and they give an analysis of the books (the original trilogy)

Heres the ideal scenario...the Foundation show is popular enough that they are able to cover all the books. Then they use the events in Foundation and Earth as a kinda backdoor pilot for a Robot series. The Karl Urban show Almost Human, I've always wondered if that came about from a failed attempt to secure the rights to turn the Robot books into a tv series. Its either that or they just whole sale ripped it off. The two main characters may as well be called Daneel Olivaw and Elijah Baley.

Thanks so much. Read the series a long time ago and it is still very much my favourite Sci-Fi universe. I've been thinking about R Giskard and this came up when I searched his name. A happy coincidence

I read the robot series and foundation series completely out of order and before Forward foundation was published, so it all felt very muddled to me 🤣 Thanks for the video

You say we should have flying cars, but I recall in one of the foundation novels there’s a girl doing her homework on a machine she can dictate to and it will print out what she says… and my phone can do that without it being 20,000 years in the future 😁

Simply put: wow and thank you for the video!

interesting video - i'm looking for a channel of someone who knows the books inside out who can offer insight to the show. hopefully just found it! here's a question are all other 'years' equal to 12 months on earth? if so how come. especially as it said in the show that different planets use different counting methods.

Indeed, the chronology doesn't spoil the superb plots, in fact I´ve read the whole series in disarrange.

Hey bud awesome timeline but would have been good to add the end of eternity at the beginning as without that there would not have been an empire .. still awesome

Does Multivac from The Last Question exist in Foundation universe?

Well, I think there are around 2 prototype flying cars currently and we have dancing robots from Boston Dynamics. Put it in the KZfaq search if you haven't seen them yet. Very entertaining.

Interesting that the Dune timeline tracks so closely. The events of Dune take place about 24,500 years from now.

Fundatiin and Earth is amazing! My favourite as well. This and then Robots of Dawn.

Thank you. Where can I find an audio version of “Foundation and Earth,” that is read by s human being and free?

It all makes one wonder what happened in our own past...

Just started watching the Foundation series and I am amazed.

Written back in the 50's, Empire and Robot (2 series) are basically the foundation (lol) of all modern sci fi. Thanks Asimov.

Missing is the transition from Tyranni to Trantor. I have heard mention of the 33rd millennium. Also, didn't Arkady say that man has had atomic power for 'fifty thousand years"?

I thought "Pebble in the Sky" was around 8,000 years in the future. Very good video.

Foundation and Earth is among my favourites as well. I like the idea of a quest and a "road trip" That said, I don't like the fact that Gaia was decided to be the choice. In my mind, it was found to be in error (hence the need for an Encylopedia Galactica in 1020 FE instead of a hive mind knowing the facts in the volumes already)

OMG, I am so psyched, maybe even more so than I am about the new Dune. I hope Daneel Olivaw makes an appearance. He is my favorite character in all of science fiction. As everyone who has read the series knows, Daneel does NOT appear in the original trilogy, even though his presence can be felt, as he is the fulcrum point upon which the Galactic Empire and the Foundation revolves. Looks like I'll be buying into another streaming service. Can't wait for this series.

thank you for this video.

Nice channel. New subscriber here.

I love Asimov's Timeline

This video, instant subscribe.

23000 years is the revised timeline. Originally Pebble in the Sky was suppose to be 35,000 years in the future and Foundation was about 50,000.

Shout out for the BBC Radio 4 Series which is currently on KZfaq - all eight episodes.

Also, in the Apple series they use all these floating dots to make figures and holograms. This comes from Asimov's interest in chaos theory and predicting the movement of gasses. He's changed gasses to the predictive model of humans just like Google, FB and all the other bastards use to accurately predict what we will do.

Now a couple of questions that have to be asked is how did an Galactic Emperor occur? An Empire is easy to understand (see Roman Empire during Roman Republican rule), but how did one person become the one to rule the entire Milky Way Galaxy? Further, how where planetary, solar or sector governments organized? The only way I can see such a government could succeed is that it looked like the Holy Roman Empire in its early years, and the fall of the Galactic Empire at the end of the HRE at its end. I could see a solar system being the basic unit of government. It could be organized all the way from a barony, a county, a duchy, a principality, an abbacy (Fulda), a bishopric (Augsburg), an archbishopric (Cologne)to a republic (what many people do not know if they are not historians nor history nerds is that republics where organized within the Holy Roman Empire, such as Bremen, Lübeck, Hamburg, Florence, Pisa and Lucca for example.) FYI women within the HRE did have some political power as Princess-Abbess' such as Quedlinburg. I can see the solar government then organize lesser governmentmental units (planets, moons, etc.); they in turn organize their lesser governmentmental units. I then see the Imperial Government appointing a Sector Governor. A Sector would contain between 10-100 inhabitant Solar Systems (ideally with 20-25 Solar Systems). The governor and his administrators serving one decade only per Sector (the Administrators would serve only 5 years under a governor so that the two are staggered). No governor nor administrators would be from that sector its neighbors nor have any direct business connections to the sector they are governing. After their decade is over they could be appointed to new sectors far away from their present sector for a new term. That way the Imperial Government can make sure the Solar Governments are overseen and make sure corruption is rare. It would be similar to what the Median and Achaemenid Empires did with its Santrapy system. They kept the local kings and governments in power while overseeing them with their own provincial governors and administrators. If corruption or misrule was found then they would be removed and delt with; from exile to execution. I realize that this is a long post, but the point I am trying to make is that such a Galactic Imperial Government would HAVE to be organized along the lines of the Holy Roman Empire to have a chance of survival and be the least corrupt. A feudal Galactic Government would be the most corrupt and likely to fracture and war nearly constantly. A Republic would have to be federalized and parliamentary since it would be impossible for a president to be elected. How such a government would be organized is for the planets, moons etc. would be organized into manageable state units. Each state would have universal adult enfranchisement. From their each state unit would appoint parliamentary members to the next unit above them (no Parliament should have more than 500 members so that it is manageable). Those units would appoint members to the next level until you have a solar Parliament. Then each solar Parliament would appoint members to the sector Parliament until you would have a Galactic Parliament of 500 members. And because a system would be such multi-layered; each lower layer would be more powerful than the one above it. A Galactic Parliament would only be in charge of the Military, Intergalactic commerce, justice and reorganizing sectors so 5hey don't become to big to govern. Because this would be so cumbersome some layers would only serve to be a check on the layers above and below it. The only system I see that would work is for a Galactic Empire with a parliamentary check on the Emperor. That way you would have the most stable government Galactic wide. Further, like the Holy Roman Empire the Emperor could be elected with limitations on families not being able to serve again for 500 years or more.

It's unfortunate he died with only 500 of the 1000 years of the "dark ages" covered, and with the threat exposed in "Foundation and Earth" unresolved. :(

It1s way better to start with prequels, judging by the title, I`ve read to prequels first, and in my opinion that saves a lot of truble understanding everything. And yes, in my opinion two sequels are the best books in the series

if a year is the time it takes the earth to complete an orbit around the sun how exactly are galactic years comparable in a timeline? different period orbits means different measure of time or am i missing something? i am not bs'ing against the work on this video which is very dedicate btw i am just questioning something a novel writer could miss but asimov was a scientist again what am i missing

Nicely done. Usually things like this make me cringe.

Is it the American pronunciation that makes epic sound the same as epoch? In nz English they are two distinct words with two distinct meanings. Not a criticism just a curious question.

😱 THIS SERIES HAS THE POTENTIAL TO SURPASS THE STAR TREK/STARWARS ERA OF SPACE SCI-FI. I HAVE ONLY WATCHED SEASON 1 UP TO THE 7TH EPISODE AND I AM THOROUGHLY IMPRESSED. 👌😳🤓✅

And Demerzel/Daneel is given the directive to make sure no harm comes to humanity. So is the the Puppet Master behind the creation of the Cleon clones? Are there other more advanced robots living as humans? Did Demerzel set up the contamination of the clones and the rebels to end the Cleon clone dynasty? What is her real end game?

Cool fact... A earth era robot is in foundations later in the book after the mule falls

Lenghth of the empire... Kinda like Cleopatra lived closer to our era than the pyramid builders

The only problem with this is: If Earth is forgotten then they can't be using earth years anymore, meaning that the "years" are an arbitrary and incalculable metric of time.

Luigi, you must have been one of those cute kids who only need to pleadingly blink those gorgeous eyes to get anything they want. 🌞

Wait, doesnt the whole series end with the whole Galaxy becoming one organism?

The entire saga is an incomplete work of fiction, just like the Dune Saga. It's really about a kind of cold war taking place between humanity and aliens from another galaxy of which the battle takes place throughout historical time. Of course, Asimov never got around to writing that part of the saga, although he does build up to it during the last few chapters of Foundation and Earth. He also alludes to it in his story, The End of Eternity. The author is playing a kind of long game with fiction, where most of what you read has no real relevance to the meta of the saga. It's no less compelling because of that, though. The presentation of his ideas throughout the entire saga is what drives the plot and characters. PLEASE, invest the time to read his books. The TV adaptation scares me...

I'm not sure how you'd work it in, but I always thought that Asimov's explanation of why there are no aliens in his stories (Rumoured to be at least partly because John W. Campbell didn't like stories with aliens who were equal or better than humans) in The End of Eternity was very interesting.

It'd be funny to say that the upcoming Foundation TV series is a sequel to Will Smith's I Robot.

“Epoch” is not pronounced epic it’s pronounced Ee-pock

is this like the expanse?

Is Demerzel Daneel in the Apple TV series? And is she the robot lover Hari Seldon loved and married? In the Apple series, is Lowre, who refuses to put her zygote in the seed bank the mother of the Mule?

I can't hardly wait for this movie.

It always bothered me that trantor in the prequels is differenct than in the foundation novels themselves.

Something is off here, in caves of steel it is mentioned that the spacers were colonized 3000 years ago. It doesn't make sense.

Asimov books are in. No video. Now RPA

You do know that time doesn't operate in the manner Isaac Asimov imagines in the Foundation Series? For example, supposing humans were ever to colonize Mars or even the moon (neither will happen, by the way) the Earth year will immediately cease being a meaningful measure of time. And once you colonize Alpha Centauri (which will never happen, of course) not only is Earth time irrelevant but there isn't any reason whatsoever why citizens in either system would care in the least about what is happening in the other system for the same reason that the typical American isn't so informed about politics, daily life or anything regarding what is happening in Asia although half of the human population lives there so it would seem to be quite an important thing to know.

CE has no historic foundation. It means AD without the historic foundation of the term AD.

Needs more B-roll. Less video of you talking. Dropped a thumbs up 👍

epic...epoch ?.. I'm confused..is this an American thing....."ep..ik"..."Ee...pok" two different words spelt differently meaning different things... its like route .. and root, and for Christ sake. The 'h' is silent in vehicle...sorry vent over.

"Epoch" is pronounced ee-pok.

Epic & Epoch are two different words... otherwise good job.

Too bad it is on Apple. It won't be available.

'69 or '68? I'm pretty sure it's 12,068.

The fall of Rome in a science fiction setting. Why are we still recognisably human thousands of years hence?

in a galaxy . .. far, far away . . .

Foundationverse

Overall, I liked your report but I mean what I am writing with a positive tone to support you. You made many good points, but you need to work on your script because you failed to get to the point fast enough and rambled with lots of unnecessary repetition. I write this to help you via constructive criticism.

[6m 35s]: "... the spacers live in luxury on sparsely populated planets" >>> Fully automated luxury space communism: ✔🔨

Does anyone know that Asimov wrote probably one of the greatest Biblical history books ever? His 1277 page" ASIMOVS GUIDE to the BIBLE". He wrote over 200 books, at least half non-fiction. Talk about prolific. Talk about genius!

Hundreds of years? Try 10s of thousands of years...

:-)

i thought it was pronounced ee·pok