Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire Series

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Galactic Empire Series contains Isaac Asimov's three earliest novels and one short story. In order of internal chronology they are:

The Stars, Like Dust (1951)
The Currents of Space (1952)
Pebble in the Sky (1950), his first novel
"Blind Alley" (1945), short story reprinted in The Early Asimov

These stories are set in the same future as the Foundation trilogy, which had appeared in magazines from 1942. The tie is not close and they are only loosely connected to each other, each being a complete tale in its own right. Their main common points are Asimov's idea of a future Galactic Empire, certain aspects of technology—hyperdrive, blaster pistols, "neuronic whips", the possible invention of the "Visi-Sonor"—and particular locations, such as the planet Trantor. Another connection was later established with Robots and Empire, where Asimov revealed how Earth became radioactive, as mentioned in The Stars, Like Dust and Pebble in the Sky. Some sources further this argument by asserting that The Stars, Like Dust takes place about one thousand years following the events of Robots and Empire.

The short story "Blind Alley" is the only story set in the Foundation universe to feature intelligence not of human origin.

Asimov later integrated them into his all-engulfing Foundation series. Some contortion was required to explain how the robots of the Robot Series are almost completely absent from the Empire novels. In reality, this is because Asimov wrote the original Robot and Foundation short stories as separate series, so that he could continue writing one if he (or his readers) tired of the other.