The Complete Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series Books 1-7 (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, Foundation and Earth, Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation) Mass Market Paperback

These are classic books about the morality of humanity, they are the best read ever.

I originally bought a $4 omnibus edition of the original Foundation trilogy but was sorely disappointed. It was riddled with typos and layout mistakes. I assumed the books weren't written that way, so I ordered this set.I only received these this morning so I can't speak to how well the binding will hold up, but they feel pretty standard so I'm not worried.They were securely packaged in thick well-sealed plastic. A lot of my boxes arrive damaged and, rarely, damp, but the plastic would've stood up to water and it prevented the books from shifting around and sustaining damage.I won't reveal any plot points but the narrative structure definitely bears some remarks.The short version is I was absolutely floored by the first book. There are a million excellent reasons Foundation is given so many accolades.I've only read the first book in its entirety so far. It's a series of interconnected short stories though it has an axis the whole thing revolves around. There isn't a contiguous narrative per se. I'm a big fan of Brandon Sanderson and his body of work has some interesting parallels in this regard. His series tend to follow more chronologically contiguous arcs but are often interspersed with the sort of one-off character vignettes not unlike Asimov's original short stories. It was disconcerting at first to move through the timeline like that, but his style very clearly draws threads from the very beginning of the book to the end.I devoured the first book in under ten hours, which were some of the most captivating I've had recently. The world Asimov has built is reminiscent of Dune but is much harder science fiction. Not to mention, it's easier and quicker to consume.I'm going backwards to read Prelude to Foundation before I move on to Foundation and Empire. If you, like me, started with Foundation, you won't have any trouble understanding what's going on. After all, Foundation was published first. So far, reading them out of chronological order isn't a problem.

I was looking for another classic sci-fi series to read and so far this has exceeded expectations. The original trilogy was written before a lot of the technology described was invented but the later books were written more recently so it’s interesting to note the difference in how the technology is described. I’m finding it to be interesting and I look forward to reading more each day. I’m about halfway through the books and I can’t wait to see how the series wraps up!

YES!!

Why did I wait so long to read these.

The Foundation Trilogy (Foundation/Foundation and Empire/Second Foundation) were the first version of a "galactic empire" that was coherent and made sense. In a way those stories are the inspiration for every galactic empire or federation story that has been written since the beginning in May 1942. I wanted a complete set of the series even though the books were published out of order. These are the cheap acid based paper in a cheap binding mass market paperbacks. I had an old Science Fiction Book Club version of the Foundation trilogy from the early 70's and remembered the feeling of reading them on a quiet afternoon. Some books just read better in actual book form instead of on my Kindle. The only problem is that they aren't as easy to carry around as a Kindle. I read most books on a Kindle, but for this series I wanted to have physical objects instead of bit patterns. This set is a decent value to get to hold, smell and read the stories, even if I buy the Kindle versions too so I can carry them around easier when I want to.

Despite an initial problem w/ the product, getting a replacement was a no-hassle affair. I am quite pleased.

No bent pages, just a little bent corners, newly perfect. I think it was just because of the plastic wrapping not being over the whole thing. Still completely readable. My boyfriend will love them for his birthday.