Foundation: Books vs. Series
Foundation is David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman's 2021 series, based on books by Isaac Asimov. It stars Jared Harris and Lee Pace and has run for 3 seasons and 30 episodes on Apple TV, with a fourth season on the way.
From Books Adapted
Which books each season covers
The seasons follow the first two books loosely, through their characters
The series takes its people and turning points from Asimov's first books but tells its own story around them. Each season can be placed by the book characters it brings in.
| Season | Books it draws on |
|---|---|
| 1 | Foundation, book one: Hari Seldon's trial, the exile to Terminus, and Salvor Hardin, who becomes the Warden of Terminus |
| 2 | More of Foundation, with the trader Hober Mallow, and Foundation and Empire, book two, with General Bel Riose |
| 3 | Foundation and Empire, book two, with the Mule |
| 4* | A direct continuation of season three |
| A guide, not an exact match: shows move scenes and storylines between books and seasons. | |
* Apple renewed the series in September 2025. Season four has no premiere date.
Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth haven't been adapted as stories, and neither have the two prequels about Seldon's younger years, Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation.
How it was adapted
The clone emperors were made for the series
Brother Day, Brother Dusk and Brother Dawn, the three clones of Emperor Cleon I who rule the Empire together, aren't in the books. They were created for the series, which David S. Goyer pitched as a thousand-year chess game between Hari Seldon and the Empire.
The books, in order
Details
- Author
- Isaac Asimov
- Year
- 1951
- Pages
- 272
- Audiobook length
- 8 hr 38 min
- Narrator
- Scott Brick
- Series
- Foundation, book 1
Mathematician Hari Seldon predicts that the Galactic Empire will fall and thirty thousand years of barbarism will follow. To cut that dark age to a thousand years, he sets up a Foundation of scholars on Terminus, a planet at the edge of the galaxy, and the book follows it through the crises of its first two centuries.
Details
- Author
- Isaac Asimov
- Year
- 1952
- Pages
- 272
- Audiobook length
- 9 hr 33 min
- Narrator
- Scott Brick
- Series
- Foundation, book 2
The Foundation faces an attack from one of the last strong generals of the dying Empire. Then comes the Mule, a mutant conqueror whose powers Seldon's plan never accounted for.
Details
- Author
- Isaac Asimov
- Year
- 1953
- Pages
- 272
- Audiobook length
- 9 hr 21 min
- Narrator
- Scott Brick
- Series
- Foundation, book 3
Seldon also set up a second Foundation, hidden at the other end of the galaxy, and nobody knows where it is. The Mule hunts for it, and later the Foundation itself starts searching.
Details
- Author
- Isaac Asimov
- Year
- 1982
- Pages
- 432
- Audiobook length
- 16 hr 14 min
- Narrator
- Scott Brick
- Series
- Foundation, book 4
Five centuries after Seldon, Foundation councilman Golan Trevize is sure the plan is being steered from somewhere and is sent away to find out. With the historian Janov Pelorat, who is searching for the lost planet Earth, he sets off across the galaxy.
Details
- Author
- Isaac Asimov
- Year
- 1986
- Pages
- 448
- Audiobook length
- 18 hr 44 min
- Narrator
- Larry McKeever
- Series
- Foundation, book 5
Golan Trevize goes looking for Earth, the half-forgotten planet where humanity began, hoping it will tell him whether he made the right choice about the galaxy's future. Janov Pelorat and Bliss travel with him.
Details
- Author
- Isaac Asimov
- Year
- 1988
- Pages
- 416
- Audiobook length
- 14 hr 55 min
- Narrator
- Scott Brick
- Series
- Foundation, book 6
Young mathematician Hari Seldon arrives on Trantor, the Empire's capital, with a paper on psychohistory, the idea that the future could be predicted. Emperor Cleon I wants to use it, and Seldon goes on the run through the planet's sectors before he has worked out whether it can be done.
Details
- Author
- Isaac Asimov
- Year
- 1993
- Pages
- 384
- Audiobook length
- 16 hr 10 min
- Narrator
- Larry McKeever
- Series
- Foundation, book 7
Over several decades on Trantor, Hari Seldon works to turn psychohistory into something that can be used, while the Empire weakens around him and the people closest to him pay for his work.
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