Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is set to be rediscovered as his notoriously unfilmable space opera is adapted by David S Goyer for a new Apple+ TV series, so now is the perfect time to say hello to Hari Seldon with The Folio Society’s trilogy box set.
Drawing on contemporary politics, ancient history and mathematics, Isaac Asimov’s science-fiction epic, The Foundation Trilogy, explores the decline of the Galactic Empire; a civilisation that ruled nearly 25 million inhabited planets.
“First of all, it’s considered the greatest science fiction work of all time!” said David S Goyer when we spoke to him about his adaptation. “Asimov was the grandfather of science fiction. There’s a reason why Foundation hasn’t been made over the last few decades. It’s been long regarded as notoriously hard to adapt. The story is supposed to unfold over 1,000 years. It’s anthological in nature. There are these big narrative leaps, very few characters continue on from one story to the next!”
Now, you can revisit Asimov’s original works as, back by popular demand, The Folio Society releases a unique three-volume edition, which includes an introduction by leading economist and Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman.
“I grew up wanting to be Hari Seldon, using my understanding of the mathematics of human behaviour to save civilization,” economist Paul Krugman says in his exclusive introduction for this edition, where he goes on to describe how The Foundation Trilogy inspired him to study economics, since it was the closest thing to the ‘psycho-history’ of the novel.
Meanwhile, the futuristic artwork for this edition has been created by talented British illustrator Alex Wells. His series of dazzling images feature over all three volumes, each beautifully capturing Asimov’s multi-layered story. The three books in the series, Foundation, Foundation And Empire and Second Foundation each include seven colour illustrations and have three unique binding designs, all in striking metallic and all colour-coordinated inside a black blocked slipcase (with its own out-of-this-world image on the front).
You can check out Alex Wells’ amazing artwork with our sneak peek into the books with our gallery here…
The Folio Society edition of Isaac Asimov’s The Foundation Trilogy, illustrated by Alex Wells and introduced by Paul Krugman, is available exclusively from www.foliosociety.com.