Galactic Novels

Sources for the Encyclopedia Galactica are taken from, in Galactic-chronological order:

Notes:

• 1 generation = 30 years
• 1 billion = an American 1,000 million
• Most spellings are English (That's English English not American English). i.e. colour has a 'u' it it, authorise is spelt with an 's'.

Order of reading?

There has been much talk, particularly on alt.books.isaac-asimov, as to the correct order to read the Galactic novels.  For what it's worth I'd just like to add my twopen'th to the debate.

There are really three ways to read the novels:

1. Galactic chronological order (i.e. the order in the list above)
2. The order they were written.
3. The order in which you find them.

I originally read them in order 3.  I generally re-read them in order 1. I would, however, recommend that they be read in the order they were written for three reasons:

• It's a great way to see the development of Asimov's ideas.
• Each story totally stands on its own.  If you were only ever allowed to read one Asimov novel [what a horrible world that would be] you can pick any single one and not have to rely on any of the others to help you understand the plot.
• The order jumps in and out of the five Galactic time periods of ancient, spacer, pre-imperial, galactic and heroic/foundation and I believe this makes the reading more interesting.