As, my major claim to fame on the internet is a list of all the stories in Isaac Asimov's positronic robot/Foundation timeline (both by Asimov himself and by other writers) that I first posted on Usenet back in 1998, and which was picked up by Ed Seiler for his. Oddly, though, I've never posted the list here on my own blog. The impetus for this monumental undertaking is twofold: first, an email from an Asimov fan named Jim Syler asking about the date of 'Satisfaction Guaranteed', and second, the recent publication of the first of Mickey Zucker Reichert's trio of novels featuring a young Susan Calvin,. Including Reichert's novel in the list, though, presents me with a bit of a problem, and I'd like to talk about it. Back when Asimov collected his robot stories in I, Robot in 1950, he set the stories very specifically in the years 1998 through 2052.

• Isaac Asimov Reading Order

What order should Asimov's Foundation series be read in? Not reproduced in The Complete Robot). The Empire novels of Isaac Asimov.

He also established Susan Calvin's birth in the year 1982. Those would have seemed like safely distant future dates back in 1950, but the passing years have caught up with I, Robot, as they eventually do to all science fiction stories set in the future. The earliest of the stories, 'Robbie', is now set in a 1998 that never was, and the 26-year-old Susan Calvin that Reichert is writing about would be living four years ago. When Reichert was faced with this problem, she decided (wisely I think) to push Calvin's birth forward twenty-seven years to 2009, and set the story in the year 2035. So, how do I fit in Reichert's born-in-2009-Calvin novels into my list with the original born-in-1982-Calvin stories by Asimov himself? I've decided to place I, Robot: To Protect in 2008, which is where it would have gone if Reichert had kept to Asimov's original timeline, and note parenthetically that the novel sets itself in 2035.

It's an imperfect solution, but the best I can come up with. And since the story 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' has a similar dating problem, I'll do the same with it. So, with all that out of the way, here is my current version of the Insanely Complete Robot/Foundation Fiction List, consisting of the date, the story title, and (where necessary), which Asimov collection it can be found in. Thanks for this awesome resource.

A few thoughts (by the way, I'm the Jim Syler mentioned in the original post): a) No green? B) I think you've made the right decision about dating, especially with the Reichert novel. I think my inclination about 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' is to stick with the authorial dating and place the story in, say, 2000 (allowing for some wiggle room in what 'fifty years' might mean) and not try to fix the inconsistencies that Asimov created. However, your intention here is to present a chronological reading (or should I say rereading, as I would not recommend someone read these for the first time in this order) order that makes sense, so I understand why you've done it this way. C) I think some stories unavailable elsewhere in current print editions (such as 'Insert Knob A in Hole B') are available in Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories.

• Reading by Starlight Postmodern Science.. Is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. The best that can be said is that Asimov bequeaths this robot a certain measure.
• Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Encyclopedia of 20th-century technology. Foundation, Radnor. In the German Empire.

I don't have a copy, however, so I can't verify this. D) As I noted above, I would not recommend that the uninitiated read these stories in this order the first time, as some major spoilers would be given away. Might it be possible to put publication dates in this list, and/or create a similar list ordered by publication date? If you don't, I may get around to it at some point:).

Monkey Boy said. Hey Johnny, I have been reading this entire 'series' on and off for a few years. With much cross referencing, I believed I had the entire collection as a whole. Your list has now added seven more stories to that very collection. A big shout out to you!

There are a few other items of interest that you may want to look into as a continued part of Asimov's world pertaining to this growing series. 1) 'Grow Old Along With Me' which is the original version of 'Pebble In The Sky' found in the book The Alternate Asomovs, 2) Historical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury as a novella 1995, 3) Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury as a full length novel 2001. Hope to hear from you soon and a big thank you again to your most honorable list.:D. @Calion: There is a much older version of Johnny's amazing list (from 11/01!) at: It's the version that includes the fan-fiction works. Frankly, it just clutters up an already lengthy list. But it is fun to look!

You can also find copies of the fan-fiction in the list at the base of my site. Some of the pages are broken, but still readable. I have no intention of fixing, adding to, or updating the site.

Just thought I'd post the link for anyone interested in an old site. Nor is 'The Tercentenary Incident.' I presume that this and 'Segregationist' are not thought of as in the Foundation timeline. Perhaps (probably) you've looked at it more closely than I, but I don't see anything in those stories that contradicts canon timeline. I mention this because I'm trying to put together a 'reading order' for those new to the Foundation Universe.

It seems to me that neither chronological nor publication order will do. Chronological order gives away spoilers, and strict publication order is unnecessarily disjointed. Hi Jim, thanks for the comments. It's important to remember that not all of Asimov's positronic robot stories fit into the Susan Calvin/R. Daneel timeline. 'Let's Get Together' and 'Victory Unintentional' are two examples.

I don't include 'Segregationist' because the reference to robots gaining citizenship seems at odds with the series. Andrew Martin achieved it, but he was uniquely exceptional (which is what made his story worth telling). The political situation in 'The Tercentenary Incident' is different enough from that in the Susan Calvin stories that I don't think it fits in. As for the Multivac stories, they don't really fit into a coherent timeline.

Isaac Asimov Reading Order

Asimov would just use whatever background fit the needs of each particular story, without worrying about whether the stories as a whole were internally consistent. And yes, I did notice that the 'publication' of the I, Robot framing story is set four or five years after the narrator's interviews with Calvin. I hope all of this makes sense. A possible solution to the 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' question.

In the linking narrative in the collection 'I, Robot', Susan Calvin says 'When I was born, young man, we had just gone through the last World War. It was a low point in history - but it was the end of nationalism. Earth was too small for nations and they bgan grouping themselves into Regions.'

Asimov wrote this in 1950 and he is clearly not referring to the Second World War, but to another war that ended near to Susan Calvin's birth, i.e. The war referred to as fifty years before 'Satisfation Guaranteed would be this same war. (In which case, the reference to it as 'World War Two' is an error in the text.) That would place 'Satisfation Guaranteed' around 2030. Hey Johnny - Can I ask you about the 'works in blue are by other writers with the approval of the Asimov Estate, and works in red are by other writers but are not necessarily canonical' comment?

I'm not clear on what you consider the distinction between these stories by writers other than Asimov himself, except that some were written and published while he was alive, which I would assume he himself would have authorized. I don't know the extent to which he involved himself in reviewing the actual books - although it would seem to make sense that he'd want to make sure the books remained faithful to the spirit of his own stories, if for no other reason that to preserve the 'franchise value' of his own name. Your quote tends to make it sound as if the titles listed here in red might be somehow LESS canonical than the ones authorized by the Asimov Estate, whereas to my mind, if anything, the opposite would be true - I would tend to view those works by other writers written under license issued by Asimov himself as MORE canonical than those written after his death, in which he could have NO possible involvement. I think the ROBOT CITY and ROBOTS & ALIENS books could certainly be considered 'more authorized' than those that were written and published after Asimov's death, and thus are more likely to be considered canonical.

FOUNDATION'S FRIENDS might be more likely to be an exception to that, due to the nature of the stories as 'tributes' to Asimov's fictional universes. But really if you're just calling anything NOT written by Asimov himself 'not necessarily canonical', there's nothing wrong with that. I just question why the separation of red and blue? Shouldn't ALL the titles from CALIBAN by Roger MacBride Allen onward be considered as 'authorized by the Asimov Estate' in the legal sense, even if it doesn't specifically state that in the publisher's indicia for the book?