作者：艾萨克·阿西莫夫（1920-1992）

俄裔美籍作家，被全世界的读者誉为“神一样的人”；美国政府授予他“国家的资源与自然的奇迹”这个独一无二的称号，以表彰他在“拓展人类想象力”上做出的杰出贡献。

阿西莫夫是一个全知全能的作家，其著作几乎覆盖人类生活的一切方面，上天下海、古往今来、 从恐龙到亚原子到全宇宙无所不包，从通俗小说到罗马帝国史，从科普读物到远东千年历史，从圣经指南，到科学指南，到两性生活指南，每一部著作都朴实、严谨而又充满幽默风趣的格调，为了尽情发挥自己诙谐搞笑的天赋，他甚至还写过一本《笑话集》。

到了晚年，他开始变得“好色”，出版了一系列两性话题的“黄书”。

他提出的“机器人学三定律”是当代机器人研究的基本法则，他预言了今天的生物科技，预言了互联网时代的数字图书馆，预言了人类将进行太空殖民。

终其一生，阿西莫夫最引以为豪的则是：《银河帝国》系列小说。

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译者：叶李华

一九六二年生，台湾大学电机系毕业，加州大学柏克莱分校理论物理博士，致力推广中文科幻与通俗科学二十余年，相关著作与译作数十册。自一九九○年起，即透过各种管道译介、导读及讲授阿西莫夫作品，被誉为“阿西莫夫在中文世界的代言人”。

The Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are one of the great masterworks of science fiction. Unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building, they chronicle the struggle of a courageous group of men and women to preserve humanity’s light against an inexorable tide of darkness and violence.

Led by its founding father, the great psychohistorian Hari Seldon, and taking advantage of its superior science and technology, the Foundation has survived the greed and barbarism of its neighboring warrior-planets. Yet now it must face the Empire—still the mightiest force in the Galaxy even in its death throes. When an ambitious general determined to restore the Empire’s glory turns the vast Imperial fleet toward the Foundation, the only hope for the small planet of scholars and scientists lies in the prophecies of Hari Seldon.

But not even Hari Seldon could have predicted the birth of the extraordinary creature called The Mule—a mutant intelligence with a power greater than a dozen battle fleets…a power that can turn the strongest-willed human into an obedient slave.

From the Paperback edition.