PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION

Grafton paperback, 1990. Illustration by Tim White.

"THE KEY TO THE FUTURE 

It is the year 12,020 G.E. And the last Galactic Emperor of the Autun Dynasty, Cleon I, sits uneasily on the throne. These are troubled times and Cleon I is desperate to find a way to calm them. When young Hari Seldon arrives on Trantor to present a paper on psychohistory, his astounding theory of prediction, the Emperor believes that his future security may rest on Seldon's prophetic powers. Now Hari is the most wanted man in the Empire as he desperately struggles to keep his remarkable theory from reaching the wrong hands, while forging the key to the future - a power to be known as the Foundation! 

PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION 

marks the long awaited and eagerly anticipated re-appearance of the Outworld mathematician, Hari Seldon. What happened in the many centuries before the events told of in Asimov's other Foundation nobels- hitherto only hinted at- is now revealed."