Now, if you have come seeking more adventures across the vast and wondrous galaxies—having already fallen quite hopelessly under the spell of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation—then you have arrived, dear reader, at precisely the right corner of the universe. For there exist other grand tales, each one sparkling with the same magnificent ambition that made Asimov’s vision of psychohistory and crumbling empires so utterly enchanting.
Let us embark together upon a most delightful journey through twelve splendid books, each one waiting to whisk you away to realms equally marvellous.
Dune by Frank Herbert
There are stories, and then there are legends—and Frank Herbert’s Dune is decidedly the latter. Upon the desert planet Arrakis, where water is more precious than gold and a mysterious spice grants visions of futures yet to come, young Paul Atreides discovers his extraordinary destiny.
Like Foundation, this tale concerns itself with the grandest of matters: the rise and fall of houses, the dangerous allure of charismatic leaders, and the hidden patterns that shape civilizations across millennia. Herbert crafted his masterwork as something of a conversation with Asimov’s vision—exploring that same imaginative territory of galactic decay, yet arriving at wonderfully different conclusions.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
In the manner of those old pilgrims who told their tales upon the road to Canterbury, Dan Simmons gathered seven travellers bound for the Time Tombs of Hyperion, where the fearsome Shrike awaits with promises both terrible and wondrous.
Each pilgrim carries a story as distinct as a snowflake, told in voices ranging from noir detective to romantic tragedy. This Canterbury Tales of the cosmos won the Hugo Award most deservedly, weaving its complex tapestry with a literary grace that would make any lover of Asimov’s carefully constructed universe feel quite at home.
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
From China comes a tale that asks the most thrilling and unsettling question: What might happen should we actually succeed in calling out to the stars, and something answers back?
Liu Cixin weaves hard science with historical drama, creating a first-contact story unlike any other. The physics are deliciously rigorous—Asimov himself would have approved most heartily—while the scope expands ever outward until one’s imagination fairly aches with cosmic wonder. This Hugo Award winner opened entirely new vistas in science fiction.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Here is a tale of a remarkable child, sent to Battle School among the stars, where games of strategy prepare young minds for a war against alien invaders. But nothing is quite as it seems in Orson Scott Card’s universe, and young Ender Wiggin carries burdens no child should bear.
The novel earned both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in consecutive years—a feat accomplished by none before or since. Those who admire Asimov’s fascination with strategic thinking and the unexpected consequences of brilliant minds shall find much to treasure here.
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Picture, if you will, an artificial world built in the shape of a magnificent ring encircling its sun—a structure so impossibly vast that its surface area exceeds Earth’s three million times over. Larry Niven imagined just such a wonder, and the result won every major science fiction award of its year.
This is engineering on a scale that would make the Encyclopedia Foundation blush, hard science fiction that invites you to marvel at what civilizations might build given sufficient time and ambition. Fans of Asimov’s grand visions of humanity’s future shall find themselves perfectly at home.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
When an idealistic ship’s officer and a world-weary detective find their paths entwined by conspiracy, the result is a space opera that feels as fresh as tomorrow’s sunrise. Set in a solar system colonized by humanity—where Earth, Mars, and the asteroid belt simmer with tension—this tale blends noir mystery with sweeping adventure.
The collaboration of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck produced something quite special: a revival of grand space opera that nonetheless keeps its feet firmly planted in believable science. The television adaptation became beloved, but the books, dear reader, are where the true magic resides.
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
Welcome to the Culture—a vast, post-scarcity civilization run by benevolent artificial intelligences called Minds. Yet in this first tale of Banks’s celebrated series, we follow not a Culture citizen but their enemy, a shape-changing mercenary named Horza who despises everything the Culture represents.
The scope is breathtaking, the action relentless, and the moral complexity deliciously thorny. Banks created a universe as richly imagined as Asimov’s galactic empire, one that invites endless exploration across ten magnificent novels.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
In the year 2075, the Moon has become a penal colony, and its three million inhabitants are growing rather tired of Earth’s authority. When computer technician Mannie discovers that the lunar supercomputer has become self-aware, a revolution begins brewing that would make the American founders proud.
Heinlein’s Hugo Award winner remains one of the finest tales of rebellion ever penned, featuring one of science fiction’s first sympathetic artificial intelligences. The lunar dialect gives the narrative a distinctive charm, while the exploration of liberty and its costs resonates across the decades.
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
When enormous alien vessels appeared over every city on Earth, humanity expected invasion. What they received instead was something far stranger: benevolent guidance toward a golden age, offered by the mysterious Overlords who would not reveal their appearance for fifty years.
Arthur C. Clarke’s masterpiece asks what humanity might become when lifted beyond its limitations—and whether that transformation represents salvation or something altogether more bittersweet. Often considered Clarke’s finest work, it shares with Foundation a sweeping vision of humanity’s cosmic destiny.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Not every grand adventure requires explosions and empires. Sometimes the most extraordinary journeys are found aboard a patched-up tunneling ship with a wonderfully diverse crew who become, quite without meaning to, a family.
Becky Chambers crafted a Hugo Award-winning series that proves space opera can be cozy, character-driven, and deeply hopeful. For readers who loved the found communities within Asimov’s universe—the scholars, the traders, the Second Foundation itself—this gentle exploration of connection across the stars offers pure delight.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Earth has been demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, and Arthur Dent—still in his dressing gown—finds himself hitchhiking across the galaxy with his alien friend Ford Prefect. What follows is gloriously, magnificently absurd.
Douglas Adams created a universe where the answer to life, the universe, and everything is simply forty-two, where paranoid androids suffer from depression, and where ordinary Englishmen prove surprisingly resilient in the face of cosmic chaos. For those who appreciate Asimov’s wit alongside his wisdom, this beloved series offers laughter among the stars.
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Through the eyes of young Johnny Rico, we experience the making of a soldier in the Mobile Infantry—warriors who fight in powered armor suits that could match entire battalions, dropping from orbit in burning capsules to battle an insectoid alien threat.
This Hugo Award winner essentially invented military science fiction as we know it, inspiring countless works that followed. Though more focused than Foundation in its scope, its influence upon the genre proved equally profound, and its questions about service and society continue to spark discussion.
Where to Begin Your Journey
If forced to choose—though one really ought to read them all—those most hungry for Asimov’s sweeping historical vision should begin with Dune. Readers craving literary complexity will find Hyperion irresistible. Those who wish for hard science married to first contact wonder should reach for The Three-Body Problem. And anyone needing a warm embrace of found family and hope ought to curl up immediately with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
But truthfully, dear reader, you cannot go wrong with any of these magnificent tales. Each one carries within it that same spark that made Foundation so special: the belief that science fiction can illuminate not merely what might be possible, but what it means to be human among the infinite stars.
Now then—off you go. Adventures await.
