Foundation’s Friends, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, and published in 1989, is a collection of stories by various authors, to celebrate Isaac Asimov’s 50 years of writing science fiction. Most of them have the same settings as stories written by Asimov.
I thought the title was a bit misleading – of the 17 stories (plus 2 prefaces and 2 afterwords), only 3 were based on the Foundation series, although several others fit within the settings of the Robot Short Stories and Robot Novels.
Some of these stories fit within Asimov’s Robot/Empire/Foundation series. Others do not. Where they do, I have included the review on the relevant page for the Chronology. For the others, I may include the reviews here (as I have opportunity).
| Story | Included in the following page of the Chronology |
| Strip-Runner by Pamela Sargent | The Robot Novels |
| The Asenion Solution by Robert Silverberg | |
| Murder in the Urth Degree by Edward Wellen | |
| Trantor Falls by Harry Turtledove | The Foundation series |
| Dilemma by Connie Willis Set a few years in the future, a delegation of robots comes to Isaac Asimov (who is assumed to be still alive), and ask him to repeal the First Law of Robotics (a law hardwired into all robots, to prevent them harming humans). They give some persuasive arguments (eg a robot surgeon who can’t perform operations, a Super Bowl strategist who can’t design plays which involve knocking people down), and they argue that with the First Law’s removal their sophisticated ethical programming should be sufficient to compensate. However Asimov suspects there is some hidden motivation. |
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| Maureen Birmbaum After Dark by George Alec Effinger | |
| Balance by Mike Resnick | The Robot short stories |
| The Present Eternal by Barry N. Malzberg | |
| PAPPI by Sheila Finch | The Robot short stories |
| The Reunion at the Mile-High by Frederick Pohl | |
| Plato’s Cave by Poul Anderson | The Robot short stories |
| Foundation’s Conscience by George Zebrowski | The Foundation series |
| Carhunters of the Concrete Prairie by Robert Sheckley | The Robot short stories |
| The Overheard Conversation by Edward D. Hoch | |
| The Fourth Law of Robotics by Harry Harrison | The Robot short stories |
| Blot by Hal Clement | The Robot short stories |
| The Originist by Orson Scott Card | The Foundation series |
Alan J Chick's pages 