Order of ROBOT/EMPIRE/FOUNDATION

[HanaBi]

I must admit to not doing full justice to Asimov's published works: I've only really read his most popular stuff such as Robots, Empire and Foundation .. oh and Nemisis. But I haven't read anything else of his, including his short stories other than I,Robot.

I must try harder

[Eleniel]

If you have the choice, I'd definitely recomend reading the robot series in order. That is:
1. Caves of Steel
2. Naked Sun
3. Robots and Dawn
4. Robots and Empire

If you care to, reading I, Robot and The Rest of the Robots first might be the best way to go, but it's not necessary. The Robot novels, though, should be read in order. Don't follow my example. I had Naked Sun and Robots and Empire, so I read Empire first.
And you should read the Foundation trilogy in order, of course. It's really confusing otherwise, believe me.

[adrianpatrick]

What about the 3 Foundation novels written by other writers? I think they're set somewhere in the middle of "Forward the Foundation". I might be wrong as I haven't started reading that one yet. And aside from these there are a few short stories by other authors set in the same universe.... though I'm not sure where to find them.

I read the origianal trilogy first. Then Edge. Then I read Prelude and realised I didn't know anything about robots so went back and read Caves and the other 3 robot novels. Then Foundation and Earth.... basically it was all a bit muddled, but I think in terms of dramatic impact of various revelations it probably is best to read in Published order.