Academy

The Academy is the first in a series of novels, the action of which unfolds in such a distant future that the Earth is almost forgotten by people who have settled throughout the galaxy. But not everything is perfect in the Galactic Empire, whose colossal dimensions are only harmful to it. The planets, where the entire imperial bureaucratic machine is concentrated, are vulnerable to attack both from the outside and from the inside. The monstrous distance between the center and the periphery of the empire makes management ineffective. The only person who is ready to withstand an impending disaster is Gary Seldon, a psychoistorist and a mathematician. With the help of psychoistoria, he makes disappointing predictions, namely, new "dark centuries" that will discard humanity 500 years ago, plunging it in the era of barbarism. Seldon is working on a way to preserve knowledge about his race in the "Galactic Encyclopedia". But many generations will be needed to implement this project, and who will accept the baton after Seldon? The first trilogy of the Academy ("Academy", the Academy and the Empire, the Second Academy) received the Hugo Award in 1965 as the "Best Book series of all time."