This is the 6th book in order of publication, but the first in terms of internal chronology, and I think a return to form after two weaker novels in the series. Asimov took the story forward in Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, but kind of wrote himself into a corner where he could not see any way forward. So he decided to go back and look at how it all began. A young mathematician named Hari Seldon presents a paper at a conference, and then is called to see the Emporer himself. The Emperor believes that Seldon can predict the future, and wants to take advantage of that power. Seldon protests that he can do no such thing, that he only showed that there would be a theoretical possibility that some day people might be able to see something of the broad sweep of future history. Then Seldon is attacked, and put to flight. As he travels through various parts of Trantor he starts to get some hints of how to advance his work, and by the end he may have enough to get started. The look at the various aspects of Trantor's society is fascinating because it is a microcosm of the galaxy with all of the various societies it contains.

I now have this as part of a 7-book set of all of Asimov's Foundation novels in e-book form.