Isaac Asimov was the first science fiction author I ever read, and since then, I have read most of his science fiction books and one or two of his science books.
Foundation is set in a far future, where the Galactic Empire is beginning to fall apart.
The Foundation is a huge organization designed to gather data into a galactic encyclopedia of information so that it is not lost in the destruction of the empire. It turns out that the encyclopedia project is only a pretext to get the right people to the right place in order to 'change' the future. Foundation may be nearly a half a century old, but it is not stale in any respect. The story is as fresh and new as it was the day it was published, the writing is clear and simple in the usual Asimov style and the plot is a fantastic twisting mesh of ideas. As near perfect as anything.