The Diplomacy Guild

The first Isaac's Universe anthology opens Asimov's shared setting a thousand years hence, where six long-established starfaring species keep an uneasy peace that humanity's sudden arrival threatens to upset. Stories by Robert Silverberg, David Brin, Robert Sheckley, and Poul Anderson explore first encounters, diplomatic blunders, and the scattered ruins of a seventh, vanished civilization, introducing the Erthumoi, Cephallonians, Locrians, Naxians, Crotonites, and Samians who populate the series. It sets the terms—cooperation under threat of catastrophe—for every volume that follows.