"The Originist" is a short story by Orson Scott Card. First published in the short story collection Foundation's Friends (1989), it also appears in his short story collection Maps in a Mirror. This story is set in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe. It was voted 8th in the category Best Novella at the 1990 Locus Awards.

Plot summary

The events in "The Originist" take place just after the first part of Foundation and deal with Hari Seldon's establishment of the Second Foundation.

Reception

David Langford who commented briefly on the anthology Foundation's Friends, praised Orson Scott Card's work as the best story in the anthology and "the best Foundation/Empire story ever written". Similar sentiment was expressed by the reviewer for asimovreviews.net.