I treat the first book as a collection of short stories that tie together. The thread connecting them? The survival and gradual thriving of the Foundation. Problems with the stories: as a woman, the fact that women weren't even NPCs. (sort of a joke)

Many sci fi apocalyptic stories are just like this. A healthy community with decent resources, isolated by distance, and how they have to deal with the threat of the neighbors now that law and order have broken down. Granted, most of the time they're set in a country, or even an island on Earth.