Free: Isaac Asimov’s Epic Foundation Trilogy Dramatized in Classic Audio

in Audio Books, Radio | January 4th, 2012 13 Comments

Per­mit us to stay on our recent sci-fi tan­gent just a tad bit longer.…

Between 1951 and 1953, Isaac Asi­mov pub­lished three books that formed the now leg­endary Foun­da­tion Tril­o­gy. Many con­sid­ered it a mas­ter­work in sci­ence fic­tion, and that view became offi­cial doc­trine in 1966 when the tril­o­gy received a spe­cial Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series, notably beat­ing out Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. (Don’t miss the vin­tage Tolkien doc­u­men­tary we fea­tured yes­ter­day.)

Even­tu­al­ly, the BBC decid­ed to adapt Asi­mov’s tril­o­gy to the radio, dra­ma­tiz­ing the series in eight one-hour episodes that aired between May and June 1973. Years lat­er, you can buy the radio dra­ma on iTunes for $9.99. Or your can stream it on Spo­ti­fy (above) or via the Inter­net Archive below.

More Free Sci-Fi & Fan­ta­sy:

Down­load the Com­plete Chron­i­cles of Nar­nia by C.S. Lewis for Free

Aldous Hux­ley Reads Dra­ma­tized Ver­sion of Brave New World

Free Philip K. Dick: Down­load 11 Great Sci­ence Fic­tion Sto­ries

Neil Gaiman’s Free Short Sto­ries


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Comments (13)
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  • Dan Engström says:
    January 4, 2012 at 2:12 pm

    This adap­ta­tion is AMAZING.

    Reply
  • Robin Öberg says:
    January 4, 2012 at 5:50 pm

    Yes, one of the best books ever. On audio book for my iPhone. Awe­some. Thank you! :)

    Reply
  • wm says:
    January 5, 2012 at 3:32 am

    A Tril­lion Thank you :)

    Reply
  • MW says:
    April 13, 2012 at 1:28 am

    What a treat. Thanks.

    Reply
  • Ind3xs says:
    June 5, 2012 at 8:06 am

    Great!! All time clas­sic!!

    Reply
  • Ignacio says:
    December 28, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    Thanks!!! Great!! The best book ever

    Reply
  • Natalia says:
    July 8, 2013 at 1:47 pm

    A BIG THANK YOU!! for this. I have spent a year read­ing just Assi­mov’s books, from the Robots series to the Fun­da­tions, now I just bought The End of Eter­ni­ty. Love them!

    Reply
  • Dave Howes says:
    November 3, 2013 at 8:52 am

    I remem­ber hear­ing this when it was first broad­cast, Sun­day nights on radio 4. Bril­liant stuff :~)nn“Not many peo­ple know that” dept. — nThis broad­cast was the direct inspi­ra­tion for the now leg­endary Hitch­hik­er’s Guide To The Galaxy, which was writ­ten as a spoof.….….

    Reply
  • Israel Escultor del Viento says:
    November 8, 2013 at 2:20 pm

    will this be in spau00f1ish? any­one knows?

    Reply
  • jock123 says:
    May 21, 2014 at 1:10 pm

    Why would the BBC adap­ta­tion be pub­lic domain? It’s pro­grammes are copy­right in the UK, which makes it pret­ty much copy­right any­where else, sure­ly?
    If you know it’s for sale, why rec­om­mend steal­ing it?

    Reply
  • David Cain says:
    June 13, 2014 at 5:51 am

    Good ques­tion. Jock123!! I ask the same, with a lit­tle self-inter­est, as I direct­ed it, cre­at­ed the elec­tron­ic sounds and edit­ed the whole thing. It is, of course, steal­ing and in my case, as I nev­er get even one pen­ny of roy­al­ties, it is steal­ing from me!!

    Reply
  • Evandro Madeira says:
    January 3, 2020 at 3:24 am

    Maybe some­day it will be also record­ed in Span­ish, as well as in Por­tuguese.
    I tru­ly adore read­ing Isaac Asi­mov’s books, and it’s so good to have the to lis­ten to these record­ings!…

    Reply
  • Ramiro says:
    October 19, 2020 at 4:38 am

    Alert Alert Alert, the mp3 files is no longer exits “Item not avail­able”.… :( :( :(

    Sad but true!

    Reply

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