The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized)

By: Isaac Asimov, Patrick Tull - adaptation, Mike Stott - adaptation

Narrated by: Geoffrey Beevers, Lee Montague, Julian Glover, Dinsdale Landon, Maurice Denham, Angela Pleasence, Prunella Scales

Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

The opening episode begins on Trantor, capital of the Galactic Empire, with the meeting of Seldon and Dornick, their trial, and their exile to Terminus. The action then jumps forward 50 years, to the first Seldon Crisis, where the repercussions of the recent independence of the Four Kingdoms of the Periphery are being felt on Terminus, and are handled by the first Mayor, Salvor Hardin. The scene then moves forward a further 20 years, as Mayor Hardin faces down the domination of the nearby and most powerful Kingdom, Anacreon.

The Merchant Princes
One-hundred-fifty years after the Foundation was established, the now powerful trading nation faces its greatest threat to date, guided by master trader Hober Mallow.

The General
Two hundred years after its creation, the Foundation battles Bel Riose, the last powerful General of the dying Galactic Empire.

The Mule
A further hundred years have passed, and the Foundation is challenged by an unexpected threat named The Mule.

Flight from the Mule
During the war against The Mule, with things going badly for the Foundation, some key figures under the leadership of the Foundation's greatest scientist, Ebling Mis, flee Terminus in search of the Second Foundation, to warn it of the danger from The Mule.

The Mule Finds
The Mule attempts to find and overthrow the Second Foundation.

Star's End
Sixty years later, and a teenage girl is at the center of the Foundation's renewed search for the Second Foundation.

Changes from the written Trilogy: The conflict between The Foundation and Anacreon takes place 70 years into the Foundation era; in the novels it occurs at 80 F.E. A small segment in Foundation titled "Traders" has been removed entirely. General editing for time has been done throughout. A large, rather comedic section on farming on Rossem has been added to "The Mule Finds".

Please note: This is an historical broadcast recording, produced by the BBC in 1973. The audio quality represents the technology of the time when it was produced.

©2011 ABN (P)2011 ABN

Good voice performances, sound effects will hurt

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The voice actors are really good and interesting and this is a truly great story, but going from a voice actor to having your ears blasted off by a fake computer sounds.

What did you like best about this story?

Very interesting vision of the future, psycho linguistics is just a great idea.

Would you listen to another book narrated by the narrators?

I am good with the narrators, but I feel this should be remixed. For now I would suggest going with the Scott Brick version.

A shit adaption of a classic story

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

nope

Who was your favorite character and why?

sheldon the wise wizard that lead us out of darkness

How did the narrator detract from the book?

to many sound effects

Did The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized) inspire you to do anything?

read the actual book again

Any additional comments?

loose the sound effects

It’s a shame

The sound quality is terrible. It sounds like it was recorded in a metal tube with a white noise machine. It could be digitally cleaned up.

find a different version, or watch the show

terrible sci-fi noises are blasted into your ears between scenes. Meanwhile, the voices of the characters, though well performed, sound as if they're coming from an old black and white TV someone crammed in a fish tank so you can't understand half of what is being said.
I rarely don't finish a book once started, or give a bad rating, but this one's just not worth it.

great story, but dated quality

While I love the fact that we're getting a slice of the past with this full casted performance, the fact that it was recorded before the age of digital technology is blatant. I'm not sure if some further remastering or editing process is possible, but it's simply difficult to understand what is being said. This sounds like it was recorded using actors on a stage, not voice actors poised over dedicated microphones. It kind of ruins the experience for me.

uneven audio quality

Wonderful adaptation, but the audio was so uneven I could not enjoy it. Some characters' voices were inaudible and there was a background hum.

Very disappointing.

horrible sound effects

The original book was great. This audio reenactment was nice, too, however, the sound effects are incredibly useless and horrible. the audio quality is good if you have a good head set to listen with. listening tit in the car is NOT recommended.

Dramatization hard to hear.

I returned this one. From the very beginning I could not understand what was being said or what actions were being taken. The sound effects and quality very 1930s.

Enjoyed it, but have one complaint

The Foundation Trilogy is a long time favorite of mine. I read the books as a teen and loved them. Several years ago, I managed to purchase an abridged audiobook version of the first book in the trilogy that was read by Isaac Asimov. So, I was very pleased to be able to get a dramatized version.

As I mentioned in the title, I have mixed feelings about this version. The story is great. How could it be otherwise? The acting was also pretty decent.

My one complaint is the sound. My guess is that the producers wanted to make this sound like a science fiction novel. So, they added a slight echo or reverb effect to some of the dialogue. It made it very hard to understand at times. There were also times when it sounded like the actors were several feet away from the microphone, which also made it hard to understand. However, this didn't detract that much from the production. What was most annoying was the transition music/sound effects that they used between scenes. It was pretty irritating and loud. I had to turn the volume down almost every time because it was not only unpleasant, it actually hurt my ears to listen to it.

I did have to get used to the way the names were pronounced by the actors. I know most of us probably have an idea about the way some exotic names from science fiction should be pronounced, but as I said above, I have an audiobook that was read by the author himself. So, in my mind, his is the correct pronunciation. It didn't detract from this audiobook, it just took me a few seconds to realize who a character was when he or she was first introduced in the story.

I would recommend this audiobook. Just be prepared to turn down the volume at a moments notice and if possible listen to it with headphones. I listened to it in the car and the road noise sometimes overwhelmed the actors.

HArd to listen to

What did you like best about The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized)? What did you like least?

The foundation trilogy is a great scifi classic, but this dramatization is pretty poor. The recording is hard to understand, and the sound effects are obnoxious

Was The Foundation Trilogy (Dramatized) worth the listening time?

if you have the patience to listen hard to understand what they're saying