Foundation
The Foundation Trilogy, Book 1
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Foundation
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Narrated by:
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William Hope
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By:
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Isaac Asimov
About this listen
WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST ALL-TIME SERIES
The Foundation series is Isaac Asimov’s iconic masterpiece. Unfolding against the backdrop of a crumbling Galactic Empire, the story of Hari Seldon’s two Foundations is a lasting testament to an extraordinary imagination, one that shaped science fiction as we know it today.
The Galactic Empire has prospered for twelve thousand years. Nobody suspects that the heart of the thriving Empire is rotten, until psychohistorian Hari Seldon uses his new science to foresee its terrible fate.
Exiled to the desolate planet Terminus, Seldon establishes a colony of the greatest minds in the Empire, a Foundation which holds the key to changing the fate of the galaxy.
However, the death throes of the Empire breed hostile new enemies, and the young Foundation’s fate will be threatened first.
©2019 Isaac Asimov (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers LimitedCritic reviews
"One of the most staggering achievements in modern SF." (The Times)
"Isaac Asimov was one of the great explainers of the age...It will never be known how many practising scientists today, in how many countries, owe their initial inspiration to a book, article, or short story by Isaac Asimov." (Carl Sagan)
"Asimov displayed one of the most dynamic imaginations in science fiction." (Daily Telegraph)
What listeners say about Foundation
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 03-21-22
Classic!
What are you waiting for? Read it immediately, just to fill in the gap in your knowledge of classics.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Francois
- 03-19-23
Seminal work but didn’t age all that well
The work is scientifically prophetic and a true masterpiece.
From a zeitgeist / social relevance point of view I found it disappointing since it seems naively optimistic about science, oversimplifying the characters in a strictly patriarchal way that doesn’t seem to allow for even of the fraction of societal change we’ve seen in the 70 years since it was written, let alone centuries.
Women scarcely feature in this story and when they do they are portrayed in the most infantile and stereotypic ways imaginable.
The narration is also disappointing, with the main characters having rather annoying intonations.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marc Dimmick
- 02-24-21
great story
a good foundation for the up coming movie. Building of the characters and story line.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kacy AI LTD
- 10-03-22
The narrator of this book is superb!
The narrator is performing so well, the dialogues are hilarious and performed so well, I am sure Asimov intended to make it as it is presented here. Great work!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Bel
- 03-28-24
Boring
I loved the tv show, but found the book confusing and boring. It is a DNF for me. Maybe I’ll try to finish it again at some point.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 07-27-23
Awesome
Impressive story and excellent reader.
The reader makes the characters’ voices quite distinct, which is really beneficial for a story with long dialogues.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marco Centin
- 01-12-22
Great book, performance a little hard to follow
The book is great, the performance is ok despite in some parts it screams or use an extreme accent that is hard to follow
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Enrico
- 10-30-22
Skipped content
Good story and performance, but really jarring when paragraps are skipped mid sentence. For the great deal of the book this isn't a problem, but for a few places in the first chapter and one or two in kater chapters. That alone takes you out of the story and keeps eating away at you as you listen.
Just to stress the point that the actual voice acting wasn't bad.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Srikantha
- 02-08-25
Classic but very fresh.
I love the dialogue and the audio brings it to life.
The story is well thought out, with a grand scale. He leaves us questioning the rationale of certain events, only to reveal it at the perfect time. I was never bored during the book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 06-06-20
Well read classic science fiction
Someone complained about partial loss of sentences, but citations from the "Galactic Encyclopedia" are actually truncated in the original text also and ends abruptly in the middle of sentences with a series of dots.... These quotations are meant only as glimpses, but when read aloud they certainly give the impression of having been cut by accident. Perhaps the reader should have said "end of quotation" or something like that. I too became annoyed and had to look it up in the first edition! As for lack of "character development", that complaint is true enough, but in my opinion it is rather an asset, not a drawback in stories of this kind. Asimov is certainly a somewhat overrated writer, but he is much more readable than some highly praised but dry and academic writers like Ursula le Guin. Carefully planned and thought out "caracter development" can sometimes be a drag. In short, I like the Foundation trilogy very much but it should perhaps be read as a delicious "period piece".
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8 people found this helpful