Read by Isaac Asimov

Science Fiction Favorites

This is - to my knowledge - the biggest collection of Asimov reading his own stories. It contains 6 tapes; total runtime is about 5 hours and ten minutes. Several different covers exist.The collection consists of 10 stories plus a short introduction by Asimov.

Contents:

Introduction by the author (2:17)

I Just Make Them Up, See (3:42)

Someday (21:09)

The Feeling of Power (23:57)

Satisfaction Guaranteed (33:15)

Living Space (33:03)

The Last Question (31:44)

Jokester (30:09)

The Immortal Bard (5:30)

Spell My Name With An 'S' (35:01)

The Ugly Little Boy (89:40)

(all times stated here refer to my digital transfer of the tapes)

The overall quality of the recording is not very good; there is a lot of hissing. However, hearing the authors voice makes it absolutely worth it.

(c) Listening Library, U.S.A. 1987

Isaac Asimov himself reads 5 stories

A subset of the aforementioned Science Fiction Favorites on two cassettes. As above, the audio quality is not up to todays standards. Total runtime of the two cassettes is 2 hours 56 minutes (on my transfers).

Contents:

The Immortal Bard (5:42)

The Last Question (31:17)

Someday (20:16)

The Jokester (29:43)

The Ugly Little Boy (88:52)

(c) Listening Library, Inc., Old Greeenwich, CT., 1975

The Ugly Little Boy

Identical to the version contained in the two previous collections.One tape, approx, 89 minutes.

(c) Listening Library 1975

Other Narrators

The Psychohistorians Read by William Shatner

Shatner himself reads this famous story from Foundation, one tape, approx. 1 hour runtime. Also available on vinyl record and included in the three-tape box The Isaac Asimov Audio Collection.

Anthologies containing Asimov stories

Friends, Robots, Countrymen

This is a nice collection of nine stories by various authors, narrated by different voice actors. The overall quality is okay (but not good); the set consists of four tapes with a total runtime of just over 7 hours.

Contents:

Introduction by Isaac Asimov (8:40)

Lester del Rey - Helen O'Loy (24:17)

Harry Bates - Farewell To The Master (93:42)

Eric Frank Russel - Boomerang (39:46)

Michael Shaara - Soldier Boy (56:52)

Robert Bloch - Almost Human (48:52)

Philip K. Dick - Imposter (35:18)

Poul Anderson - Sam Hall (80:01)

Robert Silverberg - The Macauley Circuit (22:09)

Isaac Asimov - Robot Dreams (16:05)

(as always: times given here refer to my transfers)

This otherwise very nice collection with the genious Shakespeare reference in the title is seriously spoiled by the lack of information given on the cover. As another reviewer mentioned already, the information about the various narrators is completely missing (but none of them is Asimov) . Also, a table of contents is missing. Only 8 out of the 9 stories are listed on the cover, and they are not in the right order.

On the positive side: The introduction by Asimov himself is longer than usual and contains a nice survey of the history of science fiction and robots.

Isaac Asimov Stories from the Science Fiction Magazine

This two-tape collection with a runtie of approx. 2 hours contains three stories, two of them by Asimov.

Contents:

Isaac Asimov - Strikebreaker (31:39)

Frederick Pohl - Sitting Around The Pool, Soaking Up The Rays (29:30)

Isaac Asimov - It's Such A Beautiful Day (56:00)

(times given according to my transfers)

The first two stories are narrated by Peter Marinker, the last one is read by Ed Bishop (known as Commander Ed Straker from U.F.O.)

The audio quality is not very good, still absolutely worth listening to.