We love audiobooks - they’re great! They can take the sting out of a long commute, keep you company in the car, and with a set of headphones you can even get some saucy chick-lit down you while pretending to absorb the finer points of The Westminster Hour. And with an online shop you can
buy and download audiobooks directly to your PC without even having to go into town. Then you can sync ’em to your MP3 player or whack ’em on a CD or whatever.
Technology, eh? It’s the future, we’re sure of it.
Anyway, this month we’re able to bring you a free SF tale courtesy of our chums at Audible.co.uk and BBC Audiobooks. It’s the first episode of the first series (Operation Luna) from the classic 1950s series Journey Into Space that we’re giving away, and it’s the proverbial piece of Victoria sponge to blag (see below).
Charles Chilton’s classic SF trilogy stormed the BBC airwaves over 50 years ago and by the time the whole series had aired it had become the final radio programme to attract a bigger evening audience than TV. 5.1 million people tuned
in to the first episode in 1953 – and it’s the 1958 remake of this that you
can download for free (the original was wiped soon after broadcast!).
If you like it, there’s no obligation, but you can always tuck into the rest
of the series for a bargainous 50% off. Operation Luna was followed up by The Red Planet and then The Word in Peril, all featuring Captain Jet Morgan, Doc Matthews, engineer Mitch Mitchell, and radio operator Lemmy Barnet.
This offer is powered by Audible.co.uk, the UK’s largest provider of downloadable audiobooks. You can download these audiobooks – the free one as well as any more that you choose to buy – to your PC or Mac. You can easily transfer your downloaded tales to over 240 different portable devices including iPods, MP3 players, or some mobile phones. You can even burn ‘em to CD. Good, eh?
ABOUT JOURNEY INTO SPACE
SFX and Audible.co.uk are giving away part one of Charles Chilton’s classic science fiction trilogy. A remake of the original 1953 series, it was aired on the BBC Light Programme on 26 March 1958.
Charles Chilton was born in 1917 and after the Second World War he found himself working in the BBC’s Variety Department. “A lot of scripts began to arrive with the idea of doing science fiction,” he recalled, wisely noting that this was just about the time that the major superpowers became genuinely interested in developing space programmes. “Michael Standing, the Head of Department, called
me in and said, ‘Look, you write pop adventures. Couldn’t you write science fiction?’ So I said that I would try.”
These first few episodes actually went missing for many years, and it wasn’t until 1986 (when a recording engineer stumbled upon some mis-filed
16-inch discs) that they were recovered and preserved. In the fabulous scenesetting opening episode, Sir William Morgan prepares for the launch of
his A24 rocket from outside Las Vegas, but a malfunction looks set to
cause disaster...
STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW
* You must be 18 years or older to claim your download.
* Offer available until 10 April 2007.
* You’ll need a compatible computer and an internet connection. For assistance, visit the website or call 0208 956 2825.
* It is the first episode of the first series of Operation Luna that we are giving away free. The free item is yours with no catch, no commitment or obligation to buy anything. You will have to register with an email address, but no billing details will be required and you are under no obligation.
* Get more downloads for free when you try Audible.co.uk’s PremiumListener service. Simply sign up for a no-commitment two-week trial of the Audible service, where you can download any two audiobooks. Take your pick from over 30 hours of classic Journey Into Space.
* You can download these audiobooks to your computer and then easily transfer your downloaded audiobooks to over 240 different portable devices including iPods, MP3 players, PDAs and mobile phones. Or listen while you drive, using certain sat nav systems, including Garmin and Tom-Tom. You can also burn to a CD and listen on most conventional CD players.
HOW TO GET YOUR FREE DOWNLOAD
It’s easy to get your free episode of Journey Into Space: Operation Luna…
1. Point your web browser at www.audible.co.uk/journey2
2. Register for free with Audible.co.uk – no billing details will be required.
3. Follow a simple installation and download the audiobook to your PC. That’s it...
If you want to follow-up by buying more episodes of Journey Into Space
you’ll have to pay, but you’ll get 50% off just by being an SFX reader. Nice,
eh?
For further assistance please email
myaudible@audible.co.uk or call
0208 956 2825.
