Beam Me Up podcast does Xmas Science Fiction

Online Audio

Podcast - Beam Me UpPaul Cole and his Rockland, ME based podcast called Beam Me Up have been posting some very interesting SF stories in the feed of late. These include readings of stories by Mark Long, Belinda Subermann, Shaun Saunders, James Patrick Kelly and Lloyd Biggle Jr.! The latest, is a cover story from the December 1984 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. It is of course, a Xmas story and by none other than Jack McDevitt!

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction MagazineShow # 32 Part 3 of Promises To Keep by Jack McDevitt
Show # 31 Part 2 of Promises To Keep by Jack McDevitt
Show # 30 Part 1 of Promises To Keep by Jack McDevitt

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http://beameup.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

Review of The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer

SFFaudio Audiobook Review

LibriVox - The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose FarmerThe Green Odyssey
By Philip Jose Farmer; Read by Mark Nelson
10 MP3s or 10 OGG Vorbis files – 6 Hours 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Published: December 2006
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Themes: / Science Fiction / Space Opera / Planetary Romance / Swashbuckling / Pirates / Slaves / Planetary Ecology / Panspermia / Humor /

Alan Green is a space traveler stranded on a barbaric planet. He’s been taken as a slave and made a consort to an insipid and smelly queen. His slave-wife, though beautiful and smart, nags him constantly. He’s given up hope of ever returning to Earth when he hears of two astronauts who have been captured in a kingdom on the other side of the planet, and sets out on an action-packed journey on a ship sailing across vast grasslands on rolling pin-like wheels in a desperate scheme to save them and return home.

This audiobook was created on a dare. Back in November 2006 I challenged anyone to make an unabridged single-voiced audiobook from a list of titles of public domain Speculative Fiction novels that had not been previously released as audiobooks. This is the first audiobook to complete the aforementioned “SFFaudio challenge.” With its completion, the narrator, has won himself a copy of Galactic Pot Healer by Philip K. Dick as read by Tom Parker. Congratulations Mark! Now, on to the review proper…

The Green Odyssey roughly parallels the adventures of the original Odysseus, except that the Mediterranean sea here is instead a sea of grass on an endless plain on an obscure alien planet. Perhaps most original in this tale are the ships that sail that grass sea of this land-dominated planet. The idea of sails and roller ships to ply the prairie between cities is a neat one (something similar was used the Dragonlance AD&D module Dragons Of Ice by Douglas Niles). The lead character, Alan Green, is a Earthman who has been shipwrecked (or is that “spacewrecked”) on a planet inhabited by a branch of quasi-medieval Homo sapiens sapiens. If his alien origins were to be revealed they’d think him a demon. For two years already he’s been enslaved and humbled. The worst of it is his being forced into the bed of a lusty, but fickle, Duchess. Her merest whim would mean his death, so when Green hears of two strangers, like himself, who’ve come from the sky in a strange ship, his ears perk-up. Upon further investigation it seems the two “demons” are being held in a distant city. With a death sentence not too far in their futures, Green hatches a shrewd escape plan with a wily merchant. His only problem – his adopted family wants to go with!

This is a exuberant adventure. It reminds me of vintage Poul Anderson, in fact the whole novel is a kind of an inverse of Anderson’s excellent The High Crusade. Its also funny, in the same smile and smirk way, and lets not forget another of its vitures, The Green Odyssey is quick! I often think this, the classic short novel of the 1950s and 1960s, is the perfect length for SF. Moreover, Farmer has scripted lots of fun details for fans of both Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs – the colloquial language is also full realized and amusing. Now a word of caution, this is by no means a classic on the scale of To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Jose Farmer’s best know work. That said, it is absolutely and addictively listenable – I plowed straight through the 6 hour running time with nary a dry spell. Since it is FREE, thanks to the good efforts of Mark Nelson, I can unreservedly recommend it even to people who’d otherwise give it a miss.

Mark Nelson has a real narrators voice. He puts as much characterization into the various characters into this exposition heavy novel as is probably possible. Sound is good, loud enough and pretty clean of noise. Two minor problems, Mark pronounces a word wrong and there is one line repeated, I’d guess the latter got missed in the editing, the former is almost inevitable. I’ve heard professional productions far less “professionally” produced. I am looking forward to hearing a lot more public domain SF novels from Mark!

Editors note:
In a last minute email Mark has said that he does indeed expect to be reading more Science Fiction for LibriVox in the months ahead. He’d prefer titles that “haven’t been done commercially, just to increase the variety of audiobooks out there”. But here’s the problem he’s having; Mark is not super-familiar with the Science Fiction from the 50’s and 60’s. His reading thus far has tended to read much more recent. And so he asks that we come up with with some recommendations. Recommendations, in fact, from what he calls “the knowledgeable” – Hey! That’s you guys out there! So, which public domain Science Fiction novels from the 1950s and early 1960s would you like to hear Mark read?

Posted by Jesse Willis

WHYY declares Chanukah: A Time for Superheroes

Online Audio

WHYYHey you didn’t think we forgot about Chanukah did you? Nah, we got your Chanukah, we got it right here in a show that just aired on WHYY Radio (Wednesday, December 20th, 10 pm – 11 pm):

Chanukah a Time for Superheros illuminates the connection between ancient heroes and modern-day superheroes. Host Arye Gross begins with the Chanukah story of the Maccabees, the Hebrew band of brothers who fought against the religious repression of the Syrian-Greeks over 2000 years ago. This heroic tale has inspired comic book writers since pow, zap and bam first appeared in print and on the silver screen.Listeners enjoy insights from Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee and DC Comics’ Wil Eisner, who describe their humble origins and the backdrop of their Jewish experience that informed Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and Wonder Woman. Listeners also hear from filmmakers Sam Raimi (“Spiderman”) and Brian Singer (“X-Men,”) from Michael Chabon, the acclaimed author of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” and they visit the studios of Art Spiegelman and the Hanouka brothers, cutting-edge graphic novelists.

“Chanukah: A Time for Superheroes” includes archival radio and movie clips, music and readings, all woven around the compelling tale of how the holiday evolved from a story of military victory to one of light and inspiration.

You can still listen! Head over to PRX.org (a nonprofit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs) where they’ve archived the 1 hour show! You’ll need to sign up to listen to the stream but sign-up is free and relatively painless.

Happy Chanukah!

Wonder Audiobooks releases 3 classic short stories by Leiber, Bradley and Dick!

New Releases

Publisher - Wonder AudiobooksWonder Audio, which is the brainchild of our very own Time Traveler (Rick Jackson), has released its first batch of downloadable audiobooks under the banner of “Unabridged Vintage Fiction”. These are mighty fine tales to start a publishing company with! Cast your gaze on these lovelies and behold their utter coolity:

Coming Attraction by Fritz LeiberComing Attraction
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Paul S. Jenkins
1 MP3 – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
An Englishman’s dark journey into post-nuclear New York for a masked woman.

The Wind People by Marion Zimmer BradleyThe Wind People
By Marion Zimmer Bradley; Read by Candace Platt
1 MP3 – Approx. 50 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
A woman alone must raise a child on an alien planet. Is she really alone?

The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. DickThe Hanging Stranger
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Mac Kelly
1 MP3 – Approx. 30 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
What happens when you find a man hanging in your own town, but nobody seems to care?

This is so awesome! With prices of just $2 or $4 and secure payment via PayPal you can’t go wrong. They are simply Wonder-ful! Click on over to Wonder Audio and buy! Buy! BUY!

They make great gifts, and being downloadable, DRM-free MP3s they are both environmentally friendly and hassle-free!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Blake’s 7 coming to Audio!

SFFaudio News

Audio Drama - Blake's 7Roy, our exeptionaly talented British agent has found out that a UK-based independent media production company, B7 Productions, has announced the return of the cult television classic, Blake’s 7 as a series of original audio dramas. Cognoscenti of a certain age will remember that the original Blake’s 7 television series aired between 1978 and 1981 in the UK. You can read the original press release HERE, but suffice it to say it sounds like B7 has been “re-imagined” with a number of very professional actors. The series is to be comprised of 36 five minute audio dramas and will debut in spring 2007. A special ‘extended’ CD edition should also be released to retail in the month following broadcast.

About … Blake’s 7:

In the original series, Terry Nation, one of Britain’s foremost television writers of the 1960’s and 1970’s, gave the world a vision of the future, a future where the galaxy is ruled by the iron fist of a galactic federation, in which freedom and justice are things of the past. Into this vision he cast a small band of outlaws, who by pure chance found themselves in control of the most powerful space vessel in the known galaxy – the Liberator. Led by the enigmatic Roj Blake this group of rebels would strike at the very heart of the Federation and change the face of science fiction television forever.

Shamelessly stolen story from Slice Of SciFi – Daleks in Trek Verse?

SFFaudio News

Podcast - Slice Of Sci-FiSFFaudio has shamelessly stolen this entire post from the awesome Slice of SciFi news website:

First it was the Klingon and the Romulan Empires, the Mirror Universe followed by the Borg and Dominion – but until now, Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets have never come up against an enemy as terrifying as this menace from outside the normal fabric of Trek’s space and time. The Daleks have Invaded.

Battlestar Galactica vrs. the Enterprise? Childsplay! Darker Projects takes a serious look at what would happen if the Daleks from the Doctor Who universe were to find themselves on the other side of a rift in the time/space continuum right smack in the Star Trek verse.

In “Gateway,” Part I of episode “Invasion,” when all contact is lost with the Starship Defiant and Starbase Gateway, the covert operatives of Section 31 are sent to investigate. Only to make a dark discovery. Aboard the Nosferatu, Section 31 investigates this rift and a new threat it has brought into an area of space that not even the Dominion want anything to do with.

Part 2 of “Invasion” is called “Doomsday Unleashed” and continues the story as the invading forces advance into the galaxy, Captain Dalonna considers making a deal with the Federation’s greatest enemy – if there is any hope of stopping them. Meanwhile Mak comes face to face with the one enemy he’d believed destroyed long ago.

Written and directed by Eric Busby, “Section 31″ from Darker Projects is one of the most creative and exciting audio fan productions on the net today and one which Slice of SciFi highly recommends for all Trek enthusiasts and lovers of great scifi serials.

Thanks for this story SoSF guys!