FREE Elizabeth Bear audio fiction from Subterranean Press!

SFFaudio Online Audio

Subterranean PressSubterranean Press, which produces the “Subterranean Online” magazine, has just released their Summer 2007 issue, and is offering another free audiobook, this one from the issue’s primary focus SF author Elizabeth Bear! This audiobook is read by the talented narrator, and SFFaudio’s very own, Mary Robinette Kowal! Wax is the second standalone tale in Bear’s new mosaic novel New Amsterdam.

Subterranean Press - Wax by Elizabeth BearWax
By Elizabeth Bear; Read by Mary Robinette Kowal
7 MP3s – Approx. 1 Hours 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: May 2007
|MP3 Chapter 1|MP3 Chapter 2|MP3 Chapter 3|
|MP3 Chapter 4|MP3 Chapter 5|MP3 Chapter 6|
|MP3 Chapter 7|
Abigail Irene Garrett drinks too much. She makes scandalous liaisons with inappropriate men, and if in her youth she was a famous beauty, now she is both formidable–and notorious. She is a forensic sorceress, and a dedicated officer of a Crown that does not deserve her loyalty. She has nothing, but obligations. Sebastien de Ulloa is the oldest creature she has ever known. He was no longer young at the Christian millennium, and that was nine hundred years ago. He has forgotten his birth-name, his birth-place, and even the year in which he was born, if he ever knew it. But he still remembers the woman who made him immortal. He has everything, but a reason to live. In a world where the sun never set on the British Empire, where Holland finally ceded New Amsterdam to the English only during the Napoleonic wars, and where the expansion of the American colonies was halted by the war magic of the Iroquois, they are exiles in the new world–and its only hope for justice.

Audiobook company Brilliance Audio purchased by Amazon.com

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Amazon.com buys Brilliance AudioAmazon.com has purchased audiobook publisher Brilliance Audio! Reportedly, Brilliance, a two decade old player in the audiobook business, will continue to run as an independent company. But the acquisition is part of an Amazon plan to “expand audio selection to customers.” Though Amazon does not say it in their press release, doubtless this is a part of their plan to split the downloadable audiobook market. Currently, Audible.com all-but-controls the audiobook download market with a extremely successful DRM‘d-audiobook download website and an exclusive contract with iTunes. Brilliance has a back catalogue of more than 1,000 titles and Amazon sez it has plans to increase the new audiobook the current production schedule at Brilliance.

Canadia: 2056 episode 6 airing now!

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Canadia 2056Another Friday, so you know what that means! Yep, it’s Canadia: 2056 day, and today’s CBC Radio One broadcast is of episode 6. It’s airing on every single CBC Radio One station across Canada this morning starting at 11:30 am in all time zones (Noon in Newfoundland). And of course, if you’re not conveniently sitting by your radio at 11:30 am you still have a chance to hear it ONLINE via the Streaming Radio Map – just click the time zone in your area at 11:30am in your time zone, or do a bit of math and you can also time-shift a bit. Only four more episodes left after today’s!

Here’s the official CBC Radio hotsheet description:

“Head for outer space this morning aboard Canadia 2056, the lone Canadian government spacecraft, sent to support an American space armada fighting hostile aliens. This week, the crew loses the ability to navigate the ship, when control is taken over by a cloud. The up side is that the cloud grants them wishes, and the down side is also that the cloud grants them wishes – in other words, they make some questionable choices! Also, Anderson is pining away for Connie, his first love. Canadia 2056, this morning at 11:30 (noon NT) on CBC Radio One.”

I’m sad to say, there’s been no response to my queries to the CBC, about the status of a Canadia:2056 podcast. Perhaps their tired of hearing my lone voice? If you want CBC to make their Radio Dramas available via podcast, or at least by something equivilent to the BBC “Listen Again” service try calling the toll-free phone number (Canada only): 1-866-306-4636 or using the web-contact form.

BBC Radio 4: The Birds by Daphne du Maurier + More eh?

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Hey, more for the BBC, one on today, another on Saturday!

Most of the national BBC radio stations have been carrying a lot of Daphne du Maurier related programming of late. This, no doubt, to mark the centenary of her birth. In particular there’s an upcoming new radio production of her most famous work…

Online AudioSaturday Play – The Birds
Based on the short story by Daphne du Maurier; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 1 Hour [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Saturday May 26th 2007 @ 14:30-15:30

Listen during the Saturday Play “Listen Again” program.

Also upcoming is a show one listener describes as: “Not particularly memorable from its first outing.” It’s a comedy series, set in 2012 – the second season, made up of four parts, starts Thursday night.

Online AudioDeep Trouble
By Jim Field Smith and Ben Willbond; Performed by a full cast
4 Parts – Approx. 30 Min. X 4 [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Begins Thursday May 24th 2007 @ 23:00-23:30
The antics of an incompetent Royal Navy crew of the nuclear stealth submarine HMS Goliath. This episode: Disaster is threatened in the form of a new crew member, a noxious gas and a bad haircut.

Thanks go to Roy for this info!

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7’s The Seventh Dimension has a Brian Aldiss short story!

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BBC 7's The 7th DimensionI missed telling you about a cool tale broadcast last Sunday. Though I have been remiss, all is not lost, you can still listen to this specially commissioned reading through the “Listen Again” service of BBC Radio 7. The story is Song Of The Silencer and it is a “chilling account” of man’s attempt to make order out of chaos by constructing an ‘ultimate machine.’ First Published in 1979. The reader is Nigel Anthony, a winner of both Sony award and Radio Times awards for radio performances.

BBC Radio 7 - Song Of The SilencerSong Of The Silencer
By Brian Aldiss; Read by Nigel Anthony
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday May 20th, 2007 @ 6.30pm and 12.30am (U.K. Time)
Humanity has built a massive computer out in space simply called the Ultimate Machine, that perfectly mimics the human brain — but some are predicting disaster once it is activated.