The long promised StarShipSofa coverage of SF master Robert A. Heinlein is now complete. Three shows, and approximately three hours, of discussion by two hard-core Heinlein enthusiasts. Awesome!
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3|
And be sure to subscribe, the SSS boys have a Michael Moorcock show (and short stories!) in the works. Plug this podcast URL into your podcatcher to get the feed automatically:
http://starshipsofa.libsyn.com/rss
Mike O’Brien, of the CBC Radio Comedy Factory podcast has a funny series of six audio skitlettes right at the beginning of the latest show. All of them are inspired by the ending of the final Harry Potter novel – they’ve got some alternate endings for us (and don’t worry there are no spoilers for the real deal):
-the “funny misunderstanding” ending
-the Scooby Doo ending
-the Conrad Black ending
-the M. Night Shyamalan ending
-the Star Wars ending
Download the |MP3| direct, or subscribe to the podcast and stay funny weekly:
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/cf.xml
A big O’ heap of SFF goodness from Blackstone Audio.
Eifelheim
By Michael Flynn; Read by Anthony Heald
14 CD, 17.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433206115
In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and was never resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend, Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn’t. Why? What was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago?
In 1348, as the Black Death is gathering strength across Europe, Father Deitrich is the priest of the village that will come to be known as Eifelheim. A man educated in science and philosophy, he is astonished to become the first contact between humanity and an alien race from a distant star when their interstellar ship crashes in the nearby forest.
Tom, Sharon, and Father Deitrich have a strange and intertwined destiny of tragedy and triumph in this brilliant novel by the winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award.
The Sharing Knife; Vol. 1, Beguilement
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Bernadette Dunne
10 CD, 12 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433206238
Young, pregnant Fawn Bluefield has just fled her family’s farm to the city of Glassforge, where she encounters a patrol of the enigmatic soldier-sorcerers known as Lakewalkers. Fawn has heard stories about the Lakewalkers, wandering necromancers with no permanent homes and no possessions but the clothes they wear and the mysterious knives they carry. What she does not know is that the Lakewalkers are engaged in a perilous campaign against inhuman and immortal magical entities known as “malices”. When Fawn is kidnapped by one of these creatures, it is up to Dag, an older Lakewalker heavy with sorrows and responsibilities, to rescue her. But in the ensuing struggle, it is not Dag but Fawn who kills the creature—at dire cost—and an uncanny accident befalls Dag’s sharing knife, which unexpectedly binds their two fates together.
The Green Trap
By Ben Bova; Read by Stefan Rudnicki & Kathe Mazure
8 CD, 10 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433206177
Microbiologist Michael Cochrane has been murdered. His brother, Paul, wants to find out who did it and why. It’s clear that Michael was working with cyano-bacteria, the bacteria that crack water molecules and release free oxygen. It’s less clear why this would get anybody killed.
Accompanied by a beautiful industrial spy, Elena Sandoval, Paul follows the trail from California to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Along the way, the truth emerges: Michael had found a way to get cyano-bacteria to crack hydrogen out of simple water molecules, producing enough hydrogen to cleanly power the world, practically for free. No wonder everyone, from Middle-Eastern heavies to hired domestic muscle, suddenly seems to be trying to get in Paul and Elena’s way.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
By Jack Finney; Read by Kristoffer Tabori
6 CD, 6.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780786157815
“I warn you that what you’re starting to read is full of loose ends and unanswered questions….Now if you don’t like that kind of story, I’m sorry, and you’d better not read it. All I can do is tell what I know.”—from the book
On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved—the world as he knew it.
First published in 1955, this classic thriller of the ultimate alien invasion and the triumph of the human spirit over an invisible enemy inspired the acclaimed 1956 film, directed by Don Siegel and starring Kevin McCarthy, one of Time magazine’s 100 Best Films.
Where’s My Jetpack?
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
3 CD, 3 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780786160822
A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived
It’s the twenty-first century and let’s be honest—things are a little disappointing. Despite every World’s Fair prediction and the advertisements in comic books, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our moon colonies and servant robots?
In Where’s My Jetpack? roboticist Daniel H. Wilson takes a hilarious look at the future we imagined for ourselves. You will learn which technologies are already available, and if the technology is not public, you will learn how to build, buy, or steal it. Where’s My Jetpack? is an entertaining look at the world that we always wanted.
BBC 7 and The 7th Dimension are premiering their very first podcast tomorrow! But it isn’t exactly what we were expecting…
HEROES The Official Radio Show
20 Part Series in 15 minute episodes
Broadcaster/Podcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Saturday at 6.30pm and 12.30am (U.K. Time)
The NBC fantasy TV show Heroes just started airing on television channel BBC2 this week. The series is about ordinary people dealing with the discovery that they have extraordinary (superhuman) powers. This podcast (and broadcast) isn’t the actual series but instead it is what they are calling “the ultimate audio companion.” Features will include “in-depth discussions and analyses of the themes, characters and conundrums facing the characters.”
Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/bbc7/heroes/rss.xml
An SFFaudio Exclusive!
We got the scoop! Before anybody else! Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!
From the people who brought you “Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine” and “Psuedopod: The World’s Premier Horror Fiction Podcast” now comes…
PodCastle: The Fantasy Fiction Podcast
“PodCastle is the world’s first fantasy audio magazine. Each week we’ll bring you short stories across the spectrum of fantasy from leading authors and new discoveries. Like our sister podcasts, Escape Pod and Pseudopod, PodCastle is entirely free to listen and share.“
The new podcast is still in development, but the main website for it can be found at PodCastle.org. On the site you’ll find a notation saying that the podcast will launch in August (though it may actually be in September).
Like Escape Pod and PseudoPod this will be a paying market for authors and a free podcast for listeners. Flash fiction (short short little stories) will net authors just $20. But $100.00 will be paid for full fledged short stories. If you, like us plan on subscribing to PodCastle, we urge you to send them a few bucks as a show of support. SFFaudio has dug deep into its coffers and made a donation of exactly $100.00 USD through PayPal – so we’re buying the whole world and you that first fantasy tale.
Oh and one last thing. Hey you Fantasy fiction authors, take note, the submission guidelines are already up on the site. So get submitting. The future is sounding FANTASTIC!
The below the radar variety show podcast Jack Mangan’s Deadpan has the most devoted audience in the known universe. Where else can you find a podcast with regular 1000+ comments per post? I think 99.9% of that credit should go to the man himself. Honestly, I tend to fast forward through a lot of the show’s regular segments, skipping over bits like “the contents of one’s fridge” and such – but there’s something about the timing, wit and genuine good nature of the guy with the deadpan delivery that keeps me coming back again and again and again. Jack’s latest show (#66) |MP3| is a short 26 minute “diary podcast” (AKA monologue) talking about Star Wars and community, and the impact those first three movies had on a certain generation’s psychological ethos. Jack once again proves that humor is a dish best served dry:
“Like for example if you’re in a rough place and somebody starts fucking with you – just kill them – hack off their arm with your lightsaber – shoot them first – whatever you got to do.”
Subscribe, DEADPAN is the way, with this feed:
http://www.jackmangan.com/podcast.xml