The Living Dead anthology being AUDIOBOOKED

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Living Dead edited by John Joseph AdamsThe Living Dead is a paperbook anthology edited by John Joseph Adams. Here’s the premise from the book’s introduction:

“Most of the stories in this book are either inspired by Romero’s ‘unholy trilogy’—Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead—or are a reaction to it.”

There are 34 stories in the anthology. Three are currently available in audio form from Pseudopod and WBAI 99.5 FM’s Hour Of The Wolf (there are two different readings of the David Barr Kirtley story BTW).

Here’s the Table of Contents with the AUDIO adaptations noted:

* Introduction by John Joseph Adams
* This Year’s Class Picture by Dan Simmons
* Some Zombie Contingency Plans by Kelly Link
* Death and Suffrage by Dale Bailey
* Ghost Dance by Sherman Alexie
* Blossom by David J. Schow
* The Third Dead Body by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
* The Dead by Michael Swanwick
* The Dead Kid by Darrell Schweitzer
* Malthusian’s Zombie by Jeffrey Ford
* Beautiful Stuff by Susan Palwick
* Sex, Death and Starshine by Clive Barker
* Stockholm Syndrome by David Tallerman; Read by Cheyenne Wright |MP3|
* Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead by Joe Hill
* Those Who Seek Forgiveness by Laurell K. Hamilton
* In Beauty, Like the Night by Norman Partridge
* Prairie by Brian Evenson
* Everything is Better With Zombies by Hannah Wolf Bowen; Read by Mur Lafferty |MP3|
* Home Delivery by Stephen King
* Less Than Zombie by Douglas E. Winter
* Sparks Fly Upward by Lisa Morton
* Meathouse Man by George R. R. Martin
* Deadman’s Road by Joe R. Lansdale
* The Skull-Faced Boy by David Barr Kirtley; Read by David Barr Kirtley |MP3|
* The Skull-Faced Boy by David Barr Kirtley; Read by Ralph Walters |MP3|
* The Age of Sorrow by Nancy Kilpatrick
* Bitter Grounds by Neil Gaiman
* She’s Taking Her Tits to the Grave by Catherine Cheek
* Dead Like Me by Adam-Troy Castro
* Zora and the Zombie by Andy Duncan
* Calcutta, Lord of Nerves by Poppy Z. Brite
* Followed by Will McIntosh
* The Song the Zombie Sang by Harlan Ellison® and Robert Silverberg
* Passion Play by Nancy Holder
* Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man by Scott Edelman
* How the Day Runs Down by John Langan

Here’s more:

From WBAI 99.5 FM’s Hour Of The Wolf and David Barr Kirtley’s podcast:

A discussion of the book (with editor John Joseph Adams, author David Barr Kirtley and host Jim Freund) at |MP3|

Listener calls |MP3|

And, here’s the “Zombieriffic” claymation video that was mentioned in the listener calls…

Posted by Jesse Willis

Seeds Of Change anthology being AUDIOBOOKED

SFFaudio Online Audio

Seeds Of Change edited by John Joseph AdamsSeeds of Change is a paperbook anthology edited by John Joseph Adams. Here’s the premise from the book’s introduction:

“I asked the contributors to this anthology to write about paradigm shifts—technological, scientific, political, or cultural—and how individuals and societies deal with such changes. The idea is to challenge our current paradigms and speculate on how they might evolve in the future, either for better or for worse.”

There are nine stories in the anthology. Two THREE are currently available in audio (from Escape Pod).

Here’s the Table of Contents with the AUDIO adaptations noted:

* Introduction by John Joseph Adams
* N-Words by Ted Kosmatka; Read by Kim The Comic Book Goddess |MP3|
* The Future by Degrees by Jay Lake
* Drinking Problem by K. D. Wentworth
* Endosymbiont by Blake Charlton
* A Dance Called Armageddon by Ken MacLeod
* Arties Aren’t Stupid by Jeremiah Tolbert; Read by Read by Philippa Ballantine |MP3|
* Faceless in Gethsemane by Mark Budz
* Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
* Resistance by Tobias S. Buckell; Read by Stephen Eley |MP3|

Video trailer:

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 008 by Alan E. Nourse

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVoxSingle author short story collections from LibriVox! This is a new trend, if we count that Lovecraft Collection from late last week. Volume 8 in the LibriVox Short SF collections series is all Alan E. Nourse. Some of these stories were previously recorded, by other narrators, but most are new to audio. Here’s a mini-review/rundown on the extremely varied narrations:

Daniele F.’s readings are heavily accented (Italian?) but well recorded. James Christopher’s entry is quiet, maybe he’s a little too far away from his mic (or maybe his mic just isn’t great). Mooseboy Alfonzo is quiet too. Actually he’s sounding muffled, perhaps his pop-filter is just a big old sweater? Too thick Moose! Larissa Little’s debut is solidly recorded for a first – hopefully she’ll stick with it – adding some performance to her reading. Hector has run his recording through a noise filter that’s quieted his pauses, making it all sound too undulating. Joseph Kellogg’s reading is good, but he’s in need of a pop filter, maybe Mooseboy can lend him an arm of that sweater. Allegra’s got a noisy recording environment. Turn off the air conditioning! Overall, I’d have to credit Jerry Dixon’s reading as the best of the bunch, though it’s not absolutely stellar.

All of the below has also been added to our ALAN E. NOURSE page.

LibriVox Science Fiction Audiobook - Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 008 by Alan E. NourseShort Science Fiction Collection Vol. 008
By Alan Edward Nourse; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 24th, 2008
This volume of the LibriVox Science-Fiction Collection is devoted to Alan E. Nourse (1928-1992). Nourse became a science fiction writer to help pay for his medical education, but eventually retired from practicing medicine to pursue his writing career. This reader-selected collection presents ten of his short stories which were published between 1954 and 1963. Extensive research by Project Gutenberg volunteers did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on these publications were renewed. Please consider this a brief sampling of Nourse’s full range, and have fun buying and borrowing his other works.

Circus
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Daniele F.
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Coffin Cure
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by James Christopher
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Letter of the Law
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Daniele F.
1 |MP3| – Approx. 43 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Link
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Jerry Dixon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Meeting of the Board
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Corey M. Snow
1 |MP3| – Approx. 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

My Friend Bobby
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Mooseboy Alfonzo
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Native Soil
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Larissa Little
1 |MP3| – Approx. 47 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

An Ounce of Cure
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Hector
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

PRoblem
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Joseph Kellogg
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Second Sight
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Allegra
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Podcast Feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/short-science-fiction-collection-vol-008.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox Noir: The Aeneid by Virgil

Aural Noir: Online Audio

LibriVoxOut now from LibriVox is an early English translation of an epic poem. Aeneas’s story is the story of the foundations of the Roman republic and the Roman empire. Its ethos plays an important role in shaping who we are nearly two millennia after it was written. I think of it as the first in a long tradition of NOIR LITERATURE. Sure, you thought that the story of Romulus and Remus was grim. But that’s much later in the history of the Roman people – at least according to the greatest Roman poet, Publius Vergilius Maro, better known as Virgil. Virgil wrote this earlier history of the Roman origins for his Emperor, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, better known as Augustus.

If you’ve read The Iliad you’ve already met Aeneas. The end of The Iliad is the beginning of The Aeneid. Aeneas leads his surviving, but homeless, Trojans to Italy, where they become the ancient ancestors to the Romans. The first six of the poem’s twelve books tell the story of Aeneas’ wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the second set of six books chronicle the war for the new Trojan homeland. In his war against the brave and honorable, but hot-headed Turnus, Aeneas keeps his cool (as a good Roman should). In fact, Aeneas is everything a good Roman should be, full of filial piety, brave, resistant to the temptations of distracting women, and ultimately ruthless.

Some scholars think that the final scene of this epic is unfinished. I understand why they think that, they say the meter is off, that Virgil died before he could make it fully symmetrical. I choose not to believe that. I choose to believe the final lines of this epic poem are exactly as Virgil intended: That is, COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY NOIR.

Here are the final lines of the poem’s Fitzgerald translation:

“Then to his glance appeared the accurst swordbelt surmounting Turnus’ shoulder, shining with its familiar studs – the strap Young Pallas wore when Turnus wounded him and left him dead upon the field; now Turnus bore that enemy token on his shoulder – enemy still. For when the sight came home to him, Aeneas raged at the relic of his anguish worn by this man as trophy. Blazing up and terrible in his anger, he called out: ‘You in your plunder, torn from one of mine, shall I be robbed of you? This wound will come from Pallas: Pallas makes this offering, and from your criminal blood exacts his due.’ He sank his blade in fury in Turnus’ chest…”


Aeneas, who throughout the rest of the poem symbolizes pietas (reason), in this final scene becomes furor (fury). Since this poem is considered the national epic of the Roman people, it seems fitting that the Roman virtues are at the fore of the concluding scene. Romans were vengeful, pitiless, with what Friedrich Nietzsche called a “master morality” – the morality of the strong-willed. What is good is what is helpful; what is bad is what is harmful. For Virgil, and Augustus, the strong-willed Roman morality is not needing the approval of a higher power. For us, in certain circumstances it leaves us saying things like… “Forget it Jake. It’s Chinatown.”

LibriVox Noir Audiobook - The Aeneid by VirgilThe Aeneid
By Publius Vergilius Maro; Translated by John Dryden; Read by various
24 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – 13 Hours 39 Minutes [POETRY]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 2008
The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. The first six of the poem’s twelve books tell the story of Aeneas’ wanderings from Troy to Italy, and the poem’s second half treats the Trojans’ ultimately victorious war upon the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed. The poem was commissioned from Vergil by the Emperor Augustus to glorify Rome. Several critics think that the hero Aeneas’ abandonment of the Cartheginian Queen Dido, is meant as a statement of how Augustus’ enemy, Mark Anthony, should have behaved with the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/aeneid-by-vergil.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Sleeping Beauty by Ross MacDonald

Aural Noir: Review

Mystery Audiobook - Sleeping Beauty by Ross MacDonaldSFFaudio EssentialSleeping Beauty
By Ross MacDonald; Performed by a Full Cast
6 Cassettes – Approx. 7 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Partners
Published: 1978
ISBN: 1572700491
Themes: / Mystery / Private Investigator / Dysfunctional Family / Murder / Family Secrets / Missing Person /

When Lew Archer takes home a distressed woman and she disappears with a lethal dose of his sleeping pills, he feels obligated to find her. What he finds is a past of family secrets that has lead the family into a downward spiral. Archer will have to untangle the secrets if he hopes to get the lady back alive.

After an accident from a ruptured oil well off the coast of southern California, Archer finds a beautiful lady crying with an oil-soaked seagull grasped to her breast. He takes her home and finds her disagreeable. After she leaves he notices that she had taken his bottle of prescription sleeping pills with her. Her name is Laurel Lennox Russo, and she is the granddaughter of the man who owns the offshore oil well that has ruptured, literally, in the back of his lakefront house.

This wonderful production offers a rarity in audiobooks; an unabridged full-cast recording for adults all done with impeccable direction. The director of the production and voice of Lew Archer is by Harris Yulin. He offers the right amount of concerned yet disenchantment that Archer feels. The dialogue is snappy and you can feel Archer’s presence as he interviews/interrogates this small family community. The cast, which includes Ed Asner, Richard Masur, Stacy Keech, and Veronica Cartwright, does a great job. There are over 30 people lending their voices to this audiobook.

The direction was handled deftly. The novel is in first person, and Harris Yulin voiced Lew Archer’s inner monologue close to the mike and centered in the stereo field. When Archer was talking to another character, the ambience of the setting came through and the characters were separated in the stereo field. There was also added ambience of the external sounds flowing into the scene. Exterior scenes had traffic noises, seagulls, and jets. In interior scenes you get a sense of the size of the room.

Instead of just a great audiobook, I felt I was listening to an extended, seven-hour radio play. Whether you’re a fan of Ross MacDonald or are new to his writing, this audiobook comes highly recommended.

Posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show