Tho rather hard to read the titles, and utterly useless for the blind readers of the site, here’s a video done up by Susan Dunman for SFSite.com on November 2008 releases.
Here are the SFSite columns for OCTOBER and NOVEMBER releases in regular HTML.
[note to RSS-only subscribers, you’ll have to click through to see this. YouTube doesn’t embed in RSS]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Rounding up recently wrapped second series of A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou is a pleasure. Hopefully this delightfully interesting podcast and radio show (on Resonance FM 104.4 FM in London, U.K.) will come back with a third series real soon.
In reverse order of podcast…
First, there’s a terrific tale by Arthur C. Clarke. Set in London, it’s the tale of a lonely man in a deserted London waiting for rescue. He can almost hear the helicopters. Yes, the helicopters. The slow, loud, helicopters coming inevitably from the north.
Episode 16 – The Forgotten Enemy
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Elisha Sessions
Podcast – 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: A Bite Of Stars, A Slug Of Time, And Thou
Podcast: 2008
First published in December 1948, in an issue of King’s College Review. In a bleak snow and ice covered London, a lone survivor faces isolation, polar bears and loneliness. But even his one hope, the idea that a rescue team is crossing the Atlantic ice sheet isn’t enough to stave off The Forgotten Enemy.
Less accessible, but probably just as interesting if you can get into it, is episode 15, which features some highly literary SF from Ursula K. Le Guin…
Episode 15 – Things
By Ursula K. Le Guin; Read by Elisha Sessions
Podcast – 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: A Bite Of Stars, A Slug Of Time, And Thou
Podcast: 2008
Written by Ursula Le Guin in 1970. This is a short story about a society sharply divided between nihilist marauders and maudlin do-nothings… and two people who don’t really fit in either camp. Oh, and masonry.
There’s a little editing error in this reading of The Squirrel Cage. And, past that point, Sessions’ reading becomes very quiet, you’ll have to turn up your volume. Despite these issues during the reading of the story, you’ll keep listening, almost as if you don’t have a choice. It’s a compelling narrative of a man trapped alone in a room with a subscription to the New York Times.
Episode 14 – The Squirrel Cage
By Thomas M. Disch; Read by Elisha Sessions
Podcast – 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: A Bite Of Stars, A Slug Of Time, And Thou
Podcast: 2008
It’s a story about a writer writing for no one, or for everyone – he’s not sure which.
Episode 13, a story by Brian Aldiss, feels oddly modern, despite its age. Charles Stross might have written it. It’s funny, poignant, and rather subversive – I’m not sure exactly what lessons it teaches, but I like the lesson very much. Perhaps All the World’s Tears is just a lesson in humility? Unfortunate sound effect additions don’t destroy the reading, but they are intrusive.
Episode 13 – All The World’s Tears
By Brian Aldiss; Read by Elisha Sessions
1 |MP3| – 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: A Bite Of Stars, A Slug Of Time, And Thou
Podcast: Oct. 7, 2008
The people and culture described in this 1957 short story by Brian Aldiss are human, but they don’t really act like it. Except for maybe the self-destructive part. It’s about a vitiated ecology, a mechanized society, and a desolate, wind-swept mansion where love may not be all you need.
Podcast feed:
http://freakytrigger.co.uk/slugoftime-podcast/feed/
Posted by Jesse Willis
As you can see… StarShipSofa has a fine line up this week on her science fiction audio magazine. Tune in, subscribe for free, sit back and enjoy some of the top SF writers out there all brought to you by your friendly StarShipSofa. Now…. Blast Off and enjoy!
Listen to the full show here: Aural Delights No 51 Jeff VanderMeer mp3
Poem: Fading Signals by Mikal Trimm 07:29
Flash Fiction: The Pilots by L. E. Modesitt Jr 11:22
New Titles: Charles Stross, Christopher Moore, Russell Kirkpatrick 39:30
Main Fiction: The Third Bear by Jeff VanderMeer 48:50
Fact: Fiction Crawler No 3 Matthew Sanborn Smith 36:20
Narrators: Diane Serverson, Travis Kennedy, Mark Nelson
Links to Fiction Crawler No 3
Night of the Living POTUS by Adam-Troy Castro
Shibuya no Love by Hannu Rajaniemi
‘Tis the Season by China Miéville
Connie, Maybe by Paul E. Martens
Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:
http://www.starshipsofa.com/rss
Posted by Tony C. Smith
Slipstream
Full cast audio drama
Written by Simon Bovey
Directed by Marc Beeby
5 episodes
Begins on Monday, November 24
Episodes air daily at 6PM and 12AM GMT
March 1945 and the Allies’ victory in Europe is a forgone conclusion. But then over a hundred RAF bombers are shot down in one night by a shimmering aircraft. Is this a new terror weapon? One that could turn the tide of war back in the Germans’ favour?
I enjoyed Slipstream. I’ve read other perhaps more original war themed science fiction stories, yet this one, in this case a cleverly conceived audio play, still sticks with me. Probably because it manages to elevate a fairly stock “secret weapons of the Luftwaffe” idea a step or two further with…sheer oomph. Slipstream is ballsy, it takes chances and the performances are good, particularly “Barton”, the mission team leader, the kind of character that you “love to hate”. Really nice production as well, rounding Slipstream out to a solid three out of four stars for me. Maybe three and a half if I’m feeling generous. See what you think.
Out of the Silent Planet
Written by C. S. Lewis
Read by Alex Jennings
Unabridged – 12 episodes
Begins on Monday, November 24
Episodes air daily at 6:30PM and 12:30AM GMT
Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of C. S. Lewis’ highly regarded “Space Trilogy” (followed by a hands down classic, Perelandra, and the concluding book of the series, That Hideous Strength). It’s basically an old fashioned adventure story that becomes a strange kind of interplanetary epic. One thing to note to first timers, this isn’t rockets, robots and ray guns material. These novels are much weirder, more allegorical, more spiritual and bizarrely alien, revealing the real history and truth behind what we humans think we know about the history of the solar system (and of the workings of the cosmos at large). Good gooey stuff, and Out of the Silent Planet whets the appetite…for goo.
Remember that all BBC7 programs stay online for six days after they air. To catch up on the 7th Dimension selections, just keep an eye on the schedule here.
Posted by RC of RTSF
Four exciting titles from Macmillan Audio!
Anathem
By Neal Stephenson; Read by William Dufris, Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, and Neal Stephenson
28 CDs – 34 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781427205902
Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside “saecular” world by ancient stone and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent¹s walls, yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe.
Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn’t seen since he was “collected.” But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand on the brink of cataclysmic change.
Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros. Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world‹as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.
A multi-cast recording, this program also features a cameo by the author and original music inspired by the story. Composer David Stutz says of the writing process, “I was excited by the creative possibilities opened up by Neal’s imagination. These ideas, realized, are the music that you hear on this audiobook.”
Ender in Exile
By Orson Scott Card; Read by David Birney, Cassandra Campbell, Emily Janice Card, Orson Scott Card, Gabrielle de Cuir, Kirby Heyborne, Don Leslie, Stefan Rudnicki, and Mirron Willis
12 CDs – 14 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781427205124
At the close of Ender’s Game, Andrew Wiggin – called Ender by everyone – is told that he can no longer live on Earth, and he realizes that this is the truth. He has become far more than just a boy who won a game: he is the Savior of Earth, a hero, a military genius whose allegiance is sought by every nation of the newly shattered Earth Hegemony. He is offered the choice of living in isolation on Eros, at one of the Hegemony’s training facilities, but instead the twelve-year-old chooses to leave his home world and begin the long relativistic journey out to the colonies. With him went his sister Valentine, and the core of the artificial intelligence that would become Jane.
The story of those years has never been told… until now.
Heretics of Dune
By Frank Herbert; Read by Simon Vance, Scott Brick, and Katherine Kellgren
15 CDs – 18.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781427203168
On Arrakis, now called Rakis, known to legend as Dune, ten times ten centuries have passed. The planet is becoming desert again. The Lost Ones are returning home from the far reaches of space. The great sandworms are dying, and the Bene Gesserit and the Bene Tleilax struggle to direct the future of Dune. The children of Dune’s children awaken as from a dream, wielding the new power of a heresy called love.
The Path of Daggers: Book 8 of The Wheel of Time
By Robert Jordan; Read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer
19 CDs – 23.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781427205087
The phenomenal tale that is mesmerizing a generation of readers now continues!
The Seanchan invasion force is in possession of Ebou Dar. Nynaeve, Elayne, and Aviendha head for Caemlyn and Elayne’s rightful throne, but on the way they discover an enemy much worse than the Seanchan.
In Illian, Rand vows to throw the Seanchan back as he did once before. But signs of madness are appearing among the Asha’man.
In Ghealdan, Perrin faces the intrigues of Whitecloaks, Seanchan invaders, the scattered Shaido Aiel, and the Prophet himself. Perrin’s beloved wife, Faile, may pay with her life, and Perrin himself may have to destroy his soul to save her.
Meanwhile the rebel Aes Sedai under their young Amyrlin, Egwene al’Vere, face an army that intends to keep them away from the White Tower. But Egwene is determined to unseat the usurper Elaida and reunite the Aes Sedai. She does not yet understand the price that others–and she herself–will pay.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
A new release now available at Audible.com and iTunes. The remake of the classic movie will be coming out this December. But find out how the story really goes by listening to this classic from the golden age of science fiction.
The Day the Earth Stood Still: Selected Stories of Harry Bates
By Harry Bates; Read by William Coon
7 hours 21 min.- [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2008
Available at Audible and iTunes.
Farewell to the Master first appeared in the October 1940 issue of Astounding Stories. It became the basis for the 1951 film, The Day the Earth Stood Still. The story morphed from Bates’s original conception into a cerebral SF cinematic classic. Much of the sense of wonder of that original story was lost in its adaptation to film. In fact, a fundamental characteristic that can be found in the stories by Bates’s is that sense of wonder. While other author’s stories generally held optimistic views of humankind, Harry Bates’s sensibilities were often much darker. He dealt with philosophy, particularly the metaphysical, with mind-exploding ideas that predates similar explorations by such authors as A.E. van Vogt and Philip K. Dick.
In Farewell to the Master, Cliff Sutherland, a freelance reporter, is determined to get more photos of the giant robot that stands as a silent sentinel over his dimensional space-traveling ship. Cliff is determined to have an overnight vigil to get behind the mystery of the slain alien known as Klaatu.
Alas, All Thinking is the story of one man’s journey in time to the end of humanity. But he is much more that just an observer as he takes matters into his own hands. A Matter of Size takes the listener for a journey of scale and the meaning of identity.
Death of a Sensitive is the tale of psychic who is thought to be mad with his benevolent treatment towards the cockroaches that infest his apartment. A haunting tale with a dire warning that is based on the pioneering parapsychology of J.B. Rhines. Death of a Sensitive is a forgotten classic that is presented here for the first time in over 50 years. Four classic short novels from a Golden Age giant of Science Fiction.
Posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show