A musical tribute to two great men of science. Carl Sagan and his cosmologist companion Stephen Hawking present: A Glorious Dawn – Cosmos remixed. Almost all samples and footage taken from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and Stephen Hawking’s Universe series.
[via the Audiobook Corner blog]
Posted by Jesse Willis
J.J. Campanella writes in to say:
“I just wanted to inform you about a new bookcast that I am doing at UvulaAudio. We will be presenting the young adult science fiction novel Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet. It was written by Harold Goodwin (aka Blake Savage) in 1952. You may remember that Goodwin also wrote Divers Down which we presented a couple of months ago. “Rip Foster” concerns the first mission of a young, newly commissioned officer (Lieutenant R.I.P. Foster) in the Space Corps’ Special Operations division.Although published in the 1950’s, the book has withstood the test of time and does not seem all that dated. Its actual astrophysics are very true to life and apparently quite accurate. The only problematic aspects of the book are all the assumptions about the presence of life on Mars and Venus. Several facets of the story will remind you of the original Star Trek – especially the Federation that Rip works for. It is possible that Gene Roddenberry was inspired by Goodwin’s text. We will be simulcasting the book on both our kids and adult podcaststreams.”
Cool!
Rip Foster Rides The Grey Planet
By Harold L. Goodwin; Read by J.J. Campanella
Podcast – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Uvula Audio
Podcast: September 2009 – ????
Freshly graduated and commissioned Planeteer Lt. Rip Foster, already having to deal with inter-service rivalry with the Space Force crewmen with whom he serves, is tasked with retrieving an asteroid made of pure thorium from the asteroid belt and bringing it to Earth for use as fissionable material. But the totalitarian Connies have their own plans for the asteroid.
Podcast feed:
http://www.uvulaaudio.com/Books/Books.xml
Here’s the first chapter |MP3|
[Thanks Jim!]
Posted by Jesse Willis
This 1976 interview was recorded for HOUR 25, a long running Science Fiction radio show broadcast out of KPFK, a Los Angeles radio station. I couldn’t find an MP3 version online, but someone has done up a multi-segmented youtube version. One of the issues discussed is author remuneration. Vance speaks frankly about how even though he is ‘quite an established writer’ in the field of Science Fiction and Mystery, he doesn’t have enough income from either genre. Other reports, also mentioned in the interview, point out that those SF authors (like Isaac Asimov and Lin Carter) who have made a decent living via their writing, made most of that money writing non-fiction articles or selling the movie rights to their fiction. Perhaps even more interesting, near the end of the interview a caller asks if Vance has read A Quest for Simbilis by Michael Shea (a sequel to one of Vance’s own books, it stars a Vance character). In response Vance says that he hadn’t read it but that he’d still given Shea the go-ahead to try to get it published when Shea had asked. Then he invites the caller to write his own sequel! Interesting eh?
Here’s the first vid:
A search of youtube will turn up the rest.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Paul Weir sez:
“[The] BBC Radio 2 series The Adventures of Sexton Blake is now released on CD and download and contains over 40 minutes of extra material.
For UK people, Play.com is the cheapest where it’s currently the number 1 audio book. For US listeners Amazon does have it but it’s cheaper to download from our site, which is a) the cheapest and b) the only place where you can download it as a high quality (160kbps) stereo mp3.”
The Adventures of Sexton Blake
Based on the character created by Harry Blyth; Performed by a full cast
2 CDs or MP3 Download – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks
Published: September 2009
ISBN: 1408410540
BBC Radio 2’s action-packed deafening romp – with 40 minutes of previously unbroadcast peril Sexton Blake! The name that spells hurtling adventure! The name that spells doom for villainy! In a series of thrilling adventures packed with incident and hilarity, Sexton Blake, (Simon Jones, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) and his plucky assistant Tinker (Wayne Forester, Captain Scarlet), aided by Mrs Bardell (June Whitfield, Absolutely Fabulous) battle diabolical masterminds, bewitching thieves and sinister fiends, out-thinking them in the head and out-punching them in the jaw! Also featured in this cinematic audio extravaganza from award-winning Dirk Maggs (The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy) is a cameo from BBC Radio’s original Sexton Blake – the legendary and coolly dashing William Franklyn.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Here’s another LibriVox release that, had I not found something similar recently, I probably normally wouldn’t mention. The reader, Grant Hurlock, uses absolutely no inflection in his narration, so it’s not really a great reading. But, the book’s plot is kinda quirky cool. It’s very much like a 1942 propaganda movie I watched recently, The Invisible Agent; it featured the grandson of Dr. Jack Griffin (the protagonist of H.G. Well’s The Invisble Man), who decides to use his grandfather’s invisibility formula to spy on Nazi Germany. Miss Pim’s Camouflage, the new LibriVox.org audiobook, on the other hand, features a patriotic spinster who wants to do her fair share in fighting The Great War! She comes from a long line of soldiers, but, having been born a woman, she is only able to do her part of the “war work” by gardening in her onion fields. One day, too long in the sun, she finds herself having been turned completely invisible. So now this will be Miss Pim’s chance to win herself a VC by going behind enemy lines and spying on the Germans. Neat huh?
Miss Pim’s Camouflage
By Lady Stanley; Read by Grant Hurlock
31 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 7 Hours 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 28, 2009
Mid-WWI, staid Englishwoman Miss Perdita Pim suffers a sunstroke gardening & gains the power of invisibility. She becomes a super-secret agent, going behind German lines, sometimes visible, sometimes not, witnessing atrocities & gleaning valuable war information
Podcast feed:
http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/miss-pims-camouflage-by-dorothy-stanley.xml
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
[Thanks to Barry Eads and Tricia G too!]
Posted by Jesse Willis
There are a lot of new audiobooks showing up on LibriVox every day of the week. This means I get to pick and choose amongst a vast roster of titles that I could possibly tell you about. One that I was not planning to post about was a 1759 Fantasy novel by Samuel Johnson. I had nothing against Johnson. I just hadn’t read any of his books. Sure I knew he had written a dictionary, but it wasn’t one of the ones that I had read. The problem really was I just didn’t know enough about Johnson to be interested in his novel. Frankly, the first thing that came to mind when I thought of Dr. Samuel Johnson was how great a character he was in the “Ink and Incapability“ episode of Blackadder. That one never gets old.
But, then today I was listening to my favourite Australian podcast, ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone, and they mentioned this book. I suspect this wasn’t fated, it being the 300th anniversary of Johnson’s birth people around the world are thinking about old Johnson – but even if it was fate – either if I changed my mind or my mind was changed – after listening to that show I’m telling you about this novel now. The show |MP3| was actually on Johnson’s stoic christian philosophy – or rather his reaction to the ancient stoics. Host Alan Saunders, and guest, John Wiltshire, talked about a poem and then this book and it’s position in Johnson’s philosophy. It was fascinating! Now to listen…
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
By Samuel Johnson; Read by Martin Geeson
17 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 5 Hours 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 25, 2009
In this enchanting fable (subtitled The Choice of Life), Rasselas and his retinue burrow their way out of the totalitarian paradise of the Happy Valley in search of that triad of eighteenth-century aspiration – life, liberty and happiness. According to that quirky authority, James Boswell, Johnson penned his only work of prose fiction in a handful of days to cover the cost of his mother’s funeral. The stylistic elegance of the book and its wide-ranging philosophical concerns give no hint of haste or superficiality. Among other still burning issues Johnson’s characters pursue questions of education, colonialism, the nature of the soul and even climate alteration. Johnson’s profoundest concern, however, is with the alternating attractions of solitude and social participation, seen not only as the ultimate life-choice but as the arena in which are played out the deepest fears of the individual: “Of the uncertainties of our present state, the most dreadful and alarming is the uncertain continuance of Reason.”
Podcast feed:
http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/rasselas-prince-of-abyssinia-by-samuel-johnson.xml
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
In addition to the reader, Martin Geeson, this audiobook was produced by:
Dedicated Proof-Listener: Stav Nisser
Meta-Coordinator/Cataloging: Leni
[Thanks to all three LibriVoxateers]
Posted by Jesse Willis