Dragon Page: Cover To Cover has a new interview with Robert J. Sawyer (Flash Forward).
Have a listen direct |MP3| or subscribe to their podcast:
http://www.dragonpage.com/podcastC2C.xml
Posted by Charles Tan
Month: September 2009
Hachette Audio: Transition by Iain M. Banks
The first file of an abridged version of Iain Banks’s latest thriller novel Transition was released as an iTunes exclusive podcast in the Canadian and U.S. versions of iTunes today. The UK version of iTunes has already had at least three of the files released.
Why the disparity?
Marketing.
Why only through iTunes?
Marketing.
Why not just do it the sensible way, like every other podcaster ever has?
Lets see …. oh yes, marketing!
Yeah.
Is Hachette earning any good will this way? Is it selling more of the UNABRIDGED, non free, audiobooks? Maybe, but somehow I don’t think annoying your customers into buying the regular version is what made podcasting novels a good idea. I mean look at this:
The feed, after subscribing, shows as broken! There’s no art in the file, and I have two copies of the same file.
That’s really pathetic.
Still, it might get healed.
Transition
By Iain M. Banks; Read by Peter Kenny
23 MP3 Files via iTunes Podcast – Approx. 6 Hours [ABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Hachette Audio
Podcast: September 2009 -???
A world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse, such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organisation with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers? On the Concern’s books are Temudjin Oh, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice; and a nameless, faceless torturer known only as the Philosopher. And then there’s the renegade Mrs Mulverhill, who recruits rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, hiding out from a dirty past in a forgotten hospital ward. As these vivid, strange and sensuous worlds circle and collide, the implications of turning traitor to the Concern become horribly apparent, and an unstable universe is set on a dizzying course.
Oh, did I mention the regular podcast feed is either broken or disabled? It is. Likely this is because in order to use the words “This is the first time an audio has been serialised in this way, and we’re very excited to be doing something so groundbreaking.” -Disabling regular podcast feeds = good?
Check it out for yourself…
Podcast feed:
http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/transition/transition_podcast.xml
Thankfully some clever person in the BoingBoing thread thought to provide a link to this…
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
[via BoingBoing]
Posted by Jesse Willis
LibriVox: Looking Backward: 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy
The newest release over on LibriVox is a solo reading of an 1888 SF novel. It should be of interest to our regular SFF literati and pretty much anyone else interested in things going on in 20th century history and modern American politics. Edward Bellamy’s novel, Looking Backward: 2000-1887, describes: unregulated stock markets, the use (and abuse) of credit cards, the rise of big box stores like Costco, socialism, and music downloading. In fact, Bellamy’s novel reflects certain aspects of our world rather uncannily! In particular: the present of the United States of America and the past of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
In addition to the narrator, Anna Simon, this audio book was produced dedicated proof-listener Marian Martin. Thanks ladies!
Looking Backward: 2000-1887
By Edward Bellamy; Read by Anna Simon
17 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 7 Hours 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 19, 2009
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian novel by Edward Bellamy, first published in 1888. It was the third largest bestseller of its time, after Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The book tells the story of Julian West, a young American who, towards the end of the 19th century, falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep and wakes up more than a century later. He finds himself in the same location (Boston, Massachusetts) but in a totally changed world: It is the year 2000 and, while he was sleeping, the U.S.A. has been transformed into a socialist utopia. This book outlines Bellamy’s complex thoughts about improving the future, and is an indictment of industrial capitalism.
Podcast feed:
http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/looking-backward-2000-1887-by-edward-bellamy.xml
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
Posted by Jesse Willis
BBC Radio 4: Will Self on J.G. Ballard [DOCUMENTARY]
The current issue of the Radio Times has a brief mention of an upcoming documentary that fans of J.G. Ballard will definitely want to hear. Sez the Radio Times:
“The writer Will Self, who came to know J.G. Ballard well in his final years, journeys upriver through the life and imagination of the seer of Shepperton. From his suburban anonymity, Ballard charted the realms of inner space and the madness of the modern world with a cool eye and visionary prose. With readings by Anna Massey.”
Archive On 4 – Self On Ballard
1 Broadcast – Approx. 1 Hour [DOCUMENTARY]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Saturday September 26th, 2009 @ 20:00-21:00
Will Self explores the imagination and work of writer JG Ballard, who he came to know in his final years. Will draws on the many telling interviews that Ballard gave throughout his working life and on Self’s own tapes of his encounters with him.
And, be sure to catch this via the original broadcast as the repeat will be abridged!
[Thanks Roy!]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Assorted Nonsense: vintage John Scalzi interview
Joe Mahoney, CBC Radio Producer, Science Fiction writer and blogger recorded an interview at Worldcon 2003 in Toronto with the then virtually unknown author John Scalzi. Here’s how Scalzi described his then upcoming novel Old Man’s War:
“a Heinlein juvenile with old people in it”
But there’s more to the story, check out the post or just listen to the interview |MP3|
Posted by Jesse Willis
Review of Killing Castro by Lawrence Block
Killing Castro is book number 051 in the Hard Case Crime library.
Killing Castro
By Lawrence Block; Read by Henry Leyva
4 CDs – Approx. 4 Hours 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
Published: January 2009
ISBN: 9780792759751
Themes: / Thriller / Cuba / Hitman / Mercenaries / History / Assassination / Crime /
There were five of them, each prepared to kill, each with his own reasons for accepting what might well be a suicide mission. The pay? $20,000 apiece. The mission? Find a way into Cuba and kill Castro.
Until the announcement on the Hard Case Crime website in 2008 most Block aficionados, like me, had no idea that novel that is Killing Castro existed. Us Blockheads knew that LB had written a ton of novels early in his career. Heck we’d even identified quite a few of them. But unless you’d owned a copy of Fidel Castro Assassinated: A Dramatic Tale of a Daring and Successful Plot to Kill Cuba’s Dictator, and had compared this obscure 1961 Monarch paperback with Block’s writing you’d never have known he’d written it. This is because it was originally attributed to an otherwise unknown author “Lee Duncan.” Had it been written by “Paul Kavanagh” (a known Block pseudonym), I’d have already found and read a copy years ago. Indeed, to my ears this certainly feels like a lost fourth Paul Kavanagh novel. Two of Paul Kavanagh’s three other novels are about shady operatives doing black-ops for cash too. If you want the original paperback, by the way, ABEbooks.com currently lists a copy at $150.00. That’s down from the $600 asking price just a few months back. Hard Case Crime offers the gorgeous covered paperback version for just $7. Me, I’ll stick with the BBC Audiobooks America version.
One of the things I liked most about this audiobook, other than the brisk characterization and snappy plotting, was all the historical context Block put into the novel. This isn’t merely a thriller, or a crime story. Running just under 5 hours (204 pages in paperbook) there’s about half an hour of historical exposition between all the action. In those sections Block deftly details Fidel Castro’s personal biography, the history Batista’s rule of Cuba, Fidel’s leadership of the revolution and a thoughtful analysis of the revolution’s aftermath. As far as I can tell the history is entirely accurate. It sticks to the facts and makes a case both for and against Castro’s revolution without any special pleading. To my mind “Lee Duncan” could have probably got a job at the Cuba desk of the CIA, just based on the analysis within this novel. They really could have used him too as the book originally came out the same year as the CIA-backed Bay Of Pigs invasion. But I guess the covert world’s loss is our literary gain.
This is the first time I’ve heard Henry Leyva as a narrator. He performs the American mercenaries with enough distinction to tell all five of them apart, and gives good voice to two Cuban rebels, one male, one female. As Leyva is fluent in both English and Spanish he brings a ton of authenticity to the Cuban accented anti-castristas. He really is a narrator to watch. I first heard him as an actor performing in an episode of J. Michael Straczynski’s excellent audio drama anthology series City Of Dreams. He’s also narrated the audiobook version of Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard, so I’m gonna have to get my hands on that audiobook too.
Posted by Jesse Willis