Tantor Media: FREE AUDIOBOOK: Walden by Henry David Thoreau

SFFaudio Online Audio

Tantor MediaTantor Media has another limited time FREE MP3 download! This time it is Walden by Henry David Thoreau. This classic is a weirdly philosophical autobiography with fun words like: “cosmopolite” and “hokum”. Sez Tantor:

For your free download of Walden, please log in to your account
(consumer or library)—or create one.

After you’ve got an account (no credit card required), and you’ve signed in, do a search for “walden” or CLICK HERE, the link to the zipped folder full of 20 DRM free MP3s should be at the top. Here’s a screenshot:

Tantor FREE Walden OfferIn the email I got, it said the offer was in celebration of Earth Day (April 22), perhaps that is when the offer expires. It also had this funny (and almost mystifying) quote:

“A truly good book teaches me better than to [listen to] it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by [listening], I must finish by acting.”
—Henry David Thoreau

TANTOR MEDIA - Walden by Henry David ThoreauWalden
By Henry David Thoreau; Read by Mel Foster
20 Zipped MP3 Files – Approx. 11.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 05/05/2008
Sample: |MP3|
Walden is the classic account of two years spent by Henry David Thoreau living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. The story is detailed in its accounts of Thoreau’s day-to-day activities, observations, and undertakings to survive out in the wilderness for two years. Thoreau’s journal is an exquisite account of a man seeking a more simple life by living in harmony with nature. In today’s fast-paced consumer-driven society, the austere lifestyle endorsed by Thoreau is as relevant and refreshing as ever.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVoxMeanwhile … over on the Wikipedia talk page for the entry for Philip K. Dick’s Adjustment Team there is a wonderful argument going on. Part of it is over an issue called “copyfraud” (false claims of copyright designed to control works not under copyright). I suspect that it just such awesomeness that is behind so much of the awesomeness that is Wikipedia. Check this response out from a Wikipedia editor named “Refrigerator Heaven”:

Oh, to answer the section’s question. As a long-time fan of Philip K. Dick who is familiar with his main themes and not very interested in the movies based on his writings, I do think the copyright stuff is more interesting and more Dickian than the movie [The Adjustment Bureau]. Perhaps I’ll add a quote or two from him after dinner. For a parting thought I’ll leave this with a quote he used in his Hugo Award winning novel, The Man In The Hight Castle [sic]. “Things are seldom as they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Wikipedia is wonderful for its quotes alone. It was there, on the Wikipedia entry, for instance – that I learned that Adjustment Team was public domain. That’s what prompted me to tell my favourite LibriVox narrator that it was PD and that is, in part, why he recorded it for LibriVox. Thank you Gregg Margarite and thank you Wikipedia!

Soon to be collected in LibriVox’s Short Science Fiction Stories Collection #044:

LIBRIVOX - Adjustment Team by Philip K. DickAdjustment Team
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: NOT YET COLLECTED!
“Something went wrong and Ed Fletcher got mixed up in the biggest thing in his life.” First published in Orbit Science Fiction, Sept-Oct 1954, No.4.

Illustrations by Faragasso:

Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals: The Adjustment Bureau by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

I don’t think Philip K. Dick and Hollywood are writing for the same audience:

The Adjustment Bureau movie trailer: Powerful, handsome bachelor boy meets cute girl -> handsome boy loses beautiful girl -> handsome boy is chased by powerfully fedoraed men -> handsome gets beautiful back again.

The Adjustment Bureau (aka Adjustment Team) audiobook: middle class schnook has quietly comfortable conversation with wife -> gets pushed around by insurance salesman -> weird shit happens -> freaks out -> runs home to his wife. PLUS: talking dog!

BRILLIANCE AUDIO - The Adjustment Bureau by Philip K. DickThe Adjustment Bureau (aka Adjustment Team)
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Phil Gigante
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: March 4, 2011
ISBN: 9781441894694
Sample |MP3|
The Adjustment Bureau is a major motion picture based on Philip K. Dick’s classic paranoid story, The Adjustment Team. This is the short story, The Adjustment Team, which asks the question – Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? Ed Fletcher is a real estate agent with a normal life, until one day he leaves the house for work a few minutes later than he should have. He arrives at a terrifying, grey, ash world. Ed rushes home and tells his wife, Ruth, who goes back to the office with him. When they return, everything is normal. But he soon realizes people and objects have subtly changed. Panic-stricken, he runs to a public phone to warn the police, only to have the phone booth ascend heavenward with Fletcher inside…

Posted by Jesse Willis

Commentary: Print ads for Radio Drama

SFFaudio Commentary

Meta SFFaudioOne of the goals that I set myself with SFFaudio was to always add a picture to a post. That’s a tough job sometimes. Like right now for instance – I’m working on a post about CBS Radio Workshop. Because it was a radio show, rather than a TV show, there are no screengrabs to be found. I could make something up, of course, and have done so – more often than I’d like – but the ideal would be to find something to ground that art. I want it for whatever logo or typeface they included mostly because there would be more historicity to it than whatever I can slap together. Somebody in the CBS Radio Workshop publicity department, for instance, probably did up some print advertising at some point. That art would be in a magazine or newspaper somewhere – but finding that magazine or newspaper can be pretty tough. This is ever my problem.

These days, when I do a Google Image search for whatever it is I’m looking for, I too often find myself looking at some art that I made. To solve this problem I plan on archiving some of the finds I make – for my own future reference (and for anyone else too). In doing this publicly I am asking for your help.

Does anybody have a scan of an advertisement for the CBS Radio Workshop?

Here’s my fist contribution (from the Spring 1957 issue of Space Science Fiction) three full page advertisements for:

The Fine Art Of Eating” with Vincent Price

Sportopics” with Russ Hodges

The Windup” featuring Private Eye, Ed Noon with Chester Morris

American Agent” with Lee Bowman

Our Heritage” with Westbrook Van Voorhis

Gag Bag” with Peter Donald

The Frightened” with Boris Karloff

Your Economy” with T.H. Mitchell, L.L. B., PH.D.

This Age Of Ours” with Quentin Reynolds

Space Science Fiction Spring 1957 Inside Front Cover

Space Science Fiction Spring 1957 Inside Rear Cover

Space Science Fiction Spring 1957 Outside Rear Cover

X Minus One ad from the April 1956 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction:
X Minus One ad from the April 1956 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction

Here’s an X Minus One advertizement that appeared in Galaxy magazine’s May 1956 issue:

X Minus One AD from Galaxy magazine's May 1956 issue

Here’s an X Minus One advertizement that appeared in Galaxy magazine’s February 1958 issue:

X Minus One AD from Galaxy Science Fiction's February 1958 issue

Here’s an ad, perhaps the very first, for X Minus One that appeared in the September 1955 issue of Astounding:

X Minus One advertizement from Astounding September 1955

Here’s an ad for X Minus One that appeared in the September 1955 issue of Astounding:

X Minus One ad from Astounding October 1955

Here’s an ad for X Minus One that appeared in the November 1955 issue of Astounding:

X Minus One ad from the November 1955 issue of Astounding Science Fiction

An X Minus One advertizement from Astounding’s January 1956 issue:

X Minus One ad from the January 1956 issue of Astounding

X Minus One is “BACK ON THE AIR” – from Galaxy, August 1957:

X Minus One - "BACK ON THE AIR" - an ad from Galaxy, August 1957

Here’s an ad for The Shadow radio show that appeared in the January 1954 issue of Astounding:

Ad for The Shadow radio show (on the Mutual Network) from the January 1954 issue of Astounding

Ad for The Shadow from Astounding August 1952:
Ad for The Shadow from Astounding August 1952

An ad for The Shadow from Astounding January 1952:

The Shadow ad from Astounding January 1952

Ad for The Shadow radio show from Astounding January 1953:

Ad for The Shadow radio show from Astounding January 1953

Here’s a familiar looking ad (it uses art recycled from The Shadow) for Nick Carter, Master Detective on the Mutual Network:

Nick Carter Master Detective ad from Astounding April 1955

Stay Tuned For Terror – illustration by Dolgov from Weird Tales, September 1945:

Stay Tuned For Terror - illustration by Dolgov from Weird Tales, September 1945

Dimension X ad from Astounding Science Fiction’s August 1951 issue:

Dimension X ad from Astounding SF's August 1951 issue

Dimension X ad from from Astounding July 1951:
Ad for Dimension X from Astounding July 1951

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: Rivers Of London by Ben Aaronovitch

New Releases

I talked to Ben Aaronovitch about his paperbook novel, Rivers Of London, back in SFFaudio Podcast #086. The audiobook, exclusive to Audible, is now available!

Rivers Of London by Ben AaronovitchRivers of London
By Ben Aaronovitch; Read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Audible Download – Approx. 9 Hours 58 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group Limited
Published: April 8, 2011
Provider: Audible.com
Sample |MP3|
My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit – we do paperwork so real coppers don’t have to – and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly valuable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. Now I’m a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden… and there’s something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair. The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it’s falling to me to bring order out of chaos – or die trying.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Mad Planet by Murray Leinster

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Mad Planet by Murray Leinster
First published in the June 12, 1920 issue of Argosy, The Mad Planet was eventually to become one third of Murray Leinster’s fix-up novel The Forgotten Planet. But there were plenty of standalone republications too. It was, for instance, in the November 1926 issue of Amazing Stories – where it was published with this introduction by Hugo Gernsback:
The Mad Planet by Murray Leinster

It ran with this art (by Frank R. Paul):

The Mad Planet by Murray Leinster

Super Science and Fantastic Stories, December 1944:

The Mad Planet by Murray Leinster

Fantastic Novels Magazine, November 1948:

The Mad Planet by Murray Leinster

And now available as a LibriVox audiobook:

LIBRIVOX - The Mad Planet by Murray LeinsterThe Mad Planet
By Murray Leinster; Read by Roger Melin
4 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 2 Hours 46 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 6, 2011
|ETEXT|
It is 30,000 years following dramatically changed climate conditions on earth which had let massive amounts of carbon dioxide belch from the interior of the planet into the atmosphere. Over the millenia this would have quite devastating effects on life as it had once been known. Much of the human and animal population would not survive the climate change, and indeed those few humans who did survive knew nothing of all which their predecessors had learned and built. Indeed, they knew not even of their existence. On the other hand insects and fungi would flourish over time. And so those few remaining humans were unknowingly at the very beginning of the building of a tribal society, which at the time of the story of Burl simply meant food and survival. And so it was Burl who chose to travel beyond his small tribal community in an effort to hunt for something new and different to hopefully impress Saya, the young female of his tribe to whom he felt a peculiar attraction. The Mad Planet is Burl’s adventure.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/rss/5338

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[Thanks also to Betty M. and Barry Eads]

Posted by Jesse Willis