Lightspeed Magazine: Bubbles by David Brin (narrated by Harlan Ellison)

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Lightspeed MagazineThe September 2011 issue of Lightspeed Magazine (issue #16) features a reading by one of the finest narrators around, Harlan Ellison! There’s also a text interview with the author, David Brin |HERE|. Asked what inspired the story Brin sez:

“Most of the universe is the regions between galaxies, yet no stories are ever set in that vast emptiness. I like a challenge.”

And based on this you might suspect, rightly, that the plot tries to answer a problem in physics.

Lightspeed Magazine - Issue 16 - September 2011Bubbles
By David Brin; Read by Harlan Ellison
1 |MP3| – Approx. 37 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Lightspeed Magazine
Podcast: September 2011
“Most of the universe is the regions between galaxies, yet no stories are ever set in that vast emptiness. In “Bubbles” by David Brin, we get to know Serena, a lonely entity traveling the space between galaxies.” First published in a 1987 anthology, The Universe edited by Byron Preiss.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Lightspeed Magazine: More Than The Sum Of His Parts by Joe Haldeman

SFFaudio Online Audio

Lightspeed MagazineWow! It’s hard to beat the combination of great writer and great narrator in a first person perspective tale. That’s exactly what More Than The Sum Of His Parts by Joe Haldeman is: Amazingly written SF delivered by an amazingly talented narrator.

Lightspeed Magazine has it, in its latest issue, and as a podcast. Playboy magazine heralded it as:

“a fictional saga of bionic experimentation.”

I call it a powerful and sympathetic story about a horribly injured steel-worker who gets rebuilt as a cyborg. If you give it a listen I think you’ll be just as riveted to your earphones as I was to mine. It’s comparable, in power, pattern and in quality, to Ted Chiang‘s transcendent masterpiece Understand. Now, if the question is whether it’s better than Understand – I think it’s not – but, that it’s up there, competing in the marketplace of ultra-interestingness isn’t in question! Judge for yourself, More Than The Sum Of His Parts is an absolutely unmissable podcast Science Fiction tale, read by a pro. Seriously now, how can you possibly not download this?

LIGHSTPEED MAGAZINE - August 2010More Than The Sum Of His Parts
By Joe Haldeman; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
1 |MP3| – Approx. 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Lightspeed Magazine
Podcast: August 23, 2010
Set in 2058, Doctor Wilson Cheetham, was a quality control engineer in a high orbital aluminum smelter until he was horribly injured in a catastrophic vaporized aluminum accident. His face, throat, mouth, ears, sinuses, eyes, genitals, one arm and one leg have been totally and completely burned away. Amazingly, he’s survived and is being rebuilt by his employers. First published in the May 1985 issue of Playboy magazine.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Lightspeed Magazine

SFFaudio News


 

When John Joseph Adams announced that he’d be editing a new online science fiction magazine, I had high hopes. The magazine, he said, would focus on the kind of stories I like best: science fiction. A mix of originals and reprints, and some non-fiction too. Yeah, baby!

What I didn’t expect was that Lightspeed Magazine would also be a podcast. Twice a month, Lightspeed Magazine is going to publish audio stories. And these are high quality, folks – Stefan Rudnicki and his Skyboat Road crew are producing.

The first two stories of the first issue are online now. The first story, “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You In Reno” by Vylar Kaftan is provided on audio by Escape Pod (EP 243), with a great reading by Mur Lafferty. (I’m not sure if the connection with Escape Pod is a one-shot promotion thing, or if it will continue.) The story is an intriguing look at a relationship affected by relativistic space travel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The second, posted just yesterday, is a new story by Jack McDevitt: “The Cassandra Project”. Stefan Rudnicki narrates the audio version, and it’s fabulous. As the United States prepares for a return trip to the Moon, a photograph of a far-side crater comes to light, taken in 1968 by a Russian spacecraft, that shows a structure near the rim. Later photographs taken by American spacecraft show no such thing. McDevitt unravels the puzzle in satisfactory ooh-wow fashion.

Two stories in and I’m a huge fan of Lightspeed Magazine. May it live long!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Lightspeed Magazine will have a podcast!

SFFaudio News

LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE

Lightspeed Magazine is a “new online science fiction magazine published by the award-winning independent press Prime Books” – It’s first issue launches June 1, 2010.

The mag is edited by John Joseph Adams, a big audiobook fan who’s also the host of The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy podcast and Andrea Kail, a “writer, critic, and television producer who worked for thirteen years on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

Lightspeed is set to run a mix of straight up Science Fiction and science articles. But, most exciting of all, was this bit from the press release:

We are also pleased to announce a new member of the Lightspeed team: award-winning audiobook producer Stefan Rudnicki, who will be producing the Lightspeed Magazine story podcast.

Stefan Rudnicki is an independent director, producer, narrator, and publisher of audiobooks. He has received more than a dozen Audie Awards from the Audio Publishers Association, a Ray Bradbury Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a GRAMMY Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for The Children’s Shakespeare. Outside of the audiobook industry, he’s probably best known for the dozen books he’s written or edited, from actor’s resource anthologies to a best-selling adaptation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. He is also president of Skyboat Road Company, Inc., the most respected independent audio production team on the West Coast.

Lightspeed will adapt two of its four stories each month to podcast format. Issue one’s podcasts are “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt and “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn.

As a special feature of the debut issue, in conjunction with the popular podcasts Escape Pod and Hugo Award nominee Starship Sofa, Lightspeed will present two bonus podcasts: “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan will appear on Escape Pod on June 1 and “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley will appear on Starship Sofa on June 15.

Here is Lightspeed‘s complete posting schedule for the June 2010 issue:

June 1:
Fiction: “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan
Author Spotlight: Vylar Kaftan
Podcast: “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan (on Escape Pod)
Editorial by John Joseph Adams

June 3:
Nonfiction: “Is There Anybody Out There That Wants to Go Fast” by Mike Brotherton

June 8:
Fiction: “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt
Author Spotlight: Jack McDevitt
Podcast: “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

June 10:
Nonfiction: “The High Untresspassed Sanctity of Space: Seven True Stories about Eugene Cernan” by Genevieve Valentine

June 15:
Fiction: “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley
Author Spotlight: David Barr Kirtley
Podcast: “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley (on Starship Sofa)

June 17:
Nonfiction: “Top Ten Reasons Why Uplifted Animals Don’t Make Good Pets” by Carol Pinchefsky

June 22:
Fiction: “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn
Author Spotlight: Carrie Vaughn
Podcast: “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

June 24:
Nonfiction: “Every Step We Take” by Amanda Rose Levy

Posted by Jesse Willis