In the news... Neil Gaiman continues to collect well-deserved awards. A couple of weeks ago, he accepted the Nebula Award (Best Novel) for his American Gods. He's on the list of Hugo nominees (Best Novella) for Coraline. The audio version of Coraline (read by the author) has just been given a Parent's Choice Silver Award - see details here. His fiction is fabulous, folks. Drop what you're doing and go read or listen to some. 9:40 PM -- (0) comments

 
In 1999, Del Rey published Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore. This novel was the first in a projected 22 novels in a series called The New Jedi Order. This week, the Star Wars website has a sneak peek of the penultimate novel in the series, The Final Prophecy. Only one more to go.

What does this have to do with audio? Well, every single one of these novels has been produced as an audiobook. And well-produced at that. I've listened to and enjoyed three of the titles - Vector Prime (Book 1) by R.A. Salvatore, Dark Tides I: Onslaught (Book 2) by Michael A. Stackpole, and Dark Journey (Book 10) by Elaine Cunningham.

These books have an overriding story, which readers (and listeners) like me really appreciate. Most media tie-in series are held in a tight grip - stuff is not allowed to happen. Each novel must end exactly where it began, allowing the next author's tale to make sense. But in the New Jedi Order series, there was an overall plan to the 22 volumes to start with. Each author wrote his or her part of the story arc, and the results are excellent. In short, stuff happens in these books.

A quick note on setting: the series takes place years after Return of the Jedi. Luke is trying to rebuild the Jedi Council. Han and Leia are married, with three children, all teen Jedi. The bad guys in the series are the fascinating and sinister Yuuzhan Vong, a race of invaders from another galaxy who exist outside the Force.

Enjoy! 2:55 PM -- (0) comments

 


Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Lloyd James
5 Cassettes - 7.5 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Blackstone Audiobooks
Date Published: 1999
List Price: USD $39.95 - IN PRINT
ISBN: 0786117451
Themes: Science Fiction / Sci-Fi / Fantasy / Mystery / Pulp / Politics / Mars / Spaceships / Acting / Theatre / Shakespeare

One minute, down and out actor Lorenzo Smythe was - as usual - in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes. Then a space pilot bought him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knew, he was shanghaied to Mars. Suddenly he found himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who had been kidnapped. Peace with the Martians was at stake - failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war. And Smythe's own life was on the line - for if he wasn't assassinated, there was always the possibility that he might be trapped in his new role forever!

Some Heinlein readers believe that the philosophy in Starship Troopers was Heinlein's personal philosophy. They're wrong. Heinlein's primary philosophy was to provoke thought by explicating political consequences of certain philosophies... and to be entertaining doing it. Double Star proves this emphatically, presenting a completely different political system than Starship Troopers. The plot is a well known one. As old as the fairy tale The Prince and The Pauper, The Prisoner of Zenda or The Man In The Iron Mask; As new as the Hollywood movie Dave (1994) starring Kevin Kline.

This unabridged audiobook has so much more: Interplanetary space travel, alien contact and political upheaval. But it also has a fully realized political system, political campaigns, theory of government, theory of acting, kidnapping, murder, dirty tricks and its a mystery! There really is no better science fiction writer than Robert A. Heinlein. There are other great books by other great writers but none is as great as the dean of science fiction RAH. The reason? Simply put, he tells damn fine stories and does so constantly. This novel is a great example of just that. With a wild premise and a somewhat divergent plot (from Heinlein's various themes) it tells an implausible story plausibly with emotional impact. This book won a Hugo award for 1956 (Heinlein's first) and deserved it. It's a fun ride and highly enjoyable. Pop it in your cassette deck and enter a different world.

Search for this title on eBay

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: acting, fantasy, mars, mystery, politics, pulp, Robert A. Heinlein, science fiction, shakespeare, spaceships, theatre

12:33 PM --

 


War of the Worlds, Mercury Theater of the Air, 1938

Orson Welles' radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic War of the Worlds is itself a classic. The program is legendary for the panic it caused in some audience members when it originally aired on October 30, 1938. Welles played the first half of the story as realistic newscasts - "regular programming" is interrupted with convincing news of invading aliens. The drama then switches point of view to Welles' main character, who wanders about the rubble-strewn streets looking for answers.

The story of the controversy caused by the broadcast is as interesting as the broadcast itself. A national debate ensued about whether or not to regulate radio drama in all sorts of different ways. It's main effect was to illustrate that people can't believe everything they hear, not unlike today's graphics technology has proved that we can't believe everything we see.

The quality of the script and the convincing performances of Orson Welles and the actor who, as a newscaster, described the emergence of the Martians from a crater left when they landed in Grover's Mill, New Jersey, make this one of my all-time favorite audio dramas.

This recording is available from many different sources - my copy was published by Radio Spirits.

posted by Scott D. Danielson

Labels: audio drama, H.G. Wells, horror, Orson Welles, review, science fiction

12:17 PM -- (0) comments

 
The Science Fiction Writers Association (SFWA) gave their Nebula Awards this weekend, and the Best Novel winner was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. HarperCollins produced an excellent unabridged audio version of the novel, read by one of the best - George Guidall. It's also available for rental at Recorded Books.

Ursula K. LeGuin won a Grand Master Award at the same ceremony. Fantastic Audio has published several unabridged Le Guin titles, including The Birthday of the World and Other Stories and most of the incomparable Earthsea series.

Locus Magazine Online has a list of all the Nebula winners along with some pictures. 8:46 AM -- (0) comments

 
Internet radio is growing more popular and there are several science fiction and fantasy related talk shows out there. My favorites are I-SCI-FI and Hour 25.

I listened to I-SCI-FI live last night - it's "on the air" for two hours each Thursday night starting at 9pm Eastern. Last night their guests included Walter Koenig and Richard Herd, who are both going to be in Denver at a Starfest convention on April 25-27. The focus of the show is on media science fiction - Star Trek, Babylon 5, and any science fiction or fantasy currently on TV or in theaters are common topics. I-SCI-FI accepts phone calls from listeners, and they also run a chat room and webcam during the show. It's one heck of a lot of fun and I enjoy it more and more every time I catch it. Some of their past shows available on their website. I-SCI-FI is also included in the Cosmic Landscapes rotation. More on that below...

Hour 25 is a great interview show. The guests are mostly science fiction and fantasy authors, with an occasional science guest. Warren James, a huge fan and voracious reader, insightfully interviews the guests, which include many of the top writers in the field. They've got a huge archive of past shows here. The website is a treasure trove of information, too - resources on each guest is provided.

If you want to sample some shows, go to Cosmic Landscapes which is a Live 365 station carrying several science fiction talk shows in rotation. They currently feature Interstellar Transmissions and Sci-Fi Overdrive (Boca Raton, FL); Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction (Stony Brook, NY); Hour of the Wolf (NYC); Shockwave (Minn, MN); Radio Sci-Fi (Orlando, FL); The Six Siders (Salinas, CA); The Warp Zone (Wichita, KS); FanBoy Radio (Fort Worth, TX); I-Sci-Fi (Salt Lake City, UT); Sci-Fi Talk (NYC); and DragonPage (Phoenix, AZ). 11:05 AM -- (0) comments

 
Locus Online reports that Robert J. Sawyer's weekly radio column Science FACTion: The Cutting Edge of Science has been picked up as a regular weekly feature by CBC Radio after a successful eight-week test run. The column consists of Sawyer's three-minute commentaries and will be heard on local CBC morning shows across Canada, starting July 1. It's possible that the CBC Radio website will carry the commentary - if that's so, we'll let you know. 1:52 PM -- (0) comments

 
Audible.com is publishing some excellent science fiction and fantasy on audio. Earlier this year, they put out three collections: The Best of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine 2002, The Best of Analog Science Fiction Magazine 2002, and The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine 2002. I reviewed all three titles for SF Site and enjoyed them all. My clear favorite, though, was the Fantasy and Science Fiction collection, so I was very pleased to see them follow up with two more titles: The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, January-February 2003 and The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, March-April 2003. The stories are all unabridged, and each collection runs five to six hours.

Over the past two or three years, I've experienced a growing appreciation for short-form science fiction on audio. Unabridged novella and novellette length stories make the finest audiobooks, in my opinion, and there is a lot of good science fiction and fantasy out there at that length that has yet to be recorded. I've got a copy of The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, January-February 2003 and have listened to the first story, called "Anomalous Structures of My Dreams" by M. Shayne Bell. M. Shayne Bell is an intensely emotional writer. All of his stories I've read to date have been memorable - he really makes me feel. His website is here. It hasn't been updated for a long while, but you can read "Lock Down", one of his best. The site also has his essay A Defense of Science Fiction and Fantasy, which is worth a read.

There are five other stories in the The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, January-February 2003 collection:
"Vandoise and the Bone Monster" by Alex Irvine
"Grey Star" by Albert E. Cowdrey
"Old Virginia" by Laird Barron
"The Seasons of the Ansarac" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"Reach" by Sheila Finch
(Readers include Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir)

There are also six stories in the The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, March-April 2003 collection:
"The Resurrections of Fortunato" by John Morressy
"Decanting Oblivion" by Lawrence C. Connolly
"Shutdown/Retrovival" by Aaron A. Reed
"Hunger: A Confession" by Dale Bailey
"The Lightning Bug Wars" by Gary Shockley
"Seeing is Believing" by Paul Di Filippo
(Readers include Harlan Ellison and Gabrielle de Cuir)

I'll revisit these once I get them heard... but I hope they continue to produce these titles. Current science fiction and fantasy audio by great writers, right there for the grabbing. 12:01 PM -- (0) comments

 
This year's Stoker nominees have been announced. (The Stoker Awards are given by the Horror Writer's Association for works published in the previous year.) In the "Alternative Forms" category, two audio dramas and one multimedia CD have been nominated:

Buckeye Jim in Egypt (audio script based on the Mort Castle story) by Mort Castle (Lone Wolf Publications)
The Tree is My Hat (audio script based on the Gene Wolfe story) by Larry Santoro (Listen to this one free here.)
Imagination Box (multimedia CD) by Steve and Melanie Tem (Lone Wolf Publications)

See all the Stoker Award nominees here. The awards will be presented at the HWA Annual Conference and Bram Stoker Awards banquet in New York City at the Park Central Hotel on the evening of June 8th.

7:04 AM -- (0) comments

 


I Am Legend / The Shrinking Man
by Richard Matheson
Read by Walter Lawrence
9 Cassettes - Approx. 12 hours UNABRIDGED
List Price: USD $72.00 - CURRENTLY OOP (out of print)
BOOKS ON TAPE INC.
(February 26, 1992)
ISBN: 0736621474

Read by Walter Lawrence, this double audiobook features two novels by Richard Matheson. Lawrence does a fine job in narrating both, Matheson's prose is clear and powerful. I highly recommend this audiobook. Unfortunately, finding a copy to listen to may be rather difficult, this unabridged audiobook is out of print, you can try ADDALL.com or eBay, even better check the shelves of your local library.

I Am Legend
"From out of the night came the living dead with one purpose: destroy Robert Neville, the last man on earth. A mysterious plague has swept the planet leaving in its wake this one survivor. But there is still life of a sort--vampires, the strengthless half-dead who press on Neville from every side. He is almost tempted to join them in I AM LEGEND."


I Am Legend is a vampire story and a psychological story, the hero, Neville, is the last man on Earth. Every night undead and living vampires pelt his suburban Los Angeles home with rocks. Every day he repairs the night's damage, restocks his supplies, finds ways to keep himself from going mad, and - oh yes - hunts down the vampires and drives wooden stakes through their hearts. The novel jumps back and forth in Neville's history, between when the plague first hits, killing his wife, to a few months after he the last man alive, to three years later when Neville is resigned to his new life as the last man on Earth. Neville is an everyman with a scientific disposition, when he isn't killing vampires he's studying the disease that causes it in the local library. He develops theories, tries to iron out the inconsistencies in it and performs gruesome tests on the vampires. He lives in hopes that maybe he'll find someone else still alive, or be able to cure one of the still living vampires.

Richard Matheson has a pretty low profile for such a well known writer. I'd heard his name, but never read any of his books before this one. I knew that he been involved with the original "The Twilight Zone" (1959-1965) television series, had written the book that had been turned into the movie The Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston, but had no idea what a great writer he was until I listened to this double audiobook. First let me tell you this, I think I Am Legend is one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to, and I've heard hundreds. I won't spoil the ending, but I'll tell you this, its revolutionary, thought provoking and satisfying - and as I would find out after listening to The Shrinking Man, its one of Matheson's on-going ideas.

The Shrinking Man

"It started simply enough in THE SHRINKING MAN. One moment Scott Carey was in the sunlight, the next he was being soaked by a warm, glittering spray. His skin tingled, and soon he began to change, to grow smaller and smaller, until his mere existence was at stake."

The Shrinking Man is a good story, not a good science fiction story, but a good fable. In fact you probably heard the plot before, or saw the movie based on it, The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). Scott Carey is shrinking, everyday he loses 1/7th of an inch in height. The doctors don't know what to make of it, the press loves the story and his family life is falling apart. Everyday Scott keeps shrinking, nothing can stop it, soon he can't sit in chairs anymore, people on the street mistake him for a child, treat him as a child. He becomes a resentful, unable to do anything for himself he must depend upon his wife, his brother and eventually his own daughter, who now towers over him, for everything. At one point his own cat becomes dangerous to him. Scott is utterly alone and overtime he begins to cope with his diminutive height a new danger confronts him.

There are many frightening scenes in this novel, most notably a battle with a black widow spider that towers over our hero. There are poignant scenes, a visit to Mrs. Tom Thumb at the circus, a woman as short as he who lives in a doll house and to who being tiny is the only thing she's ever known. There are also disturbing scenes, teenage toughs beat up and tease what they assume to be a child, and in perhaps the most disturbing scene Scott becomes the target of a drunken pedophile! But the novel is only surfically a science fiction story, and Matheson seems resigned only to the barest of explanations for what is happening to Scott. We're told that it must have been an exposure to a concentrated insecticide that is causing the shrinkage, that the nitrogen is going out of Scott's body at a regular rate. But as any student of subtraction knows a constant loss of 1/7th of an inch a day will eventually result in no height at all.

Pulp Cover images:
I Am Legend By Richard Matheson © 1954 Gold Medal Books
The Shrinking Man By Richard Matheson © 1956 Gold Medal Books

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: horror, Richard Matheson, shrinking, vampires

1:45 PM --

 
Renting audiobooks is a cost-effective way of getting your hands on some very good stuff. How does it work? With most of the companies listed here, you select a book or two that is sent to you in a self-addressed stamped box. Usually you keep the book for 30 days, after which you put the book back in the box, tape it closed, then drop it in a mailbox. There's no need to add postage, because it's already paid.

Some of these companies allow you to set ship dates for the books you select so that you can order several at a time, and have them arrive every two weeks or so.

Blackstone Audio

Blackstone Audio has been doing more and more science fiction and fantasy lately. The narrators are generally good. Some of their latest include Jack Williamson's The Humanoids and a collection of short stories by Robert Silverberg. They also carry some audio drama, including an adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey that I'm eager to hear.

Books on Tape

Books on Tape has an unabridged science fiction collection that's highlighted by Isaac Asimov's entire Foundation series and by Frank Herbert's Dune series (including unabridged versions of the recent prequels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson). There are a few short story collections here as well.

Recorded Books, Inc.

Recorded Books has the biggest collection of quality science fiction and fantasy, it's getting even larger. Their narrators are the best, including Frank Muller, George Guidall, Rob Inglis, and Richard Ferrone, among many others. They've got some great titles, too. To name a few: Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, several Robert A. Heinlein titles, Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, and Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.  Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis are also here, along with many other good titles. 11:26 AM -- (0) comments