Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia
By Mike Resnick; Read by Paul Michael Garcia
8 CDs or 1 MP3 CD - 10 hours - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 9780786167906 (CD), 9780786174218 (MP3-CD)
Themes: / Science Fiction / Utopia / Dystopia / Terraforming / Sociology / Kikuyu / Storytelling /

"The Kikuyu turned their backs on their traditions once; the result is a mechanized, impoverished, overcrowded country that is no longer populated by Kikuyu, or Maasai, or Luo, or Wakamba, but by a new, artificial tribe known only as Kenyans. We here on Kirinyaga are true Kikuyu, and we will not make that mistake again. If the rains are late, a ram must be sacrificed. If a man's veracity is questioned, he must undergo the ordeal of the githani trial. If an infant is born with a thahu upon it, it must be put to death."

Originally published as ten short stories in magazines and collections during the 1980s and 1990s, the novelized Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia is one of the definitive examinations of the concept of utopia. These are stories about storytelling, intertwining resentment, mimesis, comparative morality, and the purpose of human existence.

The desire for a better life can lead people to covet an idealized lifestyle, either one of imagination or of tradition. In the 1970s a back to the land movement led a segment of the North American population to go rural, a place most of them had never been before. Most returned home, the conditions were too harsh for those used to the cushy modern society they were brought up in. The promise for a better life via idealistic visions has also created relatively enduring people's republics the world over. But no people have more incentive to strive for utopia more than those who had their's stolen from them. The indigenous peoples of the world lament the demolition of their pre-colonization folkways. What if the devastation that resulted from contact between colonizers and indigenous people could somehow be undone? Would those peoples be satisfied to return to the lives of their ancestors as they were prior to contact? Mike Resnick has answers, the most obvious of which is that utopia is not a destination, not a fixed set of cultural behaviors or even the complete happiness of a people. But I may be saying too much. Let it be said then that the pull of "European" technologies and products is so compelling it is hard to imagine forgoing them - more, the meme that things can be different is itself enough to cause change. Enter Kiringyaga: A Fable Of Utopia which relentlessly and unflinchingly examines the struggle for a perfect society.

Though the specific folkways Resnick has chosen to follow in the Kirinyaga stories is that of the Kikuyu of East Africa, these exploratory fictions are equally applicable to Haisla, Bakhtiari, Basque or Maori. The lessons taught by the Koriba, the mundumugu (witch-doctor) are fables. Tales of lion, elephant, hyena. They are fables for the characters being told them, and the novel itself is a parable for us. As the mundumugu it is Korbia's job to be the repository of the Kikuyu culture. Koriba is a true believer despite, or perhaps because of studying in the European's finest schools. What he found there among his colonizers is most assuredly not good for the Kikuyu people. What is good for the Kikuyu people is to embrace the wisdom of their traditional lifestyle. His terraformed planetoid, Kirinyaga, may have been manufactured using European technologies but that doesn't mean Ngai, the god of the Kikuyu, didn't give it to his people. In recreating the pre-colonial Kikuyu culture Koriba has many disadvantages. Lions and elephants are extinct, so they can't threaten his people. Maintenance, the engineering and supervisory arm of the Utopian Council, the institution that gave Kirinyaga its charter keeps interfering with the affairs of Kirinyaga. Koriba can't even kill a newborn baby that was born with a curse upon it (it was born feet first), without Maintenance trying to intervene. Worse, in isolating themselves upon a planet created only for the Kikuyu they now have no enemies for their young men to be vigilant against. What purpose can their lives serve if the segment of their populace that was supposed to guard their people against danger doesn't have anyone to guard their culture against? They cannot even raid their neighboring peoples for wives because they have no neighbors! And when a young girl with an extraordinary mind wants to learn to read and write, Koriba must prevent her from corrupting the society - no matter the cost. Girls may not be permitted such things - it is not the Kikuyu way. If she were a male she'd be the be the perfect apprentice to the mundumugu, but because she is a girl she has no prospects except tilling her husband's fields, bearing his children and gossiping with his other wives. As the mundumugu it is Korbia's job to be the repository of the Kikuyu culture. He is good at his job, but he is only one man, and despite his mighty magic it remains to be seen what one man, however powerful, can do to hold back the idea of progress.

There are a lot of questions that could have been answered in these stories, how were the utopian worlds constructed? Are they full sized planets or terraformed asteroids? Why would you need to adjust an orbit to induce rain or cause a drought? What other utopias exist? Where are they? Heck, where is Kirinyaga in relation to Earth? Ultimately none of these questions are answered. And that absence distinguishes this as Social Science Fiction as opposed to Hard SF. That said, I'm am convinced Resnick has said something with this series that will endure. The seeming contradictions inherent in the disconnect between our moral attitudes and that of Koriba's are not easily forgotten. Koriba is a man who will use his computer to cause the rains to fall and then actually sacrifice a goat for the same purpose, and in so doing go out of his way to do something that we enlightened folk know will have no real world effect. Is the wisdom he imparts less valid because its source is not falsifiable? Is the magic he wields less real because it is caused by technology, unlike the mundumugus of East Africa? The training of his replacement, a young boy who was the quickest to understand the significance of Koriba's parables, is fouled because the boy just can't get past this fact that Koriba ignores facts in favour of cultural truth. Am I crazy for being sympathetic to Koriba's definition despite my knowledge that he is in some sense a fraud? I really don't know. The thing that stuck with me the most, the truest thing I came away with was the idea that convenience is a subtle kind of a trap. You can't have a car without fuel. You can't have fuel without fueling stations. You can't have fueling stations without cracking stations. Without drilling rigs and tools to repair them the cracking stations would be pointless. Without the factories to manufacture the machines to make the rigs to fill the stations to supply the fueling stations to fill the cars you can't have cars. The question then becomes, is the trap worth the cost? Of that, I am not at all sure.

I am saddened that Blackstone has had to omit the Author's Afterword in which Resnick explains some of the sources of his ideas. Looking at it though, I can see how it would have been difficult to render to audio very compellingly. It is largely composed of original publication notations for the individual stories and lists of awards that each story was nominated for and won. An insert card, were that possible, might have done the trick. Thankfully as is typical with their growing library of Science Fiction audiobooks - the narration here is absolutely top notch. Paul Garcia's voicing is magnificent, encapsulating and charismatic. His Koriba is a basso rumble that embodies wisdom and surety of a man who knows much. His young men and women are youthful, lively. No accents are used in the production, but we can clearly distinguish between the cultural mindsets by the intonation and stresses. His Masai hunter doesn't sound Kikuyu. But perhaps most impressive of all is what Garcia does with the stories within the stories. Koriba's reciting of fables designed to instruct the children in what it means to be Kikuyu are recursive gems of wisdom. In these recitations Garcia is required to narrate a narration and in so doing he will adeptly remind the listener that it is Koriba who is telling these tales, and not Resnick, and also not the characters of the stories themselves - though they have voices of their own. That same Koriba, whose life's work is the resurrection and regaining of a people's dignity independent of those who took it away.

posted by Jesse Willis 8:47 PM -- (1) comments

 


Escape Pod has dug way back, to 1972 in fact, to bring us a vintage Robert Silverberg short story called When We Went To See The End Of The World. I liked it, and it is quite modern, despite being 34 years old.

EP086: When We Went To See The End Of The World
By Robert Silverberg; Read by J.C. Hutchins
1 MP3 File - [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Escape Pod
Podcast: December 28th 2006

Here's the Grand Master's own description of his Hugo nominated and oft reprinted tale:

"In a time of constant turmoil and disaster (rampant mutant viruses, terrorist bombings, pollution, and so on), a travel agency starts offering time-travel trips to see the end of the world. Among the keep-up-with-the-Joneses crowd, it's the fashionable thing to do. The odd part is, everybody who goes sees something different."

posted by Jesse Willis 10:56 PM -- (0) comments

 


Back in June someone in the marketing department at Random House thought it a smart move to get Dean Koontz to start a podcast to help promote his books. Goodness knows people might read his books if they just get a little promotion. There was a steady drip of Koontz talking about the business of writing, for three months in fact. Recently though the dead feed was revived - probably to coincide with Koontz's novel Brother Odd.

Subscribe to the feed, get reacquainted with the guy:

http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/podcasts/dean_koontz_rss.xml

posted by Jesse Willis
10:02 PM -- (1) comments

 


Mark Nelson, the narrator of The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer, has staked his claim for another title from the SFFaudio Challenge list! Behold our art for it...



This is Mark's second entry in our challenge - if you'll recall, back in November I challenged anyone to turn in any one of a number of previously unreleased public domain novels into an unabridged single voiced audiobook. As an incentive, I offered a BRAND NEW unabridged commercial audiobook to the first person to complete and release one of the books from the list. Mark did it and it was an absolutely terrific audiobook! I am super-juiced at the idea he's doing another.

Look for The Cosmic Computer AKA "Junkyard Planet" by H. Beam Piper to show up on the pages of LibriVox in "a couple of weeks"!

Congratulations again Mark and thanks!

Now since my original challenge will soon be running out of the original batch of audiobooks (at least two out of the three Blackstone Audiobooks I purchased for the event are going to be mailed out shortly), I'd like to ask what you SFFaudio readers would like to see included in the SECOND CHALLENGE!

YUP, that's right, we're going to add to the list and RENEW the challenge with more incentive audiobooks. So I'll ask you folks. Which, of the more modern Science Fiction, Fantasy (and Horror if there are any) public domain books on Manybooks.net or Project Gutenberg would you like to see added to the list? I'll also ask you what kind of commerical audiobooks you would like to see given out by us as the incentive for the SECOND CHALLENGE? Post your thoughts! Make your voice count! And claim your titles!

posted by Jesse Willis 9:27 PM -- (2) comments

 


Finally, someone has named the main character of their Young Adult Fantasy novel after me! I knew it would happen sooner or later. Now even if my name was not the inspiration - but really, how can we doubt it - we should all probably check out the pilot podcast for Mortal Ghost a new novel by L. Lee Lowe. The first episode is now available for online listening or direct download |MP3|. It is read by a young theatre student from the UK. Regular podcasting should begin in January 2007. Here's the description:

It’s a fiery hot summer, and sixteen-year-old Jesse is on the run. An oddly gifted boy, he arrives in a new city where the direction of his life is about to change. He’s hungry and lonely and desperate – and beset by visions of a stranger who is being brutally tortured. And then there are Jesse’s own memories of a fire...

Now that sounds hot! find out for yourself, subscribe to the podcast feed:

http://www.lleelowe.com/home/?feed=rss2

posted by Jesse Willis 11:13 PM -- (0) comments

 


CBC Radio One's program IDEAS is my favorite Canadian daily radio show, its podcast, The Best Of Ideas is five times too infrequent for me - at just once a week - but it isn't often enough that I get a chance to talk about it. Thankfully the host, Paul Kennedy, has syndicated his reading Hans Christian Anderson's Christmas classic The Fir Tree (a Danish fairy storie) in the latest podcast. This is a delightfully melancholic tale that is eminently suitable for listening to after the event of Xmas itself.

I won't provide a link to a direct download on this one (though you can find it here) because I'd like to try to convince you of keeping The Best Of Ideas in your podcatcher, the show is just that good:

http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/ideas.xml

posted by Jesse Willis 6:05 PM -- (0) comments

 


A special preview by Tee Morris of his book, Billibub Baddings And The Case Of The Singing Sword. This podcast novel is scheduled to appear on Podiobooks in February. But Tee is giving a special holiday gift to his fans.

Tee's podcast The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy is offering up this 53:22 beginning of this podcast novel with a Dwarf named Billibub Baddings in gangland Chicago.

Download the [MP3]

or subscribe to the The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy by pasting this line in your favorite podcatching device:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheSurvivalGuideToWritingFantasy

posted by The Time Traveler 7:20 AM -- (0) comments

 


Audible.com has posted a daily special ($9.95) on Lois McMaster Bujold's The Vor Game. This was a Hugo award winner ("Best Novel of 1991"), and we reviewed it last year. It was also a 2005 Audie Award Nominee.

Here's the outline:

Miles Vorkosigan graduates from the Barrayaran Military Academy with high expectations of ship command, but is disappointed with an assignment as meteorologist to Lazkowski Base, an arctic training camp. His tenure in the windy, snow-covered north is cut short when Miles narrowly averts a massacre between the trigger-happy base commander and mutinous recruits. After a brief stay under 'house arrest', Miles is re-assigned to investigate a suspicious military build-up near a wormhole nexus. Reviving his undercover persona as mercenary Admiral Miles Naismith, his routine information-gathering duty expands to a rescue mission when the Emperor of Barrayar disappears during a political conference on a nearby space station. Miles must use his considerable negotiating skills to avoid a showdown between competing powers for control of the wormhole, find the Emperor, and watch his back for the arctic base commander seeking bloody vengeance.

posted by Jesse Willis 1:06 PM -- (0) comments

 


The folks at Second Shift , a super-fun original audio drama series, have released a "limited edition" three-CD set of the first five episodes of their first season! These are regular audio cds and can be played on any CD player - but added to them are bonus features you can access on your computer. Each of the Limited Edition CDs is signed by the cast and crew, and is individually numbered up to #40. Proceeds go to supporting the show!




Second Shift is the tale of three college students who, while waiting in line for the opening of the latest genre blockbuster movie, are transported into a fantasy world where magic works, at least sometimes.

If you're too poor to pony up the $12.00 then just plop this feed into your podcatcher and listen the free way:

http://www.secondshiftpodcast.com/xml/2shift.xml

posted by Jesse Willis 4:10 PM -- (0) comments

 


Podiobooks.com has just posted up the first 10 chapters of Steven H. Wilson's reading of Badge Of Infamy by Lester del Rey. There are a total of 15 chapters in this 1957 novel. When it is completed it will be another entry in the SFFaudio "Make An Audiobook, Win An Audiobook Challenge."

This short novel was originally published in Satellite Science Fiction in June of 1957. It first appeared in book form in 1963, and still later in 1973 as a Ace Double paired with another now public domain del Rey novel The Sky is Falling.

Badge Of Infamy
By Lester del Rey; Read by Steven H. Wilson
15 MP3s - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Status: STARTED

Daniel Feldman was a doctor once. He made the mistake of saving a friend's life in violation of Medical Lobby rules. Now, he's a pariah, shunned by all, forbidden to touch another patient. But things are more loose on Mars. There, Doc Feldman is welcomed by the colonists, even as he's hunted by the authorities. But, when he discovers a Martian plague may soon wipe out humanity on two planets, the authorities begin hunting him for a different reason altogether.

Head on over to Podiobooks.com to subscribe!

posted by Jesse Willis 3:33 PM -- (1) comments

 


The Time Traveler Show podcast #11 has the best podcast short story of the season as its latest episode! The story itself has absolutely nothing to do with Xmas, except in the sense that it is a gift from the Time Traveler to all the good little boys and girls out there in podcastland. Come to think of it, the Time Traveler and Santa Claus do have a lot in common!

Anyway, TT's Xmas gift to us is an unabridged reading of Philip K. Dick's short story, Beyond Lies The Wub. This was Dick's first ever published tale. Apparently the Time Traveler even went all the way back to 1952 to try to get Dick to read it for us. Unfortunately Phil wanted to know how big the paycheck would be for it. When TT told him it'd be a 'pro bono' job, Phil went into a long rambling harangue about how 'poor' he was, that all he ever got to eat was 'horsemeat' and that if he'd had a time machine, like the Time Traveler did, he'd be using it to make goddamned money. Said Phil:

"Just think of the possibilities! You could buy cheap color televisions from 1975 and sell them to the people of 1951, you'd make an absolute killing! It'd be a captive market."

This got Phil up off the couch and over to his typewriter - maybe he was inspired or something. The Time Traveler gave up and zipped forward to 2006 and got an excellent reader named Mac Kelly to narrate it for us instead. Almost as good I say!

To read the complete show notes for podcast #11 click HERE or download the show MP3 directly by clicking HERE.

Better yet, subscribe to the feed, phil your Xmas stocking automatically:

http://www.timetravelershow.com/shows/feed.xml

posted by Jesse Willis 10:02 PM -- (1) comments

 


The Lipstick Aliens, Lynne and Cat, are two "Sexy sci-fi fan girls" who host a podcast about genre TV, movies, toys, games and even musical theatre. Additional material covered includes interviews with purveyors of podcast fiction! Interviewees so far include the likes of J.C Hutchins, Mur Lafferty and Scott Sigler.



Subscribe to the podcast with the feed:

http://lipstickaliens.libsyn.com/rss

posted by Jesse Willis 9:37 PM -- (0) comments

 


Paul Cole and his Rockland, ME based podcast called Beam Me Up have been posting some very interesting SF stories in the feed of late. These include readings of stories by Mark Long, Belinda Subermann, Shaun Saunders, James Patrick Kelly and Lloyd Biggle Jr.! The latest, is a cover story from the December 1984 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. It is of course, a Xmas story and by none other than Jack McDevitt!


Show # 32 Part 3 of Promises To Keep by Jack McDevitt
Show # 31 Part 2 of Promises To Keep by Jack McDevitt
Show # 30 Part 1 of Promises To Keep by Jack McDevitt


Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://beameup.podomatic.com/rss2.xml


posted by Jesse Willis 11:24 AM -- (1) comments

 


The Green Odyssey
By Philip Jose Farmer; Read by Mark Nelson
10 MP3s or 10 OGG Vorbis files - 6 Hours 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Published: December 2006
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Themes: / Science Fiction / Space Opera / Planetary Romance / Swashbuckling / Pirates / Slaves / Planetary Ecology / Panspermia / Humor /

Alan Green is a space traveler stranded on a barbaric planet. He's been taken as a slave and made a consort to an insipid and smelly queen. His slave-wife, though beautiful and smart, nags him constantly. He’s given up hope of ever returning to Earth when he hears of two astronauts who have been captured in a kingdom on the other side of the planet, and sets out on an action-packed journey on a ship sailing across vast grasslands on rolling pin-like wheels in a desperate scheme to save them and return home.

This audiobook was created on a dare. Back in November 2006 I challenged anyone to make an unabridged single-voiced audiobook from a list of titles of public domain Speculative Fiction novels that had not been previously released as audiobooks. This is the first audiobook to complete the aforementioned "SFFaudio challenge." With its completion, the narrator, has won himself a copy of Galactic Pot Healer by Philip K. Dick as read by Tom Parker. Congratulations Mark! Now, on to the review proper...

The Green Odyssey roughly parallels the adventures of the original Odysseus, except that the Mediterranean sea here is instead a sea of grass on an endless plain on an obscure alien planet. Perhaps most original in this tale are the ships that sail that grass sea of this land-dominated planet. The idea of sails and roller ships to ply the prairie between cities is a neat one (something similar was used the Dragonlance AD&D module Dragons Of Ice by Douglas Niles). The lead character, Alan Green, is a Earthman who has been shipwrecked (or is that "spacewrecked") on a planet inhabited by a branch of quasi-medieval Homo sapiens sapiens. If his alien origins were to be revealed they'd think him a demon. For two years already he's been enslaved and humbled. The worst of it is his being forced into the bed of a lusty, but fickle, Duchess. Her merest whim would mean his death, so when Green hears of two strangers, like himself, who've come from the sky in a strange ship, his ears perk-up. Upon further investigation it seems the two "demons" are being held in a distant city. With a death sentence not too far in their futures, Green hatches a shrewd escape plan with a wily merchant. His only problem - his adopted family wants to go with!

This is a exuberant adventure. It reminds me of vintage Poul Anderson, in fact the whole novel is a kind of an inverse of Anderson's excellent The High Crusade. Its also funny, in the same smile and smirk way, and lets not forget another of its vitures, The Green Odyssey is quick! I often think this, the classic short novel of the 1950s and 1960s, is the perfect length for SF. Moreover, Farmer has scripted lots of fun details for fans of both Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs - the colloquial language is also full realized and amusing. Now a word of caution, this is by no means a classic on the scale of To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Jose Farmer's best know work. That said, it is absolutely and addictively listenable - I plowed straight through the 6 hour running time with nary a dry spell. Since it is FREE, thanks to the good efforts of Mark Nelson, I can unreservedly recommend it even to people who'd otherwise give it a miss.

Mark Nelson has a real narrators voice. He puts as much characterization into the various characters into this exposition heavy novel as is probably possible. Sound is good, loud enough and pretty clean of noise. Two minor problems, Mark pronounces a word wrong and there is one line repeated, I'd guess the latter got missed in the editing, the former is almost inevitable. I've heard professional productions far less "professionally" produced. I am looking forward to hearing a lot more public domain SF novels from Mark!

Editors note:
In a last minute email Mark has said that he does indeed expect to be reading more Science Fiction for LibriVox in the months ahead. He'd prefer titles that "haven't been done commercially, just to increase the variety of audiobooks out there". But here's the problem he's having; Mark is not super-familiar with the Science Fiction from the 50's and 60's. His reading thus far has tended to read much more recent. And so he asks that we come up with with some recommendations. Recommendations, in fact, from what he calls "the knowledgeable" - Hey! That's you guys out there! So, which public domain Science Fiction novels from the 1950s and early 1960s would you like to hear Mark read?

posted by Jesse Willis 8:40 PM -- (1) comments

 


Hey you didn't think we forgot about Chanukah did you? Nah, we got your Chanukah, we got it right here in a show that just aired on WHYY Radio (Wednesday, December 20th, 10 pm - 11 pm):

Chanukah a Time for Superheros illuminates the connection between ancient heroes and modern-day superheroes. Host Arye Gross begins with the Chanukah story of the Maccabees, the Hebrew band of brothers who fought against the religious repression of the Syrian-Greeks over 2000 years ago. This heroic tale has inspired comic book writers since pow, zap and bam first appeared in print and on the silver screen.Listeners enjoy insights from Marvel Comics' Stan Lee and DC Comics' Wil Eisner, who describe their humble origins and the backdrop of their Jewish experience that informed Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and Wonder Woman. Listeners also hear from filmmakers Sam Raimi ("Spiderman") and Brian Singer ("X-Men,") from Michael Chabon, the acclaimed author of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," and they visit the studios of Art Spiegelman and the Hanouka brothers, cutting-edge graphic novelists.

"Chanukah: A Time for Superheroes" includes archival radio and movie clips, music and readings, all woven around the compelling tale of how the holiday evolved from a story of military victory to one of light and inspiration.

You can still listen! Head over to PRX.org (a nonprofit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs) where they've archived the 1 hour show! You'll need to sign up to listen to the stream but sign-up is free and relatively painless.

Happy Chanukah!

posted by Jesse Willis 11:46 PM -- (0) comments

 


Wonder Audio, which is the brainchild of our very own Time Traveler (Rick Jackson), has released its first batch of downloadable audiobooks under the banner of "Unabridged Vintage Fiction". These are mighty fine tales to start a publishing company with! Cast your gaze on these lovelies and behold their utter coolity:



Coming Attraction
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Paul S. Jenkins
1 MP3 - Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
An Englishman’s dark journey into post-nuclear New York for a masked woman.





The Wind People
By Marion Zimmer Bradley; Read by Candace Platt
1 MP3 - Approx. 50 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
A woman alone must raise a child on an alien planet. Is she really alone?




The Hanging Stranger
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Mac Kelly
1 MP3 - Approx. 30 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
What happens when you find a man hanging in your own town, but nobody seems to care?




This is so awesome! With prices of just $2 or $4 and secure payment via PayPal you can't go wrong. They are simply Wonder-ful! Click on over to Wonder Audio and buy! Buy! BUY!

They make great gifts, and being downloadable, DRM-free MP3s they are both environmentally friendly and hassle-free!

10:05 PM -- (0) comments

 


Roy, our exeptionaly talented British agent has found out that a UK-based independent media production company, B7 Productions, has announced the return of the cult television classic, Blake's 7 as a series of original audio dramas. Cognoscenti of a certain age will remember that the original Blake's 7 television series aired between 1978 and 1981 in the UK. You can read the original press release HERE, but suffice it to say it sounds like B7 has been "re-imagined" with a number of very professional actors. The series is to be comprised of 36 five minute audio dramas and will debut in spring 2007. A special ‘extended’ CD edition should also be released to retail in the month following broadcast.

About … Blake’s 7:

In the original series, Terry Nation, one of Britain’s foremost television writers of the 1960’s and 1970’s, gave the world a vision of the future, a future where the galaxy is ruled by the iron fist of a galactic federation, in which freedom and justice are things of the past. Into this vision he cast a small band of outlaws, who by pure chance found themselves in control of the most powerful space vessel in the known galaxy – the Liberator. Led by the enigmatic Roj Blake this group of rebels would strike at the very heart of the Federation and change the face of science fiction television forever.

12:26 PM -- (0) comments

 


SFFaudio has shamelessly stolen this entire post from the awesome Slice of SciFi news website:
11:57 PM -- (0) comments

 


More "Challenge" news...

Mark P. Steele, wrote in to say:

"Hi there. I ran across your challenge late, but decided to try anyway."

The book Mark P. is interested in is the The Skylark Of Space by E.E. "Doc" Smith. Very cool, say I.

As you well know, Bob, The Skylark of Space is one of the earliest novels of interstellar travel. First published in 1928. It is oft considered the first literary Space Opera.

Frederick Pohl said of it:

"With the exception of the works of H. G. Wells, possibly those of Jules Verne it has inspired more imitators and done more to change the nature of all the Science Fiction written after it than almost any other single work."

According to Mark P.'s research, BOTH the original 1928 and the later 1958 revision are in the public domain, and Mark P. is planning on recording the 1958 version.

Mark asks: "Is anyone else working on this?"

Well Mark, no, I know of no-one else who is working on that title. So far, we've got only three audiobooks in various stages of completeness in "The SFFaudio Challenge":

CHALLENGERS SO FAR:

-Mark Nelson has COMPLETED & RELEASED (awaiting verification) an unabridged recording of The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer.

-Steven H. Wilson has has finished the recording of Badge Of Infamy by Lester del Rey
- and we expect a Podiobooks.com release of it relatively soon.

-Mark P. Steele is preparing to record The Skylark Of Space (1958) by E.E. "Doc" Smith.

Would anyone else like to publicly stake a claim from the titles on the challenge list?

Also, it seems Mark P. Steel wouldn't mind some technical assistance - as he writes...

"The main problem that I have is the static on the recording. I'm using Audacity, and filtered the static, but it sounds somewhat hollow and metallic, thus making me skeptical of the usability,of the recording. My next step is to try and move the mike away from the computer, on the possibility that it's the fan hum I'm getting."

Hmmm, I'm tech-challenged myself, but I can offer a custom bit of cover art to get Mr. Steele inspired:





































Can anyone else give Mark P. some advice on how to get the static out of his recording?

posted by Jesse Willis 11:24 PM -- (1) comments

 


The Zombie Astronaut, has a sackfull of crunchably delicious MP3s up for Xmas! Among the many tempting delectables are sweetmeats from the brains of two Science Fiction masters...

Soldier
By Harlan Ellison; Read by John Sharian
Part 1 |MP3| & Part 2 |MP3|

We Can Remember It For You Wholesale
By Philip K. Dick; Read by William Hootkins
Part 1 |MP3| & Part 2 |MP3|

11:08 AM -- (0) comments

 


MORE BIG BIG NEWS!

Mark Nelson, a prolific narrator at LibriVox.org has written in to announce he has already COMPLETED and RELEASED one of the public domain Speculative Fiction novels listed in the SFFaudio 'make an audiobook, win an audiobook' challenge!

In an email dated "Sun, 17 Dec 2006 15:39:27 -0800" Mark wrote:

"I don't know if any others took you up already and recorded any of the others on your list, but a complete audiobook of The Green Odyssey has just been published on LibriVox"

Well Mark, at least one other person has recorded one of the public domain novels, but it appears you are the first to both complete and release one which is what is required by the challenge. And The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer |Manybooks.net| was indeed one of the novels from the challenge!

For those playing along at home... in mid-November I challenged anyone to turn any one of a number of previously unreleased public domain novels into an unabridged single voiced audiobook. As an incentive, I offered a BRAND NEW unabridged commercial audiobook to the first person to complete and release one from the list. It appears Mark has, in fact, done that!

All that is necessary now is the verification - namely me listening to the novel and comparing it to the Maybooks.net text - but by all accounts it certainly appears that Mark has met this challenge! This therefore, almost certainly, means that Mark will be receiving a free audiobook of his choice. Either Galactic Pot Healer by Philip K. Dick, Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein or Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Now, if you are CURRENTLY making, or were PLANNING on making your very own novel based on the challenge, don't stop now! Let me know which novel you are working on. I'd like to know what you're doing. And, we might even be able to scrounge up a BRAND NEW professionally narrated audiobook for you too!

In the meantime SFFaudio is proud to present the first (provisionally) completed Speculative Fiction novel in our 'Make an Audiobook, Win an Audiobook Challenge':

The Green Odyssey
By Philip Jose Farmer; Read by Mark Nelson
10 MP3s or 10 OGG Vorbis files - 6 Hours 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Published: December 2006
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Alan Green is a space traveler stranded on a barbaric planet who has been taken slave and made a consort to an insipid and smelly queen. His slave-wife, though beautiful and smart, nags him constantly. He’s given up hope of ever returning to Earth when he hears of two astronauts who have been captured in a kingdom on the other side of the planet, and sets out on an action-packed journey on a ship sailing across vast grasslands on rolling pin-like wheels in a desperate scheme to save them and return home.

Click HERE to get it directly from LibriVox!

Congratulations Mark and thanks!

posted by Jesse Willis 1:39 AM -- (0) comments

 


Paul S. Jenkins, author of The Plitone Revisionist podiobook and host of The Rev-Up Review podcast writes in to say:

"Radio Times (the best UK weekly TV & radio listings magazine) is giving away a Doctor Who audio CD with each of the next four editions. The first is Part One of The Feast of the Drowned written by Stephen Cole and read by David Tennant, the current Doctor. Part Two will be free with the next edition, followed by The Stone Rose, also in two parts.

And here's a peek...

Doctor Who: The Feast of the Drowned
By Stephen Cole; Read by David Tennant
2 CDs - [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audio / Radio Times
Published: December 2006
When a naval cruiser sinks in the North Sea, all aboard are lost. Rose learns that the brother of her friend was among the dead. He appears to them as a ghostly apparition, begging to be saved from the coming feast ... the feast of the drowned. As the dead crew haunt loved ones all over London, the Doctor and Rose are drawn into a chilling mystery. What sank the ship, and why? When the cruiser's wreckage was towed up the Thames, what came with it? The river's dark waters are hiding an even darker secret, as preparations for the feast near their conclusion ...

Doctor Who: The Stone Rose*
By Jacqueline Rayner; Read by David Tennant
2 CDs - [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audio / Radio Times
Published: January 2007
Mickey is startled to find a statue of Rose in a museum -- a statue that is 2,000 years old. The Doctor realises that this means the Tardis will shortly take them to Ancient Rome, but when it does, he and Rose have more on their minds than sculpture. While the Doctor searches for a missing boy, Rose befriends a girl who claims to know
the future -- a girl whose predictions are surprisingly accurate. But then the Doctor stumbles on the hideous truth behind the statue of Rose -- and Rose learns that you have to be very careful what you wish for ...

* please note: art for The Stone Rose will be slightly different in the giveaway edition.

These are a £20.00 value put together! Yet another reason to visit the newstands across the pond.

Thanks so much Paul!

posted by Jesse Willis 12:04 AM -- (0) comments

 


Bill DeSmedt, author of the SFFaudio Essential podiobook Singularity wrote in to say that there's a cool documentary set to air on The History
Channel.

Sez Bill: "As if Christmas weren't apocalyptic enough..."

THE HISTORY CHANNEL:
Tuesday, December 26 10:00 PM
Wednesday, December 27 02:00 AM

At 7:15AM on June 30, 1908, a giant fireball, as bright the Sun, explodes in the Siberian sky with a force a thousand times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. It decimates 1,000 square miles of forest--over half the size of Rhode Island, and was the biggest cosmic disaster in the history of civilization. What caused the apocalyptic fire in the sky? Over a hundred theories surround what is called the Tunguska event, varying from asteroids and comets to black holes and alien spaceships. Most scientists agree the Tunguska event will happen again, and next time, the human toll could be unimaginable. Now, NASA and other organizations race against time to stop the next planet killer before it ignites Armageddon.

Those planning on listening to Singularity, check this out, it'll give you a primer.

Thanks Bill!

posted by Jesse Willis 2:32 PM -- (0) comments

 


Greetings once again fellow vault-dwellers I have some terrible news.

That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die.

Yes, it is true, Destructomundo!, the podcast panel made up of Adam, Ted, Derek, and James, who would normally bring you advice on how to survive an "end of the world scenario" may have finally met a threat to the world that **GASP** cannot be survived! This due, to the Lovecraftian terror that nobody knows how to pronounce, and his eldritch friends. Cthulhu and his mythos are the latest topic on Destructomundo! Also listed are a cavalcade of slightly less dangerous scenarios...

Episode 024 Cthulhu |MP3|
Episode 023 Louisville Zombie Attack |MP3|
Episode 022 Anarchy |MP3|
Episode 021 Technopause |MP3|
Episode 029 Time Travel |MP3|
Episode 019b Supernatural Evil - Part 2 |MP3|
Episode 019a Supernatural Evil - Part 1 |MP3|
Episode 018 Dystopia |MP3|
Episode 017 Doppelgangers |MP3|
Episode 016 Mutants |MP3|
Episode 015 Rocks From Space |MP3|
Episode 014 Bunkers |MP3|
Episode 013 Post Apocalypses |MP3|
Episode 012 Dystopia |MP3|
Episode 011a/011b The Fourth Reich |MP3| & |MP3|
Episode 010a/010b Zombie Apocalypse |MP3| & |MP3|
Episode 009 The Antichrist |MP3|
Episode 008 The Last Man On Earth |MP3|
Episode 007 Doom Cults |MP3|
Episode 006 The Big List |MP3|
Episode 005 Science Run Amok |MP3|
Episode 004 Supervillians |MP3|
Episode 003 Aliens Attack! |MP3|
Episode 002 Rise of the Robots |MP3|
Episode 001 Road Warriors |MP3|

Be sure to only put these hardened MP3s into your "MIL-SPEC" iPod or MP3 player. Subscribe via this insanity inducing feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/destructomundo

posted by Jesse Willis 2:00 PM -- (0) comments

 


The original podcast novelist is set to STRIKE AGAIN soon!

Tee Morris, co-author of Morevi: The Chronicles Of Rafe and Askana, and the first podcast novelist in the history of this universe is planning on podcasting his 2004 novel Billibub Baddings And The Case Of The Singing Sword. The first teaser |MP3| is out already, and the actual novel should start sometime in the early New Year, likely February. Here's the hook:

"Chicago, 1929. There are a thousand stories in the naked city; and when you're a dwarf at four-foot-one, they all look that much taller." It is The Era of Prohibition, where crime runs rampant in the streets and a city divided into territories serves as the ultimate prize. Somewhere in this Underworld of Chicago, an enchanted weapon holds the key to ending The Gangland Wars. In the wake of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, only one is man enough to stand up against Al Capone... ...a four-foot-one dwarf named Billibub Baddings. "Billi," as his friends come to know him, is a working stiff dwarf in the all too-human sized world of Chicago. Seems that a brood of orcs and a renegade warlock had opened a Portal of Oblivion in his homeworld and was planning to submerge his nine lands of Acryonis into an Age of Darkness. Billi had managed to throw a monkey wrench into those plans...but not before getting himself caught in the pull of that portal. When he came to, he found himself in the heart of The Windy City during The Roaring Twenties. After dealing with trolls, goblins, and rock dragons, Al Capone and Bugs Moran are about as intimidating as choir boys. Billi sets himself up as a tough-talking, waist-high, straight-dealing detective, and business was looking bleak, until a dark-eyed beauty crossed his threshold with the case that involved the mob, the upper-crust of Chicago society, and Billi's past. Get ready for The Lord of the Rings written by Mickey Spillane! Poking fun at the hard-boiled detective novel, Fantasy mainstays, and even the legend of Chicago's 1920 underworld!

Tee's first novel was abridged, but no word has yet been leaked as to whether this will be an UNABRIDGED or ABRIDGED podiobook. Let's hope for the former!

posted by Jesse Willis 1:17 PM -- (0) comments

 


Kate Fleming

Kate Fleming who may be better known to audiobook listeners as Anna Fields, died tragically at her home in Seattle on December 14th. When flash floods hit her home, Kate was moving audio equipment out of her basement. Apparently the basement's walls collapsed, trapping Kate.

Kate took her professional name, Anna Fields, from her great grandmother who was a professional actress. As Anna Fields, she recorded over 250 audiobooks. She was nominated numerous times for the prestigious Audie award. She won the Audie award in 2004 for All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki.

She was a great talent and will sadly be missed.

Please send any special thoughts and remembrances to info@cedarhouseaudio.com. They will be appreciated by Kate’s family and her partner of nine years, Charlene Strong.

posted by The Time Traveler 4:48 PM -- (0) comments

 


The latest SOUNDINGS, written by Blackstone Audio's oracle, Haila Williams, features a very promising sounding audiobook for fans of the original man of steel...

Why is that that when I tell someone that IT'S SUPERMAN is the most literary of the Superman books, I get nothing but snorts of derision? After all, subject does not define the literary value of a work. Stefan Rudnicki who directed Scott Brick in our audio of IT'S SUPERMAN said this, "The action is always carefully grounded in full and vivid characters…all flawed, and all, in their way, heroic. Even more important, the setting is not some fantasyland Gotham, but an incredibly accurate portrayal of Depression-era New York City. Tom De Haven's rich character-driven storytelling, detailed use of authentic period language and ambiance, and his overriding moral themes about the nature of corruption and friendship, make this one of the best reads I've come across in years."

Hey, I've got a great idea for a graphic novel: a psycho mariner and his cohorts, Starbuck, Tattooed Guy and Sin-Eater go on a voyage in search of a legendary white whale hell-bent on revenge. Nah, that's just too weird.

It's Superman
By Tom DeHaven; Read by Scott Brick
10 Cassettes, 1 MP3-CD or 12 CDs & Audible.com download - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: December 2006
ISBN: 0786148381 (Cassettes), 0786173173 (MP3-CD), 0786161337 (CDs)
Opening with the young Clark Kent on a date, the novel takes an entirely fresh approach to the emergence of his superpowers and the start of his newspaper career, following him from rural 1930s Kansas across America to Hollywood in its golden age and then to New York City. He meets a worldly Lois Lane and conniving political boss Lex Luthor and begins his battles against criminal masterminds, mad scientists, and super villains inspired by fascists.

posted by Jesse Willis 4:06 PM -- (0) comments

 


Dream Realm Enterprises and Robotz Of The Company, present a yule-time show for your enjoyment. Not only is this show holiday related, it also features the voice of our very own Danielle Cutler!

"A familiar story retold for a future generation! It has action, adventure, intrigue and romance!"

Download the complete MP3!

And get a preview of Robotz Of The Company - Season 3 with this MP3 promo!

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/RobotzOfTheCompany

11:37 PM -- (0) comments

 


I've got big Big BIG news! It appears we may very soon have a winner in the SFFaudio 'make an audiobook, win an audiobook' challenge!

I was contacted late last night by Steven H. Wilson, author and narrator of the recently reviewed Taken Liberty - A Tale From The Artiber Chronicles. Steven said:

"I've recorded all of [Lester] del Rey's BADGE OF INFAMY, and the first five chapters have been uploaded to podiobooks.com."

Badge Of Infamy by Lester Del Rey |Gutenberg Project| was one of the novels on the challenge!

If you don't recall, back in mid November I challenged anyone to turn any one of a number of previously unreleased public domain novels into an unabridged single voiced audiobook. As an incentive, I offered a BRAND NEW unabridged audiobook to the first person to complete and release one.

If as I suspect, Steven is the first complete the challenge and meet the requirements of it, he'll be the winner of his choice of one of three BRAND NEW unabridged audiobooks from Blackstone Audiobooks (For those curious, these audiobooks were purchased by me - and were not given away as a promotion by Blackstone). Basically now that he's finished recording it, all Steven needs to do is get Badge Of Infamy out there, either on Podiobooks, as he said, as a commercial release or wherever he'd like - just so long as I can verify its completeness he'll win his choice of one of these:

Galactic Pot Healer by Philip K. Dick

Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Animal Farm by George Orwell

But, if you areCURRENTLY, or were PLANNING, on making your own novel based on the challenge you can still let me know. I'd like to know what you're doing! And, we might even be able to scrounge up a BRAND NEW commerical audiobook for you too! SFFaudio wants you to make Speculative Fiction audiobooks, and we aren't above out-and-out bribery to make it happen.

In the meantime, look forward to seeing this logo or one similar up on podiobooks.com very soon:



posted by Jesse Willis 10:35 PM -- (0) comments

 


Triplanetary
Lensman Series #1
By E.E. "DOC" SMITH; Read by Reed McComb
CDs and MP3 editions- Aprox. 10 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books in Motion
Published: 2006
ISBN: MP3 - 1596074507/CDs - 1596074493

By the father of the Space Opera genre.

From the back cover:

From the atomic age in Atlantis to a world remote in space and time, two incredible ancient races, the Arisians and the Eddorians, are in the midst of an interstellar war with Earth as the prize. The Arisians, using advanced mental technology, have foreseen the invasion of their galaxy by the corrupt and evil Eddorians, so they begin a breeding program on every planet in their universe. Their goal...to produce super warriors who can hold off the invading Eddorians.


Guardians of the West
Book #1 of the Malloreon
By David Eddings; Read by Cameron Beierle
CDs and MP3 editions- Aprox. 15 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books in Motion
Published: 2006
ISBN: MP3 - 1596072377/CDs - 1596072369

From the back cover:

Garion has slain the evil God Torak and been crowned King of Riva. The Prophecy has been fulfilled--or so it seems. While the strange child Errand was growing up in the Vale of Aldur with Polgara and Durnick, showing only occasional flashes of inexplicable knowledge and power, Garion is learning to rule and be a husband to his fiery little Queen, Ce'Nedra.


The Time Traveler 7:21 PM -- (1) comments

 


Jim Baen's Universe, a bimonthly genre subscription webzine edited by Eric Flint and Mike Resnick, has "teamed-up" with the Parsec Award winning podcast The Future And You. This is a futurist related show hosted by "transhumanist", "futurist" and SF author Stephen Euin Cobb. As a part of their agreement Euin Cobb is adding another 10 minutes of content to his podcast. This will be Jim Baen's Universe created content and may include authors reading excerpts from their stories. In exchange Euin Cobb now has two columns in the JBU e-zine.

I like the guests and some of content on The Future and You but I find the format quite stiff. In the live interviews Euin Cobb comes off as a affable and interested, but during the news and commentary segments, which takes up a lot of the show, his reading is formal, like he's reading a royal proclamation. This, coupled with the more than two hour long shows, makes me wish for a segmented prodcast or at the very least an "enhanced podcast" that would be set into segments. As it stands The Future And You podcasts come out regularly, on the 1st of each month in fact. The guests are varied and many are famous SF authors. Also included in the show is a segment in which Euin Cobb reads from his novel Bones Burnt Black.

You can try it out for yourself, subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://www.thefutureandyou.libsyn.com/rss

posted by Jesse Willis 1:08 PM -- (0) comments

 


The Sci Phi Show podcast, the show that investigates the connections between Science Fiction and Philosophy, will be posting a cool interview with Science Fiction author, university professor and philosophy enthusiast Paul Levinson. Sci Phi Show host Jason Rennie talks to Levinson about his latest novel The Plot To Save Socrates [which SFFaudio recently reviewed]. They also talk about the intersection between the media and Philosophy - apt this, because Levinson is a professor of Media studies at Fordham University. Also cool, Levinson tells of the inspiration for his acclaimed novelette The Chronology Protection Case, which itself has been dramatized for audio.

You can subscribe to the podcast feed via this link:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheSciPhiShow

Look for it in your podcatcher Friday or Saturday!

7:03 PM -- (0) comments

 


Matt Wallace, Parsec-Award winning author for the Variant Frequencies podcast, had some bragging to do on MySpace:

"I can safely announce that one of my stories, which originally appeared on the Variant Frequencies podcast, has been optioned by an Australian producer. What's more, I've signed on to adapt it into a feature-length screenplay myself for his production company."

[snip]

"This is a huge gig for me, creatively and professionally. It's hardly a million dollar studio deal, but it's certainly 300 times more than I've been paid for any of my other stuff. And it's a shot, however slim, to break into an industry I honestly never thought I'd have access to. I have no idea if the thing will ever sell, much less be made into an actual movie; I'm dealing with an independent producer here. But so far he's delivered on everything he said he would. If he can deliver the contacts, who knows? The one thing I do know about Australian filmmakers is that they're resourceful bastards."

Congratulations Matt!

Check out more of Matt's stories in the Failed Cities Monologues, which can be found on Podiobooks.com.

http://www.podiobooks.com/podiobooks/book.php?ID=110

posted by Dani Cutler

6:40 PM -- (0) comments

 


The elusive Robert R. McCammon is one of the most admired living writers of Horror fiction. His output has diminished since he renounced deadlines and the pressures from publishers in 1999. But during his writing career McCammon wrote more than a dozen novels and about as many short stories. Not only an admired writer, he was also in great part responsible for the creation of the Horror Writer's Association. There are just six commercially audiobooks that we know of that either contain one or more of McCammon's short stories or abridge one of his novels. Here they are:

Audiobooks:

Nightcrawlers: Stories from Blue World
By Robert R. McCammon; Read by William Windom
2 Cassettes - 180 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: 1989
ISBN: 0671881426
Includes Night Calls the Green Falcon, Nightcrawlers and Yellowjacket Summer.




Something Passed By: Stories from Blue World
By Robert R. McCammon; Read by Michael O'Keefe
2 Cassettes - 180 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: 1990
ISBN: 0671700502
Includes Something Passed By, Makeup, The Red House, Pin, and Chico.




Boy's Life
By Robert R. McCammon; Read by Richard Thomas
2 Cassettes - 180 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: 1991
ISBN: ??????????






Gone South
By Robert R. McCammon; Read by Will Patton
2 Cassettes - 180 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: 1992
ISBN: 0671760165





The Best Horror Stories of The Year, 1989
Edited by Orson Scott Card and Martin H. Greenberg; Read by ???
4 Cassettes - Approx. 6 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Dercum Audio
Published: 1989
ISBN: 1556561458
Includes McCammon's Lizardman and stories from eight other authors.



Stalkers
By Dean R. Koontz and Robert R. McCammon; Read by Various
4 Cassettes - 2 hours, 30 minutes. [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Dove Audio
Published: 1992
ISBN: 1558004904
Very rare! A collection of nineteen original tales by "today's masters of terror" includes the McCammon tales Lizardman read by David Dukes.

Audiobooks for the Blind and Visually Impaired:*

*These audiobooks are not available to the general public, listeners must qualify by visiting the National Library Service website.

Swan Song
By Robert R. McCammon; Read by David Palmer
? - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: National Library Service
Published: ????
Product #: RC 26498
In a future world born of nuclear rage, an ancient evil as old as time roams a devastated, nightmare wilderness. He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, the Man of Many Faces, gathering under his power the forces of human greed and madness. He is searching for a child who has the gift of life, a child named Swan, the child who must be destroyed.

Stinger
By Robert R. McCammon; Read by Rick Foucheux
4 NLS Cassettes - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: National Library Service
Published: 1988
Product #: RC 34841
It is dawn in Inferno, Texas, and Cody Lockett is making plans to leave town right after next week's graduation. Teacher Tom Hammond sees nothing but despair ahead for Cody and others like him, now that the copper mine has closed down and everyone is moving away. Then an indescribable fireball rolls through Inferno, stalking the residents with a terror worse than anyone can imagine.

Mine
By Robert R. McCammon; Read by Pam Ward
3 NLS Cassettes - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: National Library Service
Published: 1990
Product #: RC 35540
Dangerously disturbed Mary Terrell still worships Lord Jack, the leader of a sixties radical underground group. Meanwhile, journalist Laura Clayborne has given birth to a son just as her marriage is falling apart. Mary, believing she's received an order from Lord Jack, steals Laura's baby and sets off on a murderous cross-country trek to find her idol, with Laura in hot pursuit.

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: author focus, horror, Robert R. McCammon

11:01 PM -- (3) comments

 


AudioLingo is a podcast by Jay King. Jay hosts two shows on KABF 88.3 FM in Little Ro