Doctor Who begins a new round of rebroadcasts on BBC Radio 7's The 7th Dimension this week. All Paul McGann Doctor stories, all back to back, recorded by UK audio drama company Big Finish. These are what Big Finish calls their "New Eight Doctor Adventures Season One". But it is hardly the first series from Big Finish to feature Paul McGann's doctor. What most distinguishes it from previous series stories is a new companion, played by Sheridan Smith. Lucie Miller, as she's called, is described as a "brash northern lass" whos is initially an unwilling passenger in the TARDIS. She has been placed with the Doctor as part of a "Time Lord witness protection programme." This series of six stories was commissioned by BBC 7 from Big Finish. They first began airing in December 2006. This rebroadcast is likely to be followed shortly by "Season Two" of the "New Eight Doctor Adventures."

Already available via the BBC7 'listen again' service:

Doctor Who Blood of the Daleks - Episode 1 of 2
LISTEN NOW - [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Thu. Sep. 28th 2007
The Time Lord has plenty to deal with as an intruder appears in the TARDIS and the Daleks prepare to blight a damaged world.






Doctor Who - Blood Of The Daleks - Episode 2 of 2
LISTEN NOW - [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Fri. Sep. 29th 2007
Lucie realises the true intentions of their 'saviours'. But could the Doctor really want the same thing as the Daleks?







Airing this week:

Doctor Who - Horror of Glam Rock
Broadcast - [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Mon. Oct. 1st @ 18:00-18:50 [Rptd Tue 12.00am]
he Tomorrow Twins are all set to conquer the pop world of 1974. But will their dreams survive an encounter with the Doctor?






Doctor Who - Immortal Beloved
Broadcast - [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Tue. Oct. 2nd 18:00-18:50 [Rptd Wed 12.00am]
The Doctor and Lucy arrive in a land of Zeus, Hera, Ganymede and...helicopters? .






Doctor Who - Phobos
Broadcast - [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Wed. Oct. 3rd @ 18:00-18:50 [Rptd Thu 12.00am]
For extreme sport nuts, the fear is part of the rush. But the Doctor and Lucie are about to learn the true meaning of 'Phobos'.






Doctor Who - No More Lies
Broadcast - [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Thu. Oct. 4th @ 18:00-18:50 [Rptd Fri 12.00am]
The Doctor and Lucie gatecrash a posh party, and get more than they bargained for. Namely vortisaurs and a crumbling spaceship.






Doctor Who - Human Resources - Episode 1 of 2
Broadcast - [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Fri. Oct. 5th @ 18:00-18:50 [Rptd Sat 12.00am]
Lucie Miller starts her first day in a new job. Or does she? Is it possible that her time with the Doctor was merely a daydream?







Airing next week:

Doctor Who - Human Resources - Episode 2 of 2
Broadcast - [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Mon. Oct. 8th @ 18:00-18:50 [Rptd Sat 12.00am]
Lucie Miller starts her first day in a new job. Or does she? Is it possible that her time with the Doctor was merely a daydream?




posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: BBC, Doctor Who, radio drama, time travel

11:37 AM -- (0) comments

 




I was sent a link to a baffling new website. Red-Monday.com. The site is password protected, but I found the password through the page's source code. Type in "gabriel" (minus the quotation marks) and you get access to a countdown sequence and more. I did the math, turns out the countdown ends on November 26th (a Monday). Anybody know the significance of Nov. 26th being a "red" day? Some Russian revolution anniversary maybe?

The reason I mention this on SFFaudio at all is that if you sign up to learn more via email you get a short mp3 file of a cryptic telephone conversation. Could be SFFaudio related.

Other things on the site and in the email lend a biblical flavour to the thing. Maybe they are code-names. Could this be a countdown to the second coming (or third if you're Mormon)? A revelations-esque apocalypse? A terrorist attack? Some major hacking job? Or just a new movie advertizement via viral marketing?

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: rumor

11:15 AM -- (1) comments

 


Just up from Escapepod

"Meg hadn’t heard from Devon in four months, and she realized that she missed him. So on a whim she tossed her sword and scabbard into the trunk of her car and drove over to campus to visit him." First appeared in Realms of Fantasy, October 2007.

Available in mp3 format here

Subscribe to the podcast feed via this url:

http://escapepod.org/podcast.xml

posted by David Tackett

Labels: David Barr Kirtley, Escape Pod, fantasy, podcast

9:20 AM -- (0) comments

 


When you listen to The Theater Of The Mind podcast, you'll wonder if you've somehow slipped into another dimension. The creator of the podcast, Professor Daniel H. Foster, has reconstructed, adapted and generally weirded-out familiar and unfamiliar stories, particularly those that came from old radio dramas. Check out the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy as performed by Foster and friends |MP3|. Not only is some of the dialogue changed, all the characters speak with American accents too! And, Ford Prefect is now "Fran Prefect." Which is all perfectly logical, if you're from another dimension.

Also on tap is a Neil Gaiman story from the 1970s...

We Can Get Them For You Wholesale
Adapted from a story by Neil Gaiman; Performed with a full cast
1 MP3 - [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: The Theater Of The Mind
Podcast: 2006


Subscribe to the podcast feed via this url:

http://www.thetheaterofthemind.com/thetheaterofthemind.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: audio drama, Neil Gaiman, podcast

9:27 PM -- (0) comments

 


J. Michael Straczynski has dropped a tidbit about the languishing CBC production I'm always whining about:

"another production entity has stepped in to pick up Apocalypse Al"

No word on who that entity is. Or what it means for listeners in Canada.

[via JMSNews.com]

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: J. Michael Straczynski, news, radio drama

8:59 PM -- (0) comments

 


Paul S. Jenkins, host of the The Rev Up Review podcast and author of The Plitone Revisionist podiobook writes in to say: "BBC Radio 4 begins a dramatisation in 6 half-hour parts of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, starring Harry Enfield [next week]" and that "there's a big spread in next week's Radio Times." Paul goes on to say that "the episodes should be streamed live from the Radio 4 website, and should also be available for six days after transmission via the 'listen again' service." Thanks Paul!

Here's a pic of the assembled cast:



Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Based on the novel by Douglas Adams; Performed by a full cast
6 Episodes of 30 minutes each - 180 minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcast Begins: Wed. October 3rd 2007 @ 6:30 pm (GMT +0100)
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
“Dirk Gently has an unshakeable belief in the interconnectedness of all things but his Holistic Detective Agency’s only success seems to be tracking down missing cats for old ladies. Then Dirk stumbles upon an old friend behaving bizarrely, and he is drawn into a four-billion year old mystery that must be solved if the human race is to avoid immediate extinction.”

Have a listen to the audio trailer for the show |MP3|!

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: BBC, comedy, Dirk Maggs, Douglas Adams, radio drama

2:25 PM -- (0) comments

 


ABC Radio National's The Book Show has an exclusive interview with copyright reforming SF writer Cory Doctorow. Here's the official description:

"Since the 19th century copyright has served to protect the rights of authors. But has this protection become a hindrance to creativity? Supporters of creative commons licenses say the pendulum has swung too far towards protectionism, and that this is affecting our creative culture."

Download the file direct |MP3| or subscribe to the podcast feed:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/bsw.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: ABC, Cory Doctorow, interview

12:01 PM -- (0) comments

 


Matthew Hughes is a Spec-Fic (and crime) author living in Courtenay, British Columbia. A few weeks ago, he was interviewed by Sheryl McKay for CBC Radio One's "North By Northwest" program. Here's the |MP3| courtesy of Hughes' own website. About the interview Matt sez: "I blather on for about twelve minutes. They had me do it at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning, when I'm usually unconscious, so I ended up saying a few things I probably shouldn't have."

[via SFSignal]

P.S. FREE Apocalypse Al!

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: CBC, interview, Matthew Hughes

9:04 AM -- (0) comments

 


Quantico
By Greg Bear; Read by Jeff Woodman
11 CDs - 13 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780792748441
Themes: / Science Fiction / Terrorism / Saudi Arabia / Iraq /

“Well, its kinda the sum of your worst possible fears that you don’t know.”


The United States is under attack from all quarters, including from within. In the near future where America is in an arms race with high tech terrorists, sanity vies with ancient religious hatreds. Only three new FBI agents will be able to battle a plague as "10/4" becomes the next "9/11." From Washington to Iraq confusion is afoot and only a covert mission to a forbidden city can preserve an already grim future.

This is Greg Bear doing Tom Clancy. The question is why? Is Bear pulling a Dean Koontz, (Koontz dropped SF for suspense in 1972)? Is he trying to shift his career out of a poorly paying Science Fiction genre into a more mainstream, higher paying, airport terminal fiction? If Quantico is anything to go by, one of my favorite authors has indeed thrown in the towel on idea SF. What he’s written here is a technothriller, set in a near future. Is this Hugo and Nebula award winning author, known for his Byzantine plotting and earth shattering ideas, still writing interesting fiction? Yes, but the SF elements are so minimized, playing such a marginal role in the story that I was ready to give up on it. I wanted Bear's original Science Fiction ideas coming from his oddly motivated characters. What I got was better than Tom Clancy, but I don’t like Clancy. It was refreshing to see some post-9/11 terrorism fiction that includes domestic born terrorists, but I am not able to recommend it to SF fans.

Narrator Jeff Woodman was a capable reader, he disappeared into the text, voicing a clear delineation between characters from similar backgrounds while giving a individual and believable American and Arabic accents. Production values were, as expected, BBC quality.

posted by Steen Hansen

Labels: audiobook, Iraq, review, Saudi Arabia, science fiction, terrorism

11:35 AM -- (0) comments

 


eMusic.com is now selling down oadable audiobooks in the MP3 format! Only 52 Science Fiction and Fantasy titles are available at launch, mostly from Blackstone, Random House Audio and Naxos. Some users are complaining about the monthly fee being rather hard to find on the site (either $9.99 or $19.99 USD).

[via BoingBoing and their comment thread]

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: audiobook, news

10:57 AM -- (0) comments

 


Baen Books has FREE audiobooks! I knew that several of Baen's hardcover first editions over the last few years had been coming with BONUS CD-ROMS full of eBooks. And I thought that was pretty cool, and clever too, but it was a big surprise to me to learn that they have often also included MP3 audiobook readings (complete novels and short stories). Even cooler, one thoughtful collector has archived the CDs on his/her website! And here are links to each...


Novels:

Hell's Faire
By John Ringo; Read by ????
21 MP3 Files - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
With the defenses of the Southern Appalachians sundered, the only thing standing between the ravening Posleen hordes and the soft interior of the Cumberland Plateau are the veterans of the 555th Mobile Infantry. Dropped into Rabun Pass, with a couple of million Posleen behind them and fourteen million to the front, the only question is which will run out first: power, bullets or bodies. But they have a hole card: far to the north the shattered SheVa Nine, nicknamed "Bun-Bun," is undergoing a facelift. Rising from its smoking ashes is a new weapon of war, armed with the most advanced weaponry Terra has ever produced, capable of facing both the Posleen hordes and their redoubtable space-cruisers. Capable of dealing out Hell as only SheVa Nine can. But when push comes to vaporization, if Mike O'Neal and the other members of the 555th are going to survive, it will come down to how much Posleen butt Bun-Bun can kick. Prepare to eat antimatter, Posleen-boy.

The Far Side Of The Stars
By David Drake; Read by ????
35 MP3 Files - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
While the Republic of Cinnabar is at peace with the Alliance, warriors like Lt. Daniel Leary and Signals Officer Adele Mundy must find other work—like escorting a pair of wealthy nobles on an expedition to the back of beyond! The Princess Cecile, the corvette in which they carved their reputations in letters of fire, has been sold as a private yacht, but she still has her guns, her missiles, and her veteran crew. Daniel and Adele will need all of those things as they face winged dragons, an Alliance auxiliary cruiser, jealous lovers, and a mysterious oracle which really does foresee the future. That won't be enough, though, when they penetrate a secret Alliance base and find a hostile fleet ready for a war that will sweep Cinnabar out of a strategically crucial arm of the galaxy. Preventing that will involve skill, courage, and more luck than a sane man could even pray for; and it will require a space battle on a scale that a tiny corvette like the Princess Cecile has no business being involved in. But she'll be in the middle of it anyway, because Daniel, Adele, and their Cinnabar crew would never turn their backs on a fight!

There Will Be Dragons
By John Ringo; Read by ????
45 MP3 Files - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
n the future there is no want, no war, no disease nor ill-timed death. The world is a paradise-and then, in a moment, it ends. The council that controls the Net falls out and goes to war. Everywhere people who have never known a moment of want or pain are left wondering how to survive. But scattered across the face of the earth are communities which have returned to the natural life of soil and small farm. In the village of Raven's Mill, Edmund Talbot, master smith and unassuming historian, finds that all the problems of the world are falling in his lap. Refugees are flooding in, bandits are roaming the woods, and his former lover and his only daughter struggle through the Fallen landscape. Enemies, new and old, gather like jackals around a wounded lion. But what the jackals do not know is that while old he may be, this lion is far from death. And hidden in the past is a mystery that has waited until this time to be revealed.

Short Stories:

A Ship Named Francis
By John Ringo and Victor Mitchell; Read by ????
1 |MP3| - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
Sean Tyler, a corpsman in the Royal Manticoran Navy, thought that a stint as a loaner in the explosively-growing Grayson Navy would boost his career. So, when he heard there was a slot vacant on board the cruiser Francis Mueller, he volunteered. Unfortunately for Corpsman Tyler, no one told him that almost everybody on board the Francis -- from the clueless captain to the psychotic XO and the panicky chaplain -- had been sent there because no one else in the entire Grayson Navy wants them.

Let's Go to Prague
By John Ringo; Read by ????
1 |MP3| - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published:
A pair of Manticoran Marines discover that a holiday can be even more fun if it involves spoiling StateSec's day.

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: audiobook, David Drake, John Ringo, military, science fiction, Victor Mitchell

12:01 PM -- (0) comments

 


Beam Me Up, has an very fun reading of a vintage Harry Harrison story called The Repairman. in the latest show (Episode 69). The short first appeared in Galaxy magazine's February 1958 issue. The host of the Beam Me Up podcast/radio show, Paul Cole, describes the story as a "If anything a precursor to [Harrison's] Stainless Steel Rat character." It also features an early description of the concept of hyperspace and hyperspace beacons. The same idea and term were used on Babylon 5 - the idea being, without beacons, ships would drift endlessly through featureless hyperspace, unable to discern their location relative to real space. I very much enjoyed this tale too, it's sharp, funny and well read.

The Repairman
By Harry Harrison; Read by Ron Huber
1 |MP3| - Approx. 27 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Beam Me Up
Podcast: September 2007
The Mark III Hyperspace Beacon was the earliest type of beacon ever built--by Earth, no less. It was located on one of the Proxima Centauri planets, and it wasn't working. This was one of those jobs when being an interstellar trouble-shooter wouldn't have been so bad--if he could have shot the trouble!

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

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

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: Harry Harrison, podcast, radio show, science fiction

9:37 PM -- (0) comments

 


Dial P For Pulp is a podcast for anyone interested in any aspect of the pulp magazines and books. Show No.1, just released, features a book review of Hardboiled Cthulhu, an interview with illustrator Tom Roberts about his work on Doc Savage: The Lost Radio Scripts of Lester Dent and also a reading of the first part of Red Shadows a Solomon Kane story by none other than the legendary pulp-master Robert E. Howard!

The first show is available for download |MP3|or you can subscribe to the RSS feed and get and all subsequent shows automatically:

http://dpfp.libsyn.com/rss/podcasts

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: podcast, pulp, Robert E. Howard

8:17 PM -- (0) comments

 




The Words At Large podcast, an amalgam of book related tidbits from CBC radio programs, has an in-depth interview with William Gibson about his latest novel Spook Country. This originally aired in the NXNW Studio One Book Club slot on Saturday September 15th. You can download the |MP3| direct or get the file by subscribing to the podcast feed:

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


Also, there was a great interview with William Gibson on NPR's "On Point" program, in which Gibson speaks about Spook Country. From the introduction...

"Now the man who coined the term cyberspace is writing wild fiction set in the here and now"

Gibson's recent writing (starting with Pattern Recognition) is a swing away from futuristic science fiction - about this, Gibson later remarks, "One of the conclusions that I've come to is that science fiction is never about the future, really . . . it's always about the day in which it was written." Gibson also predicts "within a decade from now cyberspace with be a nostalgic term"; much in the same way that the use of "electric" as a prefixed adjective in the 19th century went away when electric devices became commonplace, so will the term "digital" be subsumed.

Here's the direct link to the |MP3| file for the interview.

[Special thanks to Moriond]

And of course, this post mentioning CBC means I must mention that... Apocalypse Al must be freed!

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: CBC, interview, William Gibson

8:14 AM -- (0) comments

 


Roy, our spy in the UK has uncovered a plot to air a documentary on BBC Radio 4 that should be very interesting indeed...

Futureshock! The Story Of 2000AD is a half-hour documentary about the long running weekly comic book series that spawned such iconic British SF characters as "Judge Dredd", "Rogue Trooper" and which also revived old ones, like "Dan Dare." Comics writing greats like Alan Moore, Garth Ennis and Grant Morrison all got their start working on 2000AD "progs." This should be a very informative show.

Futureshock! The Story Of 2000AD
1 Broadcast -30 Minutes [DOCUMENTARY]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Saturday 22 September 10:30am - 11:00am
"Phill Jupitus tells the story of 2000AD. Over the past 30 years, the weekly British comic's distinctive visions of the future have shaped the imaginations of a generation of young readers. Its dark and gritty tales, often set in a near future of post-apocalyptic urban decay, have changed the tone of science fiction."

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: BBC, comics, documentary

10:51 AM -- (0) comments

 


Jerry Stearns, host of the long running modern radio drama show Sound Affects: A Radio Playground will be airing four episodes of the Alien Worlds, a science fiction radio drama series, on KFAI-FM over the next four months. The first will be this Saturday, Sept. 23rd. That program will also include an exclusive interview with the producer of Alien Worlds, Lee Hanson.

Alien Worlds series first aired between 1979 and 1980 on commercial radio. Some of the episodes were written by J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, the City Of Dreams and The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al (though not any of the four set to be broadcast on Sound Affects). Each of the four programs will be streamed live at 10pm on Saturday (and of course broadcast in the Minneapolis/St. Paul. region), and each show will be archived on the KFAI website for two weeks after the broadcast. Here's all the details on how to listen, and when each of the programs will be aired:

Sound Affects: A Radio Playground
Hosted by Jerry Stearns
4 Broadcasts: [RADIO SHOW]
Broadcaster: KFAI, 90.3 FM and 106.7 FM, in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Broadcast: 9:30-10:30 PM, Sundays (Central Time)

September 23, 2007 - Alien Worlds "The Paralax Deception" + Interview
October 28, 2007 - Alien Worlds "The Kilohertz War"
December 2, 2007 - Alien Worlds "Time Clash"
January 13, 2008 - Alien Worlds "The Seeds of Time"

And, as always, FREE APOCALYPSE AL!

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: Great Northern Audio, J. Michael Straczynski, Online Audio, radio drama

8:58 AM -- (0) comments

 


Aired on the weekend, BBC Radio 7, has the first of two parts of an abridged reading of Brian Aldiss' Nebula Award winning 1965 novelette, Man In His Time. It was was adapted for radio to celebrate his 80th birthday, and is introduced by Aldiss himself. The story is about an interplanetary astronaut, who upon return home is flummoxed to discover that he experiences everything around him on Earth as 3.3077 minutes into everyone else's future.



Man In His Time
By Brian Aldiss; Read by Jamie Glover
2 Broadcasts - Approx 60 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday Sep 16 & Sunday Sept 23 2007

Use the BBC Player's 'listen again' service to hear part 1 which is online now - and listen for part 2 on this coming Sunday.

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: BBC, Brian Aldiss, Online Audio, science fiction

2:23 PM -- (0) comments

 


The Spider Robinson Speaks Podcast is up and running. The official site reads:

"Spider has entered into the world of podcasting! After the success of his audiobook recordings for Blackstone Audio, Spider has decided to record a weekly podcast, giving his fans the chance to hear his words directly from his own lips. The podcast series will begin with readings of eight Thrillin' at the MacMillan essays written for the HR MacMillan Space Centre [that's a cool astronomy place here in Vancouver]"

Get Part 1 |MP3| "LET’S START WASTING MONEY IN SPACE" direct or subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://www.spiderrobinson.com/iTunes_feed.xml

[via BoingBoing]

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: podcast, Spider Robinson

7:49 AM -- (0) comments

 


Tears Of The Tin God
By T. Ray Gordon; Narrated by Richard Sellers and a Full Cast
1 CD - 80 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Apex Audio Theatre
Published: 2007
UPC: 701376158028
Themes: / Science fiction / Alien Artifact / Space travel /

If I were allowed only two words to review this audio drama, I would choose these: Harmless junk. But if I had to shave my word count, I wouldn’t know where to cut. Tears Of The Tin God is not a terrible audio drama. The sound and sound effects are fine, but the script is plagued by over-explanation of the familiar (as in: “…she frowned, making a face…”), juxtaposed with under-explanation of the novel. A few of the science fictional ideas are unconvincing, and the ending feels rushed and emotionally unsatisfying. Still, the enthusiastic production and the short running time make it kinda likable.

The plot is provocative, if not stunningly original: Seven future astronauts have been sent across space to investigate some immense alien artifacts on a planet called Borne 7. Upon landing on the surface of the largest artifact, one of the astronauts is ingested by it, becoming an integral part of a being with god-like power and knowledge. But are its intentions good or evil, alien or human?

The same concept is explored by Michael Crichton, sans space suits, in his novel Sphere. That one isn’t great, either, but it is superior to this one in the quality of its prose, the depth of its explanations, and the delicious thrill of its sustained tension. Tears Of The Tin God won’t take years off your life, but it kills an hour you might miss later.

posted by Kurt Dietz

Labels: alien artifact, audio drama, review, science fiction, space travel

1:20 PM -- (1) comments

 


The Guardian, a U.K. newspaper with a liberal attitude, has completed the podcasting of a young adult fantasy audiobook narrated by Sir Ian McKellen (movie fans may know him as "Gandalf" from The Lord of The Rings movies). First released in 2005, this novel is the first in a series called "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness." Fourteen weeks of podcasting (at one part per week) and the book is now complete, unfortunately the podcast feed no longer contains the early parts of the book so instead of just giving you the podcast feed we've gathered up all the individual files. Details follow...

Wolf Brother
By Michelle Paver; Read by Ian McKellen
14 MP3s - 6 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio / Guardian Unlimited
Published: 2005
Six Thousand Years Ago. Evil Stalks the land. Only twelve-year-old Torak and his wolf-cub companion can defeat it. Their journey together takes them through deep forests, across giant glaciers, and into dangers they never imagined.

|Part 01 MP3|Part 02 MP3|Part 03 MP3|Part 04 MP3|Part 05 MP3|Part 06 MP3|
|Part 07 MP3|Part 08 MP3|Part 09 MP3|Part 10 MP3|Part 11 MP3|Part 12 MP3|
|Part 13 MP3|Part 14 MP3|

[thanks to Moriond for the info]

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: audiobook, fantasy, Michelle Paver, Online Audio, young adult

12:23 PM -- (1) comments

 


The Sci Phi Show, has a very cool interview with Courtney Brown, who is rightly famous on this site for his excellent Science Fiction and Politics university course (it is podcast).

Download the interview direct |MP3| or subscribe to The Sci Phi Show podcast feed via this url:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheSciPhiShow

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: interview, philosophy, podcast, politics, science fiction

1:10 PM -- (0) comments

 


A new radio program, "That Sci-fi Show" premieres tomorrow (Friday night), September 14th at 10pm, EDT in the USA on WWNN-AM 1470 in Florida. This is a two hour program from the creator of Sci-fi Overdrive, Joey Donovan. Listeners outside of Florida can listen via the Streaming Audio feed on the station's website. No word on whether this show will be podcast.

That Sci-fi Show will feature "news on developments in the
entertainment industry in regards to science fiction, fantasy, comics, collectibles, role playing games, Japanese animation, genre conventions, and also on news of spaceflight and hard science." Live interviews will allow listeners to call in with questions (1-888-565-1470).

For more information on That Sci-fi Show, or to book guests, contact Joey Donovan at scifiradioguy@aol.com or call 561-752-6986

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: interview

1:00 PM -- (0) comments

 


Eifelheim
By Michael Flynn; Read by Anthony Heald
2 MP3-CDs - 17.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 1433206129
Themes: / Science Fiction / Philosophy / Religion / Catholicism / Aliens / Physics / First Contact / Black Death /

"Eifelheim" is a novel that's not in a hurry. It's a multiple course meal that offers helpings of philosophy, science, and religion at a leisurely pace that's refreshing in today's hurry-up climate. It was also a Hugo nominee for Best Novel of 2007.

The novel takes place in two times. In "Now", two live-in scientists discuss and compare their findings on seemingly different subjects. One of them is investigating the absence of people in Eifelheim, a German town whose population disappeared during the 14th century. According to calculations of population patterns, this is a mathematical anomaly. The other scientist, a physicist, is trying to figure out why the speed of light is slowing down. That these two things are related is part of the story.

In the 14th century, a parish priest named Father Deitrich, who is dealing with the beginnings of the Black Death in his area, experiences first contact with an alien race that appears in his town of Eifelheim. Father Deitrich is a smart, compassionate priest, and, as he considers the aliens God's children, he befriends them and cares for them as he can.

The focus occasionally switches back to the two scientists from "now", who have conversations that shed light on the happenings in Eifelheim in the past. The main charm of this novel for me was the realistic portrayal of this honorable priest, and his culture. It portrays a medieval religion that was considered the source of all knowledge, and as such, the priest's logical reasoning makes for compelling listening. To readers who enjoy philosophy and speculative science, and the history of both, it would be hard to find a modern novel more interesting.

Author Michael Flynn provides historical and physics notes at the end of the novel, and thanks should go out to Blackstone Audio for including them here in the audiobook. Narrator Anthony Heald does a tremendous job with the narration. He's an excellent match with the material, handling accents and characters with unobtrusive skill. Choices he made with the alien voices were particularly effective.

posted by Scott D. Danielson

Labels: aliens, audiobook, Black Death, Catholicism, first contact, Masters Of Science Fiction, philosophy, physics, religion, review

2:14 PM -- (0) comments

 


Plant People
By Johnny Ray Barnes Jr. and Marty M. Engle; Multicast recording
2 CDs - 2 Hours [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781423308508
Themes: / Science fiction / Alien Invasion / Intelligent plants /

Rachel Pearson is a loner. Her only close friend, Tess, now lives in another city, and her life is measured in the days and hours between phone calls. One afternoon, as she is exploring the house under construction in a wooded lot near her home, she spies a strange plant from which something large has hatched, and its smell lures her to the edge of disaster. Two months later, the house is completed and a new family with teenaged children moves in. But strange things begin to happen around them, and Rachel wonders if they aren’t more than just odd people. Could they be something else entirely, something inhuman, with dark designs for mankind?

Plant People has a spunky heroine with a delightful upper-Midwestern twang, and an entertaining little dash-about plot that is short and mindlessly fun. Even the prose mostly soars, though not without frequent bumps. The worst occur during action sequences, when phrases like “…and just at that moment, what should I find but…” appear with distracting frequency. But it also borrows a little too heavily from classic works like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Day Of The Triffids, and strips the borrowed elements from their deeper subtext. On the whole, Plant People is like a sugar-free chocolate meringue: Briefly enjoyable, but ultimately empty of even the calories it took to chew.

[Editor's Note: Plant People was originally written as part of the "Strange Matter" series (created by Marty M. Engle and Johnny Ray Barnes Jr.). The series takes place in the fictional town of Fairfield. Stories in the series generally center on the children attending Fairfield Middle School who encounter paranormal situations.]

posted by Kurt Dietz

Labels: alien invasion, audio drama, science fiction, young adult

9:16 AM -- (0) comments

 


LibriVox, that massive library of public domain audiobooks, has just catalogued its first public domain reading of the first Tarzan novel, Tarzan Of The Apes. Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan is arguably the most enduring pulp fiction character in history. Its on its digital shelves now, go get it in a zipped download, by individual file or even easier for portable listening via the podcast feed. This audiobook/podiobook, completely narrated by the savagely swashbuckling reader, Mark F. Smith, who previously performed Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island. Details follow...


Tarzan Of The Apes
By Edgar Rice Burroughs; Read by Mark F. Smith
28 zipped MP3s or podcast - 9 Hours 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: Sept. 7th 2007
The exciting, if improbable, story of an English lord, left by the death of his stranded parents in the hands of a motherly African ape who raises him as her own. Although he is aware that he is different from the apes of his tribe, who are neither white nor hairless, he nevertheless regards them as his "people." When older, larger, stronger apes decide that he an undesirable to be killed or expelled from the tribe, it is fortunate that Tarzan has learned the use of primitive weapons.

You can get the entire novel in podcast form, via this handy url:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/tarzan-of-the-apes.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: audiobook, Edgar Rice Burroughs, LibriVox, podiobook, Tarzan

10:42 AM -- (0) comments

 


Two more new arrivals!

The Aftermath: Book Four of The Asteroid Wars
By Ben Bova; Read by Emily Janice Card, Gabrielle de Cuir, Stephen Hoye, and Stefan Rudnicki
10 CDs - 12 hours - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Published: 2007

The final volume of The Asteroid Wars - superior hard SF!




Princess Academy
By Shannon Hale; Read by a Full Cast
8 CDs - 8 hours - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Full Cast Audio
Published: 2007

A 2006 Newbery Honor Book. Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl (also produced by Full Cast Audio) was an Audie Award winner last year.


posted by Scott D. Danielson

Labels: audiobook, Ben Bova, recent arrivals, Shannon Hale

4:09 PM -- (0) comments

 


This first one has me chompin' on the bit!

I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson; Read by Robertson Dean and Yuri Rasovsky
10 CD, 11 hrs - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433203299


In Matheson’s vampire classic I Am Legend, a plague has decimated the world, and transformed the unfortunate survivors into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Robert Neville is the last living man on earth. Every other man, woman, and child has become a vampire, hungry for Neville’s blood. By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn. How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?
This recording also includes a sampling of other horror stories by Richard Matheson, some comic, all scary: “Buried Talents,” “The Near Departed,” “Prey,” “Witch War,” “Dance of the Dead,” “Dress of White Silk,” “Mad House,” “The Funeral,” “From Shadowed Places,” and “Person to Person.”

Heartfire; Tales of Alvin Maker, Book 5
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Full Cast
10 CD, 12 hrs - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433207730


Peggy is a Torch, able to see the fire burning in each person's heart. She can follow the paths of each person's future, and know each person's most intimate secrets. From the moment of Alvin Maker's birth, when the Unmaker first strove to kill him, she has protected him. Now they are married, and Peggy is a part of Alvin's heart as well as his life. But Alvin's destiny has taken them on separate journeys. Alvin has gone north into New England, where knacks are considered witchcraft and their use is punished with death. Peggy has been drawn south, to the British Crown Colonies and the court of King Arthur Stuart in exile. For she has seen a terrible future bloom in the heartfires of every person in America, a future of war and destruction. One slender path exists that leads through the bloodshed, and it is Peggy's quest to set the world on the path to peace.

Genesis of Shannara; Elves of Cintra, Book 2
By Terry Brooks; Read by Phil Gigante
12 CD, Approx. 14 hrs - [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brillance Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781423322658

Across the ruined landscape that is America - hopelessly poisoned, plague-ridden, burned, and besieged by demon armies bent on exterminating all mortal life - two pilgrims have been summoned to serve the embattled cause of good. Logan Tom has journeyed to desolate Seattle to protect a ragged band of street urchins and the being known as the gypsy morph, who is both mortal and magical, and destined to save mankind unless he is destroyed. Likewise, Angel Perez has her own quest, one that will take her from the wreckage of Los Angeles to a distant, secret place untouched by the horrors of the nationwide blight - a place where the race of Elves has dwelled since before man existed. But close behind these lone Knights of the Word swarm the ravening forces of the Void.

As the menacing thunder of war drums heralds the arrival of the demons and their brutal minions in Seattle, the young survivors who call themselves the Ghosts are forced to brave the dangerous world of gangs, mutants, and worse to escape the invasion. And Logan Tom must infiltrate a refugee compound to rescue Hawk, the leader of the street urchins, who has yet to learn the truth about who and what he is. Meanwhile, Angel Perez has joined an equally urgent mission: to find the Ellcrys, a fabled talisman crucial to protecting the Elven realm against an influx of unspeakable evil from the dread dimension known as the Forbidding. But Angel and her Elven allies must beware - for a demon spy, with a monstrous creature at its command, walks among them.

posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show

Labels: audiobook, Orson Scott Card, recent arrivals, Richard Matheson, Terry Brooks

11:04 PM -- (0) comments

 


Holy cow! Paul Cole of the Beam Me Up radio show/podcast has written into say:

"I am archiving stories off the podcast (I have limited space on podomatic so eventually I have to pare the oldest 'cast off the roll) they are just the stories from the podcast (a lot of the material in the podcast is news and ages out quick)"

It think that's awesome, he's absolutely right, the news material doesn't age well and the unabridged short stories and novelletes will all be listenable for decades (and centuries) to come. You can find the archive of stories HERE, or below:

68 Vette
By Shaun A. Saunders; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

All The Things You Are
By Mike Resnick; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - 69 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Ambassador
By Peter Watts; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - 24 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Crystal Egg
By H.G. Wells; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - 51 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Curtain Call
By Shaun A. Saunders; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Digital Love
By Mary Turzillo; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 8 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Echo
By Elizabeth Hand; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
*This one is a Nebula Award winning story

Final Solution
By Shaun A. Saunders; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 5 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Henry James This One's For You
By Jack McDevitt; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Hubble
By Shaun A. Saunders; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Kin
By Bruce McAlister; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Last Light
By Shaun A. Saunders; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Message In A Time Capsule
By Charles M. Stross; Read by Ron Huber
1 |MP3| - Approx. 7 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Of Mice And...
By Shaun A. Saunders; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 5 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Old MacDonald
By Mike Resnick; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Pip And The Fairies
By Theodora Goss; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Print Crime
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - 7 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Promises To Keep
By Jack McDevitt; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 44 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Applicant
By Karren Gossow; Read by Paul Cole
1 MP3| - Approx. 5 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The House Beyond Your Sky
By Ben Rosenbaum; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Lollipop Man
By Shaun A. Saunders; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 5 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Walls Of The Universe
By Paul Melko; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3|- 2 Hours 26 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Tyger
By Jack McDevitt; Read by Paul Cole
1 |MP3| - Approx. 17 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

If you want to keep up with the show subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

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

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: Bruce McAlister, Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, H.G. Wells, Jack McDevitt, Mike Resnick, Paul Melko, podcast, Shaun Saunders

11:08 AM -- (0) comments

 


BBC Radio 3's "Sunday Feature" had a cool 45 minute documentary about Sir Thomas Malory and his Le Morte d'Arthur. This was produced by the same guy who made the excellent H.P. Lovecraft documentary on BBC Radio 3 last year. Malory: A Tale of Two Texts aired on Sunday. The producer, Paul Quinn, says of it:

"Malory could be said to be a forgotten forbear of heroic fantasy! This programme, though, presented by professor David Wallace of the University of Pennsylvannia, concentrates on the different textual histories of the two versions: the long lost manuscript, and Caxton print version, produced within 15 years of each other but launched into different worlds."

This is only going to be available via the 'Listen Again' until Sunday, so get listening!

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: BBC, King Arthur, Online Audio, Thomas Malory

11:37 AM -- (0) comments

 


John Joseph Adams of The Slush God Speaketh blog, has written in to point out some audio excerpts from a new novel....

It turns out to be pretty cool sounding, the narrator is Alex Wilson has read the first three chapters of...

The Princes Of The Golden Cage

...which is a new mass market paperback out from Nightshade Books. Its author, Nathalie Mallet, lives in my old neighborhood (Prince George, BC). I hope to see Nightshade hire Wilson to complete the novel in audio form. It sounds like a fun fantasy. Have a listen:

|Chapter 1 MP3| Chapter 2 MP3| Chapter 3 MP3|

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: fantasy, Online Audio

10:27 AM -- (0) comments

 


BBC7's The Seventh Dimension is airing a new commission of The House On The Borderland from their North Ireland producers this week. No word on whether it is unabridged or not, but you can hear it via the Listen Again service. Not sure who Hodgson is or what The House On The Borderland is about? Here's then take one author's opinion upon this work:

"A classic of the first water." - H.P. Lovecraft

Wikipedia sez of it:

"[The House On The Borderland] is a milestone that signals the leaving of the realistic nature of supernatural fiction of the late 19th century. Hodgson follows out of the ghost story and the gothic to create a newer cosmic horror that leaves a great impression on the people who would become the great writers of the weird tales of the middle of the 20th century."

The House On The Borderland
By William Hope Hodgson; Read by Jim Norton
4 Broadcasts - Approx. 2 Hours [ABRIDGED]
BROADCASTER: BBC7's The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Tues. - Fri. at 6.30pm and 00.30am starting Sept. 4
Two friends camp near the ruins of an old house in a remote area in the west of Ireland, there they discover a manuscript which describes the terrifying experiences of the last owner of the house of the title.

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: BBC, horror, supernatural, William Hope Hodgson

12:01 PM -- (2) comments

 


Discovered this cool podcast in the iTunes podcast directory... Pirate TV Theatre Classic Radio Drama is an unwieldy name for a podcast with this much terrific audio content. Some of it is classic Radio Drama, some of it is more modern Audio Drama (Radio Drama that was never broadcast on radio), none of it is "TV" and some of it is audiobook. The site itself doesn't allow direct downloads (only online listening) but if you subscribe to the podcast you can access all of the following in the ubiquitous MP3 format...

Included in the feed are radio drama episodes from:

Suspense (The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft)

Dimension X (includes The Green Hills Of Earth by Robert A. Heinlein and First Contact by Murray Leinster, plus more)

X Minus 1 (includes Surface Tension by James Blish, and Colony by Philip K. Dick, plus many more)

Skeleton
By Ray Bradbury; Performed by a full cast
(a 1996 BBC4 Radio Drama, part of the "Tales of the Bizarre" series, introduced by Bradbury himself)

As well as two Seeing Ear Theatre audio dramas:

Murder Mysteries
By Neil Gaiman; Performed by a full cast
(a Seeing Ear Theatre audio drama in two parts)

Orson The Alien! The Untold Story Behind The War Of the Worlds
By Terry Bisson, Brian Smith and George Zarr; Performed by a full cast
(a Seeing Ear Theatre audio drama)

And one story from an audiobook:

It's Such A Beautiful Day
By Isaac Asimov; Read by Ed Bishop
(from a 1986 audiobook in two parts - from defunct audiobook publisher Listen For Pleasure)

Plug this podcast feed into your podcatcher to get started:

http://www.nomig.net/radiodrama/itunesrss.xml

Or, visit the site and listen online - where you'll find plenty more, including:

The Caves Of Steel
By Isaac Asimov; Performed by a full cast
(The 1989 radio dramatization that aired on BBC Radio 4)

posted by Jesse Willis

Labels: audiobook, H.P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov,