The SFFaudio Podcast #445 – READALONG: Citadel Of Fear by Francis Stevens

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #445 – Jesse, Paul, Mr Jim Moon, and Bryan Alexander talk about Citadel Of Fear by Francis Stevens

Talked about on today’s show:
1918, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, 1970, Friend Island, interview with a sea-woman, “peace ships”, women are grizzled teetotallers, The Elf-Trap, Carcassone, Kentucky, Carolina, so obscure, an artists colony, she’s kind of like a female Lovecraft, hidden beyond normal perceptions, Gertrude Mable Barrows Bennett, A. Merritt, pure raving pulp, impressive, giant narrative yank, Neal Stephenson, a little Tim Powers-y, lost civilization, H. Rider Haggard, come back to haunt him, the lost city, strangled to death by a python, Boots = Colin, character names, The Mound by H.P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop, a Doctor Moreau in the suburbs, very melodramatic, a giant killer ape called “Genghis Khan”, a sub-sub genre of killer gorillas, the whole Aztec mythology, a sub-boss, a strangely international novel, the Irish nature of the heroes, Mexico present and past, a whole raft of gods, Egyptian and Japanese gods, undisciplined, scene by scene, two dudes wandering through the desert, The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs, David Stifel, a created creature, a man without a soul, pirates, machine gunning scenes, mixing it up, completely spurious quote from H.P. Lovecraft, the elder gods called out, “wonderful and tragic allegory… amazing, thrilling”, The Curse Of Yig, strange monsters, mad science and ancient sorcereies, a bizarre fungal-oid process, The Shunned House, always bringing it back to the domestic, the female characters are at least as powerful as the male, a house attacked, a domestic dispute, the manifestation of Quetzalcoatl, the Goodreads summary:

Two adventurers discover a lost city in the Mexican jungle. One is taken over by an evil god while the other falls in love with a woman from Tlapallan. Back in the states, the possessed man begins to use magic to mutate civilians. The other walks away, but the pair must duel in the end.

dry and desiccated hills, romance, Julie Davis:

“This is a very enjoyable combination of lost world, Lovecraftian monsters, H.G. Wells, and (of course!) a romance. I especially liked the fact that the people who believe the supernatural reality the fastest are Irish. They are used to their Celtic gods and tales, natch!”

the Rabid Puppies, a light quick and very praising review, undisciplined, what does this mean?, it’s like Eden, there’s a snake, foreshadowing, not well planned out, because it was serialized…, how much did Stevens know, wading around in Aztec mythology, Deities & Demigods, Doctor Who: The Aztecs, sharing a cup of chocolate, the look on Hartnell’s face, Aliette de Bodard, the mindset of a priest of an Aztec god, Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, Q (1982), Amy H. Sturgis, cave-men days, the reversal of The Time Machine, The Daleks, a beautiful allegory, a bottle episode, Marco Polo, dropped into an alien culture, a description from Barbara of what the Aztec culture was like, Temple Of Evil, a garden for the retirees, retirement age of 52, a plurality of viewpoints, save them from Cortez, profoundly affected, Quetzalcoatl has 400 hit points and infinite movement, the Irish aspect, as readers of Lovecraft know…, immigration restriction, Irish heroes, extra big, extra strong, extra smart, the Irish cop, tough and sarcastic, Robert E. Howard, Dorothy Macardle’s The Uninvited, the Celtic connection to all things bogey, bugaboos, our “Nordic character”, you can’t shoot that, Sven Bjornsen and his wife Astrid, the Norse as the ideal, the Nazis, Lovecraft’s respect for the Scandinavians, the strange pacings, a kaleidoscope, the plot was getting away from her, the classic cliffhanger, Tlalpan, Cortez as the reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl, Montezuma’s failure to act, Cortez as a canny operator, Francisco Pizarro, the British and French and Portuguese in India, set between two small towns that don’t exist, Steven’s husband, the domestic spheres, household events, going through doorways, a lot of doorway stuff, liminal, wrong-footing, a civil war, the Cortez moment, almost a retelling, booted out, a sense of something else, this isn’t a triumphant colonial novel, The Man Who Would Be King, the white hounds, The Hound Of The Baskervilles, the place of black and red, the skin colour of the household, the “greaser”, The Electric Executioner by Adolphe de Castro and H.P. Lovecraft (is TERRIBLE!), are the hounds the disease?, the Wild Hunt, elves, lost world, strange city, Jack Vance, the black stone of evil incarnate, Robert E. Howard-y vs. Edgar Rice Burroughs-y, adventure pulp, domestic supernatural, Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber, Chapter 6: The Black Eidolon, unevenly constructed paragraphs, kind of weird, always going back to the bungalow and the veranda, being a wife means being in a home, Philip K. Dick’s characters hang out in southern California, there’s something meta about everything she does, too diverse?, a boldy feminist piece, Fahrenheit 451 has gravitas because it’s dystopic, The Hitchhikker’s Guide’s To The Galaxy, Harry Harrison, John Scalzi, comedic science fiction novels, falling absolutely flat, playing with our expectations, closing towards the end, leaving Talapalan, back to domestic concerns, the power of Dracula, Undine, ancient Mexican deities and monsters, 1918, invasion, Cecil Rhodes, Rhodesia, Great Work Of Time by John Crowley, a steam-punk utopia, a gorgeous writer, a haunting writer, it turns on Rhodes, what’s up with Anne Of Green Gables?, parallels, Chapter 24, a reversal of the first scene, the kitchen sink, a weird balance between the Irish Celtic and the Aztec and the Mexican, Neil Gaiman-y, H.P. Lovecraft would have taken her to task over her structuring, disconcerting and unfamiliar, Doctor Reed’s compound, fungous creatures shaped by thoughts, albino marsh, a red flap, a gold chair, fortress of fear, one of the problems, Thor has a hammer, a twin, the complexity, the collapse of Aztec civilization, the Norns vs. the Fates, Cold War 2.0, Greek and Roman mythology, Latina and Greek, Pallas Athena, different periods, semi-appropriating, Theseus, different emphases, Greco-Roman culture, feudalism, The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony by Roberto Calasso, genre history, bursting with intelligence and ideas.

Virgil Finlay illustration of Citadel Of Fear by Francis Stevens

PAPERBACK LIBRARY - Citadel Of Fear by Francis Stevens

Virgil Finlay illustration of The Citadel Of Fear by Francis Stevens

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #441 – READALONG: The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #441 – Jesse, Julie Davis, and Maissa Bessada discuss The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle

Talked about on today’s show:
1941, 1942, Uneasy Freehold, who is The Uninvited?, the ghosts?, Carmel?, multiple possibilities, the Fitzgeralds, Irish freedom fighting, Macardle herself, Macardle’s writing, not as well written as it seems to be, the timing was incredibly good, other criticism, the movie vs. the book, the playwriting sub-plot, the haunting aspect, review writing, completely inspired, it’s not a horror film, it’s a comedy and a romance, gentle touches, wordplays, Lizzie is amusing, Julie’s mother had this book, subtle influence, creative stresses, artists, dancers, actors, gentle and modern, a tough minded attitude towards ghosts, secular and skeptical, the ghost hunter, seeing a lot of Julie in the book, I’ve been waiting for this, one of the approaches, when is the book set?, the conflict in Spain, the Spanish Civil War, it’s a mystery, a detective story, the cat is named Whiskey, an amazing set of clues, we are allowed to participate in this haunted house story, a reviewer of plays and books and can make a living at it it, AMAZING!, books, Lord Dunsany, it just so happens, The Ghosts by Lord Dunsany, infected by the ghost, H.G. Wells’ The Red Room, kind of ridiculous, the book is very subtle, one of the things Macardle is really good at, living in the house, living in the bodies of the residents, needing to sleep and needing to eat, we’re tied to our bodies, ghosts don’t exist but they point to a real phenomenon, an empty house that has a history feels that it has ghosts, pointing to ghosts and, there’s nothing in the room he didn’t bring in with him, the seance, the first film that doesn’t turn ghosts, in the Gothic tradition, a locked madwoman in the attic, this book has a lot of power, understated, re-readable, various parallels, Mary Meredith, Carmel, Stella, trying to be, she’ll have no peace, do you think the grandfather knows?, the way he talks about her, disobedient, a trickster, he knows and doesn’t know, his father’s daughter, Jane Eyre, the same story with a different flavour, somebody else’ take, Mary is a lesbian, Miss Holloway, we sat around planning our lives together, remote and austere, starring down like a goddess, that’s why the mother is so cold, “a saint”, most evil, insanity, would this whole thing have played out without Miss Holloway’s influence?, would Mary have been as Mary as I was, I hate Mary, a very womany book, Roderick, this is a sequel to… The Fall Of The House Of Usher, Roderick Usher, incest lurking in the background, a female narrating a male narrator who is talking about his sister all the time, throwing the asshole card, a woman’s story, what kind of woman are you going to be?, every father figure in the book, the terrible commodore, a woman’s story, Max and Mitzi, a cat who will claw you, manipulative and horrible, the women are the active people, Pamela, the reason they were leaving London (before the start of the novel), she was worried that he would marry and worried that he wouldn’t, let’s go off an live in a house by the sea together (as brother and sister), the setup, they’re so distant from everyone else, a blasted heath, somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a positive uplifting ending, A Christmas Carol ending, when you grow up in Kansas…, a Spanish gipsy, a liar, lying for no reason, a lot about race, the Spanish Armada and the Black Irish, skin you could read a book through, the Fitzgerald, Irish this, Irish that, random racism, regionalism, Cornwall is not Wales, why Carmel is so despised, gaslit, oh that’s wonderful, very modern, I’ve never met the woman, the Irish Republic, an Irish ghost story set in England, viewing Macardle as Roderick, something’s going on, it’s not written by a man, Walter de la Mare, the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, oh you genius, Seaton’s Aunt, she’s kind of like a vampire, nebulous, a masterpiece, a connection with India, Roderick’s play, did it reflect what was going on the novel, they don’t do a lot of reading in movies, reading the play aloud, a quasi-strange family (but not in a creepy way), looking at it from the outsider’s point of view, she’s 18 in the book (20 in the movies), how old is Roderick?, Ray Milland, of course she has to go home, that’s not seemly, as the commodore says, an old man trying to control a young girl, very confrontational, schizophrenia is announced, not because she’s a teenager, in 1970s, escaping an asylum, Nellie Bly’s Ten Days In A Mad-House, I see a ghost and want to throw myself off a cliff, an incident or a disturbance, there’s a malignant thing that wants to hurt my granddaughter, lying to himself, I told you something could happen, a ghost or two, Captain Frederick Marryat in The Most Haunted House In England, why does he carry that pistol?, William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, The Ghost Finder, is the gun to make us feel slightly less harmless?, smugglers?, sea caves!, the crying lady, the second ghost, misdirection, a ouiji scene (vs a ouiji board), the seance scene, the British version of the film, I smell mimosa!, what about the book?, the flipping book, working for the censorship bureau, how well done the seance was, such pains, not to be faked out, ghost hunter vs. spiritualist, the spelling of the words “lili”, ghosts can’t spell!, well intertwined, presuppositions, ghost hunters in real life, the perfect kind of ghost story, pretty impressive, the religious aspect, exorcism, she wanted to be with her mother, gleaning facts, but what did you know of these people?, she was the worst (in a charitable way), all these different methods, more complex and fallible than they might otherwise be, another condensed novel version, any illustrations?, only one illustration, a house on a cliff with a dead tree in the foreground, a dead twisted tree, a metaphor, the rocks called “The Ghouls”, how much time is spent on the physicality, managing a body, wild Spanish blood, very deftly handled, The Unforseen, Forgotten Classics podcast, feeling for people, a lot of sympathy, a nice warm cozy blanket of a ghost story, “that’s such a marvelous book”, a gipsy family, a gipsy camp, Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, the overall takeaway, he was not a hater, Isaac, the mere mention of race or ethnicity [does not damn a book], a really good book, ten years ago, two other stories, The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions, The Events At Poroth Farm by T.E.D Klein, a book for book-readers, Lovecraft country.

The Uninvited (1944)

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #440 – AUDIOBOOK: The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #440 – The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle, read by Julie Davis.

This UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK (12 Hour 34 Minutes) was previously serialized on Julie’s Forgotten Classics podcast (Episodes 98 to 110).

We will discuss The Uninvited next week.

The Uninvited

The Uninvited - Chapter 2

The Uninvited - Chapter 7

The Uninvited - Chapter 11

The Uninvited - Chapter 13

The Uninvited - Chapter 16

The Uninvited - Chapter 18

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #048

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #048 – Jesse and Scott talk about new and old audiobooks, great audio and radio drama, upcoming stage plays, and old movies.

Talked about on today’s show:
Oblique references to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, recent arrivals, Full Cast Audio, Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev, Worldcon 2006, theater people, Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice as stage play, Pride And Prejudice And Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, Hachette Audio, Black Hills by Dan Simmons, mining history for fiction, Drood by Dan Simmons, Little Big Horn, The Terror by Dan Simmons, The Fall Of Hyperion by Dan Simmons, the SFFaudio Yahoo! Group, “do you relisten to audiobooks?”, Canadia 2056 by Matt Watts (now available in the iTunes music store), Steve The First, Steve The Second, The Prestige by Christopher Priest, The Futurist by James P. Othmer, Tantor Media, William Dufris, PaperBackSwap.com, The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James, Blackstone Audio, H.G. Wells vs. Henry James, Julie Davis’ Forgotten Classics podcast, a ghost story, The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle, The Others (2001), Henry James’ other novels, who’s fiction is more relevant?, new releases, Fang by James Patterson, the Maximum Ride series, vampires, Calfkiller Old Time Radio, getting into HuffDuffer.com, Calfkiller OTR’s HuffDuffer, BBC Radio’s Saturday Night Theatre, a BBC radio drama version of A Study In Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Louis Lamour, Mickey Spillane, The Twilight Zone, social networking your audio, Jesse’s HuffDuffer, Radio Drama Revival’s 3rd anniversary, Buried In Falling Sand (is “very Philip K. Dickian”), God Of The Razor based on a story by Joe R. Lansdale |READ OUR REVIEW|, Great Northern Audio Theatre‘s Dialogue With Martian Trombone, William Tenn’s death, Frederick Pohl on William Tenn’s Child’s Play, Child’s Play is available |HERE|, talking time travel with middle graders, podcast feed, current listens, Killing Floor by Lee Child |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin |READ OUR REVIEW|, virtual reality, worst novel since Startide Rising by David Brin |READ OUR REVIEW| , Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro (it is terrible so far), Kurt Dietz’s review of The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro |READ OUR REVIEW|, Da Vinci’s Inquest, Scott’s Pick Of The Week: Groundhog Day (1993), a timeless classic disguised as a comedy, Jesse’s Pick Of The Week: The Valley Of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was ripping his stories from the19th century’s headlines, the framing story device, Brilliance Audio, The Improbable Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes edited by John Joseph Adams.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Forgotten Classics: The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle

SFFaudio Online Audio

Forgotten ClassicsMy good buddy, Julie D. of the Forgotten Classics podcast, has just started narrating a new novel! Julie recently completed a lengthy unabridged reading of Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This time, instead of going for Christian allegory, Julie is narrating a lesser known 20th century novel with some SFF content. After hearing the first two chapters I’m definitely looking forward to hearing the rest. Even though I’d not read the book before I have seen the 1944 movie adaptation.

Forgotten Classics - The Uninvited by Dorothy MacardleThe Uninvited
By Dorothy Macardle; Read by Julie D.
12 MP3s – Approx. 15 Hours 44 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Forgotten Classics
Podcast: November – February 2009
Escaping from the confines of wartime London, brother and sister Roddy and Pamela are looking for a house on the west coast of England. There they find a neglected Georgian house with a bucolic seaside setting and a lovely southern exposure. Seized by fit of covetousness, Pamela insists they pool their resources and purchase the house.

Here’s the first two chapters |MP3| to get the rest I recommend you subscribe to the Forgotten Classics podcast feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/forgottenclassics

Here are the first 10 minutes of the movie:

There have also been two radio dramatizations: August 28, 1944 for Ford Theatre with Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey and Betty Field (which looks like it isn’t online) and also a November 18, 1949 broadcast of Screen Director’s Playhouse with Ray Milland, Alma Laughton and Mary Shipp |MP3|.

Posted by Jesse Willis