Recent Arrivals: Welcome To Bordertown edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Just crossed the border, literally (it came in the back of a Subaru), here’s a Brilliance Audio audiobook collection that does almost everything right! First, check out the awesome cover art for Welcome To Bordertown:


BRILLIANCE AUDIO - Welcome To Bordertown edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner

Next, note the detailed track listings on the back:

BRILLIANCE AUDIO - Welcome To Bordertown edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner

So that’s a look at the outside, inside the discs themselves don’t detail their contents, which is bad, but not fatal (considering you’ve got the back of the audiobook to go by). As to the audio content itself, well I’m looking forward to picking up stories here and there as I research the authors more – that’s usually how I listen to collections these days.

This is the official description:

Bordertown: a city on the Border between the human world and the elfin realm. A place where neither magic nor technology can be counted on, where elf and human kids run away to find themselves. The Way from our world to the Border has been blocked for thirteen long years. . . . Now the Way is open once again — and Bordertown welcomes a new set of seekers and dreamers, misfits and makers, to taste life on the Border.

Here are thirteen interconnected stories, one graphic story, and eight poems — all new work by some of today’s best urban fantasy, fantasy, and slipstream writers

Now I’ve already checked out Neil Gaiman’s entry, which is a poem entitled The Song Of The Song. And I listened to Holly Black reading her own introductory essay. In it she credits the original Bordertown books as ‘creating the urban fantasy subgenre’. Ellen Kushner, Black’s co-editor, reads Terri Windling’s introductory essay, which details the background for the Bordertown series itself. It’s is described as a “Thieves’ World for teens.” Windling also talks about the phenomenon of shared worlds. Also, and this is pretty cool, there’s an additional editorial introduction written, and read, by Ellen Kushner (one that’s not found in the paperbook edition at all).

The only thing missing from this great audiobook edition is the story named Fair Trade by Sara Ryan and Dylan Meconis. But that’s probably because it’s actually a comic and so it would have been very hard to translate into audio (there are two panels of it HERE). And finally, here’s a promo video for the book:

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #077 – READALONG: Strange Case Of Doctor Jekyll And Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #077 – Jesse talks with Julie Davis and audiobook narrator Wayne June about Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case Of Doctor Jekyll And Mr. Hyde.

Talked about on today’s show:
AudiobookCase.com, Fred Godsmark, Audio Realms, Wayne June is “naturally creepy”, narrating audiobooks is hard work, how do you read to people?, word pronunciation and Lovecraft’s invented language, I, Cthulhu by Neil Gaiman, Gaiman is a modern master, The Rats In The Walls by H.P. Lovecraft |READ OUR REVIEW|, devolving and retro-volving and retro-retrogression, “it’s a sentence but what does it mean?”, H. Beam Piper, reading for the ear, reading aloud is a juggling act, physical copies of audiobooks vs. downloads, The Essential Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde: The Definitive Annotated Edition edited Leonard Wolf, Kevin J. Anderson on Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, as a parable for addiction, the temperance movement, religion, “an almost theological work [or treatise]”, “the war in the members”, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde as an homunculus, Mr. Utterson, Cain’s heresy: “I am not my brother’s keeper.”, Dickensian writing, Charles Dickens and Henry James, how evil is Mr. Hyde?, what about those vague debaucheries?, the Greek origin of the word “obscene”, Lovecraft’s indescribably unspeakable prose, The Statement Of Randolph Carter by H.P. Lovecraft, The Thing From Another World, Michael Caine and Cheryl Ladd version of Jekyll & Hyde, The Story Of The Door, the difference between doing good and not doing evil, evil as being self-centered (and prideful), natural selection vs. evolution, ladders vs. branches, progression vs. change, evolution vs. free will, the notoriously optimistic Victorians, Alan Moore’s The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Hulk and Two-Face, Brad Strickland on Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Marxist and feminist critiques, BBC Radio 4 radio drama version of Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, Let The Right One In (movie) vs. Let The Right One In (book), Poole (the butler), Inspector Newcomen, Jekyll (Je-Kill, I-Kill, Jackal), Forrest J. Ackerman‘s real middle name, Geek-ill, Edinburgh, Soho, a “fine bogey dream”, cocaine usage in the 19th century, Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell, Jayne Slayre (The Literary Classic…with a Bloodsucking Twist) by Charlotte Brontë and Sherri Browning Erwin, Assam And Darjeeling by T.M. Camp |READ OUR REVIEW|, zombies and vampires, The Loving Dead by Amelia Beamer |READ OUR REVIEW|, mindless sexualized creatures, if you were an urban fantasy author what would you bring together and what would your urban fantasy name be?, the science of lycanthropy vs. the science of zombification, airships, Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, Jim Butcher, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, parallel worlds, proto-urban fantasy, Territory by Emma Bull, The Castle In Transylvania by Jules Verne, Melville House books, translated by Charlotte Mandel, can you do a Transylvanian accent?, Amy H. Sturgis, calling Jules Verne a Science Fiction writer is probably inaccurate, Around The World In Eighty Days by Jules Verne, Phileas Fogg is the most English of all Englishmen, The Vampyre by John William Polidori, Ken Rusell’s Gothic, Switzerland, The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe, the strange case of Strange Case, “it’s full of Octobery goodness.”

Airmont - Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Classics Illustrated - Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Dr. Jekyl And Mr. Hyde - Chapter 9 - The Transformation In Dr. Lanyon's Office - illustration by William Hole

The Twilight Zone 14 - Robert Louis Stevenson

Guy Deal illustration of Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
Guy Deal illustration of Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
Guy Deal illustration of Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
Guy Deal illustration of Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #061 – READALONG: City Of Dragons by Kelli Stanley

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #061 – Scott and Jesse talk with Rick Jackson and Julie Davis about City Of Dragons by Kelli Stanley!

Talked about on today’s show:
Wonder Publishing, Brain Plucker, Science Fiction Oral History Association, Forgotten Classics, listening to audiobooks at double speed on the iPhone, Sansa Clip, Tantor Media‘s audiobook version of City Of Dragons by Kelli Stanley, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Catholics should get noir, the Kelli Stanley Wikipedia entry, noir, hard-boiled crime fiction, smoking, 1940, San Fransisco, murder mystery, private detective, Chinatown, Miranda Corbie (the hero of City Of Dragons), Julie’s Happy Catholic blog post about City Of Dragons, modern editing (or the egregious lack thereof), historical fiction, Luke Burrage’s review of A Game Of Thrones, Samuel Shellabarger, Captain From Castile, “Chesterfields really satisfy!”, chick lit, PTSD, page 201, Territory by Emma Bull, They Can Only Hang You Once by Dashiell Hammett, movies vs. novels, page 3, The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (our next readalong), using the font and the text on the page to help tell the story, racism, the Yellow Peril, is a female private investigation realistic for 1940?, backstory, the Pinkerton agency, b-girls and escorts, the Spanish Civil War, Donald E. Westlake, Travis McGee, John D. MacDonald, Ross Macdonald, Hostage For A Hood by Lionel White, Gold Medal paperback originals, Noir Masters: An Anthology, iPad, Wonder ebooks on iPad, Death Pulls A Doublecross by Lawrence Block, Blackstone Audio, Jim Thompson, Nothing More Than Murder, Forever After, Midnight Blue by Ross Macdonald, The Imaginary Blonde, you can’t have a noir series, The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson, Sam Spade, James M. Cain, Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Peirce, Chinatown, worst ending ever, best ending ever, most depressing ending ever, Sunset Boulevard, Mickey Spillane, Perry Mason, Richard S. Prather, Shell Scott, Lew Archer, Harper (1966) starring Paul Newman.

Posted by Jesse Willis

audible.com’s big Science Fiction and Fantasy push continues

SFFaudio News

Audible.comWe’ve some exciting news regarding audible.com. Earlier this year we told you about audible’s big push for more Science Fiction and Fantasy. Since then the staff at audible.com have been acquiring new titles and new providers at a serious clip. Now we’ve got more news on that front. Here’s the list of some of the upcoming releases – I’m almost certain these are all ‘exclusive to audible’ titles. Included amongst them are the follow up book to our latest SFFaudio Essential designee!

Macmillian Audiobooks being released exclusively through audible.com:

Escapement
By Jay Lake
Release date: June 2008

Rainbow’s End*
By Vernor Vinge
Release date: December 2007
*this year’s Hugo winner (novel)

Jumper: Griffin’s Story*
By Steven Gould
Release date: January 2008
*the movie comes out Feb 14th

Spin
By Robert Charles Wilson
Release date: Q1 2008

Axis
By Robert Charles Wilson
Release date: Q1 2008

The Ghost Brigades
By John Scalzi
Release date: Q1 2008

Territory
By Emma Bull
Release date: Q1 2008

“In house” produced Audible exclusives:

Saturn Returns (Astropolis Book 1)
By Sean Williams
Release date: soon

Centotaxis*
By Sean Williams
Release date: soon
*a novella related to Saturn Returns (“essentially it’s Book 1.5”)

Posted by Jesse Willis