Hypnobobs: The Graveyard Rats by Henry Kuttner

SFFaudio Online Audio

Our First published, in Weird Tales, when Kuttner was just 21 years old, The Graveyard Rats became an instant classic. It has been one of my all time favourite horror stories since I first heard it – in The Greatest Horror Stories Of The Twentieth Century |READ OUR REVIEW| – it’s full of Lovecraftian imagery, has a loathsome protagonist, and it possesses an unshakeable claustrophobic menace that’ll keep you up late for fear of what sleep might bring.

Mr. Jim Moon’s reading of it, for his wondrous Hypnobobs, now makes it one of my all-time favourite podcasts episodes too.

The Graveyard Rats - Illustration from SHOCK
The Graveyard Rats by Henry Kuttner

Hypnobobs #08 - The Graveyard Rats by Henry KuttnerSFFaudio EssentialThe Graveyard Rats
By Henry Kuttner; Read by Jim Moon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Hypnobobs
Podcast: August 21, 2011
First published in Weird Tales, March 1936.

Podcast feed: http://www.geekplanetonline.com/hosting/originals/hypnobobs/feed.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

And here’s a |PDF| constructed from it’s publication in Shock.

My depiction of Old Masson:
Old Masson by Jesse

Anthony’s depiction of Old Masson:
Old Masson by Anthony

Posted by Jesse Willis

Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter: The Roof Of The World

SFFaudio Online Audio

BrokenSea Audio Productions: Jake Sampson: Monster HunterThe latest Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter serial has just wrapped. If you’re young enough you probably won’t appreciate all the historical and mythological detail that’s in these terrific adventure stories – but they’re definitely in there! Previous adventures have seen Jake and crew visiting lush jungles or dessicated deserts – this one sees them flying up to THE ROOF OF THE WORLD!!!

Here’s the official description:

Jake is summoned to Massachusetts to visit an aging former professor. Soon the gang is involved in a quest for a magic flower that only grows in a remote part of Tibet. Others also hunt the secrets held within that mysterious land, but for a more nefarious purpose. What is the price for immortality, and does the fabled lost city of Shambala really exist? Weird tales abound in the land known as The Roof of the World!

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3| Part 5 |MP3|

Podcast feed: http://brokensea.com/jakesampson/feed/

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

BSAP: Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter – The Roof Of The World (Part 1)

SFFaudio Online Audio

Modern audio drama adventure serial has a name, that name is JAKE SAMPSON: MONSTER HUNTER!

BrokenSea Audio Productions: Jake Sampson: Monster HunterJake Sampson: Monster Hunter – The Roof of the World Episode 1
By Mark Kalita; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 19 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: Broken Sea Audio Productions
Podcast: December 15, 2011
Jake is summoned to Massachusetts to visit an aging former professor. Soon the gang is involved in a quest for a magic flower that only grows in a remote part of Tibet. Others also hunt the secrets held within that mysterious land, but for a more nefarious purpose. What is the price for immortality, and does the fabled lost city of Shambala really exist? Weird tales abound in the land known as The Roof of the World!

CAST:
Jake Sampson – Mark Kalita
Lucy Carter – Natasha Lathrop
Hartford – David Sobkowiak
Texas Holdum – Bill Hollweg
Announcer – Elie Hirschman
Dorothy Dyer ― Shannon Hilchie
William Dyer ― Jack Ward
Abbot Tiem-Po ― Gerald E Sobkowiak
Longsang ― Paul Mannering
Commandant ― Alan Sobkowiak
Captain Kopfjager ― Brian Bochicchio
Gerhardt – Bruce Busby
Tsi-Fon ― Colin Snow
Mu Po ― Steven Jay Cohen

Posted by Jesse Willis

19 Nocturne Boulevard: An adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Thing On The Doorstep

SFFaudio Online Audio

19 Nocturne Boulevard19 Nocturne Boulevard, created and run by audio dramatist Julie Hoverson, features original and adapted “strange stories” – the podcast alternates between completed productions, like the one below, and diary entry style production notes. I was mightily impressed by Hoverson’s adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s Science Fiction short story The Leech when I heard it back in February! It’s a terrific production by a talented cast. Hoverson has crafted her skill to a keen edge. I was jazzed to hear that she’d undertaken a new production of an H.P. Lovecraft classic, The Thing On The Doorstep which is a novelette first published in the January 1937 issue of Weird Tales.

I’m a sucker for stories with “Thing” in the title. A THING is not a he or a she. It isn’t a describable something – in fact, it’s very indescribability makes it damn intriguing – you, and the characters in the stories, ask questions “What the hell is that thing?!?!?!”

Now DC Comics had the Swamp Thing (a plant elemental) and Marvel had the Man-Thing (a “slow-moving, empathic, humanoid” that had once been a man). But it’s in short fiction especially that I find THINGS compelling. And when you start looking for these THINGS you’ll find dozens and dozens of stories with THING in the title. A couple of other good ones include The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce and The Thing On The Roof by Robert E. Howard. And in movies, of course, there is John Carpenter’s The Thing.

Now the particular THING in on this particular doorstep in Julie Hoverson’s adaptation is a whole other thing. I won’t give away, but I will say it certainly lives up to the mysterious nouny goodness of the title.

Lovecraft’s tales can be difficult to adapt, as they’re unusually wholly bereft of actual dialogue between characters (if there is even more than one character!). Julie Hoverson dramatizes the story’s form, which is a kind of confession/statement to police, using a combination of flashbacks and interrogation room scenes to tell the tale. The sound design is good, allowing us to tell who is who and where is where. The acting is also pretty solid with most of the lines coming off as if recorded live on set. Have a listen!

19 Nocturne Boulevard - The Thing On The DoorstepThe Thing On The Doorstep
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Adapted by Julie Hoverson; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 33 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: 19 Nocturne Boulevard
Podcast: August 15, 2011
|ETEXT|
What does a man do when his new bride really, really wants his body?.

Cast:
Dan Upton – Mark Olson
Officer Flatbush – Reynaud LeBoeuf
Officer Malone – Danar Hoverson
Edward Derby – Paul Cram (imdb)
Asenath Derby – Angela Kirby
Jean – Julie Hoverson
Clerk – Suzanne Dunn
Orderly – Gene Thorkildsen
Dr. Castle – Marshal Latham
“Roman” girl – Gwendolyn Jensen-Woodard

Music from the first soundtrack album from the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast

Editing and Sound – Julie Hoverson
Cover Design – Brett Coulstock

Podcast feed: http://nineteennocturne.libsyn.com/rss

Posted by Jesse Willis

Tantor Media: FREE AUDIOBOOK: Walden by Henry David Thoreau

SFFaudio Online Audio

Tantor MediaTantor Media has another limited time FREE MP3 download! This time it is Walden by Henry David Thoreau. This classic is a weirdly philosophical autobiography with fun words like: “cosmopolite” and “hokum”. Sez Tantor:

For your free download of Walden, please log in to your account
(consumer or library)—or create one.

After you’ve got an account (no credit card required), and you’ve signed in, do a search for “walden” or CLICK HERE, the link to the zipped folder full of 20 DRM free MP3s should be at the top. Here’s a screenshot:

Tantor FREE Walden OfferIn the email I got, it said the offer was in celebration of Earth Day (April 22), perhaps that is when the offer expires. It also had this funny (and almost mystifying) quote:

“A truly good book teaches me better than to [listen to] it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by [listening], I must finish by acting.”
—Henry David Thoreau

TANTOR MEDIA - Walden by Henry David ThoreauWalden
By Henry David Thoreau; Read by Mel Foster
20 Zipped MP3 Files – Approx. 11.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 05/05/2008
Sample: |MP3|
Walden is the classic account of two years spent by Henry David Thoreau living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. The story is detailed in its accounts of Thoreau’s day-to-day activities, observations, and undertakings to survive out in the wilderness for two years. Thoreau’s journal is an exquisite account of a man seeking a more simple life by living in harmony with nature. In today’s fast-paced consumer-driven society, the austere lifestyle endorsed by Thoreau is as relevant and refreshing as ever.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman

SFFaudio Review

Science Fiction Audiobook - The Accidental Time Machine by Joe HaldemanThe Accidental Time Machine
By Joe Haldeman; Read by Kevin R. Free
7 CDs – 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781436120418
Themes: / Science Fiction / Time Travel / Artificial Intelligence / Religion / Academia / Los Angeles / Massachusetts / MIT /

Things are going nowhere for lowly MIT research assistant Matt Fuller—especially not after his girlfriend drops him for another man. But then while working late one night, he inadvertently stumbles upon what may be the greatest scientific breakthrough ever. His luck, however, runs out when he finds himself wanted for murder—in the future.

When an MIT graduate student Matt Fuller accidentally invents a time machine he get’s himself into a load of trouble. Not only is his supervising professor a hard-ass thief of academic proportions, the stupid time travel machine can only travel forward into the future! Every time Matt presses the ‘go button‘ he ends up twelve times farther than last time, he’s invented a time machine that only got a one way ticket to the future. Fueled by caffeine, job worries, and a murder charge, Matt blasts himself forward 12 x 12 x 12 into the future – where the only thing stranger than Jesus returning to Earth is a visit from the personified city of Los Angeles. Haldeman’s inventiveness is unparalleled in time travel SF. His hero Matt is picaresque, he’s on an inventive journey and the adventure is unpredictable and compelling. I loved it.

Kevin R. Free, a narrator new to my ears, performs this novel to perfection. Everyone I’ve recommended this novel to has enjoyed the heck out of it – if Recorded Books keeps picking novel/narrator combinations like this we’re in for a real treat. Speaking of Recorded Books, The Accidental time Machine is one of the inaugural publications in their new Sci-Fi imprint. Also terrific, there’s cool art custom cover just this edition [see above], it features actual details from the book – that’s refreshing. A great and peppy novel, an excellent, excellent, reading, fast moving and not too long. This is the kind of Science Fiction story I want to see more of. Speed on over to RecordedBooks.com, or your local library, and request a copy of this audiobook.

Posted by Jesse Willis