Day: October 5, 2006

Commentary: Podcast Audio Drama vs. Professional Radio Drama

Scott D.

Meta SFFaudioI like a good podcast as much as the next guy. Heck, maybe even a little more than the next guy. BUT… SFFaudio lately has become an endless parade of posts about podcasts. Great podcasts, excellent podcasts, check-this-out-it’s way-cool podcasts.

In a recent post, Jesse said that one of the podcast audio drama series is one of his two favorite audio dramas. And that gave me pause. Wait a second here, I thought. Time out. Seriously? And the door opened to all kinds of issues. The main one being this:

There seems to have developed a dual standard of excellence on SFFaudio. First, there’s the FREE standard of excellence. Meaning, if it’s free, the standard for excellence appears to be lower. I couldn’t possibly call the audio drama I’ve heard via podcasting “excellent” if I compare it with almost any professional audio drama.

In reviews and commentary, I think we should be comparing audio dramas to audio dramas. The finest audio dramas ever produced – THOSE are the gold standard. People like Dirk Maggs, Roger Gregg, and Yuri Rasovsky continue to produce first-rate audio drama, and 99% of the amateur stuff is… well, it’s amateur stuff.

I’m all for letting folks know what’s out there – that’s really SFFaudio’s mission. But, in reviews and commentary, a reviewer needs a single standard of excellence, not two. If a piece of amateur audio drama garners a great review, it ought to compare favorably with a professional piece of audio drama that also got a great review. The same goes for podcast novels.

posted by Scott D. Danielson

SciFiDimensions article on Science Fiction podcasts

Jesse Willis

SciFiDimensions.comSciFiDimensions is a substantive internet review and interview magazine that’s been publishing monthly since 2000.The site’s editor, John C. Snider, has just compiled a short article that talks about Science Fiction and Fantasy related podcasts. Our very own Time Traveler and his The Time Traveler Show get mention, as do Escape Pod, Pseudopod, Starship Sofa, Atlanta Radio Theater Company‘s new podcast and 7th Son Conspicuously present is the often included, but never SF, Skepticality. I love Skepticality, I truly do, but it doesn’t belong on a list of SF & F shows. If you add one really good show that isn’t SF to the list you violate your list policy. Regardless, the article is a good place to start if you don’t yet know where to start listening. Once you read it, come back here, we’ll give you the advanced course.

posted by Jesse Willis

Escape Pod unleashes Paradox & Greenblatt, Attorneys at Law by Kevin J. Anderson

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Escape PodEscape Pod is turning up the high heat with another powerhouse author’s short story for the second week in a row! This week tale is Paradox & Greenblatt, Attorneys at Law by Kevin J. Anderson. It was originally published in the September 2005 issue of Analog Science Fiction magazine. I’m thinking Anderson is an audio fan, he was a judge for this years’s Parsec Awards and he writes his fiction with his voice, recording his stories aloud as he hikes and then has them transcribed by an employee later! More proof, he’s sold two other top shelf tales to another genre audio fiction magazine: Rough Draft and Identity Crisis (both preliminary Nebula Award nominees), both are available via MechMuse. We just reviewed one of his unabridged novels. Listen up writers, this is how to make SFFaudio happy! All anderson need do now is release those hiking first drafts to become the audio SF’s Kwisatz Haderach!

Kevin J. Anderson erviewing the Escape Pod contractDuring WorldCon 2006 I unexpectedly captured the moment of Paradox & Greenblatt, Attorneys at Law sale! Check out this shot of Anderson (center) reading the Escape Pod contract, that’s Steve Eley on his right (in the purple shirt) and Evo Terra of the Dragon Page on his left. See WorldCon is a business expense!

EP074: Paradox & Greenblatt, Attorneys at Law
By Kevin J. Anderson; Read by J.C. Hutchins
1 MP3 File – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Escape Pod
Podcast: October 5th 2006

A familiar time-travel premise given a new twist. A man stands accused of attempted murder for traveling back in time to prevent a conception.

posted by Jesse Willis

James Tiptree, Jr. Biographer and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" Radio Drama

admin

SFFaudio Online Audio

James Tiptree, Jr: The Double Life of Alice SheldonJulie Phillips, biographer and author of James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon, speaks about the science fiction writer in this week’s episode of To The Best of Our Knowledge. The podcast is available through iTunes subscription or through its RSS feed and may also be downloaded as an mp3 file from here.

A 1990 radio dramatization of Tiptree’s Hugo and Nebula award-winning story, “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” that was broadcast on WBAI radio’s Hour of the Wolf on August 26 is available for streaming replay from their audio archives or may be currently accessed as a RealAudio mp3 download.

This Sci-Fi Radio production aired in two half-hour episodes. The first episode runs from 53:40 – 1:21:30 and the second episode runs from 1:25:50 – 1:53:50. A 2-hour long interview with Phillips from the August 5 program of Hour of the Wolf is also available from their streaming archives and as an mp3 file.

Links to Tiptree stories available online are given on Phillips’ web pages. The first chapter of James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon can be read at the New York Times First Chapters web pages (requires free registration at the NY TImes site).

posted by Moriond

I-SCI-FI Tonight: Terry Goodkind

Scott D.

I-SCI-FI LogoBestselling Author Terry Goodkind will be on I-SCI-FI’s webcast – tonight! The show runs from 7-9pm Mountain. He will be talking about his new bestseller Phantom, Ayn Rand, and Objectivism.

I-SCI-FI is broadcast live each week – when it’s showtime, click here to get to their website (www.i-sci-fi.com), then click on the “Listen Live” link.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson