Episode #34 |MP3| of the Kick Ass Mystic Ninjas podcast is all about Larry Niven’s RINGWORLD! David, Brian and Summer discuss the Hugo and Nebula Award winning 1970 novel. The talk also ranges out into the spinoff Man-Kzin Wars novels, and the newest novel set in Known Space, Fleet of Worlds. Subscribe to the podcast with this feed:
http://www.kickassmysticninjas.com/shows/feed/
Posted by Jesse Willis
A substantial coup for Audible.com (and the iTunes Audiobook Store) this Hugo nominated and very popular novel is exclusively available as a download.
Old Man’s War
By John Scalzi; Read by William Dufris
Audible Download – Approx. 10 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: macmillan audio / audible.com
Published: October 2007
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First, he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce – and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So, we fight, to defend Earth and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea of what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine. And what he will become is far stranger.
iTunes, the directory distributing podcasts, has finally got one of its own. It’s called Meet The Author. They’ve got interviews with Steven Colbert and Alan Alda but here’s the one that attracted my ear…
“George R.R. Martin, the best-selling author of the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, is also an award-winning writer of short fiction in a variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In this exclusive interview, Martin discusses Dreamsongs, the author’s collection of short stories from the past 30-plus years. He also discusses favorite characters, the influence of Hollywood, the meaning of ‘the heart in conflict,’ and more.”
Here’s the podcast feed:
http://www.apple.com/podcasts/meettheauthor/mta_07.xml
Or, just download the |M4A| for the Martin interview alone.
Posted by Jesse Willis
We constantly get great stuff from Blackstone. Every few weeks we seem to get a title by Orson Scott Card or Lois McMaster Bujold. I decided to check their site to see how many audiobooks by these authors they have published recently. The tally:
Orson Scott Card-13 unabridged audiobooks
Lois McMaster Bujold-13 unabridged audibooks
And the great authors keep coming in!
Something Wicked This Way Comes
By Ray Bradbury;
Performed by Jerry Robbins and the Colonial Radio Players
2 CDs – 2 Hours [AUDIODRAMA]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433210792
“By the pricking of my thumbs…something wicked this way comes.”
Ray Bradbury has dramatized his literary classic, Something Wicked This Way Comes, into this first-class audio drama, produced by The Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air, complete with a full cast, sound effects, and original music.
“Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show” comes to Greentown, Illinois, one week before Halloween. Two boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, soon discover the evil of this carnival, which promises to make your every wish and dream come true. But with those wishes and dreams comes a price that must be paid. Behind the mirrors and the mazes is the nightmare of a lifetime.
Invasive Procedures
By Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston;
Read by Stefan Rudnicki
10 CDs, 12 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433210822
George Galen is a brilliant scientist, a pioneer in gene therapy. But Galen is dangerously insane. He has created a method to alter human DNA, not just to heal diseases, but also to “improve” people: make them stronger, make them able to heal more quickly…and make them compliant to his will.
Frank Hartman is also a brilliant virologist, working for the government’s ultra-secret biohazard agency. He has discovered how to neutralize Galen’s DNA-changing virus. Now he is the one man who stands in the way of Galen’s plan to “improve” the entire human race.
This taut thriller takes the listener a few years into the future and shows the promise and danger of new genetic medicine techniques.
Rocannon’s World
By Ursula K. LeGuin; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
5 CDs, 5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433210822
The Orange Box is a bundle of Half-Life 2 games featuring an innovative new first person Science Fiction puzzle adventure game called Portal. I’ve just finished playing it. It’s absolutely wonderful, but just as wonderful is the closing theme song, written by the skullcrushingly genius Jonathan Coulton. Have a listen to “Still Alive” after completing the game, and then download the |MP3| of it.
Posted by Jesse Willis
iTunes has added a showcase of 16 brand new additions to its Audiobook Store front page. Among them are short stories from James Patrick Kelly’s Storypod, Blackstone Audiobooks, Infinivox, Ziggurat Productions, Deuce Audio and Wonder Audiobooks.
Posted by Jesse Willis