November 2009 – Page 5

The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge

SFFaudio Commentary

The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge For the past few years, on November 11th, we’ve offered the following challenge to SFFaudio readers:

“We’ll give you an audiobook if you make one for everyone else.”

Sweet deal huh?

And, we’re offering the same deal this year. We’ll give you a BRAND NEW audiobook if you make make an audiobook out of one of the eTexts we provide you links to. All you’ll need to do is claim a title (by email), record the audiobook using your own voice, and follow the rules (see the first comment of this post for the rules).

Still feeling a little unclear on how it all works? Then have a look at our past SFFaudio CHALLENGES:

This year we’ve got 20 ebooks that need turning into audiobooks and we’ve got 20 BRAND NEW audiobooks to give away as prizes! No matter where you are on the planet Earth, if you finish and release your claimed audiobook, we will ship you your prize!

Interested?

If so, THE FIRST THING you need to do is PICK ONE OF THESE ebooks…

Challenge Titles:

***[CLAIMED BY Krisztina Hidasi on NOV. 29, 2009]
Star Dragon*
By Mike Brotherton
A 2003 novel.
*This novel is released under a Creative Commons license. I recommend confirming the audiobook version being okay with Mike Brotherton before claiming this title.
|MIKE BROTHERON’S WEBSITE|
***

***[CLAIMED BY Jerry Pyle on NOV. 13, 2009] COMPLETED
D-99*
By H.B. Fyfe
A 1962 Novel.
*This novel comes courtesy of WONDER AUDIO |HTML|PDF|***

***[CLAIMED BY Mike Hagerty on NOV. 15, 2009]
The Inheritors (An Extravagant Story)
By Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford
A 1901 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|
|WIKIPEDIA ENTRY|***

***[CLAIMED BY Scott Hall on NOV. 13, 2009]
The Planet Strappers
By Raymond Z. Gallun
A 1961 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Julie Davis on NOV. 12, 2009]
Breaking Point
By James E. Gunn
A novelette.
From Space Science Fiction, March, 1953
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Evan Wade on NOV. 12, 2009]
The Night Of The Long Knives
By Fritz Leiber
A novella.
From Amazing Science Fiction Stories January 1960.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Kevin Jackson on NOV. 13, 2009]
Pariah Planet
By Murray Leinster
A novella (34,000 words) – but advertised as a novel.
From Amazing Stories, July 1961.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Matt Soar on NOV. 13, 2009]
The Iron Heel
By Jack London
A 1908 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|
|WIKIPEDIA ENTRY|***

***[CLAIMED BY David Sobkowiak on NOV. 12, 2009]
Empire
By Clifford D. Simak
A 1951 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Danielle Blake on NOV. 15, 2009]
Pagan Passions
By Randall Garrett and Larry M. Harris
A 1959 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Kelly Fann on NOV. 13, 2009]
Ministry Of Disturbance
By H. Beam Piper
A novelette.
From Astounding Science Fiction, December 1958.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Chris Johnson on NOV. 13, 2009]
A Slave is a Slave
By H. Beam Piper
A novella.
From Analog Science Fact—Science Fiction April 1962.
PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Ross Smith on NOV. 13, 2009]
Sweet Their Blood And Sticky
By Albert R. Teichner
A short story.
From “Worlds of If” November 1961.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Ted Puffer on NOV. 18, 2009]
The Impossibles (Book 2 in the Psi-Powers series)
By Randall Garrett and Laurence M. Janifer (writing as Mark Phillips)
A 1963 novel.
Published in Analog as “Out Like a Light. This is the sequel to Brain Twister.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Bruce M Campbell on NOV. 13, 2009]
Cubs Of The Wolf
By Raymond F. Jones
A novelette.
From Astounding Science Fiction November 1955.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Karen Savage on NOV. 13, 2009]
Ultima Thule
By Mack Reynolds
A novella.
From Analog Science Fact & Fiction March 1961.
Part of the “United Planets” series.
|GUTENBERG.ORG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Lee Huttner on NOV. 12, 2009]
Spring-Heeled Jack – The Terror of London
By anonymous
A 1840s penny dreadful novella.
|GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|

***[CLAIMED BY David Drage on NOV. 12, 2009]
The Thing On The Roof
By Robert E. Howard
A short story.
First published in Weird Tales February 1932.
|GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|***

***[CLAIMED BY Mary Casey Walsh on NOV. 13, 2009]
Pigeons From Hell
By Robert E. Howard
A novelette.
First published by Weird Tales in 1938.
|GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|***

***[CLAIMED BY John Aho on NOV. 12, 2009]
The Air Ship Boys (or The Quest of the Aztec Treasure)
By H.L. Sayler
A 1909 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

SECONDLY, you’ll want to DEEPLY CONSIDER all that your project will entail. [THINK AHEAD, PLAN IT OUT]

After you’ve carefully thought it through you can write me an email, with the details of your plan.

Answer these questions:

1. How are you planning to release your audiobook? Via LibriVox? Podiobooks.com? In your own podcast? Through Audible.com? Somehow else?

2. How long do you expect it to take? When will you be finished? How many hours will it take to record it? Will you proof listen as you go?

Answer those questions in your email to me. Emails that show a lack of forethought WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. So, have a bit of a read of the ebook you’re interested in narrating. Consider the difficulty involved, and then, if you’re still excited about The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge, email me with your plan.

My email address is:

[email protected]

Make the subject line:

“The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge”

Once an email is received, showing the appropriate forethought required, I will stake your claim in this post.

LASTLY, here are the goodies available (provided by Simon And Schuster Audio, Brilliance Audio, Poe Audio and The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society)…

Prizes:

Swoon
By Nina Malkin; Read by Caitlin Greer
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: May 2009
ISBN: 0743582004

Star Trek (Movie Tie In)
By Alan Dean Foster; Based on the movie written by Roberto Orci and Alex Hurtzman; Read by Zachary Quinto
7 CDs – 8 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780743598347
|READ OUR REVIEW|

The Dragon’s Eye (Book 1 in the Erec Rex series)
By Kaza Kingsley; Read by Simon Jones
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: April 2009
ISBN: 0743581393

The Monsters Of Otherness (Book 2 in the Erec Rex series)
By Kaza Kingsley; Read by Simon Jones
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: April 2009
ISBN: 0743581415

Search For Truth (Book 3 in the Erec Rex series)
By Kaza Kingsley; Read by Simon Jones
11 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: June 2009
ISBN: 0743583868

The House Of The Scorpion
By Nancy Farmer; Read by Raul Esparza
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 0743572467

Leviathan
By Scott Westerfeld; Read by Alan Cumming
CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 0743583884

The Mortal Instruments (includes City of Ashes, City of Bones, and City of Glass)
By Cassandra Clare; Read by Ari Graynor and Natalie Moore
MP3 3 CDs? – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 1442303778

Hush, Hush
By Becca Fitzpatrick; Read by Caitlin Greer
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 074359956X

The Search For The Red Dragon
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: January 2008
ISBN: 074356913X

Here There be Dragons
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
7 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: January 2008
ISBN: 0743569105

The Shadow Dragons
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 0743583744

The Indigo King
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 0743574710

Earth Abides
By George R. Stewart; Read by Jonathan Davis
13 CDs – 15 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781441806147
|Listen to an AUDIO SAMPLE|

H.P.Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS / Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
Published: 2007
|READ OUR REVIEW|

H.P.Lovecraft’s The Shadow Out of Time
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS / Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
Published: 2008

H.P.Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS / Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
Published: 2008

Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection 6-8: The Cask of Amontillado and Other Stories
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
3 CDs – Approx. 3 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Poe Audio / Acoustic Learning
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780980058147

Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection 9: The Pioneers
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
6 CDs – Approx. 7 Hours 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Poe Audio / Acoustic Learning
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780980058154

Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection 10: Deus et Machina
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
4 CDs – Approx. 4 Hours 39 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Poe Audio / Acoustic Learning
Published: September 2009
ISBN: 9780980058161

As claims are accepted they will be noted on the list. As prizes are shipped they will be noted on the list. Links to where the completed audiobooks can be found will be added to this post!

Get selecting folks!

[extra thanks to Gregg Margarite and Rick Jackson]

COMPLETED TITLES:

Ultima Thule
By Mack Reynolds; Read by Karen Savage
13 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 2 Hours 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 23, 2009
Ronny Bronston has dreamed all his life of getting a United Planets job that would take him off-world. He finally gets the opportunity when he is given a provisional assignment with Bureau of Investigation, Section G. But will he be able to complete his assignment and find the elusive Tommy Paine? First published in Analog Science Fact & Fiction March 1961.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/rss/3735

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

D-99
By H.B. Fyfe; Read by Jerry Pyle
20 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 03, 2010
EARTHMEN IN TROUBLE Harris was caged in an underwater “zoo” by a pack of blue lobsters. Maria drew a five-year sentence on a puritanical planet for trying to buy a souvenir–and for being excessively feminine. Taranto and Meyers had committed the crime of being shipwrecked on a planet that didn’t like strangers. Gerson was simply kidnapped. And nobody had any idea why five citizens of Terra were being held on other worlds–and the ultra-secret Department 99 existed only to set them, and others like them, free. This tense novel is the story of one evening’s work for Department 99–their successes and failures–and of the strange crisis that almost wrecked D-99.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/3755

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

The audiobook is also available in two etext formats |PDF | and |HTML| – in case you’d like to read along!

Posted by Jesse Willis

In The Gloaming Podcast: Creepy Tales of Now

SFFaudio Online Audio

Nathaniel Tapley, of the In The Gloaming podcast, subtitled “Creepy Tales of Now” sez:

We’ve just started making a new monthly horror-comedy podcast that might be of interest to you and your readers. Called In The Gloaming it features some of Britain’s most exciting young comics in creepy tales of now…

The first episode, Dead Skinny, is out now. Have a listen |MP3| or get it via the podcast feed:

http://inthegloaming.podbean.com/feed/

So I listened to the first episode, it features some very silly (but very funny) jokes in the intro and lots of laugh-out-loud ridiculousness in the story proper. It’s very dark humour, dark and very funny. It’s actually quite creepy how much laughing I did. Body dysmorphic disorder probably shouldn’t be this funny. I’m going to subscribe.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Washington Post: article about Mister Ron and his podcast

SFFaudio News

Our friend Mister Ron (of the Mister Ron’s Basement podcast) was recently written about for a 700 word newspaper article in The Washington Post!

The story, by columnist John Kelly, is titled A new voice for the humorists buried deep in the newspaper bin. In it we get a real picture of what Mister Ron is doing with his long running podcast (he’s podcast a stunning 1,500 episodes so far), a real sense of the connectedness modern newspaper journalists feel for their centenary predecessors, and what Mr. Ron’s basement actually looks like (it’s full of books, comics and newspapers).

The Washington Post

Here’s the start:

“In the basement of his Woodbridge home — surrounded by comic books and paperbacks, crumbling hardbacks and yellowing newspapers — Ron Evry is conjuring up a vanished world.

It’s a world of patent medicine-hustling mountebanks and pushy insurance salesmen, of clueless wives and blustering bosses, of penny farthing bicycles and steam trains and celluloid collars and mistaken identities and close scrapes and comically ill-planned get-rich-quick schemes.

It’s a world that you would have recognized instantly if you had been reading a newspaper a century or more ago.

Back then, just about every U.S. newspaper published short, humorous stories, brief bits of fiction set amongst the shipping news and the ads for liver pills. Mark Twain and O Henry did that sort of thing better than anybody, but plenty of other writers did it, too: Stanley Huntley, Fanny Fern, Ellis Parker Butler, Stephen Leacock…”

To read the rest of the article go |HERE|, to hear what happened when Mister Ron’s visited our podcast, check out The SFFaudio Podcast #013 |MP3|.

To subscribe to Mister Ron’s Basement podcast use this feed:

http://misterron.libsyn.com/rss

Congrats Mister Ron!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Diabolic Plots: The Best Of Pseudopod

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Diabolical Plots blog has a post called “The Best of Pseudopod” here’s a snippet:

“Since July I’ve been plumbing the depths of Pseudopod’s backlog and now I’m sad to say I’ve listened to everything they’ve offered to date. Now I only get one new Pseudopod a week like the rest of the world (released every Friday). But now that I’ve listened to all of Pseudopod’s offerings, I feel qualified to make a list of the Best of Pseudopod, my top ten favorite stories that have been posted to the site (and a few that ALMOST made the list).”

And here are the top 10 picks:

1.
Deep Red
By Floris M. Kleijne; Read by Ben Phillips
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: November 21st, 2008

2.
Suicide Notes By An Alien Mind
By Ferrett Steinmetz; Read by Phil Rossi
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: October 2nd, 2009

3.
Stockholm Syndrome
By David Tallerman; Read by Cheyenne Wright
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: June 29th, 2007

4.
Come To My Arms, My Beamish Boy
By Douglas F. Warrick; Read by Phil Rossi
1 |MP3| – Approx. 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: April 17th, 2009

5.
The Button Bin
By Mike Allen; Read by Wilson Fowlie
1 |MP3| – Approx. 42 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: June 12th, 2009

6.
Last Respects
By Dave Thompson; Read by Scott Sigler
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: March 30th, 2007

7.
Hometown Horrible
By Matthew Bey; Read by Elie Hirschman
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: July 24th, 2009

8.
Stepfathers
By Grady Hendrix; Read by Nerraux
1 |MP3| – Approx. 8 Minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: June 20th, 2009

9.
The Music of Erich Zann
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by B.J. Harrison
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: July 25th, 2008

10.
Garbage Day
By Russell L. Burt; Read by Elie Hirschman
1 |MP3| – Approx. 3 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Pseudopod
Podcast: January 1st, 2008

[via SFSignal]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Hi-Sci-Fi: interview with Robert Burns

SFFaudio Online Audio

The August 20th 2009 episode of Hi-Sci-Fi (a podcast radio show out of CJSF 90.1FM in Burnaby, British Columbia) features a very interesting interview with the author of The Unselfish Gene Sez host Irma Arkus:

“This week we have one of my new favorite authors, Robert Burns, who not only has the touch for the undead, but writes most beautiful adventure sci-fi pulp I’ve read in a long, long time. And together with Burns, we bring you his new novel, The Unselfish Gene.

The premise of the novel is genuinely un-boring: colonists on moon are the last of humans as we know it, because the rest of the Earth’s populous has been affected by a Zombie virus.

But that is only where the fun starts, as moon colonists seem to suffer from endless complications and health issues of their own: they are not the best choice for human propagation due to long-term radiation exposure, and mental illnesses, including clinical depression, are quite common.

Worst of all, they are the only and best candidates for survival of humanity, because they have the runaway vehicle: Anita, an Orion-like ship, propelled by nuclear-bombs, is a way out, as Earth also faces a run-in with a comet.

The premise of the novel simply spells disaster, which is AWESOME.”

In the interview Irma gushes over the cool illustrations.

The interview proper starts at about 22 minutes in |MP3|.

Podcast feed:
http://www.hiscifi.com/podcast.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[via the Science Fiction In Biology blog]

Posted by Jesse Willis

GeekBlips: TV that inspires

SFFaudio News

Robyn Lass, the editor of GeekBlips.com asked me to contribute to a “blogger opinion” article, kind of a mind meld like post (of the kind SFSignal.com regularly does). Here’s the question she asked:

“If you could have the ability/gadgetry of your favorite science fiction TV or Movie character and join them – in their world – on one of their adventures, who would it be and why?”

Yeah. So, I wasn’t sure I could answer the question. Join their adventures? That’s not me exactly. But, there was something there. I thought about it for a few hours. Then, I finally wrote this:

A few years ago there was a pirate broadcast called Prisoners Of Gravity that would regularly interrupt a lame TV Ontario nature show called Second Nature. Lasting just under a half hour, it was hosted by a crazy Canadian who had strapped a rocket to the roof of his Camaro, launched himself into space and then crashed into an orbiting satellite. From there, in his high castle, Commander Rick (aka Rick Green) lived, surrounded by the things he’d brought with him: computers, comics and lots of paperback books.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, a shadowy crew of SF fans would rove the bookstores and Science Fiction conventions recording interviews with the creators of SF and Fantasy. They’d take the interviews with writers like Robert J. Sawyer, Alan Moore, Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis, and upload them all to Commander Rick in the satellite. From there Rick would record these interviews onto audio cassettes and keep them for use in his live broadcasts. He would also make use of the telephone and satellite video feeds that he had access to in order to record live interviews with his guests during the show. The programs were compiled and broadcast with the help of a mute, but highly intelligent, computer named NanCy. Topics discussed were different every episode,with individual shows on censorship, superheroes, humor, religion, fairy tales, Mars, cyberpunk, war, overpopulation, sex and much, much more.

The series aired 139 episodes over a five years mission – it is rumored that Commander Rick died (having perhaps run out of food) – but it is also rumored that he returned to earth – since then NanCY has managed just a very few transmissions in the form of reruns. There was no better news magazine program that explored SF, Fantasy, Horror and comics and their various themes and ideas.

I’ve been thinking it would be really great to strap a few solid rocket boosters to the roof of my own car and do my own show. In the meantime I’ve been bidding on ebay for used spacesuits. One day I may win one.

You can see the original article |HERE|. You’ll find a few other peoples’ answers too.

Posted by Jesse Willis