October 2011 – Page 6

FiveBooks Interviews – Orson Scott Card

SFFaudio Commentary

One of the blogs I follow is FiveBooks, a segment of The Browser: Writing Worth Reading. The site features a daily interview of a renowned authority, invited to discuss his or her area of expertise and provide his or her choice of the best five books to read on that topic. It ranges from fiction to non-fiction, across all genres and subject matters. I like having it in my Google reader because I can just skip the topics that don’t interest me, while those that do have added to my to-read list exponentially.

Recently, Orson Scott Card was given this opportunity. He chose five books that will get readers hooked on science fiction, even if they are new to the genre. Card also briefly discusses the development of the genre itself. Check it out and tell me if these are the five you would have chosen. I thought it might be a slight cop-out to choose two anthologies as two of his five selections, except I keep hearing about one of them as a volume that drew science fiction fans into the genre as children.

Posted by Jenny Colvin

CBS Radio Mystery Theater: The Walking Dead (aka Fondly Fahrenheit) by Alfred Bester

SFFaudio Online Audio

Fondly Fahrenheit is Alfred Bester’s superlative achievement in short Science Fiction. Apparently the story was based an account of an U.S. Antebellum Era slave owner who refused to surrender his murderous chattel because the man was just too valuable. In Fondly Fahrenheit Bester makes brilliant use of the psychological concept of transference, literally smacks you in the forehead with an allusion to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and employs POV shifts that effortlessly blow your consciousness right out of your mind (and into someone else’s)!

The story was adapted as a telepay in 1959 under the title Murder And The Android, an episode of NBC’s Sunday Showcase. But the version I want to tell you about is one that I hadn’t realized existed, until just a few days ago! Bester had again adapted his story, and again changed it’s name! Here is Alfred Bester’s own radio drama adaptation of Fondly Fahrenheit, from 1976 He called it The Walking Dead!

CBS Radio Mystery Theater #0484 – The Walking Dead
Adapted by Alfred Bester; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 44 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: May 20, 1976
Provider: CBSRMT.com

Cast:
Jack Grimes
Paul Hecht
Gilbert Mack
Rosemary Rice
Joan Shay

Check out the art I cobbled together for it, thanks in part to Brain Plucker’s new “Lost Art” feature (Virgil Finlay!):

The Walking Dead by Alfred Bester

Posted by Jesse Willis

Vernor Vinge interviewed on the Adventures in Scifi Publishing podcast

SFFaudio Online Audio

Adventures in Scifi Publishing interviews Vernor Vinge in episode 140. You would think he would be as intense as Raymond Kurzweil, but he seems like a light and easy going guy. Vernor describes his Zones of Thought universe. He also likes Charles Stross’s novel Accelerando and a short story from his Toast anthology called Antibodies |Read Our Review|. His new novel The Children Of The Sky comes out this month, which is a direct (within 20 years, as opposed to the 20,000 years of the prequel A Deepness In The Sky) sequel to A Fire In The Deep. Vernor also mentions (at 34 min) one of Poul Anderson’s Dominic Flandry books where three species form a single mind (The Rebel Worlds according to this)

Rss feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/adventuresinscifipublishing

|MP3|

Posted by Tamahome

The Defenders by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Online Audio

Italian cover mirroring The Defenders

Did you know that Philip K. Dick’s fifth published story, The Defenders, is public domain? It is!

Like many of Dick’s tales The Defenders this is a post-atomic war story. The planet’s surface devastated, flushed with radioactivity, and has been abandoned. The population now lives in vast underground cities. In their place intelligent robots fight in their place.

I’ve put together a |PDF| from the original publication in Galaxy Science Fiction, which includes terrific illustrations by Ed Emshwiller. And there’s a complete ETEXT version available through Project Gutenberg. And LibriVox has the audiobook edition. Enjoy!

The Defenders
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 21, 2009
No weapon has ever been frightful enough to put a stop to war—perhaps because we never before had any that thought for themselves! From Galaxy Science Fiction January 1953.

And here’s the radio drama adaptation:

X-Minus One X Minus One – The Defenders
Based on the story by Philip K. Dick; Adapted by George Lefferts; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: May 22, 1956
Provider: Internet Archive
East and West make war above ground with robots while both sides live underground … or do they?

Cast:
Lydia Bruce
Warren Parker
Grant Richards
Mike Ingram
Stan Early

Galaxy January 1953 - The Defenders by Philip K. Dick - illustrated by Ed Emshwiller565

The Defenders by Philip K. Dick illustrated by Ed Emshwiller

Here’s the X Minus One adaptation that I’ve put together with the original art from its publication in the Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1953 issue:

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

SFFaudio Review

Ready Player One
By Ernest Cline; Read by Wil Wheaton
15 hours 46 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2011
ISBN: 0307913147
Themes: / Gaming / Virtual Reality / 1980s nostalgia / Dystopia / Near-Future /

Sample |MP3|

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, and like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle…

If you are a pop culture junkie, or a gamer, or a virtual world inhabitant, this is the book for you. It was such great fun that I found myself making up reasons to listen to the audio book. Wil Wheaton has become one of my favorite readers, especially at 1.5 speed. His casual tone is perfect here.

Don’t be turned away by people who claim that this book is pure nostalgia. While not heavy-handed, and arguably YA in tone, I found it to be thoughtful on issues of identity in an increasingly virtual world. And just try imagining the new cities of stacked mobile homes without smiling!

Other fun things – author Ernest Cline has a vibrant blog for the book, including a RP1 Game. He even posted a Spotify playlist featuring most of the music mentioned in the book. If that can’t get you in the mood for a little nostalgic romp, you are dead on the inside. Dead!

Posted by Jenny Colvin

Good Story 019: Declare by Tim Powers

SFFaudio Online Audio

A Good Story is Hard to Find is on Episode 19! Julie and I talked about Declare by Tim Powers. I gave the book five stars over on Goodreads, because there are so many things about that book that are going to stay with me. As I said in the podcast, I’m going to read some more Powers as soon as I can. I’ve got two of his audiobooks in for SFFaudio – The Stress of Her Regard and Last Call. Last Call has been on my list for a long while, and I see that Jeff Miller, who recommended Declare for Good Story in the first place, said that The Stress of Her Regard is another of his favorite Powers novels. Looks like I’ve got a couple of excellent novels ahead of me.

Next up at Good Story is Shaun of the Dead, the zombie comedy movie. We’re recording Wednesday morning so that we’ll be back on schedule. And two weeks after that – Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. I love October!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson