Colin‘s reading of The Nine Billion Names Of God by Arthur C. Clarke is not nearly popular enough.
As of this post it’s only received a mere 17 viewings (or hearings).
Posted by Jesse Willis
Month: October 2012
The Nine Billion Names Of God by Arthur C. Clarke (from Dercum Audio, 1991)
This recording of Arthur C. Clarke’s The Nine Billion Names Of God was produced by Dercum Audio – it’s that signature opening, that terrific, haunting music that begins at the ten second mark – that’s the giveaway. Produced in 1991, it is long out of print and a real treasure.
Part 1 of 2:
Part 2 of 2:
Posted by Jesse Willis
Commentary: The Adventure Of The Mysterious Sherlock Holmes Audio Dramas In The Thrift Store
I had an exciting Friday a few months back. I’m calling the events of June 1st, 2012 The Adventure Of The Mysterious Sherlock Holmes Audio Dramas In The Thrift Store
The story begins with me visiting a thrift store. I first found this vintage 1975 box of Lego (with the original Woolco price tag still on the box) – I got it for just $4. Then I picked up a $2 game called Isaac Asimov Presents Waddington’s SUPERQUIZ.
Then, in the audiobook section I spotted three two-cassette collections for $4 each.
And they turned out to be the big winner.
Entitled simply “The Sherlock Homes Collection“, at first I thought they were audiobooks, something I’ve seen many times before. But the price stickers obscured the details. Then was a shock, an instant of recognition for the actor pictured on the back covers was none other than Roy Marsden of The Sandbaggers fame – I covertly peeled back one of the stickers and investigated further.
They were audio dramas!
According to Grant Eustace’s website (he adapted them) only 6 of the 24 dramatizations produced were broadcast (on BBC World Service). But that may not mean they were no well received as it appears that they were actually produced for British Airways in-flight audio entertainment. One thing seems clear, I didn’t know they had even existed before that Friday, and I think that probably meant they wer’e not very well known.
I got “Collection Three” (ISBN: 0773305033) which features adaptations of:
The Red Headed League
The Solitary Cyclist
A Scandal In Bohemia
The Blue Carbuncle
“Collection Four” (ISBN: 0773305041) which features adaptations of:
The Speckled Band
Black Peter
The Golden Prince-Nez
The Man With The Twisted Lip
And “Collection Six” (ISBN: 0773305068) which features adaptations of:
The Devil’s Foot
The Bruce Partington Plans
The Cardboard Box
Thor Bridge
There are two different companies credited with publication, BFS Audio (and BFS Entertainment is still in business) and Talking Tape Company (which I have no data on). The tapes themselves all have the BFS Audio logo on them.
Here are the details:
Cover of Collection Three:
Interior details from Collection Three:
Cover of Collection Four:
Interior details from Collection Four:
Cover of Collection Six:
Interior details from Collection Six:
Now, after listening to the twelve dramas over the last few months I can happily report that these are really excellent productions. Very swift, but dialogue driven, with uniformly excellent acting.
If you’ve got a source that has the other three collections please let me, and everyone else, know by commenting. This series should be much better known.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Tony And The Beetles by Philip K. Dick
This 4,712 word story may not be among Philip K. Dick’s best, but it is certainly worth looking at, and hearing!
Tony And The Beetles is a bit unusual too, having an almost juvenile or YA feel to it. Maybe that’s because it’s not nearly as horrific as many of Dick’s fantasy tales – there are some frightening elements, but the general tone is that of an ungroundedness. I see Tony And The Beetles as a kind of historical allegory and I’m not the only one. Phil Chevernet, the narrator who recorded it for LibriVox, wrote “I think [Dick] was commenting on imperialism in the 40s and 50s.” I think he’s right, but I think the comment is somewhat ambiguous, rather depressing, and almost wholly unhopeful. Dick grew up during World War II and little PKD was a very sensitive fellow, kind of like Tony.
Here’s the setup:
Young Tony Rossi has grown up on an alien world. As a child he’s known little else than bubble helmets, pressure suits, and robot pets. His playmates and schoolmates have all been the non-human children of the planet, but around him swirl the forces of history and when news of the ongoing war breaks Tony’s parents don’t seem to hold the same opinions of what it all means.
Tony And The Beetles
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Phil Chevernet
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 16, 2012
A ten-year-old boy grows up fast when history catches up with the human race. First published in Orbit, volume 1 number 2, 1953.
And here’s a |PDF| made from it’s original publication in Orbit.
Posted by Jesse Willis
BBCR4 + RA.cc: The Cookie Lady by Philip K. Dick
Back in 2003 BBC Radio 4 produced a five part series of fantastic tales called, simply, Five Fantastic Tales.
Among them was a vignette, a horror tale, The Cookie Lady by Philip K. Dick. It’s the only audio production of this obscure story ever done.
Unfortunately, the reading is abridged.
Fortunately, it is well read by Liza Ross and is available, via torrent, from RadioArchive.cc!
Here is the illustration, by Tom Beecham, from the original publication in Fantasy Fiction, June 1953:
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Nameless City by H.P. Lovecraft
H.P. Lovecraft’s 5,000 word short story, The Nameless City, was based one of his dreams. That dream, in turn, was inspired by the last line of Lord Dunsany’s story The Probable Adventure Of The Three Literary Men, a story from 1911 (itself available as an |MP3| from LibriVox). Indeed, the line is even quoted within the tale:
“the unreverberate blackness of the abyss”
The eponymous, anonymous, city itself seems to have been inspired by “Iram, the City of Pillars” which was a mysterious lost city – a kind of “Atlantis of the Sands” – that is mentioned in the Quran.
And one critic, according to the detailed Wikipedia entry for the story, has it that Lovecraft was inspired by At the Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
And for all those reasons The Nameless City is certainly worth looking at, if you can find it.
To help I’ve assembled a |PDF| made from a scan of the story, as published in the November 1938 issue of Weird Tales.
And here are several freely available narrations:
The Nameless City
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Mark Nelson
1 |MP3| – Approx. [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 23, 2008
It lay silent and dead under the old cold desert moonlight, but what strange race inhabited the abyss beneath those cyclopean ruins?
First published in The Wolverine, No. 11, November 1921.
The Nameless City
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Scott Carpenter
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 19, 2008
It lay silent and dead under the old cold desert moonlight, but what strange race inhabited the abyss beneath those cyclopean ruins?
First published in The Wolverine, No. 11, November 1921.
The Nameless City
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Rebecca M.L.
1 |MP3| – Approx. 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 14, 2011
It lay silent and dead under the old cold desert moonlight, but what strange race inhabited the abyss beneath those cyclopean ruins?
First published in The Wolverine, No. 11, November 1921.
The Nameless City
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Michael Scott
1 |MP3| – 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Yog Radio
Podcast: May 7, 2006
It lay silent and dead under the old cold desert moonlight, but what strange race inhabited the abyss beneath those cyclopean ruins?
First published in The Wolverine, No. 11, November 1921.
Posted by Jesse Willis