Author: Jesse Willis

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

Jesse Willis

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 TheaterCBS 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

The Defenders by Philip K. Dick

Jesse Willis

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!

LibriVox - The Defenders by Philip K. DickThe 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 OneX 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

The Defenders by Philip K. Dick illustrated by Ed Emshwiller

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

Spark #156 – Canada’s Lawful Access Legistlation and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

CBC Radio - SparkMy taxes pay for CBC Radio One’s Spark. I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. Spark is an intelligent and informative radio show that brings me snappy interviews with clever folks who talk about technology and internet-related issues. I also really appreciate that CBC, the manufacturer, doesn’t try to control my sharing my purchase with my friends. Take the latest show, Spark #156, it features an informative discussion of Canada’s upcoming “Lawful Access Legislation” as well as an interview with Ernest Cline, the author of Ready Player One. I know people who care about both topics. And thanks to Spark‘s use of creative commons those segments are available individually, with no EULA, age verification or terms of use garbage to get in the way. Spark just works.

Here’s the complete show:
|MP3|

And here are the two segments I mentioned:
Lawful Access |MP3| Approx. 20 Minutes
Ernest Cline |MP3| Approx. 13 Minutes

Podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/cbcradiosparkblog

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. Sadly, CBC still hasn’t delivered on my purchase of the J. Michael Straczynski radio drama that I paid for! Pay up CBC!

WIKISOURCE: Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick – MANUAL AUDIOBOOK EDITION (you have to read it aloud yourself)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

WIKISOURCEWikisource, the “Free Library of source texts which are in the public domain or legally available for free redistribution” (a sister project of Wikipedia) has a now completely OCRd edition The Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick.

The complete text, including images from its first publication, is now up and ready for your reading pleasure. |GET IT HERE|

Since the public domain audiobook version isn’t available anymore (due to the threat of a lawsuit) you can’t read-along.

If you’re civil minded, and a PKD fan, why not go and protest the threat, support the common good, and read the text aloud to a friend?

I’ve done it myself, it’s really fun, but I would actually recommend you print up a couple of copies and read it aloud with that friend!

Take turns, enjoy yourselves.

I don’t know if you’d want to record the audio, LibriVox is still under threat. But maybe you could even make a YouTube (or other) video out of it!

If you do I’ll embed the video below.


http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Adjustment_Team

Adjustment Team was first published in Orbit Science Fiction’s Sept-Oct 1954 (No.4) issue.

Illustrations by Faragasso:

Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC R4 + RA.cc: Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye RADIO DRAMA

Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Online Audio

Radio Times review of The Long GoodbyeBBC Radio 4RadioArchives.ccJust in case you hadn’t noticed that RadioArchive.cc is back up, it is!

Woohoo!

And now that it is I’ll be sure to be watching for the complete torrent for this great sounding new BBC Radio 4 production of The Long Goodbye (it begins tomorrow)!

BBC Radio 4 - The Long GoodbyeThe Saturday Play – The Long Goodbye
Adapted from the novel by Raymond Chandler; Performed by a full cast
4 Parts – Approx. [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: October 1, 2011 – 14:30-16:00
Toby Stephens is back as Raymond Chandler’s fast-talking private eye Philip Marlowe. This is California in the 50’s, as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the American Dream. Outside a club on Sunset Boulevard Marlowe meets a drunk named Terry Lennox, a man with scars on one side of his face. They forge an uneasy friendship but everything changes when Lennox shows up late one night, asking for a favour.

Cast:
Philip Marlowe…Toby Stephens
Terry Lennox…..Trevor White
Eileen Wade…Saskia Reeves
Roger Wade…Peter Polycarpou
Howard Spencer…James Lailey
Candy…Simon Bubb
Menendez…Alun Raglan

Dramatised by Stephen Wyatt
Directed by Claire Grove

Check out Stuart Manning’s glowing review (left). It appeared in the latest The Radio Times.

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

NPR: Mark Haddon on The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

NPR Weekend EditionI’m both intrigued and excited about the prospects of talking about The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. From the very first chapter, Chapter 2 (!), the narration grabbed me. The main character, Christopher, is awesomely neurodivergent and the story he’s telling is absolutely compelling. I love that it has such stunningly low stakes.

Here’s an NPR interview with author Mark Haddon from 2003.

Martha Woodroof of member station WMRA profiles author Mark Haddon, whose novel The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time features a 15-year-old math whiz with Asperger’s Syndrome who tries to discover who killed a dog with a garden fork.

|MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis