Jesse Willis – Page 143

New Releases: Macbeth by A.J. Hartley and David Hewson

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 Jesse Willis

New Releases

Macbeth: A Novel
By A.J. Hartley and David Hewson (adapted from the play by William Shakespeare); Read by Alan Cumming
Audible Download – Approx. 9 Hours 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible.com
Published: June 2011
Writing directly for audio, co-authors David Hewson and Andrew Hartley have taken Shakespeare’s Macbeth and fleshed it out into a full-blown work of historical fiction. It’s an original, gritty take on one of literature’s greatest stories. The authors add inventive details and key scenes that for centuries have played out offstage, delivering new insights into the motivations and actions of almost every character. Emmy Award nominee, Audie Award winner, and experienced Shakespeare performer Alan Cumming (TV’s The Good Wife) plays it all to the hilt, complete with engrossing (and authentic) Scottish accent. This is Shakespeare as you’ve never heard it. Includes a introduction by David Hewson and an afterword by A.J. Hartley.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Operation: Outer Space by Murray Leinster

Sunday, June 26, 2011 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVox Here’s a vintage 1954 Murray Leinster novel that’ll make for some perfect summer listening (sorry folks on the bottom hemisphere of Earth, you’ll have to wait). Now if that’s not enough you may be interested to know that Operation: Outer Space is actually the third public domain Murray Leinster novel narrated by Mark Douglas Nelson! Check out our extensive AUTHOR PAGE for MURRAY LEINSTER to get the other two novels – and there’s lots more Leinster listening there too.

Operation: Outer Space
By Murray Leinster; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
10 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 6 Hours 48 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 25, 2011
|ETEXT|
Jed Cochrane is about to take off on man’s first interstellar voyage. His mission: Make sure it’s good television!

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/5252

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Here’s the cover of the 1957 Signet paperback edition:

SIGNET - Operation: Outer Space by Murray Leinster

And here’s the UK hardcover edition, by Grayson & Grayson, also published in 1957:

Grayson & Grayson - Operation: Outer Space by Murray Leinster

Here’s Groff Conklin’s review of Operation: Outer Space from Galaxy Magazine’s March 1955 issue:

Groff Conklin's review of Operation: Outer Space from Galaxy Magazine's March 1955 issue

[Thanks also to Betty M. and Barry Eads ]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Commentary: Where are all the Ted Chiang audiobooks?

Friday, June 24, 2011Friday, June 24, 2011 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Commentary

Ted Chiang (portrait by Arturo Villarrubia)

Ted Chiang, perhaps the greatest living Science Fiction writer, has very little of his excellent fiction (a dozen stories, novellettes and novellas) available in the audio format. That is a bitter, bitter shame. It is my hope this post will help change that.

Lamentably, no Ted Chiang audiobooks have ever been commercially released. There are, however, several podcast sources for readings and the BBC commissioned an unabridged recording of Understand (which has been occasionally rebroadcast).

Below is a chart detailing all of Ted Chiang’s published fiction.

Audio (YES/NO): – Title: – Original Publication: – MP3: – Audio Publisher: – Notes:

– Tower Of Babylon – Omni, November 1990 – novelette
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– Division By Zero – Full Spectrum 3 (1991) – short story

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– Understand – Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, August 1991 – BBC Radio 7 – occasionally rebroadcast on BBCR7, read by Rashan Stone, novelette

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– Story Of Your Life – Starlight 2, (1998) – novella

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– The Evolution Of Human Science (aka Catching Crumbs From The Table) – Nature, June 1, 2000 – short story

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– Seventy-Two Letters – Vanishing Acts (2000) – novella

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– Hell Is The Absence Of God – Starlight 3 (2001) – |MP3| – Podcastle – read by James Trimarco, bad sound quality, novelette

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– Liking What You See: A Documentary – Stories of Your Life and Others (2002) – novelette

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– What’s Expected Of Us – Nature, July 5, 2005 – |MP3| – StarShip Sofa – read by Julie Davis, short story

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– The Merchant And The Alchemist’s Gate – Subterranean Press (2007) – StarShip Sofa – |MP3| – read by J.J. Campanella, novelette

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– Exhalation – Eclipse 2, 2008 – |MP3| or |MP3| – StarShip Sofa / Escape Pod – read by Ray Sizemore, short story

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– The Lifecycle of Software Objects – Subterranean Press (2010) – novella

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Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: The Astounding, The Amazing, And The Unknown by Paul Malmont

Friday, June 24, 2011 Jesse Willis

New Releases

Coming soon…

The Astounding, The Amazing, And The Unknown
By Paul Malmont; Read by Christopher Lane
14 CDs – Approx. 16 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: July 5, 2011
ISBN: 9781455825356
Sample |MP3|
In 1943, when the United States learns that Germany is on the verge of a deadly innovation that could tip the balance of the war, the government turns to an unlikely source for help: the nation’s top science fiction writers. Installed at a covert military lab within the Philadelphia Naval Yard are the most brilliant of these young visionaries. The unruly band is led by Robert Heinlein, the dashing and complicated master of the genre. His “Kamikaze Group,” which includes the ambitious genius Isaac Asimov, is tasked with transforming the wonders of science fiction into science fact and unlocking the secrets to invisibility, death rays, force fields, weather control, and other astounding phenomena — and finding it harder than they ever imagined. When a German spy washes ashore near the abandoned Long Island ruins of a mysterious energy facility, the military begins to fear that the Nazis are a step ahead of Heinlein’s group. Now the oddball team, joined by old friends from the Pulp Era including L. Ron Hubbard (court-martialed for attacking Mexico), must race to catch up. The answers they seek may be locked in the legendary War of Currents, which was fought decades earlier between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. As the threat of an imminent Nazi invasion of America grows more and more possible, events are set in motion that just may revolutionize the future — or destroy it — while forcing the writers to challenge the limits of talent, imagination, love, destiny, and even reality itself. Blazing at breathtaking speed from forgotten tunnels deep beneath Manhattan to top-secret battles in the North Pacific, and careening from truth to pulp and back again, The Astounding, The Amazing, And The Unknown is a sweeping, romantic epic — a page-turning rocket ship ride through the history of the future.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Green Rust by Edgar Wallace

Friday, June 24, 2011Friday, June 24, 2011 Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Online Audio

LibriVox Don W. Jenkins, a San Diegan, may not be the ideal narrative match for this 1919 English murder mystery/Science Fiction novel, but he’s competent enough for the price, 100% FREE! The novel itself isn’t going to break any heads open with its sheer awesomeness either – but The Green Rust is a competent reading of a competent early twentieth century murder mystery (that’s also got some SF elements in it). Plus, it’s got some great vocabulary, a fairly compelling mystery at the center of it (who would kill a man on his deathbed?), the occasional dollop of hilarious dialogue (“Drunk or sober he is a man! Drunk or sober he is a man!” and “she’s as dumb as an oyster”) as well as some quaint technology on display (home gas meters run by coins).

The Green Rust
By Edgar Wallace; Read by Don W. Jenkins
32 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 8 Hours 2 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 31, 2011
A millionaire is taken suddenly ill, and sensing his mortality, he asks his attorney to do him one last favor—to find and secretly watch over his missing niece, the daughter of his profligate deceased sister. This niece at the appropriate time would become heir to his millions. However, the millionaire is mysteriously murdered, stabbed to death in his sick bed. Oliva Cresswell, the unsuspecting niece, has been a cashier in a large West End store for five years when she meets a Mr. Beale, a self-described wheat merchant, is attacked in her flat and rescued by this Mr. Beale, is offered a job as his confidential secretary, refuses him, is unexplainably sacked and finds herself in need of his offer. The mysteries multiply and deepen as the story proceeds.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/5391

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[Thanks also to Dawn Larsen and Availle]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBCR4X: Bradbury 13

Thursday, June 23, 2011Thursday, June 23, 2011 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Coolness! Mike McDonough, the legendary producer of the famous BRADBURY 13 audio drama series, writes in to say:

Gentlemen,

A good friend of mine pointed me to your website. I’m glad to see there are others in the world like me, who LOVE audio, and think it is a perfect medium for telling stories. I’ve been fascinated with the power of audio since I was a kid growing up in Los Angeles.

I’m glad you liked “A Sound Of Thunder“. That’s one of my favorite Ray Bradbury stories, and certainly one of the most successful of the thirteen audio adaptations that I did in the series. Bradbury’s writing is so visual sometimes, it was just a natural for audio. By the way, the series is currently being broadcast on the BBC in England. Here is a link to their blog about the shows I did many years ago! The series is also lately available for download on iTunes for anyone who might be interested.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2011/06/radio_4_extra_the_making_of_br.html

Keep up the good work on your website. It seems very well-done and comprehensive.

All My Best,

Mike McDonough

Indeed, check out the BBC Radio 4 Extra blog post that has some vintage photographs of the McDonough actually recording the programme! It makes a great compliment to Radio Drama Revival’s excellent interview with McDonough. And, of course, BBCR4X is presenting all 13 episodes weekly right now! Blackstone Audio has released the collection on CD, it is available through iTunes and Audible.com has it too!

Blackstone Audio - Bradbury Thirteen