Author: Jesse Willis

New Releases: Eloquent Voice: A World Of Talent and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick

Jesse Willis

New Releases

Here’s William Coon’s fourth collection of Philip K. Dick short stories and novellas. It’s available via Amazon, Audible, Audiobooks Online, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, BooksOnBoard, Read Without Paper, Waterstone’s.

These stories are Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

And three of the five stories have never been audiobooked before!

“A novelist carries with him constantly what most women carry in large purses: much that is useless, a few absolutely essential items, and then, for good measure, a great number of things that fall in between. But the novelist does not transport them physically because his trove of possessions is mental. Now and then he adds a new and entirely useless idea; now and then he reluctantly cleans out the trash – the obviously worthless ideas – and with a few sentimental tears sheds them. Once in a great while, however, he happens by chance onto a thoroughly stunning idea new to him that he hopes will turn out to be new to everyone else. It is this final category that dignifies his existence. But such truly priceless ideas… perhaps during his entire lifetime he may, at best, acquire only a meager few. But that is enough; he has, through them, justified his existence to himself and to his God.”
– Philip K. Dick, 1977

ELOQUENT VOICE - A World Of Talent and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick

A World of Talent and Other Stories
By Philip K. Dick; Read by William Coon
Audible Download – Approx. 4 Hours 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Eloquent Voice, LLC
Published: August 17, 2012
In this collection of five stories, all first published in the 1950s, Dick justified his existence by exploring a number of truly interesting ideas. In “Small Town” a man creates a perfect scale model of his own town, as a means of escaping his unbearable reality. In “Human Is” the wife of a scientist notices that her husband has returned from a scientific expedition a changed man, but she’s not complaining. In “Foster, You’re Dead” a father’s unwillingness to participate in his country’s preparations for a war that never happens, leads to unexpected consequences for his family. In “The Hanging Stranger” a man is unable to convince his fellow townspeople that something terribly wrong is happening to them all. Finally, in “A World of Talent“, society’s reactions against those who have unusual talents have pushed the situation to the brink of interplanetary war.

Sample |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

George R.R. Martin on Fantasy (“Everything That Is Wrong With Commercial Fantasy In A Single Quote”)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

Brian Murphy, of the Silver Key blog, has posted about something interesting he found on another blog (Everything Is Nice). It’s about this poetic description of Fantasy written and read by George R.R. Martin (that sums up “Everything That Is Wrong With Commercial Fantasy In A Single Quote”):

Myself, when I think of Fantasy I think of The Twilight Zone, of Philip K. Dick’s Beyond The Door, of James Powell’s A Dirge For Clowntown, of Homer’s The Iliad, of Jorge Luis Borges and his Garden Of Forking Paths.

To me fantasy is not an endless adventures in a magical medieval Europe, nor a tattooed vampire with a sword in one hand and a laser blaster in the other.

To me Fantasy is countless tiny worlds – many like our own – many radically different – some entirely impossible, but all of them firmly found within my world.

Fantasy, to me, exist within the books themselves, and in my memory of them, and in my consciousness when I think of them, all as a part of the larger world I live in.

Fantasy is not a place of escape, nor a world separate from mine in which I wish to live.

I don’t view Fantasy literature as a form of escapism.

To me Fantasy is something to enjoy, like a fine meal. Something to inspire an attitude, not a way to understand the world, nor as a consolation or a substitute for a harsh reality I’d rather not think about.

But commercial fantasy, the endless book series that take up larger and larger section of the bookstore shelves, is, to me, a very small and uninteresting part of Fantasy literature. It is the part that gets the most attention. But it shouldn’t.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

I could be wrong but I bet The Boarded Window is the second most popular Ambrose Bierce short story assigned in American schools (with the first being An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge).

The Boarded Window is super short (less than 2,000 words), leaves out the usual controversial themes Bierce went for, and is a good ghost story too.

LibriVoxThe Boarded Window
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Joseph Langley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 28, 2009
First published in the San Francisco Examiner, July 14, 1889.

Here’s a “Special English” adaptation. Designed for ESL students this version is read at a slower pace, with a simplified vocabulary.

Voice Of AmericaThe Boarded Window
Adapted by Lawan Davis from the story by Ambrose Bierce; Read by Shep O’Neal
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Voice Of America
Published: 2009
“A man in the deep woods deals with the death of his wife.”

Here’s a |PDF|.

And finally here’s an 1978 video adaptation for the International Instructional Television Cooperative:

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Watcher by R.H. Benson

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

E.F. Benson, A.C. Benson, and R.H. Benson were three brothers, all writers. They wrote weird fiction, Science Fiction and ghost stories.

R.H. Benson, the youngest of the three, started off as a clergyman in the Church of England, but later switched to the Roman Catholic Church and became an assistant to the Pope. An interesting choice since his biological father had been the Archbishop of Canterbury.

This short story of his, The Watcher, is somewhat difficult to classify. Reading it, it sounds like it could almost have been a true story – but it’s from a collection of fifteen stories depicting a fictional priest’s supernatural experiences.

I think it’s an allegory.

But the question is … an allegory for what?

Find out for yourself with Peter Yearsley’s fun reading of it…

LibriVoxThe Watcher
By R.H. Benson; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 7, 2007
A face in a bush takes delight in the death of a thrush. First published in 1903.

And here’s a |PDF|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Ash Tree by M.R. James

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

“If any of [my stories] succeed in causing their readers to feel pleasantly uncomfortable when walking along a solitary road at nightfall, or sitting over a dying fire in the small hours, my purpose in writing them will have been attained.” – M.R. James

The Ash Tree - illustration by George Chastain (from Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, December 1981)

I’m just beginning to get into M.R. James so I’m not sure quite what to make of his stories yet. To me The Ash Tree felt restrained, subtle, and it was “pleasantly uncomfortable” to be sure – but is that enough?

I haven’t hit a story of his that has grabbed me the way Guy de Mapassaunt’s The Horla has or the way William Hope Hodgson’s The Voice In The Night has.

Maybe ghost stories just need to have something other than haunting to draw me in.

LibriVoxThe Ash Tree
By M.R. James; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 35 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 7th, 2006
A damp Suffolk house, with a curious ash tree growing close to it, may have been cursed by a woman once executed for witchcraft. First published in Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary, 1904.

Posted by Jesse Willis