News, Reviews, and Commentary on all forms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror audio. Audiobooks, audio drama, podcasts; we discuss all of it here. Mystery, crime, and noir audio are also fair game.
An update to today’s previous post – Audiofile Magazine and the APA have a “listening contest” for the Audies. You can listen to clips of all the Finalists and vote for the one you think should win. Anyone who enters gets a chance to win an entire collection of the Audie winners! Click here to play!
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
On June 3, members of the Audio Publisher’s Association (APA) will meet at the Tavern on the Green in New York City and announce the winners of this year’s Audie Awards. To find the whole list of nominees, click here.
The science fiction and fantasy genres are well represented! Here are some of the categories in which genre titles are nominated:
Fiction, Unabridged
Going Postal, Terry Pratchett, HarperCollins Publishers
I Am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe, Audio Renaissance
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke, Audio Renaissance
Our Sunshine, Roberte Drewe, Bolinda Publishing, Inc.
The Darling, Russell Banks, BBC Audiobook America
Note: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell also appears on the Audie Award Literary Fiction nominee list. It’s also one of the Hugo nominees this year.
Science Fiction
Brimstone, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Time Warner Audiobooks
Horizon Storms, Kevin Anderson, Recorded Books, LLC
Lost Boys, Orson Scott Card, Blackstone Audiobooks
The Consciousness Plague, Paul Levinson, Listen and Live Audio, Inc.
The Quantum Rose, Catherine Asaro, Blackstone Audiobooks
The children’s categories usually have some fantasy titles, and this year is no exception. The Neil Gaiman Audio Collection (Neil Gaiman, HarperCollins) is in the Children’s Titles for Ages Up To 8 category, and four out of the five titles in the Children’s Titles for Ages 8+ category are genre titles.
One disappointment is that the Short Stories/Collections category has no science fiction or fantasy nominees. A shame for a genre which produces so much short fiction.
And a final note – A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (Harper Collins, narrated by Tim Curry) is one of the three nominees for Audiobook of the Year. The other two nominees are My Life by Bill Clinton (Random House, narrated by Bill Clinton) and Ulysses by James Joyce (Naxos Audiobooks, narrated by Jim Norton with Marcella Riordan).
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
Everybody’s talking about podcasting these days, either that or starting their own and then talking about it. We’ve collected some resources for the Science Fiction and Fantasy audio fan who is finally ready for the MP3 experimentation to begin…
The Dragon Page
A long running Arizona radio show has transitioned from mere frequency and amplitude modulations to the exciting world of Podcasting! But in a disturbing turn it has started to multiply at a truly alarming rate! The Dragon Page has spawned three, count em three, podcasts and a number of spin-off serial novels. Will they become the Walmart of SF & F podcasting? Tune in and see…
–Cover to Cover
A podcast with a literary science fiction and fantasy bent, authors are interviewed frequently, hosted by Michael R. Mennenga and Evo Terra.
http://dragonpage.com/
–Slice of Sci Fi
A podcast with a spec fic media and Star Trek bent, hosted by Michael R. Mennenga and Evo Terra.
http://www.sliceofscifi.com/
–Wingin’ It
Two bent SF & F geeks, Michael R. Mennenga and Evo Terra, podcasting without a net.
http://dragonpage.com/
Evo Terra came up with the term, “Podiobooks”, for serially podcast audiobooks and he’s built a site showcasing four spec fic novels that are doing just that, the first three were associated with The Dragon Page prior to the the creation of the Podiobooks site, but they’ve generously included a fourth independent author’s “podiobook” there too:
–MOREVI: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana
Tee Morris and Lisa Lee’s paperbook novel Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana gets serially podcast with Tee Morris reading and engineering.
http://www.teemorris.com/podcast
–Earthcore, Scott Sigler’s geology and mining centered novel is being serially podcast. It plays out like a technothriller in the vein of a Lincoln Child novel only far, far angrier. Sigler reads it himself.
http://www.scottsigler.net/earthcore/
–The Pocket and the Pendant, Mark Jeffrey’s young adult fantasy novel being serially podcast.
http://markjeffrey.typepad.com/
–Tom Corven is a tale being written and read by Paul Story. Story (a pseudonym) originally hails from Scotland but he’s writing it in Split, Croatia and podcasting it serially from a cybercafe there.
http://www.dreamwords.com/TomCorven.htm
Rev Up Review
British blogger and SF author Paul Jenkins’ new podcast sounds very promising indeed. His second podcast carefully surveys what’s available in the speculative fiction podcast field and what of it is worth listening to. He’s also reading his short story “The Journey of Jonathan Cave”, but part one starts with his first “experimental” podcast so be sure to check that one out first.
http://www.rev-up-review.co.uk/
The Seanachai
Thanks to Paul S. Jenkins for finding this one. The Seanachai is a “weekly(ish)” podcast of dramatic storytelling and commentary by Patrick E. McLean.
Funny fantasy so far!
http://www.goodwordsrightorder.com/
Nuketown Radio Active
Speculative fiction reviews from “a geek dad”. Includes movie, book, game, comic book, web site and podcasts reviews.
http://www.nuketown.com/music/archive.php?type=74
The Comic Geeks
A podcast about comic books, toys, memorabilia, science fiction and more.
http://www.thecomicgeeks.com/
SFSite.com Podcasts
MP3 reviews of audiobooks!
http://www.sfsite.com/depts/podcast.xml
Matamea Rising
“A fictional serialized radio show”. Despite that description this radio style serial actually exists!
http://www.matamea.org/podcast/
“Next, I Hem a Cyclic Door”
A project using “podcasting”, comic book panels and video to tell an episodic science-fiction story across different mediums. A collaboration between comic book artist Tim Dedman and Code Owl Productions founder Gabriel Walsh. Dedman and Walsh exchange scripts and execute each other’s idea.
http://www.codeowl.com/nextihemacyclicdoor/
Have we missed a podcast? Let us know!
Posted by Jesse Willis
Roger Gregg and the Crazy Dog Audio Theatre are at it again – their latest series, The Last Harbinger starts on Ireland’s RTE Radio One this week. Those not in Ireland can listen online – Episode One is now available. A description of the series:
The people of Moloch are running out of time. Their seas are dead. Their ice caps are gone. Their air is filled with toxins. A twisted civilization that celebrates greed is destroying itself. Can Truth save a world from self destruction? The Last Harbinger is a scathingly satirical allegory which exploits the potential of the audio medium to lampoon a decadent world of hunger, disease and injustice.
This latest ‘audio movie’ production (5 parts) from Ireland’s multi-award winning Crazy Dog Theatre company features an all star cast including Phil Proctor of Rugrats, state-of-the-art location recordings and an original music score.
And don’t forget the Quandary Phase of Hitchhiker’s – Episode One is online this week. Listening now…
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
Some very cool news from CBC Radio One:
BETWEEN THE COVERS
Weekday afternoons at 2:30 on The Roundup
And weeknights at 10:40 on CBC Radio One
May 16-27 SIX IMPOSSIBLE THINGS, curated by Nalo Hopkinson
A master in the world of “what if”, Nalo Hopkinson is one of Canada’s bright young stars in speculative fiction . For the next 2 weeks she takes us on a tour of the genre, presenting work by both well known and emerging Canadian talent. Between The Covers celebrates this work with a special presentation in words, sound and music.
Mon. May 16
Edward Willett “Strange Harvest”
Terence M. Green “Room 1786”
Tues. May 17
Candas Jane Dorsey “Mom and Mother Theresa”
Marcie Tentchoff “Quite Contrary”
Wed. May 18th:
Larissa Lai “The Combing”
Penn Kemp “Then There Were Foxes”
Thurs. May 19th:
Wilma Kenny “The Wedding”
Sandra Kasturi “Carnaval Perpetuel”
Fri. May 20th:
Nalo Hopkinson “Precious”
Dora Knez “If I Had Wings”
Mon. May 23rd:
Ven Begamudre “In the Beginning There Was Memory”
Phyllis Gotlieb “was/man”
Tues. May 24th:
Yves Meynard “Souvenirs”
Pam MacLean “Dream Diner”
Wed. May 25th:
Dan Rubin “The Singing”
Rhea Rose-Fleming “Mermaid”
Thurs. May 26th:
Nega Mezlekia “Devil in the Wilderness”
Wade Bell “Picture, War”
Fri. May 27th:
Ashok Mathur “Once Upon an Elephant”
Nancy Kilpatrick “Sweet”
Produced in Toronto by Joe Mahoney, Rosie Fernandez, Linda Grearson, Wayne Richardson, Tracy Rideout and Greg DeClute
A few news items today…
First, Robert J. Sawyer will be interviewed this Friday morning, April 15, at 10:30 p.m. (in every time zone) on CBC Radio One’s flagship morning show “Sounds Like Canada” about MINDSCAN. You can get it on the web at: http://www.cbc.ca.
Second, congrats to all the Hugo nominees! You can find a complete list of the nominees at Interaction’s Worldcon website. Of the fiction nominees, a few have audio versions:
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (nominated for Best Novel) is available unabridged from Audio Renaissance.
I found The Algebraist by Iain Banks (also a Best Novel nominee) available on audio at Amazon.uk. There’s no mention that I can see about whether it’s abridged or not. If anyone out there has more info, please let me know.
Shed Skin by Robert J. Sawyer (Best Short Story nominee) is available on audio from Deuce Audio.
And lastly, some bad news for SF audiobook fans. The Reader’s Chair, publisher of some very fine audiobooks, especially Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, has closed it’s doors.