Category: News

Audible.com PRESS RELEASE details: More CLASSIC SFF is coming

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

Audible FrontiersMere days after we brought you the stories of Audible’s new big Science Fiction and Fantasy audiobook push, we received an official press release with plenty of details you’ll dig! Here are the new facts:

“…We [Audible.com] are also making a concerted effort to bring all-time classics to the listening audience. The Hugo-winning THE BIG TIME by Fritz Leiber is already in the store. Roger Zelazny’s LORD OF LIGHT and THIS IMMORTAL are currently in production. So, too, is Fritz Leiber’s entire LANKHMAR series, featuring Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. And there are more classics to come.”

And this…

“Very soon, we’ll be introducing the first set of titles we’re producing in partnership with HarperCollins’ Eos line: the ACORNA’S CHILDREN series by Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough; STAR STRIKE, the first book in Ian Douglas’ INHERITANCE trilogy; BAD MONKEYS by Matt Ruff, and HUNTER’S RUN by George RR Martin, Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham.

Also, via our ongoing partnership with Harlequin, we’ve been producing more and more fantasy & paranormal romance titles, by Maria V. Snyder, C. E. Murphy, and others.”

And there’s still more:

“In the near future, we’ll also be bringing a number of great series into audio by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, David Eddings, Dave Duncan, and more.”

Further…

“Also each month, we’ll have an exclusive guest essay by a leading SF&F writer. This column will also serve to highlight a list of titles available at Audible. It will also give us an opportunity to promote titles by the guest columnist. Our lead-off columnist is Ben Bova. In the coming months, our Guest Editors will include Robert J. Sawyer, Kevin J. Anderson, and more.”

And that’s the long and the short of the new information. A lot of people hate DRM with a passion of a burning sun (I’m one of them), and so hearing that so many choice titles are going to be made available exclusively on Audible (which is totally into DRM) is a mixed blessing. The good news is that most every, if not every title on Audible.com is able to be burned to CD.

Clear your schedules folks, we’ve got lots of listening to do!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Mary Robinette Kowal: The SFWA Secretary

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

Mary Robinette Kowal is the SFWA SecretaryWe are pleased to report that the big American election everyone was waiting for is over. And we won! Mary Robinette Kowal has won her position as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Secretary!

It was a landslide win. HERE are the official results. We’re happy for Mary, and this bodes well for the SFWA’s future in general.

Posted by Jesse Willis

MORE Blake’s 7 Audio Adventures coming (starting June 2008)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

Blake’s 7 - When Vila Met GanI am pleased to be able to report that B7 Productions has just announced a series of prequel audio adventures to follow up on their SFFaudio Essential Blake’s 7 – Audio Adventures! From the press release:

MICHAEL KEATING (Blake’s 7, EastEnders) will reprise his most popular role as the cowardly thief, Vila Restal, the only character to appear in all 52 episodes of the original series. The new audio incarnation of Olag Gan played by OWEN AARONOVITCH (Coronation Street) also stars. BLAKE’S 7 – THE EARLY YEARS will be a prequel series of stories exploring the origins of key BLAKE’S 7 characters prior to them meeting rebel leader, Roj Blake. The first of these prequel stories “When Vila met Gan” has been written by lead writer, Ben Aaronovitch (‘Classic’ Doctor Who, Jupiter Moon) and explores the history and enduring friendship between Gan and Vila, two of the most unlikely rebels to take up arms against the Federation. Future episodes will feature the characters of Avon (written by Ben Aaronovitch), Jenna (written by Simon Guerrier), Travis (written by James Swallow), Cally (written by Marc Platt) and of course the series wouldn’t be complete without a story exploring the origins of the rebel’s arch nemesis Supreme Commander Servalan who we meet as a young, ambitious, cadet officer with ‘family connections

An ‘extended’ special edition CD (and download) of “When Vila met Gan” will be released for retail on 2 June 2008, with a re-cut version to be broadcast on BBC7 in the summer. Michael Keating says of his return to the role of Vila: “It’s exciting to return to the character of Vila especially in this format and to discover the origins of his friendship with Gan.” Audio Director, Andrew Mark Sewell comments: “Vila was one of the most popular characters of the original series and we’re absolutely delighted to welcome Michael back to a role that contributed in no small part to the show’s enduring popularity.” Sewell adds: “From the moment Michael Keating uttered his first lines it was as if we’d been teleported back thirty years – that’s the beauty of audio and of course the energy and enthusiasm which Michael brings to the role.”

This will make for some cool listening!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Audible’s new imprint: Audible Frontiers

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

Audible FrontiersAudible Frontiers is a new imprint (announced today but delivering titles for about two weeks now) from Audible.com. These are Audible.com exclusive titles, produced for audible by audible. Each title in the collection appears to include “Bonus Audio” which is typically a short commentary by the author about the audiobook in question. There are precisely 30 titles available today. Many are series novels, but many are novellas, most have accolades, and nearly all of them are BRAND NEW to audio.

There are plenty of titles in that 30 that I’m looking forward to hearing. We’ll have a full new releases post on them all soon.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Silver Key blog: Check out an audio book and listen, or I’ll gut you and feed your innards to the dogs!

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

The Silver Key - a place to discuss all things fun and fantasticBrian Murphy always has something interesting to say on his The Silver Key blog. His thoughtful essays on fantasy, movies and books are always fun to read. Recently he posted a cool rumination on what makes his commute a pleasure. I’m posting it below, and in full, because it’s so awesome. But don’t keep that from you visiting his site for more great posts:

My passion for audio books is overflowing right now. Today on my usual semi-torturous hour-long commute to work (each way) I finished Bernard Cornwell’s The Lords of the North. My God, if that wasn’t the most enjoyable commute I’ve had in years, I don’t know what was.

The Lords of the North and the rest of The Saxon Stories are amazingly entertaining tales on their own. But couple them with an amazing voice-over performance by UK actor Tom Sellwood, and, well, you’ve got yourself a hell of a fun car ride. I happened to glance around on Interstate 95 this morning (tearing myself away from the bloody tale of Danes and Saxons battling for control of 9th century England) to glance at the faces of the commuters around me. Some were pinched and angry, but most simply looked distracted or bored. Given what they were likely listening to–the wasteland that is AM/FM radio–I can’t say I blame them.

To hell with radio. Give me a good audio book any day. While the sap in his gas-guzzling SUV next to me had NPR droning away on the dial, I was listening in on the conversation of Uhtred Ragnarson, true Lord of Bebbanburg, and Danish warlord Ragnar Ragnarsson, as they shouted the joys of “Women and War!” while riding on horseback through Northern England circa 881. While the 20-something chick to my front in her Honda was rotting her brain listening to the vapid Destiny’s Child, I was “seeing” the clash of shield walls, bloodied axes and swords, and screaming men. In my mind’s eye I was watching viking longships under sail in the open sea, the bright light of morning gleaming off shield bosses and helmets, and smelling and hearing great feasting halls flowing with ale and bursting with loud song and the poems of skalds.

And best of all this experience is “free” of charge. Audio books are expensive and the only ones I actually own are The Lord of the Rings (unabridged), as read by Rob Inglis. But you don’t have to spend money: I get my audio books from my public library, which is part of a 10-town consortium from which I’m free to interlibrary loan a large number of audio titles. It’s a great use of my tax dollars and I’ve certainly derived a lot of pleasure these last few years on my drive to work. I only wish I had discovered them sooner.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Bibliophile Stalker asks: Who are your favorite narrators?

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

Bibliophile Stalker - A blog on speculative fiction, gaming, anime/manga, pop culture, and life in general.Charles Tan, of Bibliophile Stalker (and SFFaudio) is asking a cool question over on his blog… sez Charles:

I just finished with my SFFaudio duties and while I don’t really listen to audiobooks or fiction podcasts, I’m always looking for people overlooked in the industry and in this case, it’s people reading the stories in audiobooks and podcasts (in the sense that they’re not as popular as authors or editors unless they’re celebrities in the first place or the authors themselves).

So my question is, who are your favorite readers? Stephen Eley? Mur Lafferty? Or the author of the piece?

Personally, I’ve got a whole lot of favorites – to name just a few:

-the gravitas of George Guidall
-the Englishness of Simon Vance
-the joviality of William Dufris
-the sexy Samantha Eggar (oh how I miss her)
-the gravel voiced compassion of Bruce Weitz

There are newcomers too – gotta love that Mark Douglas Nelson (formerly Mark Nelson). But if you pinned me down to just one, I think I’d have to say my favorite narrator is Pat Bottino – he’s got this quavering immediacy that’s almost otherworldly. There are lots more too. I do like author read books, William Gibson’s reading of Neuromancer is awesomeness, but all-in-all I think I prefer the professional actors (especially the stage trained ones). So who’s on your list?

Posted by Jesse Willis