The latest installment of my (Scott Danielson’s) Audiobook Fix column at The Fix: Short Fiction Review was posted online. This time, I discuss three Infinivox titles by Charles Stross.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
Category: News
Matt Watts wins an ACTRA award for work on Canadia: 2056
Joe Mahoney is reporting on his blog that Matt Watts, star and author of Canadia: 2056, has WON an ACTRA Award for “Outstanding Performance – Voice” for his work on Canadia: 2056! Matt beat out four animated TV shows performers (that’s sticking it to em Radio Drama!).
Too bad so few Canadians will get to hear his award winning work (no podcast or time-shifted listening is available for the CBC radio drama series).
Ironically, ACTRA, the union for Canada’s English-language actors, which awarded Matt his trophy, had been pressuring the federal government to bring in its new (and still somewhat mysterious) copyright legislation – arguing that “By not releasing the promised legislation, the government is causing further delays, and in the process shelving years of hard work.” – while ACTRA itself has failed, for years, to negotiate with the CBC for podcast distribution of radio drama series like Afganada and Canadia: 2056.
Season one of Canadia: 2056 is still re-running on CBC Radio One – with just two episodes left to go – and then, in mid-March SEASON TWO BEGINS!!! Check out the official CBC website for the show, where they’ve recently added a few more videos.
The penultimate episode airs this week…
Episode 9: Air Dates: March 5 & 7
Airing time: Wednesday at 11:05 p.m. (11:35 NT) and Friday at 11:30 a.m. (12:00 NT) on CBC Radio One.
“The Captain takes drastic action when his relationship with the computer goes too far. Faverau gets a promotion. Anderson and Lewis try to modify the robot. The captain uncovers the real reason the Americans declared war on the Ipampilashians. As they approach the end of the mission, the relationships between the crewmembers intensify.”
Posted by Jesse Willis
P.S. Free The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al
UPDATE: According to a post by one of the jurors (Bruce Marshall) Matt Watt’s ACTRA award acceptance speech included the following: “Yeah, F#&% ANIMATION!”
Coming to BBC Radio 4: The State of the Art Iain M. Banks
Paul Cornell writes on his blog…
“Now, here’s one of those bits of big news that I haven’t been able to talk about yet, but today I can. I’ve been commissioned to adapt Iain M. Banks’ novella The State of the Art, from the collection of the same name, into a play for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 later this year. My producer is the wonderful Nadia Molinari, and we’re looking to keep all the SF goodness of the original. I’m enjoying how serious and thoughtful the brief is. The story is about Banks’ spaceborne utopian civilisation, the Culture, encountering Earth. Some interesting casting of a Ship voice ahead, I should think, and who should be Diziet Sma? I’m anticipating the process hugely.”
[via SFSignal.com]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Random House Audio – NO DRM & Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother
BoingBoing.net is reporting that Random House Audio is abandoning digital rights management schemes for their audiobooks. The article gives more details, including the fact that Cory Doctorow’s much-anticipated forthcoming novel Little Brother is to become a commercial audiobook. Doctorow sez:
“My agent had negotiated a one-off no-DRM deal with them [Random House Audio] for that edition, but now it seems like everyone’s going to have the same option: authors who don’t want DRM won’t be forced by Random House to include it.”
Cool news!
Posted by Jesse Willis
New Audiobook Imprint Available for Public Libraries
Editor, anthologist and blogger John Joseph Adams points us to this February 15th 2008 press release…
Recorded Books, LLC, the world’s premier publisher of unabridged audiobooks since 1979, announces the release of a new imprint of audiobooks that will be available for immediate release to public libraries—Science Fiction. With the growing popularity of the science fiction and fantasy genres, fans are demanding more sci-fi literature on audiobook. The Sci-Fi imprint from Recorded Books features many award-winning authors, including Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks and Ursula K. Le Guin. Among the current releases are Now and Forever by Ray Bradbury, The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman, and Blindsight by Peter Watts. Recorded Books, which operates a New York City recording studio, employs award-winning Broadway and Off-Broadway actors to record some of the world’s most popular and critically acclaimed titles.
Thanks JJA!
Posted by Jesse Willis
PodCastle The Fantasy Fiction Podcast update
SF author Anne Leckie reports on her blog that:
“PodCastle will begin running on April 1.”
And a check of the official podcastle blog and the Podcastle.org sites makes us think this oft-delayed Escape Pod spin-off is an increasingly likely reality.
Here’s the official lineup of stories so far:
EPISODE 1 – April 1: “Come Lady Death” by Peter Beagle
Bonus Flash – April 4: “Skyscrapers” by Rachel Swirsky
EPISODE 2 – April 8: “For Love of Dragons” by C. L. Vaughn
EPISODE 3 – April 15: “Run of the Fiery Horse” by Hilary Moon Murphy
Bonus Flash – April 18: “Pahwahke” by Gord Sellar
EPISODE 4 – April 22: “Goosegirl” by Margaret Ronald
EPISODE 5 – April 29: “The Girl with the Sun in Her Head” by Jeremiah Tolbert
Bonus Flash – May 2: “Giant” by Stephanie Burgis
EPISODE 6 – May 6: “The Dead Girl’s Wedding March” by Cat Rambo
Also, apparently in the back-uncatalogued, but as of now not yet scheduled are:
“The Ant King” by Benjamin Rosenbaum
“The Dog Prince” by Sarah Prineas
Posted by Jesse Willis