Category: Online Audio

BBC7: Black Bartlemy’s Treasure

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7BBC Radio 7 has a cool sounding pirate play airing today that’s based on a 1920 novel. Here’s the description from the 1944 dust jacket of the paperbook:

“Mr. Farnol brings back the pirate days of the Spanish Main in this stirring book and not since “The Broad Highway” and “The Amateur Gentleman” has he created such a company of picturesque characters. It is a full-blooded, wholesome novel that captivates the reader.

Martine Conisby, Lord Wendover, embittered by his five years of slavery on the Spanish galleon Esmeralda, escapes during a sea fight to an English ship and makes his way back to England, determined to avenge himself on Richard Brandon, who was the cause of his father’s death and his own ill-treatment. Broken in body and spirit, he arrives home one night disguised as a tramp, just in time to save from the hands of robbers a beautiful girl, Lady Jane Brandon, the daughter of the man whom he has sworn to punish. In a tavern he meets a pal, Adam Penfeather, who unfolds to him the story of Black Bartlemy, an infamous pirate, and his treasure buried on an island– treasure of fabulous value that has been the dream and hope of roving adventurers along the Spanish Main for many years.

The engrossed reader will eagerly follow the adventures of the treasure seekers who set sail on the good ship Faithful Friend and the unique experiences of Martin and the fair Lady Jane – whose family the hero hated – as they found themselves alone on the island which contained the buried treasure. He will encounter some rogues as bloodthirsty as any pirates who ever sailed the Seven Seas, and discover love episodes that stir the emotions. Mr. Farnol has never made a wider appeal than in this, his first sea story.”

Neat huh? Here are the details…

Black Bartelmy's Treasure by Jeffrey FarnolBlack Bartlemy’s Treasure
By Jeffery Farnol; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 90 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Saturday at 1pm & 1.30am
After spending “Five years of Hell” as a rowing slave, Martin Conisby returns to England to seek vengeance on the man responsible. Jeffrey Farnol’s swashbuckling tale of the high seas is dramatised by Michael Bartlett and stars Steven Pacey, Sean Barrett and Julia Swift. It was directed by Glyn Dearman and first broadcast in 1991. Jeffrey Farnol’s swashbuckling tale of piracy, love and death on a desert island.

Starring:
Stephen Pacey (Martin Conisby)
Sean Barret (Adam Penfeather)
Julia Swift (Joan Brandon)
Ronald Herdman (Roger Tressady)
Sean Arnold (Black Bartlemy)
Fraser Carr (Joel Bym)
Mark Straker (Abnegation Mings)
Andrew Wincott (Sir Rupert Dering)
Colin McFarlane (Smiling Sam Spraggons)
Theresa Streatfield (Marjorie)

Incidentally, there’s another Jeffrey Farnol novel over on LibriVox. And, the Jeffrey Farnol Appreciation Society has details on the follow up series, and more!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Assorted new LibriVox Science Fiction short stories

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVoxHere are three short Science Fiction stories with a humorous bent. They’re taken from a new LibriVox audiobook called Coffee Break Collection 001. Book coordinator Bellona Times sez:

“This is a collection of short (15 minute or less readings) stories suitable for a coffee break at work or a short commuter ride. Emphasis for this collection is Humor in various genres — fiction and non-fiction.”

Beyond Pandora has been recorded previously (for the Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 014) – it’s an SF story that tries hard to make a scary medical problem funny. I’m not sure that it succeeds with the humour, but it might be a fruitful line of medical inquiry anyway.

Graeme Dunlop brings his Australian accent to the reading of Hard Guy. This story too has been previously recorded (in Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 015). It’s a hitchhiker and road gangs story set on an atomic highway.

The all new (to audio) story in this collection is Poppa Needs Shorts. It’s a silly little story that trades on a peculiarity of the English language. But it also makes a very interesting point, namely that toddlers are actually practicing scientists! Sure, baby-proofing your house might make it safer for your baby, but it defeats many of the experiments that your tiny scientist can perform. It’s a very clever tale. Narrator Patti Cunningham does a nice job reading it too.

Analog September 1962Beyond Pandora
By Robert J. Martin; Read by msjodi777
1 |MP3| – Approx. 5 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 11, 2009
The ideal way to deal with a pest—any menace—is, of course, to make it useful to you… From Analog September 1962.


LibriVox - Hard Guy by H.B. CarletonHard Guy
By H.B. Carelton; Read by Graeme Dunlop
1 |MP3| – Approx. 7 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 11, 2009
There will be fine, glittering, streamlined automobiles in 2000 A.D. Possibly they will run themselves while the driver sits back with an old-fashioned in his hands. Perhaps they will carry folks down the highways at ninety miles an hour in perfect safety. But picking up a hitch-hiker will still be as dangerous as it is today. From Amazing Stories April 1956.

LibriVox - Poppa Needs Shorts by Walt Richmond and Leigh RichmondPoppa Needs Shorts
By Walt Richmond and Leigh Richmond; Read by Patti Cunningham
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 11, 2009
Given valid data, you can reach completely wrong conclusions. But given a wrong conclusion, you can still get a right answer! From Analog Science Fact & Fiction January 1964.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 7 and Radio 4: Fatherland and You’re Entering The Twilight Zone

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

SFFaudio’s covert agent in the U.K., codenamed “Roy”, has dug up some very interesting intel and delivered it to our email dead drop:

“As you said on SFFAudio that you liked Anton Lesser in the Falco series, you may want to note that he stars in the five part serialisation of Robert Harris’s Fatherland running on BBC7 this week (this serialisation from 1998 is actually an extended version of the 2 hour play first broadcast on R4 in 1997). You may not have spotted this as it is not in the daily dedicated ‘7th Dimension’ slot.”

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7Beginning on Monday and running daily, BBC7 is airing their adaptation of Robert Harris’ bestselling novel Fatherland. This powerful and award winning drama, examines an alternate history in which the Nazi empire never fell. The setting is 1960s Berlin, on the cusp of Hitler’s 75th birthday. Dramatised and produced by John Dryden, it stars Anton Lesser and Andrew Sachs. This will definitely be one to catch via the Listen Again service!

BBC Radio Drama Fatherland by Robert HarrisFatherland
Based on the novel by Robert Harris; Performed by a full cast
5 Parts – Approx. 2.5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
BROADCASTER: BBC 7
BROADCAST: Monday September 7 – Friday September 11 @ 1.30pm, 8.30pm and 1.30am (UK time)
Nazi Germany has won the war. Churchill is living in exile. King Edward and Queen Wallis are puppet monarchs of the UK. It is 1964, a week before Hitler’s 75th birthday. Anton Lesser stars as the Berlin detective called to investigate the suspicious death of a retired German senior civil servant.

Also on the schedule…

You're Entering The Twilight Zone (Radio Times - Jeremy Aspinall)BBC Radio 4There’s a new documentary called You’re Entering The Twilight Zone, which looks back at the venerable The Twilight Zone franchise. It airs on BBC Radio 4 next week. It’s a 30 minute doc that sounds very solid so I’ll be adding this to my Radio Downloader subscription too. It airs September 15th 2009 on BBC Radio 4 @ 11:30 (U.K. time).

“Alan Dein explores the classic American television series The Twilight Zone, as well as the life and imagination of its creator, Rod Serling.

Fifty years ago, Serling ushered audiences into a new realm of light and shadow. He had already electrified the new medium of television with his powerful dramas and their explorations of race, morality and capitalism, but now he offered glimpses of American dreams and nightmares.”

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Hypersonic Tales – a webzine of FLASH FICTION

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Hypersonic Tales - Speculative Flash Fiction in Text and AudioPamela Perkins of Hypersonic Tales writes in to say:

“We’re a free speculative fiction webzine that creates audio productions of everything we run.”

Indeed, Hypersonic Tales, which bills itself as being about “Speculative Flash Fiction – Text and Audio” does have audio files for every story (along with the text versions). In fact they’ve got quite a few stories in all four of its issues produced so far. The problem is these are only accessible via a built in player. Now to be fair this is probably how a good percentage of some group out the people out there on the web consumes their audio (especially of “flash” length). Heck, there are people who are making web browsers for the Commodore 64! So, I certainly wouldn’t put it past some people to do their listening the hard way. But me, I’m for the easy way, and so listening while staring at my monitor isn’t how I listen to fiction, even flash fiction. I listen via my iPod. That means it needs a podcast feed, or, at the very least, direct links to the MP3 files so I could make my own podcast feed using HuffDuffer.com. I also suggest the site itself be given the full blog treatment. Because everyone who knows what an RSS feed is uses one.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Science Fiction and Politics University Course (has new lectures)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Science Fiction and PoliticsCourtney Brown has added some new classes to his Science Fiction and Politics podcast. Brown is a professor of Political Science at Emory University who posts many of his lectures to his website (he’s actually been podcasting since 2006).

For the first two lectures of the Spring 2009 semester Brown, and class, are talking about Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics. That’s a non-fiction book that bashes the various untestable string theories that physicists have been spinning over the last couple of decades. The second set of two lectures is about a 1991 “feminist science fiction/cyberpunk novel” called He, She And It by Marge Piercy. Next is just one MP3 discussing Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age. And the final two have Courtney and class talking about Philip K. Dick’s Ubik. These are the first new lectures from Courtney Brown talking Science Fiction since 2007.

Here are the new lectures that have been added to course’s podcast:

Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics – Part 1 |MP3|
Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics – Part 2 |MP3|
Marge Piercy’s He, She And It – Part 1|MP3|
Marge Piercy’s He, She And It – Part 2 |MP3|
Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age |MP3|
Philip K. Dick’s Ubik – Part 1 |MP3|
Philip K. Dick’s Ubik – Part 2 |MP3|
Podcast feed:

http://www.courtneybrown.com/classes/scifi/mp3/cb_SciFiPoliticsClass1.xml

For previous lectures either check out one of our older posts about Brown and his classes, |HERE|, |HERE| and |HERE|, or visit Professor Brown’s website directly |HERE|.

Posted by Jesse Willis