Category: Online Audio

LibriVox: The Highwayman by Lord Dunsany (aka The Highwaymen)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Highwayman by Lord Dunsany

Sometimes titled The Highwayman, sometimes The Highwaymen, Lord Dunsany’s elegant prose poem is an 1,800 word tale about a scabrous gang of bastard highwaymen. And it has something for almost everyone.

I think, despite the sacrilege and desecration in the story, that my Christian friends will like it – it’s got a lot of that redemption stuff they are big on.

I’m confident that fans of capital punishment will like it – because it certainly doesn’t repudiate legalized killing.

And my friend, Gregg Margarite, who didn’t believe in any of the underlying mythology, liked it enough to read it for LibriVox.

And me?

Yep, I like The Highwayman too.

I like the overarching premise, about friendship, I think it’s heartwarming.

Plus it’s got lot of ghoulish shit in it, and I like that stuff too.

Ronald Clyne illustration of The Highwayman (from Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1944)

LibriVoxThe Highwayman
By Lord Dunsany; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 13, 2010
First published in 1908.

Here’s a |PDF| made from the publication in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December, 1944.

And here’s the Sidney H. Sime illustration from the original 1908 publication in The Sword Of Welleran and Other Stories:
The Highwayman - illustration by Sidney H. Sime (1908)

Posted by Jesse Willis

Time And Time Again by H. Beam Piper

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Time And Time Again by H. Beam Piper - illustrated by Vincent Napoli

Time and Time Again was H. Beam Piper’s first published story. It first appeared in the April 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Time and Time Again features many of the themes of Piper’s later writing, including time travel, evidence of his electric reading habits, and a love of firearms.

Set in part during both WWII and WWIII Time and Time Again features time travel of the type made famous in both Back To The Future and Quantum Leap.

LibriVoxTime And Time Again
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Bellona Times
1 |MP3| – Approx. 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 09, 2010
To upset the stable, mighty stream of time would probably take an enormous concentration of energy. And it’s not to be expected that a man would get a second chance at life. But an atomic might accomplish both— First published in Astounding, April 1947.

For some reason the ending to the X-Minus One version has been changed – to it’s determent in my view.

X-Minus OneX-Minus One – Time And Time Again
Adapted from the story by H. Beam Piper; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: January 11, 1956
A soldier is wounded in a future war and is transported back to 1945 when he was thirteen years-old with his future memory and past memory intact.

Here’s a |PDF| made from its appearance in Astounding.

Time And Time Again by H. Beam Piper - illustrated by Vincent Napoli
Time And Time Again by H. Beam Piper - illustrated by Vincent Napoli

One other interesting bit from the original story is the mention of a B-25 bomber crash into the Empire State Building, here’s a contemporary newsreel about that:

Posted by Jesse Willis

Protecting Project Pulp 14: The Way Down the Hill by Tim Powers

Scott D.

SFFaudio Online Audio

The latest episode of Protecting Project Pulp contains and interview of Tim Powers, and a story! “The Way Down the Hill” by Tim Powers, read by Fred Himebaugh.

The rich, leathery smell of Latakia tobacco told me that old Bill was there, and I soon identified him by the long, blackened meerschaum pipe he somehow found again every time. The little girl puffing at it gave me a raised eyebrow.

“Saul, Laddie!” piped the little girl’s voice. “Excuse the nonrecognition. You were a gawky youth when I saw you last. Been doing anything worthwhile?

I didn’t even bother to give the standard negative reply. “I’ll talk to you later,” I said. “Got to find something for this beer to chase.”

Bill chuckled merrily. “They laid in a dozen bottles of Laphroaig Scotch in case you came.” He waved his pipe toward the dining room that traditionally served as the bar. “You know your way down the hill.”

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The Roads Must Roll by Robert A. Heinlein

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Roads Must Roll by Robert A. Heinlein - illustrated by Charles Schneeman

Robert A. Heinlein’s short story The Roads Must Roll features a future in which a small union of engineers seize control of the nation’s vital infrastructure. This replacement for the highway and railroad systems is a series of massive conveyor belts allowing for the flow of goods and people around the country.

Here’s the synopsis from ISFDB:

Set in a future where the automobile has been replaced by The Roads, a gigantic set of parallel conveyor belts. The belts run at different speeds allowing a pedestrian to enter the Road at slow speed, and make his way to the center, where speeds are in excess of 100 MPH. Follows the exploits of Gaines, the Transport Commissioner, as he tries to put down a strike by the Rolling Roads Guild.

Dimension XDimension X – The Roads Must Roll
Adapted from the novelette by Robert A. Heinlein; Script by Ernest Kinoy; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: September 1, 1950
The more complex, the more integrated a civilization is, the more fragile it becomes to – sabotage! First published in Astounding, June 1940.

X-Minus OneX-Minus One – The Roads Must Roll
Adapted from the novelette by Robert A. Heinleinl; Script by Ernest Kinoy; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: January 4, 1956
The more complex, the more integrated a civilization is, the more fragile it becomes to – sabotage! First published in Astounding, June 1940.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Out Of The Storm by William Hope Hodgson

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Out Of The Storm by William Hope Hodgson

Here’s a terrific unabridged ten minute short story that’s the subject of an upcoming podcast. It was first published in Putnam’s Monthly, February 1909. Never before audiobooked, it is a William Hope Hodgson gem, a sketch that allows for two different readings (naturalistic and supernaturalistic – and both horrific).

Out Of The Storm is read for us by Brian Murphy.

|MP3|

And here’s a |PDF| version.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Tony And The Beetles by Philip K. Dick

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Tony And The Beetles by Philip K. Dick

This 4,712 word story may not be among Philip K. Dick’s best, but it is certainly worth looking at, and hearing!

Tony And The Beetles is a bit unusual too, having an almost juvenile or YA feel to it. Maybe that’s because it’s not nearly as horrific as many of Dick’s fantasy tales – there are some frightening elements, but the general tone is that of an ungroundedness. I see Tony And The Beetles as a kind of historical allegory and I’m not the only one. Phil Chevernet, the narrator who recorded it for LibriVox, wrote “I think [Dick] was commenting on imperialism in the 40s and 50s.” I think he’s right, but I think the comment is somewhat ambiguous, rather depressing, and almost wholly unhopeful. Dick grew up during World War II and little PKD was a very sensitive fellow, kind of like Tony.

Here’s the setup:

Young Tony Rossi has grown up on an alien world. As a child he’s known little else than bubble helmets, pressure suits, and robot pets. His playmates and schoolmates have all been the non-human children of the planet, but around him swirl the forces of history and when news of the ongoing war breaks Tony’s parents don’t seem to hold the same opinions of what it all means.

Tony And The Beetles by Philip K. DickTony And The Beetles
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Phil Chevernet
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 16, 2012
A ten-year-old boy grows up fast when history catches up with the human race. First published in Orbit, volume 1 number 2, 1953.

And here’s a |PDF| made from it’s original publication in Orbit.

Posted by Jesse Willis