Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Do you like really sad short stories? I promise this one will do the job.

In fact it may just be the saddest short story ever written.

I summarized it in SFFaudio Podcast #194, and then recently told it to my friend Julie Hoverson. She was taken with it, and has now kindly narrated it for us!

What I love about this recording is the genuine emotion, prompted by the story’s end, that comes into Julie’s voice for those final lines. That’s not acting! That’s the real stuff!

And if you listen closely enough you may even hear the sound of teardrops sliding down flushed cheeks – though if they are coming from Julie – or from you – may be somewhat hard to determine.

Miss Brill by Katherine MansfieldMiss Brill
By Katherine Mansfield; Read by Julie Hoverson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Provider: Julie Hoverson
Provided: January 2013
Miss Brill, an English teacher working in France, lives in a small room near the Jardains Publique. Every Sunday she visits the gardens and listens to the music of the band, admires the attire of her fellow park-goers, and eavesdrops on their conversations. First published in Athenaeum, November 26, 1920.

And here’s a |PDF| version.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #194 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Of Withered Apples by Philip K. Dick

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #194 – a complete and unabridged reading of Of Withered Apples by Philip K. Dick (21 minutes), followed by a discussion of it with Jesse, Tamahome, Jenny, and Julie Davis (who reads the story).

Talked about on today’s show:
The Cookie Lady by Philip K. Dick, like “weird historical stories we do”, The Wizard of Oz, strange wife character, double entendres, the ending, “we didn’t have trees like that”, maybe she needs a doctor, ‘scrumping‘, synesthesia, “I’m being eaten!”, tentacle anime?, I get thrown by silence, what does it all mean?, Out In The Garden by Philip K. Dick is related by Jesse, Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield is told as well, “what the hell’s a theater dog?”, good novels and collections?, Selected Stories Of Philip K. Dick edited by Jonathan Lethem, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Martian Time-Slip, autism, Galactic Pot-Healer (Julie later reviewed it on Goodreads), Lovecraftian monster, Nick And The Glimmung is YA?, “I think we nailed this”, The Best Of Philip K. Dick (1978), Midrash is what we do, Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith |READ JULIE’S SFFAUDIO REVIEW|, the ladies are taking over church

Philip K. Dick's Of Withered Apples

Of Withered Apples by Philip K. Dick

Posted by Tamahome

Review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Jenny

SFFaudio Review

Daughter of Smoke and BoneDaughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)
By Laini Taylor; Read by Khristine Hvam
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Published: September 2011
ISBN:

Themes: / fantasy / paranormal romance / YA / angels / creatures / seraphim / other worlds / portals / magic / regeneration / flight /

Publisher summary:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages – not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers – beautiful, haunted Akiva – fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

While YA paranormal romance is not normally my thing (I read this with a book club), I think the author Laini Taylor does a few things that make this book far superior to some of the not-great YA paranormal romance we have been inundated with since Twilight came out.

First of all, the world. The author has chosen Prague as the location for where Karou, the main character, lives. She goes to an art school and lives on her own, but has to trick the school with a fake grandmother.  Prague is mysterious enough on its own, but we soon discover that she uses certain gateways to travel between that city of the 21st century and Elsewhere, to do errands for Brimstone, a creature that helped to raise her.

I saw this picture of Prague at night in the fog in Pinterest, and it pretty much matched what I see in my head as I listen to this book.  There could so easily be magic here.

The storytelling kept me interested, although I was rolling my eyes at some of it – I’m just not the intended audience. I’m not going to swoon over a desperately handsome seraphim in a star-crossed lover type scenario, but I can see how that might be appealing to a slightly younger crowd (honestly, I don’t remember ever quite being that girl, but maybe I was.) I did appreciate some of the details. The description of Madrigal’s dress, little tidbits like Karou being given the gift of knowing a new language on her birthday, the burned handprints that come back in the end, and so on.

Even better, the story takes some interesting twists. The story of Madrigal may be the most interesting part, and it isn’t even introduced until the last fourth of the novel.  It helps that the reader discovers Karou’s story along with her, and she does not yet know her history or all the ramifications for what is happening around her.

I had the audio version of this book from a free download I got last summer when the publisher was trying to promote new books alongside YA classics. Khristine Hvam does a nice job with the accents, although Brimstone sometimes sounded Nigerian, which didn’t fit with how I was hearing his voice in my head. Most of the time, I wasn’t thinking about the reader at all, which to me is a good sign. She also is a great reader of emotion, and captures Karou well.

Posted by Jenny Colvin

Surprisingly Free: interview with Jason Mazzone about Copyfraud

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Surprisingly FreeJason Mazzone, author of Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law, was interviewed by Jerry Brito for the Suprisingly Free podcast last March.

|MP3|

This makes for a good primer on why copyfraud, the false claiming ownership over public domain, is so awful.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Golden Man by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

The Golden Man, a novelette by Philip K. Dick, is PUBLIC DOMAIN.

This was not previously known due to a falsification on a copyright renewal form (RE190631) that asserted the story was first published in 1955. It was actually published in 1954.

The Golden Man illustration by Frank Kelly Freas

Here is a |PDF| made from a scan of the original publication in IF Worlds Of Science Fiction. There is also an ETEXT version online.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Total Recall by Philip K. Dick

Jenny

SFFaudio Review

Total Recall by Philip K. DickTotal Recall
By Philip K. Dick; Performed by Phil Gigante
1 CD – Approx. 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
ISBN: 978-1-4692-4898-1
Themes: / Science Fiction / Mars / telepathy / memory /

Publisher Summary:

Philip K. Dick’s classic short story tells the story of Douglas Quail, an unfulfilled bureaucrat who dreams of visiting Mars, but can’t afford the trip. Luckily, there is Rekal Incorporated, a company that lets everyday stiffs believe they’ve been on incredible adventures. The only problem is that when technicians attempt a memory implant of a spy mission to Mars, they find that real memories of just such a trip are already in Quail’s brain. Suddenly, Quail is running for his life from government agents, but his memories might make him more of a liability than he is worth.

The first appearance of Philip K. Dick’s “Total Recall” was under the title “ We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” originally published in 1966 for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction as well as numerous short fiction anthologies. The current title owes the name to the movie adaptations (similar to 1982’s “Blade Runner”) which have help catapult the author from obscurity into a virtual household name. 2012 featured a new film version of “Total Recall,” and Brilliance Audio has also released among many other previously unavailable Philip K. Dick audiobooks a newly recorded version of the short story under the more familiar title.

The 26-page story is narrated by Audie Award winning narrator Phil Gigante and clocks in on one disc at just shy of one hour. Even though a short story, the narration is superbly done and I especially liked the attention given to little things for an example the telepathic voices heard in protagonist Douglas Quail’s head. For those not familiar with the story, the plot centers around the business REKAL which offers for a discounted fee false memories of adventures planted in their customers brains, often superior to the memories that of an actual excursion. The price includes token memorabilia and the wiping out of any knowledge that the trip was in fact a purchased and pre-packaged false memory. (So much so, that if customers suspect that their trip was in fact purchased at REKAL, they can return for a full discount of their fee.)

For those familiar from the plot of the original movie, only about the first half of the short story is used as a basis to launch the film into a detailed Martian secret agent thriller. The plot of Philip K. Dick’s story actually never leaves Earth, although the Martian journey is referred to as a key element. Instead, the story focuses on continued interaction with REKAL and a surprising further development that will be new to those who are only familiar to the story from the movie versions. (I’ve not seen the latest movie adaptation but it appears to follow the original movie closely more so and deviate even further from the short story.) Whether already a fan of the movies and story or not, the new audiobook offers a fresh and worthwhile take on one of Philip K Dick’s classic tales of science fiction.

Review by Dan VK