The SFFaudio Podcast #176 – AUDIO DRAMA: Fred Greenhalgh’s The Cleansed

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #176 – The Cleansed, Season 1, Episode 1 by Fred Greenhalgh. This is the complete first episode of the Final Rune audio drama series by Fred Greenhalgh followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Tamahome and Fred Greenhalgh himself.

Talked about on today’s show:
Eight episodes in season one, clothing in the apocalypse, Tamahome believed everyone was naked, field recording and all-present cast, portable recorder in South Africa, “audio postcards”, Fred’s past audiodramas, The Most Dangerous Game, Waiting for a Window, “either biblical or Star Wars”, Bruce Willis and Armageddon, conflicting world-views, “is that a turkey there?”, Fred knows how to live off the grid, The Long Walk, Fred loves Stephen King, The Stand tv version, when will we find out what ‘The Cleansed’ refers to?, violence and ideologies, Chatterbox Audio Theater on The Cleansed, like Stephen King, Fred doesn’t believe in a lot of plotting ahead or describing clothes, artist Simon Adams helps, “Paul with a P”, “The Republic is the 1%’ers”, The Cleansed Kickstarter campaign, where does Fred get his food?, the best of both worlds, a post-apocalypse for today

The Cleansed

Posted by Tamahome

Worldcon HUGO Ceremonies coverage pulled from Ustream after showing clips from BBC and NBC

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

A live video of this year’s Worldcon Hugo Awards (Chicon 7: The 70th World Science Fiction Convention), held in Chicago, was being streamed on Ustream until shortly after clips from three Doctor Who episodes, an episode of Community, and a clip from last year’s Hugo Awards ceremony were shown. Neil Gaiman was giving his acceptance speech, for The Doctor’s Wife, when he was suddenly cut-off and replaced by a black screen and the words “Worldcon was removed due to violation of terms of service.”

Worldcon Was Removed

Speculation by viewers, in the chat room associated with Ustream included surmises such as “Well, someone DCMA’d the Hugo live webcast” – and yet another chatter rightly pointed out that the clips used were “clearly FAIR USE.”

Things are clearly fucked up south of the border when a private “TERMS OF SERVICE” acts in place of copyright.

The next Hugo Awards ceremony should be released via torrent.

Update:

“Samuel Montgomery-Blinn Official announcement from @Chicon7 says that Ustream won’t be bringing this back online.”

Update II:

Worldcon banned due to copyright infringement.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Raven a FREE illustrated audiobook app from vNovel Interactive (for iOS devices)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

vNovel - The Raven by Edgar Allan PoeThere’s a terrific illustrated, and partially animated, audiobook app available free in the Apple App store. Made by vNovel Interactive The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe features a solid reading (by Domien de Groot), some unnecessary sound effects (rapping, tapping, creaking, and cawing), and some of the most gorgeous illustrations (by Vladimir Rikowski) of the poem that I’ve ever seen.

There’s an iPad version too, it’s HERE.

Experience “The Raven”, as it comes to life, like you’ve never seen it before: an innovative double play mode interactive book, featuring a world-class audio performance of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic poem.

Go back to the place where it all began, in the midst of a dreary night – the kind, the ghosts of our past (that come back to haunt us) find irresistible. Relive this poetic, frightening and sad tale of love and soul forever lost, in a charming new light.

With a powerful original musical score, that resonates deep within, and contemporary original art, that rivals some of the most expressive illustrations of the past – this is an experience you will never forget.

App trailer:

Musical score composed by Zoltan Csordas:

Incidentally, the app isn’t fully featured, there’s no rewind feature, only a pause. If you want to restart, or return to the main menu, shake your iOS device.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals: The Cold Beneath by Tonia Brown

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Written in the narrative form of DeMille’s A Strange Manuscript Found In A Copper Cylinder or Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Of Nantucket Tonia Brown’s The Cold Beneath is a new “steampunk horror” audiobook.

The Cold Beneath by Tonia Brown

The Cold Beneath
By Tonia Brown; Read by Chris Barnes
Download – Approx. 6 Hours 53 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Dynamic Ram Audio Productions
Published: 2012
In the race to the North Pole, who will become the victor, and who will fall to the ravages of the Cold Beneath? Phillip Syntax is the world’s best biomechanic with a checkered past of betrayal and lost love. When given a chance at redemption by the celebrated soldier Gideon Lightbridge, how can he refuse? This ill-fated expedition turns from daring to disastrous when their airship, the Northern Fancy, crashes in the far and frozen north, leaving the crew stranded without hope. But that isn’t the worst of it. One by one the dead crew members arise from the cold ashes to seek the warmth of the living, and it becomes every man for himself in an effort not to join the ranks of the revenants.

Sample |MP3|

I’ve been listening to the novel, and find it to be punky, flowery and straightforward. The writing itself seems breezy, without pretense or subterfuge. The first few minutes of the audiobook introduces some very steampunkily named characters (“Mr. Syntax” and “Mr. Lightbridge”) – both voiced by the narrator Chris Barnes. Barnes seems to have a natural Scottish accent but as the characters are English and American he creditably voices them as such.

Writing this now, as I approach the first hour mark of the audiobook, I find The Cold Beneath to be a wholly improbable bit of fun, a brummagem amalgam of ahistorical realities, a sepia toned breccia of impossible ideas held in their interstices by a sticky cement of amiable frivolousness.

In other words, The Cold Beneath promises to be nothing more than a distracting steampuk adventure, set aboard an airship, with one of the characters sporting clockwork robotic legs, and, by looking at the cover, perhaps later, some scary frozen zombies.

If you liked the writing energy of Tee Morris’ Billibub Baddings And The Case Of The Singing Sword |READ OUR REVIEW| or the airship adventures of Jay Lake’s Mainspring |READ OUR REVIEW| then Tonia Brown’s The Cold Beneath might be your cup of brown joy.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: Eloquent Voice: A World Of Talent and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick

Jesse Willis

New Releases

Here’s William Coon’s fourth collection of Philip K. Dick short stories and novellas. It’s available via Amazon, Audible, Audiobooks Online, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, BooksOnBoard, Read Without Paper, Waterstone’s.

These stories are Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

And three of the five stories have never been audiobooked before!

“A novelist carries with him constantly what most women carry in large purses: much that is useless, a few absolutely essential items, and then, for good measure, a great number of things that fall in between. But the novelist does not transport them physically because his trove of possessions is mental. Now and then he adds a new and entirely useless idea; now and then he reluctantly cleans out the trash – the obviously worthless ideas – and with a few sentimental tears sheds them. Once in a great while, however, he happens by chance onto a thoroughly stunning idea new to him that he hopes will turn out to be new to everyone else. It is this final category that dignifies his existence. But such truly priceless ideas… perhaps during his entire lifetime he may, at best, acquire only a meager few. But that is enough; he has, through them, justified his existence to himself and to his God.”
– Philip K. Dick, 1977

ELOQUENT VOICE - A World Of Talent and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick

A World of Talent and Other Stories
By Philip K. Dick; Read by William Coon
Audible Download – Approx. 4 Hours 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Eloquent Voice, LLC
Published: August 17, 2012
In this collection of five stories, all first published in the 1950s, Dick justified his existence by exploring a number of truly interesting ideas. In “Small Town” a man creates a perfect scale model of his own town, as a means of escaping his unbearable reality. In “Human Is” the wife of a scientist notices that her husband has returned from a scientific expedition a changed man, but she’s not complaining. In “Foster, You’re Dead” a father’s unwillingness to participate in his country’s preparations for a war that never happens, leads to unexpected consequences for his family. In “The Hanging Stranger” a man is unable to convince his fellow townspeople that something terribly wrong is happening to them all. Finally, in “A World of Talent“, society’s reactions against those who have unusual talents have pushed the situation to the brink of interplanetary war.

Sample |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis