News, Reviews, and Commentary on all forms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror audio. Audiobooks, audio drama, podcasts; we discuss all of it here. Mystery, crime, and noir audio are also fair game.
There are two readings of My Favorite Murder, by Ambrose Bierce, on LibriVox. Bill Mosley’s reading has a more appropriate accent, but Peter Yearsley’s is funnier, perhaps because of his English accent. The high minded language of the protagonist, combined with the frightening descriptions, makes Yearsley’s version more essentially hilarious.
If you’re familiar with Jack London’s Moon-Face, and liked that story, I think you’ll like this one too.
My Favorite Murder
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Bill Mosley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 3, 2010
First published in the San Francisco Examiner, September 16, 1888.
The Parenticide Club – My Favorite Murder
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: December 29, 2005
Never Bet The Devil Your Head was written by Edgar Allan Poe to mock his critics. It’s wit is as sharp as Voltaire’s Candide and it’s smirk is as wide as Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, but it’s just the size of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal.
Never Bet The Devil Your Head is the tale of Toby Dammit, a man of vice, who comes to a bad end.
Here’s a choice snippet:
“At five months of age he used to get into such passions that he was unable to articulate. At six months, I caught him gnawing a pack of cards. At seven months he was in the constant habit of catching and kissing the female babies. At eight months he peremptorily refused to put his signature to the Temperance pledge. Thus he went on increasing in iniquity, month after month, until, at the close of the first year, he not only insisted upon wearing mustaches, but had contracted a propensity for cursing and swearing, and for backing his assertions by bets.”
I highly recommended it.
Here’s an unabridged reading:
Never Bet The Devil Your Head
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Dawn Keenan
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Voices In The Dark
Published: 2005
First published in Graham’s Magazine, September 1841.
And here’s a pointed, yet spritely, audio dramatization adaptation with the legendary Daws Butler playing Dammit:
CBS Radio Workshop – Never Bet The Devil Your Head
Adapted from the short story by Edgar Allan Poe; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: July 28, 1957
Provider: archive.org
Cast:
John Dehner … Mr. Poe
Daws Butler … Toby Dammit
Howard McNear … the Devil
Here’s a recording of The Temple by H.P. Lovecraft. It was the his first professional sale. And, it’ll be the subject of an upcoming podcast.
It’s read for us by Mirko Stauch, a massive fan of Lovecraft, and a cool German dude with an authentic German accent – something highly appropriate for this story. He is a first time audiobook narrator, and yet, I think he’s done a fine job with it. Check it out for yourself!
The Temple
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Mirko Stauch
1 |MP3| – 37 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Provider: Mirko Stauch
Provided: August 2012 The skipper of an Imperial German Navy U-boat, in World War I, documents the disaster and ruin of his ship and crew after they torpedo an enemy ship at sink it’s lifeboats. First published in Weird Tales, September 1925.
H.P. Lovecraft’s Book Of The Supernatural
Edited by Stephen Jones; Read by Bronson Pinchot, Stephen Crossley, Davina Porter, Madeleine Lambert, Mark Peckham
MP3 DOWNLOAD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: AudioGo
Published: August 1, 2012 Written by arguably the most important horror writer of the twentieth century, H. P. Lovecraft’s 1927 essay Supernatural Horror in Literature traces the evolution of the genre from the early Gothic novels to the work of contemporary American and British authors. Throughout, Lovecraft acknowledges those authors and stories that he feels are the very finest the horror field has to offer: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, Ambrose Bierce, and Arthur Conan Doyle, each prefaced by Lovecraft’s own opinions and insights in their work. This chilling collection also contains Henry James’ wonderfully atmospheric short novel…The Turn of the Screw. For every fan of modern horror, here is an opportunity to rediscover the origins of the genre with some of most terrifying stories ever imagined.
The audio sample says it includes “20 classics of the macabre.” I’ll try to get a list.
Here’s the TOC:
an introduction by editor Stephen Jones Notes on Writing Weird Fiction By H.P. Lovecraft The Tale of the German Student by Washington Irving Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson Who Knows? by Guy de Maupassant The Invisible Eye by Erckmann-Chatrian The Torture by Hope by Villiers de l’Isle Adam Ms. Found in a Bottle by Edgar Allan Poe What Was It? by Fitz-James O’Brien The Middle Toe of the Right Foot by Ambrose Bierce The Turn of the Screw by Henry James The Dead Smile by F. Marion Crawford The Wind in the Rose-Bush by Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Recrudescence of Imray by Rudyard Kipling The Hands of Karma (Ingwa-banashi) by Lafcadio Hearn The Burial of the Rats by Bram Stoker The Red Lodge by H.R. Wakefield The Captain of the Pole-Star by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Villa Desiree by May Sinclair The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson Novel of the White Powder by Arthur Machen
Have you read the Yellow Sign? Have you read the Yellow Sign? Have you read the Yellow Sign?
Here is snippet from Mary Gnaedinger’s editorial description of Robert W. Chambers’ The Yellow Sign, a wonderfully creepy novelette published in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September 1943:
The Yellow Sign
By Robert W. Chambers; Read by CrowGirl
1 |MP3| – Approx. 39 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 30, 2011 The King In Yellow is a monstrous and suppressed book whose perusal brings, fright, madness, and spectral tragedy. Have you seen the Yellow Sign? First published in 1895.
Canadians, particularly those in the Vancouver area, may be interested in this post – others not so much.
I’m switching internet service providers.
I’ve had Shaw cable internet for as long as they’ve been in business here. Before that it was Rogers who provided internet access. I only switched when the monopoly in this area was handed over from Rogers to Shaw.
Over the years Shaw has been pretty good. I don’t think they’ve engaged in a lot of the shitty practices I hear many ISPs have.
But, the price has never gone down, and the service hasn’t really improved.
So, when I saw that there was an $3.00 increase scheduled for September 1st, 2012, one without explanation as to how I was getting a better service for it, I decided to look around at the competition.
I think I first heard about Ontario based TekSavvy back in 2010, when the then CEO, Rocky Gaudrault, went on TVO’s Search Engine podcast to talk about usage based billing (here’s that |MP3|).
Gaudrault made a great impression, and I remember thinking that TekSavvy sounded like they were the ideal ISP.
Shortly after beginning my research today I discovered that TekSavvy has started operating in Coquitlam, I gave them a call. They use the same wires as Shaw, but they offer those same wires at a better price and with better download and upload numbers.
Shaw’s “High Speed Internet” for August cost me $58.24 per month (including taxes)
TekSavvy’s “Extreme Cable 25 Unlimited” $50.34 per month (including taxes)
TekSavvy promises numbers about double the download speed and quadruple the upload speed I am currently getting. And it’s cheaper.
My Favorite Murder
CBS Radio Workshop – Never Bet The Devil Your Head
