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.
Mark Nelson’s unabridged narration of A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs is available as a set of three YouTube videos:
The uploader, CC Prose, has done something interesting here by combining LibriVox audiobooks with the printed text. I like it!
Posted by Jesse Willis
Sci-Fi Radio Theater is “the brain child of international internet man Charles Davis and opera singer Josie Corichi.” Here’s their mission statement:
To produce high quality original fiction radio play podcasts that fall within the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres.
Why Sci-Fi? Because it’s what we like and it’s what we know. At SFRT we are huge personal fans of this genre of story telling and we feel that we have more to offer to the science fiction community than being observers. Our drive is to be active participants in the creation of original Science Fiction stories.
Why a Radio Play Podcast? Because the greatest imagery that exists is within your own mind. We believe that by delivering these stories in an audio format we allow the listener to be taken to a far deeper and more complex world than we would be able to offer through video.
Another reason is the freedom of length. One of the joys of a science fiction story is the depth and detail you are able to get into. By presenting these radio plays as a podcast we are able to tell a story as long as it naturally takes to tell.
The only question I have is whether the narrator is intentionally doing a Bill Hollweg impersonation.
Posted by Jesse Willis
First podcast January 5, 2009.
Featuring the very first appearance of Julie Davis, of the Forgotten Classics podcast (and now the A Good Story Is Hard To Find podcast)!
HERE are the shownotes.
Posted by Jesse Willis
David Stifel, of The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs website, sent me the pics of his new home recording studio booth. You may recall that David joined us for SFFaudio Podcast #137 in which we discussed A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (and his wonderful narration of it). Check these out:
I find it baffling that I’ve never posted anything like this before. Get it? BAFFLING!
Posted by Jesse Willis
The SFFaudio Podcast #151 – Scott, Jesse, and Julie Davis talk, in the second of a six part series, about the books V, VI, VII and VIII of The Odyssey.
Talked about on today’s show:
We join Odysseus crying into the wine dark sea, it’s all about marriage (and homecomings), my wise Penelope, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Captain Kirk of the Mediterranean, the Samuel Butler translation, Calyspo vs. Circe, Ogygia vs. Scheria, Nausicaa, the role of women in Ancient Greece, adornments to the men, Nausicaa will later marry Telemachus, Odysseus is always being gifts and then losing them into the sea, the LibriVox edition, Poseidon and the other gods are easily distracted, Demodocus may be Homer putting himself into the poem, telling the story from the middle outwards, Memento, a television show inside a television show (a story within a story), Inception, Ino, “oh myself”, an extra god (named “River”), animism, Shinto, does Athena actually seal Odysseus’ eyelids?, Ehren Ziegler’s Chop Bard podcast, rosy fingered Dawn (the goddess), does Dawn work on multiple planets, Apollo worship has really slacked off since Copernicus, crying like a woman, carrying an olive branch like a mountain lion, “tell the one about Odysseus”.
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Folded World (A Dirge for Prester John #2)
By Catherynne M. Valente, Read by Ralph Lister
9 hours 18 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: November 2011
ISBN: 1597802034
Themes: / Fantasy / Creatures / Monks / Quest / Immortality / War / Crusades / Parenting
Publisher Summary: When the mysterious daughter of Prester John appears on the doorstep of her father’s palace, she brings with her news of war in the West–the Crusades have begun, and the bodies of the faithful are washing up on the shores of Pentexore. Three narratives intertwine to tell the tale of the beginning of the end of the world: a younger, angrier Hagia, the blemmye-wife of John and Queen of Pentexore, who takes up arms with the rest of her nation to fight a war they barely understand, Vyala, a lion-philosopher entrusted with the care of the deformed and prophetic royal princess, and another John, John Mandeville, who in his many travels discovers the land of Pentexore–on the other side of the diamond wall meant to keep demons and monsters at bay.
These three voices weave a story of death, faith, beauty, and power, dancing in the margins of true history, illuminating a place that never was.
To fully appreciate this book, it is essential to first read The Habitation of the Blessed (A Dirge for Prester John #1), because The Folded World starts off right where the last book left off. The mythology of this trilogy is thick, and the second book builds nicely on what is developed in the first. Where in The Habitation of the Blessed, the reader is introduced to all the fantastical creatures and the ways of the new lands, The Folded World digs deeper into the stories of some of the characters. Although Prester John himself has lived with his blemmye wife for some time, he is still experiencing life as an outsider as he tries to put his own religion through the filters of the various beings he encounters.
It doesn’t help that the Crusades are going on, and the armies are getting closer. Prester John doesn’t exactly fit in with his old life the way he used to. This conflict is central to the development of the overarching story that I’m sure will continue in book #3.
While The Folded World lacked the breathtaking impact of the first book, probably just because the overall world was familiar to me, the same elements that I loved are present here – beautiful writing, a detailed mythical place with its own history and stories, and the clash between worlds. There is one more book planned in this series, with the release date tentatively set for November 2012.
Posted by Jenny Colvin