New Releases: Upon the Dull Earth and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick

New Releases

Available through OverDrive, NetLibrary, and Audible.com – or you can request your library get a give them this “ISBN 9780983089872”!

ELOQUENT VOICE - Upon The Dull Earth And Other Stories by Philip K. DickUpon the Dull Earth and Other Stories
By Philip K. Dick; Read by William Coon
Digital Download – Approx. 4 Hours 18 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Eloquent Voice, LLC
Published: January 31, 2012
When an interviewer asked Phillip K. Dick “What is the most important quality for a writer to have?” he replied “A sense of indignation… A writer writes because it’s his response to the world. It’s a natural process, like respiration… The capacity for indignation is the most important thing for a creative person. Not the aesthetic capacity but the capacity for indignation… And especially indignation at the treatment afforded other people. To see some of the things that are going on in the world and to feel indignant…That is the basis of the writer.” Whatever it was that stimulated his creative juices, we are the lucky beneficiaries, as demonstrated in this collection of five stories, all first published in 1954. In “Exhibit Piece” a long-suffering museum worker becomes a little too attached to his display of mid-twentieth century lifestyle. In “Upon the Dull Earth” a young man refuses to let go of his soul mate, and he creates a chain reaction that he couldn’t have anticipated. In “Progeny” one man’s idea of how to raise a child is challenged by new, more scientific techniques. “The Last Of The Masters” explores a post-apocalyptic world, where anarchists don’t just occupy Wall Street, they occupy the entire planet. Finally, in “Breakfast At Twilight”, a family awakes to find theirs is the only house left on their street, and they are forced to make the most important decision of their lives.

Posted by Jesse Willis

2011 Nebula Nominees Audio

SFFaudio Online Audio

nebula iconThe 2011 Nebula Nominees have been announced.  Sfsignal has a good collection of links to free online text of the shorter works.  I’ll list all the available audio versions.  I think it’s just from Clarkesworld and Lightspeed (I found a few others).  Clarkesworld should make it easier to go from their online text versions to their online audio versions.  Jenny says listen to E. Lily Yu first.

Best Novella:

Catherynne M. Valente – Silently and Very Fast (Clarkesworld) – Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Best Novellette:

Jake Kerr – The Old Equations (Lightspeed) – |MP3|

Best Short Story:

Adam-Troy Castro – Her Husband’s Hands  (Lightspeed) – |MP3|

Tom Crosshill – Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son  (Lightspeed) – |MP3|

E. Lily Yu – The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees (Clarkesworld) – |MP3|

Ken Liu – The Paper Menagerie (Podcastle) – |MP3|

Nancy Fulda – Movement  (Escape Pod) – |MP3|

Posted by Tamahome

Small Town by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN

SFFaudio News

Philip K. Dick’s short story, Small Town, is PUBLIC DOMAIN. Here’s a |PDF| of it.

Small Town by Philip K. Dick second publication in the April 1967 issue of Amazing Stories

Small Town was first published in the May 1954 issue of Amazing Stories. Here is the copyright page from that issue:

Table of contents from Amazing Stories May 1954

The fact that the story was not previously known to be PUBLIC DOMAIN is because there was a bogus copyright renewal claim made in 1983. In order for a claim to be properly renewed the first publication date must be cited in the renewal form. It wasn’t. Instead a false first publication date was swapped in.

RE190631 Page 2 (back) includes Small Town:
RE190631 Page 2 (back) Prominent Author, Progeny, Exhibit Piece, Shell Game, A World Of Talent, James P. Crow, Small Town, Survey Team, Sales Pitch, Time Pawn, Breakfast At Twilight, The Crawlers, Of Withered Apples, Adjustment Team, Meddler

As you can see in a scan of the renewal form, pictured above, the renewer has stated that the story was published in the May 1955 issue of Amazing Stories. This is completely false. Here is the table of contents page from Amazing’s May 1955 issue:

Amazing Stories, May 1955 - table of contents

Had the renewer, in 1983, noted the actual first publication date of Small Town the renewal wouldn’t have been valid. By 1983 the copyright had lapsed.

The evidence for bad faith in the copyright process doesn’t end there. Indeed, while story was subsequently republished in Amazing Stories – perhaps lending credence to the idea that the renewer had merely mistaken the first publication for the second, the republication wasn’t until the April 1967 issue of that magazine. And of course a notation in that 1967 re-publication cites the story as having been copyrighted in 1954.

Detail from the April 1967 issue of Amazing Stories, showing that Small Town was copyrighted in 1954

Small Town by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN!

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBS Radio Mystery Theater: Wuthering Heights adapted from the novel by Emily Brontë

SFFaudio Online Audio

We’ve got the audiobook version, and here’s cool radio drama adaptation from the 1970s. I’ll be listening to this tonight as I drift off into dreamland.

CBS Radio Mystery TheaterCBS Radio Mystery Theater – #0643 – Wuthering Heights
Based on the novel by Emily Brontë; Adapted by Elizabeth Pennell; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: April 29, 1977
Provider: CBSRMT.com
Heathcliff, an adpoted son, returns home to the family that mistreated him as a youth.

Cast:
Lloyd Battista
Paul Hecht
Russell Horton
Roberta Maxwell
Bryna Raeburn

Bonus: The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights (courtesy of Month Python):

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #148 – READALONG: The Odyssey by Homer (Books I – IV)

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #148 – Scott and Jesse, in the first of a six part series, discuss the first four books of The Odyssey by Homer (books I, II, III and IV).

Talked about on today’s show:
Odysseus doesn’t appear in the first four books of The Odyssey, planting the seeds for the end of the story, The Iliad, and the missing epics, why not read The Iliad first?, novel vs. tragedy, Robert Fagles, E.V. Rieu, Ian Mckellan’s narration, The Apology Of Socrates by Plato, Telemachus’ dilemma, The Teaching Company, The Telemache (the first four books of The Odyssey), xenia, xenos (guest, host, foreigner, and friend), hospitality and the ancient world, an exploration of the concept of xenia, Pallas Athena, disguised, “he’s a suitor”, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, war orphans, embracing the stranger, xenophilia, the recurring turns of phrase, “the wine dark sea” and “bright eyed Athena”, the wise don’t lie, Basil Fawlty is not a very wise man, gearing down, Dan Simmons’s Hyperion, a story for a nation of city states, Nestor’s son was the fastest runner, wisdom comes in many flavours, Helen as a host, was Helen complicit with her kidnapping?, how should we read Helen?, dosing the household, the status of women in ancient Greece, the Entitled Opinions podcast (on Homer And Homeric Epics), The Odyssey is the story of a marriage, adventure with gods, the role of The Odyssey in ancient Greek religion, Socrates was convicted (in part) of denying the gods, miracles as an intervention, why do the gods disguise themselves?, are the gods simply external manifestations of human thought?, were the ancient Greeks more gullible than we?, the editorial introduction by E.V. Rieu, one of the greatest books ever, next time will be books V, VI, VII and VIII.

The World Of Homer - illustrated by Ernie Chan

Posted by Jesse Willis