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.
The SFFaudio Podcast #140 – The Island Of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, read by Jonathan Kent.
This UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK (4 Hours 8 Minutes) comes to us courtesy of Tantor Media and their collection of “Unabridged Classics”. Thanks Tantor!
Come back for our next episode (SFFaudio Podcast #141) to hear our discussion.
Here’s the ETEXT.
Incidentally, I believe this is the first time an entire novel has been podcast as one big file.
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Sky At Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC. The show has had the same presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, from its first airing on 24 April 1957. This is the longest-running programme, with the same host, in television history. I discovered it only recently, via torrent, and have become utterly smitten with its sciencey goodness. Here’s the latest broadcast, actually a repeat from 1963 with Arthur C. Clarke!
Here’s the official description:
Many of the early Sky at Night programmes were destroyed or lost from the BBC library. Recently this early and very rare programme from 1963 with Arthur C Clarke, was discovered in an African TV station. Patrick and Arthur were both members of the British Interplanetary Society and here they discuss bases on the Moon and Mars. Arthur C Clarke made very few interviews, so this really is a broadcasting gem- once lost, but now found.
The programme is also available via |TORRENT|.
[Thanks African TV station!]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Blackstone Audio is giving away a FREE short story (in MP3 or M4B format)!
The Souls Of The Ships
By Brian Freeman; Read by Joe Barrett
1 |MP3| or 1 |M4B| – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: December 2011
“The tale tells of lost love, beauty, and the magic of a foggy Christmas Eve night that leads to an unexpected event for two people. An earlier version of this story appeared about twenty years ago in Lake Superior Magazine. Since then, it has only been published in Italian and German—now this original English version is available for the first time on audio from Blackstone.”
Thanks Blackstone!
Posted by Jesse Willis
The latest BBC Radio 4 In Our Time podcast, dated December 22, 2011, is a discussion of Daniel Defoe‘s Robinson Crusoe. Did you know that the novel was originally published pseudonymously? Or that Defoe wasn’t actually born with the name Defoe, but rather “Foe”? (he added the “De”). As usual In Our Time‘s podcast is a quick solid introduction to a fascinating topic. Here’s the official description:
“Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe. Published in 1719, it was an immediate success and is considered the classic adventure story – the sailor stranded on a desert island who learns to tame the environment and the native population. Robinson Crusoe has been interpreted in myriad ways, from colonial fable to religious instruction manual to capitalist tract, yet it is perhaps best known today as a children’s story. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Karen O’Brien, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education at the University of Birmingham; Judith Hawley, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London and Bob Owens, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the Open University.”
|MP3|
Podcast feed: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/iot/rss.xml
Thank you very much British taxpayers!
Posted by Jesse Willis
BBC Radio 4 Extra (the station formerly known as BBC Radio 7) will be airing the excellent Blake’s 7 series of prequel adventures over four consecutive Saturdays starting on Xmas eve. From the Blake’s 7 blog:
The BBC Radio 4 Extra season includes the premiere of ESCAPE VELOCITY on Saturday 24 December at 18:00hrs. Featuring ZOË TAPPER, JASON MERRELLS and TRACY-ANN OBERMAN, ESCAPE VELOCITY is scripted by award-winning writer/novelist, James Swallow. Other audio drama premieres included FLAG AND FLAME, written by Marc Platt, and POINT OF NO RETURN, also written by James Swallow.
BLAKE’S 7: THE EARLY YEARS is a thrilling new prequel series of audio stories that explores the origins of key BLAKE’S 7 characters before they met rebel leader Roj Blake, taking you back to where the seeds of rebellion against the Federation really began.
These re-imagined BLAKE’S 7 audio adventures have been described by news-stand magazine SciFiNow as “… a bold and revitalising addition to the Blake’s 7 story” and by SFFAudio.com as “morally complex, deeply noir.”
The audio dramas feature well-known names including COLIN SALMON (Doctor Who), KEELEY HAWES (Ashes To Ashes), BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH (Sherlock), GEOFFREY PALMER (As Time Goes By), MICHAEL COCHRANE (Sharpe) and ALISTAIR LOCK as Zen.
Here are the broadcast dates and (U.K.) times:
Escape Velocity – Saturday 24th December, 2011 at 18:00 |READ OUR REVIEW|
Point Of No Return – Saturday 31st December, 2011 at 18:00 |READ OUR REVIEW|
Eye Of The Machine – Saturday 31st December, 2011 at 18:30 |READ OUR REVIEW|
Flag And Flame – Saturday 7th January, 2012 at 18:00 |READ OUR REVIEW|
Blood And Earth – Saturday 7th January, 2012 at 18:30 |READ OUR REVIEW|
The Dust Run – Saturday 14th January, 2012 at 18:00 |READ OUR REVIEW|
The Trial – Saturday 14th January, 2012 at 18:30 |READ OUR REVIEW|
Posted by Jesse Willis
Blake’s 7 The Early Years – Jenna: The Trial / The Dust Run (Vol. 1.5)
By Simon Guerrier; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – Approx. 70 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: B7 Productions
Published: November 30, 2009
ISBN: 9781906577087
Themes: / Science Fiction / Galactic Empire / Dystopia /
The Dust Run – Jenna Stannis has grown up as a spacer, where the normal rules don’t apply. No school, no police, no public imperatives – that’s still all to come. But the situation on Earth is changing and the effects are slowly being felt throughout the Vega system. It’s going to mean trouble for a brash boy called Townsend – who Jenna doesn’t fancy at all. Soon Jenna and Townsend are competing in the Dust Run – racing shuttles through an asteroid field without using computers, making the complex calculations in their heads. It’s dangerous, fool-hardy and really good fun. But they’re playing for the highest of stakes…
The Trial – The election is going to change everything. A man called Roj Blake promises the voters new hope, an end to years of corruption. There are those who can’t let him be heard. But Jenna Stannis is determined to get his message out to the colonies. It’s been years since the Dust Run, and Jenna’s a changed woman. She’s left the Vega system far behind, using her exceptional piloting skills to carve out a life as a smuggler. Blake’s message could earn her a fortune – or cost her, her life.
This is the final two stories in the first Blake’s 7 The Early Years series. First up is The Dust Run. It starts with a framing story in which we see the cruelty of the Earth Federation up close. Under torture Jenna, a young woman, reveals everything about her truant past. Then, in the story proper, we meet her as a charming teen. She comes from an underemployed spacer family, has just a few friends but none of them are particularly trustworthy. For fun Jenna likes piloting shuttles at high speed through a region of space filled with a heavy concentration of particulates. It’s precisely her lightheartedness that sets Jenna up for a fall.
The Trial also uses the framing device but skips ahead in time to the events which lead to Jenna’s incarceration. The problem is that her interrogator also claims to be acting as her advocate! If Jenna is to have any chance of avoiding imprisonment on Cygnus Alpha she’ll have to shade the truth. This episode reminded me of the other great Orwellian episodes of serial SF (like Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Chain of Command” – in which Picard is tortured and Babylon 5‘s “Intersections In Real Time” – in which Sheridan is tortured). The darkness of Jenna Stannis’ Federation universe is equally Orwellian, but, as I’ve mentioned in other reviews of this series it has more than a touch of Brave New World in it too. This new Blake’s 7 series, like it’s TV predecessor, is an intelligent Science Fiction series that masquerades as consumable pop-culture “sci-fi”.
Carrie Dobro, who played a charismatic alien thief in the Babylon 5: A Call To Arms TV-movie and on the prematurely canceled Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade, stars as Jenna Stannis. Dobro has a star-level magnetism in both these productions. She’s sure of herself, a devious and clever power seeker, never fully in control, always seeking it, but at heart a sympathetic survivor. Simon Guerrier and Carrie Dobro have created a worthy back-story for Jenna Stannis. Highly recommended!
Posted by Jesse Willis