SFFaudio – Page 416 – 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.

New Releases: Eloquent Voice, 3Daudioscapes, Blackstone Audio

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Jesse Willis

New Releases

Our friend, and narrator, William Coon has a wonderful new collection of C.M. Kornbluth short stories available through OverDrive, NetLibrary and Audible.

The Little Black Bag and Other Stories
By C.M. Kornbluth; Read by William Coon
WMA, MP3 or Audible Download – Approx. 4 Hours 2 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Eloquent Voice
Published July 15, 2011
ISBN: 9780983089865 (retail), 9780983089865 (library)
Although C.M. Kornbluth died an untimely death at age 34, in his short career he managed to write dozens of short stories and a number of novels, often collaborating with other writers. The five stories in this collection are all his own, and show a writer at the height of his powers. In “The Little Black Bag” (1950) a disgraced physician finds salvation in a high tech doctor’s bag that has inadvertently been transported from the future. “The Altar at Midnight” (1952) explores an unintended consequence of space flight, where astronauts become physically deformed by their work in space, thus making them outcasts back on Earth. “MS Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie” (1957) presents a humorous tale of a writer who finds enlightenment but ends up in an insane asylum. “The Adventurer” (1953) is a tale of political intrigue, in a future where our Republic has become a dynasty for one ruling family. In “The Marching Morons” (1951), a follow-up to “The Little Black Bag,” a 20th Century man awakes in a distant future, where intelligence has been mostly bred out of humanity.

Here’s an interesting sounding mini-collection from a small publisher never before mentioned on SFFaudio…

A Dollar for Your Soul and The Vision Vine
By Earl Vickers; Read by Derrick Barrett
1 CD or Download – Approx. 60 Minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: 3Daudioscapes.com
Published: 2010
Featured in this collection are two short stories, “A Dollar for Your Soul” and “The Vision Vine” “A Dollar For Your Soul” – Based on a true story about a high-school soul-selling pyramid scheme, this story is a timeless look at Ponzi schemes and the madness of crowds. It was originally published in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, and a Russian translation appeared in Yesly (“If”) magazine (voted Europe’s best science fiction magazine). “The Vision Vine” is a short story about a tribal culture in conflict with modern civilization. A young boy journeys to a strange virtual world and attempts to bring the two worlds together. This story originally appeared in Whole Earth Review and has also been published in Russian and Japanese

This sounds like an excellent audiobook…

The Age Of Wonder: How The Romantic Generation Discovered The Beauty And Terror Of Science
By Richard Holmes; Read by Gildart Jackson
17 CDs – Approx. 20.4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 9781455114320
The Age of Wonder is a colorful and utterly absorbing history of the men and women whose discoveries and inventions at the end of the eighteenth century gave birth to the Romantic Age of science. When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery—astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical—swiftly follow in Richard Holmes’ thrilling evocation of the second scientific revolution. Through the lives of William Herschel and his sister, Caroline, who forever changed the public conception of the solar system; of Humphry Davy, whose near-suicidal gas experiments revolutionized chemistry; and of the great Romantic writers, from Mary Shelley to Coleridge and Keats, who were inspired by the scientific breakthroughs of their day, Holmes brings to life the era in which we first realized both the awe-inspiring and the frightening possibilities of science—an era whose consequences are with us still.

I’ve wanted to get my hands on this book for about 20 years, I’ve heard things about it…

Hardwired
By Walter Jon Williams; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
10 CDs – Approx. 11.7 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 9781433253065
In Walter Jon Williams’ classic cyberpunk novel, the remnants of a war-ravaged America endure in scattered, heavily armed colonies, while the wealthy Orbital Corporations now control the world. Cowboy, an ex-fighter pilot who has become “hardwired” via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, is now a panzerboy, a hi-tech smuggler riding armored hovertanks through the balkanized countryside. He teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals. Together, they gather an unlikely gang of misfits for a ride that will take them to the edge of the atmosphere.

For the first time on audio… but I’ve read this, I have the paperback. I know I have read it. But for the life of me I cannot remember it at all. Which is doubly odd given the premise of the story: The main character is missing his memories!!!

The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Tom Weiner
4 CDs – Approx. 4.3 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 9781433265815
Jonathan Hoag has a curious problem. Every evening, he finds a mysterious reddish substance under his fingernails, with no memory of how it got there. Jonathan hires the husband-and-wife detective team of Ted and Cynthia Randall to follow him during the day and find out. But Ted and Cynthia find themselves instantly out of their depth. Jonathan leaves no fingerprints. His few memories about his profession turn out to be false. Even stranger, Ted and Cynthia’s own memories of what happens during their investigation do not match. There is a thirteenth floor to Jonathan’s building that does not exist, there are mysterious and threatening beings living inside mirrors, and all of reality is not what they thought it was. Part supernatural thriller, part noir detective story, Heinlein’s trip down the rabbit hole leads where you never expected.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals: Brilliance Audio

Tuesday, August 16, 2011Monday, August 15, 2011 Scott D.

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Southern Gods
By John Hornor Jacobs; Read by Eric G. Dove
9 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2011

A MEMPHIS DJ HIRES RECENT WORLD WAR II VETERAN Bull Ingram to find Ramblin’ John Hastur, a mysterious bluesman whose dark, driving music — broadcast at ever-shifting frequencies by a phantom radio station — is said to make living men insane and dead men rise. A bootlegged snippet of Hastur’s strange, brooding tune fills Bull with an inexplicably murderous rage. Driven to find the song’s mysterious singer, Bull hears rumors that the bluesman sold his soul to the Devil. But as Bull follows Hastur’s trail into the eerie backwoods of Arkansas, he’ll learn there are forces much more malevolent than the Devil and reckonings more painful than Hell . . .

The Omen Machine
By Terry Goodkind; Read by Sam Tsoutsouvas
15 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2011

Hannis Arc, working on the tapestry of lines linking constellations of elements that constituted the language of Creation recorded on the ancient Cerulean scroll spread out among the clutter on his desk, was not surprised to see the ethereal forms billow into the room like acrid smoke driven on a breath of bitter breeze. Like an otherworldly collection of spectral shapes seemingly carried on random eddies of air, they wandered in a loose clutch among the still and silent mounted bears and beasts rising up on their stands, the small forest of stone pedestals holding massive books of recorded prophecy, and the evenly spaced display cases of oddities, their glass reflecting the firelight from the massive hearth at the side of the room.

Since the seven rarely used doors, the shutters on the windows down on the ground level several stories below stood open in a fearless show of invitation. Though they frequently chose to use windows, they didn’t actually need the windows any more than they needed the doors. They could seep through any opening, any crack, like vapor rising in the early morning from stretches of stagnant water that lay in dark swaths through the pear barrens.

The open shutters were meant to be a declaration for all, including the seven, to see that Hannis Arc feared nothing.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Recent Arrival: Greed by L. Ron Hubbard

Monday, August 15, 2011Monday, August 15, 2011 Scott D.

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Greed
By L. Ron Hubbard; Read by Full Cast
2 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Galaxy Press
Published: 2011

Once there had been a single government of Earth controlled by the western races, but the long-oppressed people of Asia finally struck back with a “cohesion projector.” In an instant, the device established a solid, invisible wall of space—creating a dividing line between the superpowers, with the Asiatic Federation inside and the United Continents outside.

Both powers are tenuously perched on the brink of war until George Marquis Lorrilard comes along. A sometime lieutenant of the pitiful handful of space guards known as the United Continents Space Navy, he’s used the experience to become a space exploiter. Far less driven by altruism than by the ferocious thirst and hunger of greed, Lorrilard sets a course to change forever the fate of Earth and the stars.

Blast off for the action in the full-cast version of Greed featuring David Paladino. Also starring Bob Caso, R.F. Daley, James King, Jim Meskimen, Tamra Meskimen, Noelle North, Jeff Pomerantz, Phil Proctor, Enn Reitel, Josh R. Thompson and Michael Yurchak. Each production is packed with music and cinema-quality sound effects, putting you right into the heart of the story.

ALSO INCLUDES THE SCIENCE FICTION STORIES “FINAL ENEMY” AND “THE AUTOMAGIC HORSE”

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Recent Arrival: The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Monday, August 15, 2011 Scott D.

Aural Noir: Recent Arrivals

The Keeper of Lost Causes
By Jussi Adler-Olsen; Read by Erik Davies
16 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Published: 2011

Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark’s premier crime writer. His books routinely top the bestseller lists in northern Europe, and he’s won just about every Nordic crime-writing award, including the prestigious Glass Key Award-also won by Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, and Jo Nesbo. Now, Dutton is thrilled to introduce him to America.

The Keeper of Lost Causes, the first installment of Adler- Olsen’s Department Q series, features the deeply flawed chief detective Carl MØrck, who used to be a good homicide detective-one of Copenhagen’s best. Then a bullet almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren’t so lucky, and Carl, who didn’t draw his weapon, blames himself.

So a promotion is the last thing Carl expects.

But it all becomes clear when he sees his new office in the basement. Carl’s been selected to run Department Q, a new special investigations division that turns out to be a department of one. With a stack of Copenhagen’s coldest cases to keep him company, Carl’s been put out to pasture. So he’s as surprised as anyone when a case actually captures his interest. A missing politician vanished without a trace five years earlier. The world assumes she’s dead. His colleagues snicker about the time he’s wasting. But Carl may have the last laugh, and redeem himself in the process.

Because she isn’t dead . . . yet.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Podiobooks.com: See You At The Morgue by Lawrence G. Blochman

Monday, August 15, 2011Friday, March 23, 2012 Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Online Audio

The admirable Mark Douglas Nelson has completed his SFFaudio Challenge #5 project…

This Noir Masters series book is a “pseudo classic” was first published in 1941. It was later reprinted as a Penguin paperback and also as a Dell Mapback. The modern ebook edition comes courtesy of the Wonder Publishing (which has a great new Wonder Ebooks site). Here are the |PDF| and the |EPUB| editions.

See You At The Morgue
By Lawrence G. Blochman; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
14 MP3 Files (Podcast) – Approx. 6 Hours 57 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: August 15th, 2011
When a gigolo is shot to death in the bedroom of a beautiful girl, it raises some perplexing problems for Detective Kenny Kilkenny. Why, for example, would a man steal the license plates off his own car? Why should an innocent young professor come to the murder room … and then conceal a key to the crime? Why was a ‘phantom secretary’ hiding in the closet near the murdered man? Was there really money to be made selling glass eyes for stuffed ducks? Why would a beautiful girl ask her lover to kill her?

Podcast feed: http://www.podiobooks.com/title/see-you-at-the-morgue/feed/

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Here’s the illustration from the back of the Dell Mapback edition:

Dell Mapback - See You At The Morgue by Lawrence G. Blochman

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Buffalito Destiny by Lawrence Schoen

Monday, August 15, 2011Monday, August 15, 2011 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Buffalito Destiny
By Lawrence Schoen; Read by William Coon
12 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Eloquent Voice
Published: 2011
Themes: / Science fiction / Aliens / Eco-terrorism /

We meet The Amazing Conroy at the beginning of his career as a stage hypnotist. He’s been stranded on an alien planet after making a delivery as a courier. This situation in and of itself begins to let the reader know about author Lawrence M. Schoen’s talent in combining the mundane with the unexpected. Certainly, I’d never have imagined earning my way around the universe as a stage hypnotist.

The book proper is set in Conroy’s present where he has smuggled an alien life form to Earth. Rarely has an alien been more adorable than the Buffalito Dog, Reggie. He is Conroy’s personal pet and the leader of the rest of the Buffalito pack which forms the foundation of Conroy’s corporation. Conroy has become incredibly wealthy by renting the services of his Buffalitos which literally eat anything and fart oxygen.

At the time we join the story, the Mexican president wants a demonstration of Conroy’s services to convince his government to clean up toxic waste sites. However, this plan is put in jeopardy by an anti-alien, eco-terrorist group with no qualms about using extreme force to achieve their goal of banning aliens and their technology from the earth. To make matters worse, Conroy has been having mysterious dreams which he must decipher in order to fulfill his destiny of keeping the Earth from being destroyed.

These are only a few of the features of this entertaining novel which include the joys of Mexican sandwiches, a huge region of temporal instability in Texas, and a bus tour of Mayan ruins that includes one of the most creative alien races I’ve ever read about.

There is a zany charm about this novel which makes any threats seem less serious, although I was extremely curious about how Conroy was going to fulfill his destiny. The oddest but imaginative elements come together in the most ordinary of ways and somehow all hang together pretty well to form a story that kept me interested.

It helps that I simply love William Coon’s narration although he does occasionally struggle with an accent (the Texan drawl was bravely attempted but not quite right). However, that is the only one that didn’t ring quite true for me. His reading is half the charm of Conroy’s character. This is the first time I’ve heard him use different voices for different characters and I feel sure that I wouldn’t be able to read the actual book without hearing Coon’s narration reading along in my mind’s ear.

The story is not always imaginatively plotted, perhaps because so much else was going on that the author could only juggle so many balls in the air. I was able to peg the main eco-terrorist quite early in the story and hoped against hope (as it turns out) that the author would be able to sacrifice a character necessary to the story’s integrity. However, there were other surprises that I didn’t expect so it isn’t as if the entire plot was obvious.

Buffalito Destiny is a great deal of fun even with a few plot glitches. And I’m ok with that.

Posted by Julie D.