Review of The Adventures of Doc Savage

SFFaudio Review

Audio Drama - The Adventures of Doc SavageThe Adventures of Doc Savage
Adapted from novels by Lester Dent
Starring Daniel Chodos as Doc Savage
8 Hours – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: RadioArchives.com
Published: 2010
Themes: / Science Fiction / Hero / Adventure / Pulp / Audio Drama / Skeletons / Chemistry /

Doc Savage is the strongest, smartest, most resourceful, best-looking guy you’ll ever meet. And he fights crime. Born in pulp magazines in the 1930’s, he’s also the subject of 181 novels, and a movie.

The Adventures of Doc Savage contains 13 half-hour episodes of audio drama that were originally broadcast on NPR in 1985. These episodes tell two complete stories that were adapted from novels written by Lester Dent. “Fear Cay” was published in September 1934 and “The Thousand Headed Man” in July 1934. The scripts were written by Will Murray and Roger Rittner.

Having never read a Doc Savage story, I was interested for historical reasons. I’ve run across these novels regularly over the years, but the pulp hero never caught my reading eye. I’m very happy, though, to have heard these audio dramas. They are very well done. They’re action packed, thoroughly entertaining, and as full of camp as you’d hope.

With the opening of “Fear Cay”, I learned that Doc Savage doesn’t work alone. He’s got a team around him that reminds me of Buckaroo Banzai’s crew. (Now, why was Jeff Goldblum wearing that ridiculous cowboy outfit again?) I now realize that Buckaroo had to have been influenced by Doc Savage. Savage also has a diverse team around him – from physical strength to electronic genius – and there’s nothing they can’t handle.

Still, Doc Savage is the best of them all. He’s not among equals. He can overpower multiple men at once, but he’s just as apt to talk himself out of a situation. And he’s got gadgets and/or chemical formulations for everything else that occurs.

In short, I had a great time listening to these dramas. They’re fun.

Find them over at RadioArchives.com.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #120

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #120 – Scott, Jesse and Tamahome talk to Allan Kaster, the editor of the new audiobook collection The Year’s Top Ten Tales Of Science Fiction 3.

Talked about on today’s show:
Infinivox, post-singularity, Mars, talking animals, emperors, will the post-singularity fiction subgenre be over by 2040?, Charles Stross, Gardner Dozois, post singularity is the magic of Science Fiction, Robert Reed, Under The Moons Of Venus by Damien Broderick, talking dogs, “I didn’t like it in a Science Fiction way”, detective fiction, insanity and crazy people, The Emperor Of Mars by Allen M. Steele, a tribute to martian fiction, the Asimov’s reader’s Award, Emperor Norton of the United States, Asimov’s, Analog and F&SF are now available in the Kindle store, ebooks (and emags) with ads, Harlan Ellison, Gene Wolfe, Stephen King, Flowers For Algernon, Subterranean Online, Lightspeed magazine, Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain by Yoon Ha Lee, Clarkesworld, The Things by Peter Watts, Elegy For A Young Elk by Hannu Rajaniemi, the Science Fiction boom is here, Fantasy, a blossoming of novellas, PS Publishing, Subterranean Press, novellas make for an excellent idea delivery mechanism, Prime Books, The Year’s Best Science Fiction And Fantasy 2011, Ted Chiang’s The Lifecycle Of Software Objects, Stories Of Your Life and Other Stories by Ted Chiang, Infinivox will have a new collection of Science Fiction novellas in the fall: The Year’s Top Short SF Novels, The Things by Peter Watts (read by Kate Baker), The Emperor Of Mars was on Tony Smith’s StarShip Sofa (read by Quartershare author Nathan Lowell), John Carpenter’s The Thing movie vs. John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There?, Howard Hawks, re-working Science Fiction’s legacy fiction in new stories, the stinger comes from sympathizing with a horrible monster, communion, the Shirley Jackson award, Re-Crossing The Styx by Ian R. MacLeod, Scott likes Noir, Double Indemnity, zombies, “even though they’re dead they need entertainment”, The Love Boat, Tom Dheere, he always gets the Science Fiction vocab pronunciation right, Eight Miles by Sean McMullen, Australia, the best story in Analog last year (was Eight Miles), steampunk, is steampunk SF?, steampunk-ish, an Asian cover, Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain by Yoon Ha Lee is ornate and literary SF (and kind of Ted Chiang-like), there’s a logic going on, The Shipmaker by Alliette de Bodard, Nicola Barber, Larry Niven’s Star Trek episode (The Slaver Weapon), Kzinti are in the Star Trek universe, we need another good Science Fiction (TV) series, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Bloch, Fredric Brown, Neil Gaiman, Doctor Who, Babylon 5 was our last best hope for SF on TV, A Letter From The Emperor by Steve Rasnic Tem, fun with mind-wiping, emotional stingers, Adrift by Scott D. Danielson, emotional vs. intellectual SF, bureaucracy doesn’t end, there are lots of lost packets between planets, it derives its power from the characters rather than from the intellectual points, intellectual stimulation vs. emotional stimulation, Elegy For A Young Elk by Hannu Rajaniemi, consciousness-uploading, it’s comic book like, a bit like Dan Simmons, Alone by Robert Reed, the prolific Robert Reed, God-Like Machines edited by Jonathan Strahan, Alastair Reynolds’s Troika is in there too, A History Of Terraforming by Robert Reed, Dead Man’s Run by Robert Reed, Marrow by Robert Reed, an old-fashioned Science Fiction story writer, SFBRP #008 Luke’s review of Marrow, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Starship Vectors edited by Allan Kaster, SFSignal’s review of Starship Vectors, The Shipmaker by Alliette de Bodard, The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey, mutant children are shipped off into the universe to fall in love with their crews, giving birth to a cyborg, Shipmaker reminded Tam of Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler, was dramatized on 2000X, how do you read/listen to anthologies?, is there any chance of doing a year’s top ten 1961? 1965?, how about the top ten of the 1960s?, Charles Stross, A Colder War by Charles Stross |READ OUR REVIEW|, Lobsters by Charles Stross |READ OUR REVIEW|, Accelerando by Charles Stross, “Please Alan, fulfill my hopes and dreams.”

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrival: Provocative Dramas by Arch Oboler

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Audio Drama - Provocative Dramas by Arch ObolerTwo Provocative Dramas by Arch Obler
By the A.R.T. Players
1 CD – 1 Hour – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Abaton Radio Theater
Published: 2011

Featuring the captivating A.R.T. Players: Lauri Bortz, Amy Fulgham, Jordan Kaplan and Brady Ovson. With a musical score and artwork by Marianne Nowottny.

Arch Oboler was to radio what Rod Serling was to TV. Though he’s no longer a household name, due to lack of radio reruns, Oboler was a master of his medium, an innovative writer/director/producer who favored spine tingling, socially conscious science fiction and horror stories and politically charged, left-leaning dramas. Oboler began scripting radio shows as a teenager and rose to success with the 1930s thriller anthology Lights Out. He went on to create the largely anti-war themed series Arch Oboler’s Plays, which featured great stars such as Joan Crawford, James Cagney and Katharine Hepburn, to name but a few.

This is the first installment of Abaton Radio Theater, a series that will include original contemporary work, as well as vintage material.

This disc contains two plays:

Catwife: The gripping horror story of a once loving marriage gone wildly awry!

Baby: A psychological drama exploring a young wife’s confrontation with the possibility of motherhood and the certainty of World War.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The Galactic Suburbia podcast vs. The SFSignal Podcast

SFFaudio Online Audio

Galactic SuburbiaGalactic Suburbia is a podcast out of Australia that’s hosted by Alisa, Tansy and Alex. They’re three women from Perth, Hobart and Melbourne respectively. Alisa contacted me after hearing my comment, that I’m always looking for new podcasts on SF Signal Podcast Episode 70. She wrote:

I noticed that not very many women podcasts, nor podcasts aimed at or interesting to women, came up in discussion. I thought I might let you know about the Galactic Suburbia Podcast, of which I am a member of the audio team. We are a group of women talking about SF publishing and news, with a feminist lean. I am particularly proud of one of our recent episodes which was a tribute to the late Joanna Russ [episode 36] The Spoilerific Book Club: Joanna Russ

I’m not a fiction writer, don’t have any interest in publishing or the publishing business, but I found some value there. One story in particular in Episode 36, about Samuel R. Delany and his wife Marilyn Hacker (and their pockets) was absolutely masterful. Unlike SFSignal’s podcast, which is short, Galactic Suburbia is a long format discussion podcast, with shows regularly running near the two hour mark.

In their latest show, Episode 38, they talk about SFSignal Mind Meld titled: “What’s The Importance of ‘The Russ Pledge’ For Science Fiction Today?” and Alisa makes the argument that there’s a gender bias at SFSignal. Later, she brings up the specific SFSignal Episode #70, the one I was in, and … well … here’s a clip of both segments (first from SFSignal, then from Galactic Suburbia) back to back |MP3|. Here are the full files for both:

SFSignal #70 |MP3|
Galactic Suburbia #38 |MP3|

Podcast feed:

http://web.me.com/aifinch/TPP/Galactic_Suburbia/rss.xml

iTunes feed:

itpc://web.me.com/aifinch/TPP/Galactic_Suburbia/rss.xml

Episodes not in the feeds are available HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Point Of Honor by Joseph Conrad

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVoxFirst published in Pall Mall Magazine, along with an H.G. Wells novel and a Jack London short story, The Point Of Honor is a Joseph Conrad novella that had its genesis in the real duels that two French Hussar officers fought in the Napoleonic era. Their names were Dupont and Fournier, which Conrad disguised slightly, changing Dupont into D’Hubert and Fournier into Feraud.


LIBRIVOX - The Point Of Honor by Joseph ConradThe Point Of Honor (aka The Duel)
By Joseph Conrad; Read by Mark F. Smith
4 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 3 Hours 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 18, 2008
Two French Hussar officers, D’Hubert and Feraud, quarrel over an initially minor incident that eventually turns into a bitter, long-drawn out struggle over the following fifteen years, interwoven with the larger conflict that provides its backdrop. At the beginning, Feraud is the one who jealously guards his honor and repeatedly demands satisfaction anew when a duelling encounter ends inconclusively; he aggressively pursues every opportunity to locate and duel his foe. As the story progresses, D’Hubert also finds himself caught up in the contest, unable to back down or walk away. Pall Mall Magazine’s January, February, March, April and May 1908 issues.

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3|

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-point-of-honor-by-joseph-conrad.xml

iTunes 1-click |SUBSCRIBE|

Here’s are the William Russell Flint illustrations from the original magazine serialization:

The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint
The Duel by Joseph Conrad - Illustrated by William Russell Flint

Here’s the trailer for The Duellists (1977) :

[Thanks also to ConradFirst.net and Live At The Heartbreak Lounge]

Posted by Jesse Willis