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.
Donald E. Westlake talking about the creation of Richard Stark and Stark’s iconic criminal Parker. You get a good sense of how Westlake/Stark wrote. He sets up a situation for his characters and then sees what happens.
Of the movie versions that Westlake talks about I agree, The Outfit is clearly the most faithful to Stark’s work. Lee Marvin is terrific, but he’s not as Parker as Robert Duvall.
[via The Violent World Of Parker]
Posted by Jesse Willis
ThePulp.net, a fan-produced website devoted to the pulp magazines, has a recording of William Tenn (aka Philip Klass) from 2006. It was recorded as part of a one man panel at PulpCon 35. Sez Rick Jackson of The Science Fiction Oral History Association:
“Phil talks about working with John W. Campbell, Horace Gold and Fred Pohl among many others. He certainly had the gift of gab. If you feel saddened at his [William Tenn’s] passing as I do, this recording will bring smile to your face.”
|MP3|
I’ve added this file to my HuffDuffer podcast feed: http://huffduffer.com/jessewillis/rss
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
[via The Science Fiction Oral History Association]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Lawrence Block talks to a crowd of eager fans about Donald E. Westlake at The Mysterious Bookshop in NYC. Block discussed his friend’s career, the upcoming release of Westlake’s lost novel Memory and their collaborations together.
Subterranean Press states that it will be re-publishing this trio of Westlake/Block collaborative novels novels — Sin Hellcat, So Willing, and A Girl Called Honey — under the overall title of Hellcats and Honey Girls.
Posted by Jesse Willis
“There’s too much beauty in religion to let go of it just because you don’t believe in god.”
-William Tenn
SFSignal.com is reporting that William Tenn has just died. You won’t find much written about Tenn (or his alter ego Philip Klass) on the internet. I figure that’s mostly because he wasn’t a very prolific novelist (the default format for most fiction readers). But if you like SF he’s probably someone you should know about.
I think I first read Tenn back in the early 1990s. It may have been his story The Liberation Of Earth. I really got into Tenn in 2004.
Back in 2004 podcasting hadn’t really started. LibriVox.org didn’t exist and audio fiction on the internet was actually quite hard to find. One of the best stories I found back then, and one of my favorite stories that I discovered by chance, was On Venus, Have We Got A Rabbi! by William Tenn. I reviewed it in 2004 |READ OUR REVIEW|.
The story was recorded as part of an interview with David Garland of WNYC’s Spinning On Air. Astonishingly, the ancient file and directory are still there and still online at WNYC’s website. But, like almost all audio back in the bad old days of the interweb it was in the still nigh-unworkable REALAUDIO FORMAT. Getting it to work may still be a serious problem – it didn’t work for me without some serious fiddling. Here’s the hour long show |REALAUDIO|
In the WNYC interview Tenn describes himself “an enlightened pessimist” and “a skeptic in every way.”
But that may be under-stating it. He may be best described as a combination of Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain – but working primarily as a satirist in the field of Science Fiction.
His novel, Of Men And Monsters, is a truly terrific read and would make a wonderful audiobook.
It takes place in the future where the Earth has been invaded by giant aliens who have destroyed most of humanity. People now live in the walls of the aliens homes like mice divided into different groups and tribes where two types of religions have branched out; one that is devoted to technology from the past and the other that is trying to learn and decipher the aliens’ technology. [summary by Cynical-C]
Also available, via the Orthopedic Horseshoes podcast, are some snippets from Confluence 2008
with William Tenn talking about Theodore Sturgeon. |MP3|
Posted by Jesse Willis
Focus On The Family, an “American evangelical tax-exempt non-profit organization” has been creating audio dramas that I’ve been completely ignoring (probably unjustly) for years.
It looks like they’ve got some terrific source material and some solid acting expertize for their most recent project, an audio dramatization of The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. More details |HERE|.
It may be that The Screwtape Letters was written as a response to Letters From The Earth by Mark Twain – certainly the two books take the epistolary form and are set in a Bangsian Fantasy world. Twain’s take was skeptical athiesm, Lewis’s was was rational apologetic. Call and response?
In the June 6, 1962 issue of The Christian Century published C.S. Lewis’s answer to the question:
“What books did most to shape your vocational attitude and your philosophy of life?”
Here was C.S. Lewis’s list:
1. Phantastes, A Faerie Romance For Men And Women by George MacDonald |GUTENBERG|
2. The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton |GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|
3. The Aeneid by Virgil |LibriVox AUDIOBOOK|
4. The Temple: Sacred Poems And Private Ejaculations by George Herbert
5. The Prelude; Or, Growth Of A Poet’s Mind by William Wordsworth
6. The Idea Of The Holy by Rudolf Otto
7. The Consolation Of Philosophy by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius |GUTENBERG|
8. Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell |GUTENBERG (ABRIDGED VERSION)|
9. Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams |GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|
10. Theism and Humanism by Arthur James Balfour
Given Lewis’ stuggle with both Christiainity and atheism is it not curious that The Bible doesn’t show up on that list? Probably not. It may have been #11.
[via the Audiobook DJ blog]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Bill Hollweg, host of BrokenSea’s OTR Swag Cast, is a lover of all things radio drama. His show showcases all the cool old “old time radio” he wants to share with the world. Of the latest program, Bold Venture, that he’s added to his podcast Bill sez:
“it’s a FANTASTIC episode! Bogart and Bacall SMOLDER with sexual tension – plus death and mayhem and PULP THRILLS!!! brilliant SHOW!! Listen and find out how John Carpenter’s: Big Trouble in Little China (starring Kurt Russell) ties in with this classic Radio Drama!”
He had me at Big Trouble.
If you mention the greatest kung fu comedy fantasy movie of 1986 you’re bound to prick up my ears. If you then add in Bogart and Bacall I’m definitely gonna have to check that sucker out. And you know what? He’s right about Bold Venture being a terrific show. Here’s the rundown on OTR Swag Cast #49 |MP3|:
Tonight you will take a BOLD VENTURE with the AFRICAN QUEEN! PLUS- Mark Kalita pops in, driving the PORK CHOP EXPRESS, during the introduction to let us know what John Carpenter was thinking with his Big Trouble in Little China and why that VENTURE was so BOLD, and gives us some pearls of wisdom when one’s favorite head gets slammed against a barroom wall!
Bold Venture stars:
Humphrey Bogart … Slate Shannon
Lauren Bacall … Sailor Duval
Jester Hairston … King Moses
Music by David Rose
Salty seadog Slate Shannon (Bogart) owns a Cuban hotel sheltering an assortment of treasure hunters, revolutionaries and other shady characters. With his sidekick and ward, the sultry Sailor Duval (Bacall), tagging along, he encounters modern-day pirates and other tough situations while navigating the waters around Havana. Aboard his boat, the Bold Venture, Slate and Sailor experience “adventure, intrigue, mystery and romance in the sultry settings of tropical Havana and the mysterious islands of the Caribbean.” Calypso singer King Moses (Jester Hairston) provides musical bridges by threading plot situations into the lyrics of his songs.
Podcast feed:
http://brokensea.com/otr/?feed=podcast
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
Posted by Jesse Willis