SFFaudio – Page 595 – 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.

Gresham College: Neal Stephenson – Science Fiction versus Mundane Culture

Monday, May 25, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

More on the Audio Vs. Video debate with an ABSOLUTE GEM of a lecture.

The Fork: Science Fiction versus Mundane Culture
By Neal Stephenson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 38 Minutes [LECTURE]
Venue: Gresham College
Recorded: August 5th, 2008
Four professors discuss the origins of science fiction, its overlap with other genres and its developments over more than a century.

And for those who prefer their content video…

I disagree with Stephenson’s labels for 300 and 300 Spartans. I’d classify 300 as lame and 300 Spartans as good. But, Stephenson is right, Hugo Weaving would make a good Vulcan.

[via Adactio]

Posted by Jesse Willis

WNYC: RadioLab – AV Smackdown

Monday, May 25, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

May 19th’s broadcast of WNYC’s Radiolab program asked the question: Which is better, RADIO or TELEVISION. To determine the answer an audience was asked: Which is better at pictures? Which medium is better at emotions?
Which is more fun? |MP3|

The results of the contest might have been different had it been a question of video vs. audio, rather than TV vs. radio.

I’ve occasionally thought that if I was forced to choose between losing my eyes or losing my ears my answer would depend on whether I’d have some audiobooks at my bedside in the hospital.

[via Adactio]

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 012

Sunday, May 24, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 012
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009
Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/short-science-fiction-collection-vol-012.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

As Long As You Wish
By John O’Keefe; Read by Joelle Peebles
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009
From Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1955.
If, somehow, you get trapped in a circular time system . . . how long is the circumference of an infinitely retraced circle?

The Big Fix
By George O. Smith; Read by Alan Winterrowd
1 |MP3| – Approx. 58 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009
Anyone who holds that telepathy and psi powers would mean an end to crime quite obviously underestimates the ingenuity of the human race. Now consider a horserace that had to be fixed…
From Astounding Science Fiction December 1959.

The Fourth Invasion
By Henry Josephs; Read by Tibbi Scott
1 |MP3| – Approx. 10 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009
Psychopathology has offered possible answers to why, from time to time, people in large quantities “see” strange things in the sky which manage to evade trained scientific observers, or conform to what is known about the behavior of falling or flying bodies. And mass hysteria is by no means a product of the present century. But—what if these human foibles were deliberately being exploited? From Future Science Fiction No. 30 1956.

Goliah
By Jack London; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 57 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009

The Man Who Saw The Future
By Edmond Hamilton; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009
“Jean de Marselait, Inquisitor Extraordinary of the King of France, raised his head from the parchments that littered the crude desk at which he sat. His glance shifted along the long stone-walled, torchlit room to the file of mail-clad soldiers who stood like steel statues by its door. A word from him and two of them sprang forward.” First published in Amazing Stories, October 1930. Later reprinted in the February 1961 issue of Amazing Stories.

The Nothing Equation
By Tom Godwin; Read by Janet Moursund
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009
From Amazing Stories December 1957. The space ships were miracles of power and precision; the men who manned them, rich in endurance and courage. Every detail had been checked and double checked; every detail except—

The Putnam Tradition
By Sonya Dorman; Read by Tibbi Scott
1 |MP3| -Approx. 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009
Through generations the power has descended, now weaker, now stronger. And which way did the power run in the four-year-old in the garden, playing with a pie plate? From Amazing Stories January 1963.

A Scientist Rises
By D.W. Hall; Read by David Adamson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 19 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009
All gazed, transfixed, at the vast form that towered above them. From the November 1932 issue of Astounding Stories.

The Shadow And the Flash
By Jack London; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009

We Didn’t Do Anything Wrong, Hardly
By Roger Kuykendall; Read by Joelle Peebles
1 |MP3| – Approx. 8 Hours 55 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 12, 2009
After all—they only borrowed it a little while, just to fix it— From Astounding Science Fiction May 1959.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Orson Scott Card Selects #10 – Lynn Flewelling’s Tamir Triad

Sunday, May 24, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Orson Scott Card’s latest aural essay is up on Audible.com. Card talks about Lynn Flewelling’s fantasy trilogy: The Tamir Triad. Card praises its ability to connect with “that ancient root story that we all knew.”

Go check it out, or get it directly |MP3|

I’ve also created a HuffDuffer feed for Card’s Audible.com essays.

Podcast: http://huffduffer.com/jessewillis/tags/orson_scott_card_selects/rss

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrival from Radio Repertory Company of America

Thursday, May 21, 2009Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Scott D.

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

The latest installment of the entertaining Anne Manx radio drama series!

Anne Manx and the Empress Blair Project
Starring Claudia Christian, Ellen Muth, and Robin Atkin Downes
2 CD’s – 2 hours – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: RRCA (Radio Repertory Company of America)
Published: 2009
ISBN: 0977134210
|MP3 SAMPLE|

Before she meets the Empress Blair, Anne Manx (Claudia Christian) wants nothing more than to spend her quiet vacation getting a tan. Empress Blair (Ellen Muth), though, has a compelling problem. Her father has been killed, and she fears she’s next. If Anne Manx can keep the Empress alive for mere two months, she’ll reach her eighteenth birthday and take over for her father. Complicating things is Mr. Logan (Robin Atkin Downes), who shows up just in time – but whose side is he on? Nothing is ever easy for Anne Manx, and she’s rapidly running out of lives.

For more info on this and other Anne Manx titles, visit the RRCA (Radio Repertory Company of America)

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Recent Arrivals from Penguin Audio

Thursday, May 21, 2009Tuesday, May 19, 2009 Scott D.

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Lover Avenged
A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood
By J.R. Ward; Read by Jim Frangione
19 CDs – 16 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780143144625

J. R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood novels have introduced readers to a “different, creative, dark, violent, and flat-out amazing” (All About Romance) world. Now, as the vampire warriors defend their race against their slayers, one male’s loyalty to the Brotherhood will be tested—and his dangerous mixed blood revealed . . .

Medusa
A Novel from the NUMA FILES
By Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos; Read by Scott Brick
11 CDs – 14 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780143144540

For seven books, Clive Cussler has dazzled readers with the “spine-tingling adventures” (Chicago Tribune) of Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala, and the rest of the NUMA® Special Assignments Team, but in Medusa the NUMA® team faces what may be its most perilous mission of all.

In the Micronesian Islands, a top secret, U.S. government– sponsored undersea lab conducting vital biomedical research on a rare jellyfish known as the Blue Medusa suddenly . . . disappears. At the same time, off Bermuda, a bathysphere is attacked by an underwater vehicle and left helpless a half mile below the surface, its passengers—including Zavala—left to die. Only Kurt Austin’s heroic measures save them from a watery grave, but, suspecting a connection, Austin puts the NUMA® team on the case. He has no idea what he’s just gotten them all into. A hideous series of medical experiments . . . an extraordinarily ambitious Chinese criminal organization . . . a secret new virus that threatens to set off a worldwide pandemic. Austin and Zavala have been in tight spots before, but this time it’s not just their own skins they’re trying to save—it’s the lives of millions.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson