Spider Robinson is Audible’s latest Sci-fi Guest Editor

SFFaudio News

Spider Robinson is Audible’s latest Sci-fi Guest EditorSpider Robinson is guest editor over on Audible.com right now. That means he’s written an essay (titled “The Missing Audiobooks“) and made a list of Audible audiobooks he recommends.

Here’s a snippet from the essay:

“Where are all the audio short story collections and anthologies?

Audiobook editors solemnly assure me that surveys prove audiobook readers hate short stories, whether in single-author collections or anthos. But if I ask where I can find those surveys they change the subject. So I can’t prove the pollsters bungled the job; I just strongly believe it. But in the case of science fiction, I’m certain: they’re dead wrong. There’s a vast audience for short SF; always has been.”

And here are Spider’s picks:

Several stories from… 2000x [from The Hollywood Theater of the Ear] |READ OUR REVIEW|

A Sheckley Trilogy by Robert Sheckley [from Wonder Audio] <--- from SFFaudio's own staff!!! The Retrieval Artist by Kristine Kathryn Rusch [from Deuce Audio] <--- from SFFaudio's own staff!!! Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick [from Audible Frontiers]

The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis [from Audible Frontiers]

The Golden Man by Philip K. Dick [from Blackstone Audio]

Antibodies by Charles Stross [from Infinivox] |READ OUR REVIEW|

10 to the 16th to 1 by James Patrick Kelly [James Patrick Kelly’s StoryPod]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Maria Lectrix: The Creature From Cleveland Depths by Fritz Leiber

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Maria Lectrix podcast, and it’s proprietress Maureen O’Brien have finished recording and releasing into the public domain a new/old short story by the immortal/deceased Fritz Leiber!

Says Maureen: “Here is a modern tale of an inner-directed sorcerer and an outer-directed sorcerer’s apprentice … a tale of— THE CREATURE FROM CLEVELAND DEPTHS”

Science Fiction Audiobook - The Creature From Cleveland Depths by Fritz LeiberThe Creature From Cleveland Depths
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Maureen O’Brien.
8 MP3 Files – Approx. 1 Hour 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Maria Lectrix
Podcast: October 2008
Provider: Archive.org
Every time Gusterson dropped a new free idea into the fad-ridden mainstream world of underground cities and cozy crowds, it crystallized into something really strange, and things got out of hand. So he shouldn’t have mentioned the reminder machine….
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3|
Part 5 |MP3| Part 6 |MP3| Part 7 |MP3| Part 8 |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Marvel Comics podcast talks to Orson Scott Card about Ender’s Game comics

SFFaudio Online Audio

Marvel Comics - Ender’s Game Issue 1 of 5Marvel.com‘s podcast, the Mighty Marvel Podcast, recently talked to Orson Scott Card about the newly released Ender’s Game comic book miniseries.

Issue #1 of 5 is in comic stores now!

Senior Art Director Jeff Suter talked with card about the adaptation as well as Card’s writing of Ultimate Iron Man (a character Card had never even heard of before he got asked to write his ULTIMATE story).

Card calls the Ender’s Game comic book “a 16 hour miniseries” done for comics.

He also lets slip the title of the next Enderverse novel.

Have a listen |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

SFFaudio Review

The Graveyard Book by Neil GaimanThe Graveyard Book
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Neil Gaiman
Audible Download – Approx. 8 Hours[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: 2008
Themes: / Fantasy / Ghosts / Childhood / Revenge / Parenting / Afterlife / Humor / YA /

In a few words: Not as disturbing as Coraline (which is… a bit) and every ounce as entertaining as I hoped.

Now, details: The Graveyard Book is Neil Gaiman’s latest YA novel. The story is about Nobody Owens, a young boy who starts the novel as a toddler that ends up in a graveyard late at night, all by himself. I’ll let Gaiman tell you how that happens, because the journey is all the fun here. Nobody Owens grows up, and Gaiman’s ghosts do all the parenting.

Again, Gaiman manages to be both sinister and funny at the same time, like he’s telling you the worst thing you’ve ever heard, but with a smile and a wink. Here’s the first lines of Chapter 1:

There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. The knife had a handle of polished black gold, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you may not even know you had been cut. Not immediately.

You’d think what follows would be a bit grisly, and I suppose it is, but it’s all so fantastic that I smiled through most of that chapter, with the sort of glow I get around Halloween. A pair of ghosts (the Owens’s) raising a live boy, that boy growing up and learning his letters off gravestones and his life’s philosophy from the perspective of dead but well-meaning people; well, it’s just a great idea, and it’s perfectly presented by Gaiman. My kids love it too. This is the kind of book that will be revisited in my house often. In addition, I’d say that if you have a Harry Potter fan on your Christmas list, this book might be just the right fit, and it has the added bonus of introducing him or her to the likes of Neil Gaiman, which in turn could open that fan up to the rest of the world of books as well.

Gaiman also narrates, and like I’ve said elsewhere, he’s one of the few authors I’ve heard that could make a comfortable living as an audiobook narrator. I can’t imagine this audiobook being read by someone else, and I’m very happy that it isn’t.

Edited to add the SFFaudio Essential, which was forgotten by the reviewer. He has been sacked.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Revisiting The Wood Beyond The World by William Morris

SFFaudio Commentary

I am in error. Mark your calendars folks!

It seems I mis-gendered the very feminine voice of Cori Samuel who has rightfully pointed out my big error on her blog. Cori writes:

Soooo, almost a year after I started working on it, and several months after Mandarine agreed to take on the huge task of editing this lovely-crazy book, ’tis done. The Wood Beyond the World, by William Morris, is available as a LibriVox audiobook.

It’s a great fantasy story, with interesting characters and strange plots, and it was splendid fun to read the pseudo-archaic language, even if I was tearing my hair out over it at times. Annoyingly, I think the archive.org counter has broken again, it still registers only 197 downloads so far, or else no-one’s downloaded it since the first day it was released — which is possible! SFFaudio set the original challenge and gave the book a good mention in their (excellent) recent podcast, but unfortunately, they DID refer to me as a ‘he’ throughout, so perhaps this is one of those books it’s better to read about than to read/hear. Or else they’d gotten confused with the other semi-freely available recording of the book, which can be found at AudioBooksForFree and runs a whole 10 mins longer than mine (a slower pace, not any deficiency of text, I hasten to note!) Read with a lovely British male accent, but only the lowest audioquality is available for free.

Now I could plead that the podcast where I made this gaff was recorded at 5AM before any coffee was imbibed. That, I’m overburdened, overworked, and underpaid (zero is a number). But, the plain truth is, I hadn’t listen to Cori’s recording at that point.

Which was rather shoddy of me.

RECTIFIED!

I’ve now listened to part 1, and am working my way through part 2. This |MP3| ably illustrates Cori’s lovely, lovely, reading.

So, now I entreat any and all to do as I’ve done, and make that 197 number grow. Please, if you would, download, enjoy…

LibriVox Fantasy Audiobook - The Wood Beyond The World by William MorrisThe Wood Beyond the World
By William Morris; Read by Cori Samuel
12 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 5 Hours 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 9th, 2008
The Wood Beyond The World is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. His use of archaic language has been seen by some modern readers as making his fiction difficult to read, but brings a wonderful atmosphere to the telling. Morris considered his fantasies a revival of the medieval tradition of chivalrous romances. In consequence, they tend to have sprawling plots of strung-together adventures. In this story, Walter leaves his father and his own unfaithful wife and sets sail in search of adventure. This he finds aplenty, encountering love, treachery and magic in the Wood of the title and travelling through the Mountains of the Folk of the Bears. But can he find happiness and peace by means of this Quest?

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-wood-beyond-the-world-by-william-morris.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Max Warp

SFFaudio Online Audio
BBC Radio 7 - BBC7Doctor Who: Max Warp
Full cast audio drama
Stars Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith
Written by Jonathan Morris
Directed by Barnaby Edwards
Produced by Big Finish Productions
52 minutes

Just heard this on BBC7 and it’s really fun so I thought I’d better post it before it slips away. (Since it already aired last Sunday, oops, it’s only available until November 1, so get cracking!)

Max Warp is a sort of Agatha Christie style murder mystery (eh, well, you’ll see…hear) that crosses paths with Douglas Adams (with one or two direct references as well) and then ends up in Doctor Who’s lap. Terrible sentence I know but where this tale takes place is probably the most fun part.  Here’s the skinny from the Big Finish page:

Broadcasting live from the Sirius Inter-G Cruiser Show. Hosted by outspoken columnist and media personality Geoffrey Vantage, with spaceship-guru-extraordinaire O’Reilley and daredevil pilot Timbo ‘the Ferret’…When a test flight of the new Kith Sunstorm ends in disaster, the Sirius Exhibition Station is plunged into a web of murder and intrigue. Someone – or something – is trying to re-ignite a war between the Varlon Empire and the Kith Oligarchy…only two investigators, the Doctor and Lucie, can hope to uncover the truth.

And so it goes, and I’d love to tell you more about this story but that would be spoiling things.  Listen to Max Warp yourself.  You can do so right now by clicking here!

Posted by RC of RTSF