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.
CBC Radio One’s Writers & Company podcast has an interview with Sir Michael Caine. He’s a fascinating man, a terrific actor, and a narrator for the audiobook of his autobiography. In the excellent interview, done by Eleanor Wachtel, we hear plenty of cool details about Caine’s career, home life, as well as Caine’s own biographical background sketch of Batman’s butler Afred. He’s ex-S.A.S.!
Have a listen |MP3|
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Machine Stops
By E.M. Forster; Read by B.J. Harris
1 | MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Classic Tales
Podcast: November 2008
A must-listen reading of the story about the future where people live below the earth’s surface, rarely interact personally, and do all their interaction by machine.
Sound eerily familiar?
I listened to part 1, read by the talented B.J. Harrison, and then took my dog out for a walk so I could be sure of connecting with the real world. If you’re interested, but can’t listen now, download it anyway, because B.J. only leaves two or three episodes up on his feed and then moves his stuff over to Audible.
Check out past episodes here.
Posted by Julie D.
The SFFaudio Podcast #012 – Our sickest show yet. How sick? Well, I’d like Stanley Kubrick to direct the next Conan movie. We also talk about the SFFaudio Challenge #3, which is not as bad as Red Sonja (1985).
Talked about on today’s show:
Fallout 3 has a built-in radio drama (The Adventures Of Daring Dashwood), The Little Book, Selden Edwards, time travel, The Book Of Lies, Brad Meltzer, Nelson DeMille, The Border, The Third SFFaudio Challenge, Muureen O’Brien, Maria Lectrix Podcast, The Risk Profession, Donald E. Westlake, Spider Robinson, John D. MacDonald, Travis McGee, John Varley, The Persistence Of Vision, Scott Brick, Aural Noir, The Case Of The Dancing Sandwiches, Frederic Brown, The Fabulous Clipjoint, H. Beam Piper, Murder In The Gunroom, Galaxy Press, Elantris, Brandon Sanderson, Dennis Stocks, LibriVox, Masters Of Space, E.E. “Doc” Smith, E. Everett Evans, R.J. Davis, BSAP’s Queen Of The Black Coast, Robert E. Howard, Bill Hollweg, Stevie Farnaby, Brian Murphy, The Silver Key, Brett Ratner’s new Conan movie, HBO’s new A Song Of Ice And Fire show.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Recorded live at Penguicon 6.0 on April 20th, 2008. The Time Traveler talks to Vernor Vinge about his novel Rainbows End, the Singularity, and Arthur C. Clarke. Vernor also reads his short story “A Dry Martini”.
There are three other recordings posted at the Time Traveler Show blog/shownotes from Penguicon 6.0:
Has Science Fiction Lost Its Mainstream Cultural Relevance?
[John Scalzi, Jeff deLuzio]
MP3
Guerrilla Marketing — The Art of Self-Promotion
[The Time Traveler, Daniel J. Hogan, Michael “Freon” Andaluz]
MP3
Podcasting
[Chris Miller, Rich Elswick, The Time Traveler, Thomas “cmdln” Gideon]
MP3
Posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show
Danger in the Dark
By L. Ron Hubbard; Read by a full cast
2 CDs – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: Galaxy Press
Published: 2008
ISBN:
After Billy Newman strikes gold while mining in the Phillipines, he believes Lady Luck favors him so much that he buys his own South Seas island for a bargain price . . . or so he thinks. But when the natives fall ill from plague and crops start failing, the tribal chiefs blame Billy for angering the local god Tadamona. Their solution: sacrifice a beautiful young girl before the 75-foot god. Appalled, Billy argues to stop the ritual, but the chiefs demand he cure their ills in just one day or allow the killing to go forward. Desperate, he denies that the deity even exists and dares Tadamona to show himself. Not only does Billy get his wish, he draws a beastly wrath upon the entire island.
The Iron Duke
By L. Ron Hubbard; Read by a full cast
2 CDs – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: Galaxy Press
Published: 2008
ISBN:
American arms merchant Blacky Lee is wanted by nearly every government in 1930s Europe— especially the Nazis. They want Blacky’s head for selling them dud weapons, prompting his rapid (and illegal) escape across the Balkans to the kingdom of Aldoria with his business partner in tow. Aldoria is well chosen. Years before, Blacky discovered he was the spitting image of the country’s Prince Philip, learned the archduke’s speaking voice and memorized the royal family tree just in case. When Blacky brazenly impersonates the leader, things go surprisingly well . . . that is, until he finds himself caught in the middle of a Communist plot to rig elections and take over.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
John Varley’s Hugo and Nebula award winning 1978 novella The Persistence Of Vision is the latest unabridged story to be recorded by Spider Robinson for his Spider On The Web podcast.
Wow! Could your life get any more thrilling than this?
The Persistence Of Vision is the perfect tale for these times. With those bread riots we’ve all got planned for next week and all. Now, all we’ll have to do is let a few of our nuclear power plants do The China Syndrome-thing, get the survivors together, form a few farm collectives, shave off all our body hair, and then paint ourselves a nice shade of purple.
The Persistence Of Vision
By John Varley; Read by Spider Robinson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Spider On The Web
Podcast: November 2008
Wandering the roads and rails of a future USA, our narrator learns the art of living in a dead economy. Only a mysterious wall on the New Mexico/California border and a collective of the blind-deaf keep his wandering feet from moving on.
And, here are the details for the new Audible Frontiers version (which is done by a different narrator and is minus the sounds of pages turning)…
The Persistence Of Vision
By John Varley; Read by Peter Ganim
Audible Download – 2 Hours 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: September 2008
Listen to a sample |MP3|
On the surface, this Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic is about a drifter who comes to stay in a New Mexico commune founded by a group of deaf-blind people. But beneath the story, author John Varley examines deep, universal issues. What is the nature of communication? What does an individual gain – or lose – by subsuming himself to the whole? Can an outsider ever truly “belong”? Varley says that he has had more response to this story than anything he has ever written, that some readers have even told him it changed their lives. Listening to The Persistence of Vision, it is easy to understand why.
Posted by Jesse Willis