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LibriVox – Ghost Story Collection Volume #006

Sunday, September 21, 2008Sunday, September 21, 2008 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

This collection, number 6 in the LibriVox lineup of Ghost stories, has some non-ghostly tales; there are indeed some very ghostly things that happen in a lot of them but it isn’t a pure collection. I’d judge this as a very fair Fantasy collection made a shade horrific. It’s mostly ghostly. And, the inclusion of three Robert E. Howard yarns will likely make it one of the more popular of LibriVox’s many short story collections thus far released. Most narrators here have good recording conditions, some are raw amateurs, beginners in reading and recording, others are polished amateurs. Overall, very fun listening.

Here’s a bit from the forum the LibriVox thread that captures it all nicely:

“What is a ghost story? M.R. James listed a number of features of the ‘English’ ghost story: the pretence of truth; ‘a pleasing terror’; no gratuitous bloodshed or sex; no ‘explanation of the machinery’; with the setting being ‘those of the writer’s and reader’s own day’. Roughly speaking, this gives the taste of what we’re after, but the setting can be anywhere, of course. To me, the most effective stories have perhaps something of love in them, something of sadness, an other-worldliness, a touch of fear, a shiver of the hair on the back of your neck.”

Ghost Story Collection Volume #006
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – Approx. 3 Hours 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
“A collection of ten pieces, read by various readers, about the unreal edges of this world in legend and story; tales of love, death and beyond. If just one story prickles the hair on the back of your neck, or prickles your eyelids with the touch of tears, we will have succeeded.”

Stories included:

Children Of The Moon
By Richard Middleton; Read by Virgil
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
I liked the language in this one, and narrator Virgil seems to be having a lot of fun with it.

Ghosts That Have Haunted Me
By John Kendrick Bangs; Read by James Christopher
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
“My scheme of living is based upon being true to myself. You may class me with Baron Munchausen if you choose; I shall not mind so long as I have the consolation of feeling, deep down in my heart, that I am a true realist, and diverge not from the paths of truth as truth manifests itself to me.”

Gods of the North
By Robert E. Howard; Read by Rowdy Delaney
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
A winter war in the mountains of Vanaheim and a bit of gossamer are all that stand between Conan of Cimmeria and a frosty beauty who spurns him. First published in Fantasy Fan, March 1934. Alternate titles include: The Frost Giant’s Daughter, The Frost King’s Daughter.

A Haunted House
By Virginia Woolf; Read by David Federman
1 |MP3| – Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
A quick stream of consciousness tale with an iconic title by an icon of literature.

The Man Who Was Not On The Passenger
By Robert Barr; Read by Anna Simon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
An unaccounted for passenger on a luxury liner is somehow tied into a stranger annual payment given to a widow. A well written, almost modernly styled tale. Anna Simon’s reading is Germanic accented, but not at all displeasing.

No Living Voice
By Thomas Street Millington; Read by Annoying Twit
1 |MP3| – Approx. 23 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
Written by an English clergyman. Set in Italy. A vacationer with an out-of-order visa discovers some mischief and strange sounds.

The Old Nurse’s Story
By Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell; Read by Jane Greensmith
1 |MP3| – Approx. 51 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
First published in 1852, this is an early Victorian ghost story, a novella by the biographer and popularizer of Charlotte Brontë. This is a dramatic tale full of manor intrigue, mysterious rooms and more mysterious screaming. All that and plenty of descriptions of character complexions .

Rattle Of Bones
By Robert E. Howard; Read by Rowdy Delaney
1 |MP3| – Approx. 24 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
First published in the June 1929 issue of Weird Tales magazine. Solomon Kane, stops at a grim inn of the Black Forest. To survive the night he’ll need fight demonry and witchcraft, and bandits all.

The Red Room
By H.G. Wells; Read by Virgil
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
From the 19th comes one of the most copied stories of the modern 20th and 21st centuries. The Red Room illustrates the internal human conflict between rationality and the irrational fear of the unknown. The protagonist spends the night in a haunted room in isolated castle in an effort to debunk the legends surrounding it. The most recent example is the Stephen King’s story “1408” from the audio collection Blood and Smoke.

The Skull In The Stars
By Robert E. Howard; Read by Rowdy Delaney
1 |MP3| – Approx. 24 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
First published in the January 1929 issue of Weird Tales magazine. The protagonist, Solomon Kane, is a Puritan who must go against his own moral code to defeat a creature of darkness.

Podcast feed:
http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/ghost-story-collection-volume-006.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Steven Gould short story Shade @ Tor.com

Sunday, September 21, 2008 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Tor.com has a new Steven Gould short story set in his Jumper universe. Whatever you thought of the movie (I rate it as a solid meh+ myself), the first two novels are very solid reads. The second, Reflex |READ OUR REVIEW|, was available in audio previously, the first, still hasn’t been audiobooked. Get yourself hooked by trying a little taste for free…

Shade
By Steven Gould; Read by Steven Gould ?
1 |MP3| – Approx. 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tor.com
Published: August 2008

[via Dragon Page Cover To Cover]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Dean Koontz and his dead dog wrote a book Bliss To You

Thursday, September 18, 2008 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

How nutz is Dean Koontz? This nutz…

Dean Koontz and his dead dog wrote a book, here’s an excerpt |MP3|.

My only question is, is this going to get shelved in Self Help or Fantasy section of the bookstore?

Posted by Jesse Willis

Forgotten Classics: The Wonder Stick by Stanton A. Coblentz

Thursday, September 18, 2008Wednesday, March 7, 2012 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

I was cheering up a young friend of mine by showing her video of Weird Al’s White and Nerdy the other day. It worked. Afterward, in explaining who Weird Al was, I described the character he played in the movie UHF. I said:

“He’s a sort of guy everybody thinks is a loser – incredibly passionate about his interests. In other words, he’s a nerd like me.”

My young friend then sez: “You know you’re a loser?” and then she laughed.

It was funny.

After the convulsions died down, I said: “I know that some people think of me that way.”

I explained that I know I’m a nerd. That I wear the nerd badge with pride. I like, and always have liked Weird Al and the whole ’embrace your inner nerd’ mentality he exemplifies. Which brings me to The Wonder Stick:

Julie D., of Forgotten Classics podcast (and a contributor to SFFaudio), has just wrapped up the final installment of her wonderful reading of The Wonder Stick by Stanton A. Coblentz. It was Coblentz’s first novel. You can kind of tell it his first novel, much of the dialogue is rather simplistic, especially with crowds of cavemen speaking like a Greek chorus (but then again, cavemen probably weren’t super eloquent). I get the sense that kids will really dig this adventure. Had I read it, when Julie had (in junior high school or high school), I’d have probably have enjoyed it even more than I did.

The Wonder Stick is the story of Ru, a young caveman who’s an outsider. Ru is scorned by his community despite his superior intellect, insight and cunning. In the end Ru triumphs, and gets the respect he so rightly deserves. It’s really the story of the original triumph of the nerds.

What The Wonder Stick doesn’t quite have is the modern ethos of the nerds (it is also absent from the W&N video), namely: We don’t need the respect of the non-nerds. We have our own community. So, to my young friend, and to all you nerds, I highly recommend downloading…

The Wonder Stick
By Stanton A. Coblentz; Read by Julie D.
Podcast – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Forgotten Classics
Podcast: May – September 2008
A prehistorical science fiction novel that does everything but invent the wheel. The “wonder-stick” of the title, is a real invention which provided an unparalleled quantum leap in human technology.

|MP3| Chapters 1 – 2 |MP3| Chapters 3 – 5
|MP3| Chapters 6 – 7 |MP3| Chapters 8 – 10
|MP3| Chapters 11 – 12 |MP3| Chapters 13 -15
|MP3| Chapter 16 |MP3| Chapters 17
|MP3| Chapters 18 – 19 |MP3| Chapters 20 – 21
|MP3| Chapters 22 – 24 |MP3| Chapter 25 – 26 & Conclusion

and then watching…

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals from Galaxy Press

Thursday, September 18, 2008 Scott D.

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume 24
By Various, Read by Various
Audible Download – 14 Hours 46 Mins – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2008

Listen to the best new science fiction and fantasy short stories from up-and-coming writers. Established in 1983 by L. Ron Hubbard expressly for the aspiring writer, Writers of the Future has become the most respected and significant forum for new talent in all aspects of speculative fiction. The elite character of the contest is evident from the roster of judges: Kevin J. Anderson, Doug Beason, Gregory Benford, Orson Scott Card, Brian Herbert, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Eric Kotani, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, Tim Powers, Robert Silverberg, and K. D. Wentworth. Since its inception, the contest has helped place more than 250 novels and 2,500 short stories on bookshelves around the world. The Writers of the Future Award has also earned its place alongside the Hugo and Nebula awards in the triad of speculative fiction’s most prestigious acknowledgements of literary excellence.

If I Were You
2 CDs – 2 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
By L. Ron Hubbard, Read by multicast
Publisher: Galaxy Press
Published: 2008

Circus dwarf Little Tom Little is the king of midgets, loved by crowds and carnival folk alike. Only he doesn’t just want to be a bigger circus star, he wants to be just like the circus’ tall and imposing leader. Trouble begins the moment that a set of ancient books containing the secret of switching bodies finds its way into Tom Little’s tiny hands. When he magically trades his small frame with that of the circus chief, finds himself in a giant-sized heap of trouble—his craving for height has landed him smack in the center ring surrounded by forty savage cats! ALSO INCLUDES THE FANTASY STORY “THE LAST DROP”

The Great Secret
By L. Ron Hubbard, Read by multicast
2 CDs – 2 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Galaxy Press
Published: 2008

Fanner Marston was raised a slave as a child, became a petty street thief as a teen, and now masters his own craft and crew as a grown man. He’s also gone completely mad. Driven by privation, with a vicious greed and slavering lust for power, Marston alone of forty men has survived the perilous trek through a blistering desert to the magical city of Parva, where legend says a secret awaits which will give him absolute control over the Universe. However, Marston finds the key to all power is not at all what he expected. . . . ALSO INCLUDES THE SCIENCE FICTION STORIES “SPACE CAN,” “THE BEAST” AND “THE SLAVER”.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Review of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Thursday, September 18, 2008 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Something Wicked This Way Comes
By Ray Bradbury;
Performed by Jerry Robbins and the Colonial Radio Players
2 CDs – 2 Hours [AUDIODRAMA]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433210792
Themes: / Horror / Fantasy / YA / Carnival / Americana / Ray Bradbury /

A good title might not have the verbal worth of a picture, but it’s certainly up there. And the title of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes is way up there. Not only is it delightful to say out loud, it also provides an insight into the language and theme of the story.

By evoking Shakespeare, Bradbury’s title announces his nervy aspiration to transform the language of America’s heartland into something approaching poetry. Hearing our rattle-trap vernacular transposed into song-like perfection is among the greatest attractions of this performance. Not that it always works, mind you. Sometimes, the witty exchanges between characters devolve into a series of confusing monosyllables, and sometimes the sheer weight of the mighty words flattens the actors beneath them. But the portentous speech of the lightning rod salesman in the opening scene is as perfect a transfiguration as the symphonic thunderstorm in Beethoven’s “Pastorale”.

But beyond simply the sound of the story, the title references MacBeth’s supernatural temptation, and thus foreshadows the wickedness to come. As MacBeth is undone by the crones’ magic, so are the residents of Greentown, Illinois undone by the magic of “Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show”. But since Bradbury writes not to noble Elizabethans, but to working class Americans, his heroes and victims are not men who would be kings, but aging fathers who wish to be younger and abler for their sons, fatherless young boys who dream of being old enough to be on their own, and solitary schoolteachers who yearn to relive their lives in better company. I think these differences say a lot about who we are as a people. The familiar and familial desires that lead Bradbury’s protagonists into peril seem comfortingly domestic compared to the brutish ambition that drives MacBeth.

Beyond the title, there is magic only Bradbury can conjure, such as the wonder and awe of his mythical boy-heroes. Such beings appear in many of his works, but Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are two of his best. They climb down trellises in the middle of the night to feed on moonlight and shadow, train whistles and silence. They revel as much in books as in footraces, as much in fantasy as in fact. They are breathless and happy, serious and trustworthy. These characters are to real boys as their poetic utterances are to natural language: Graceful distillations of an awkward truth.

And I love the depiction of Will’s father. As with the other elements, the relationship between Will Halloway and his father is a Platonic ideal form of what is so often messy, confused, and rueful in our own lives. How I wish I could be that father—wise and patient, kind and indulgent in all the right ways—to my own son.

One final note on the story: I have always been a little disappointed by the ending. I know, I know, the weapon against evil employed here has its roots in folklore, but it still feels a bit like defeating Godzilla with a wiffle-ball bat. After the scene in the library between Will’s father and Mr. Dark, it is a bit anticlimactic.

But the novel is still a landmark, and this dramatic production is itself very good. Child actors are somewhat hit or miss with me, but the ones who play Will and Jim mostly hit. In the gentler scenes, the actor who plays Will’s father is excellent, although he sounds a little young for the part. If he can’t quite carry the load of some of the scenes of heavier conflict, I think Bradbury’s prose is partly to blame. Such lofty words don’t easily come off with the down-to-earth punch we’ve come to expect.

All in all, this is a very good production of an American classic. It should be played and replayed, savored and shared with the ones you love.

Posted by Kurt Dietz