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.
Jack Mangan’s Deadpan podcast is unusually un-comedic this week with a half hour interview with SFFaudio Essential winning author Bill DeSmedt. Jack and Bill talk about Bill’s novel Singularity and the sequel to it that is being written. Download the show direct |MP3| or subscribe, and join the cult that makes you speak in vocal utterances of an unvaried tone via this feed:
http://www.jackmangan.com/podcast.xml
Pendant Productions, founded and executive produced by writer/director/actor Jeffrey Bridges has released the first in a nine episode crossover series scattered among their three superhero audio dramas:
“IMPERIUM” incorporates three Pendant shows; Superman: The Last Son of Krypton, Batman: The Ace of Detectives and Wonder Woman: Champion of Themyscira in a story spanning three months and nine episodes. The first show in the crossover appears in “issue” 25 of Superman: The Last Son of Krypton…
Superman: The Last Son of Krypton (Issue 25 “Onslaught”) – Part 1 of 9 of the “IMPERIUM” Crossover
1 MP3 – Approx. 16 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: Pendant Productions – Superman: The Last Son of Krypton
Podcast: January 30th 2007
From the tattered remains of Themyscira to Gotham City and Metropolis, Earth is under attack from a horde of parademons that can’t be stopped! Even the mightiest of heroes must band together and take the fight to the source… Darkseid!
Podcast feed:
http://www.pendantaudio.com/superman-podcast.xml
And be sure to watch out for the subsequent issues:
FEB 14 – Batman 13 (Imperium 2)
FEB 21 – Wonder Woman 13 (Imperium 3)
FEB 28 – Superman 26 (Imperium 4)
MAR 14 – Batman 14 (Imperium 5)
MAR 21 – Wonder Woman 14 (Imperium 6)
MAR 28 – Superman 27 (Imperium 7)
APR 11 – Batman 15 (Imperium 8)
APR 18 – Wonder Woman 15 (Imperium 9)
Remember all the Choose Your Own Adventure stories from when we were kids? I was completely addicted to them myself. Well, the official site is now offering (for a $9.99 fee) its first adventure in an audio format for the iPod.
The Abominable Snowman is read by series author and founder R. A. Montgomery, and includes color illustrations and sound effects.
Get more information at the Choose Your Own Adventure Shop HERE.
The Magic Tree House Collection
By Mary Pope Osborne; Read by Mary Pope Osborne
5 CDs – 5 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Listening Library
Published: 2001
ISBN: 0807206121
Themes: / Fantasy / Children’s Fantasy / Time Travel / Magic / Dragons / Knights / Pirates / Prehistoric /
This delightful children’s fantasy series features Jack and Annie. They’re siblings that find a tree house full of books. By opening the books the children are transported across time and space. This collection contains the first eight books of this popular kids series. In each book the children find themselves going to a different place. The books contained in this audiobook are:
1. Dinosaurs Before Dark
2. The Knight at Dawn
3. Mummies in the Morning
4. Pirates Past Noon
5. Night of the Ninjas
6. Afternoon on the Amazon
7. Sunset of the Sabertooth
8. Midnight on the Moon
Each book’s setting contains the tropes you’d expect to find. So in Pirates Past Noon, for instance, you have pirates, sailing ships, booty and treasure maps. There are story arc’s that stretches over a number of the books. The first concerns—who is the owner of the Magic Tree House.
Mary Pope Osbourne does a wonderful job of narration. Her pacing is excellent and her voice characterization are right on the mark. She has a gentle, soothing voice that children will love.
If you know or have a young person, of about five to ten years old, that you want to turn on to audiobooks, this audio collection is a perfect introduction. For my eight year old, we used it as part of our bedtime story ritual. I’ve bought the books so we can read along some nights. Other nights we take turns reading the books out loud.
Under The Graying Sea is a HARD SF novelette which appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in February, 2006. Here’s the teaser:
Tessa and her partner Loránd are on a maintenance mission: Enter a man-made wormhole. Fortuitously, the two pilots’ bodies have been reinforced to withstand up to 24 gravities each. But a malfunction causes life-threatening injuries to Loránd. Stranded over two light years from Earth and forced to wait for their return window, Tessa keeps herself busy by checking the wormhole anchor, only to discover that multiple and unexpected course adjustments have been made.
Under The Graying Sea
By Jonathan Sherwood; Read by Mur Lafferty
3 MP3s – Approx. 72 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Jonathan Sherwood’s Gramophiction
Podcast: January 2007
Download the complete novelette directly, PART 1 |MP3| PART 2 |MP3| PART 3 |MP3|, or if you’d prefer to get the podcast, plug this feed into your podcatcher:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/JonathanSherwoodsGramophiction
If you like the story, you can vote for it on Asimov’s 2006 survey which runs until February 1st 2007.
The Stonehenge Gate
By Jack Williamson; Read by Harlan Ellison
7 CDs – 8.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 9780786146550 (Cassette), 9780786174119 (MP3-CD), 9780786167784 (CD)
Themes: / Science Fiction / Stargate / Journey / Slavery / Evolution / Aliens /
This is Jack Williamson’s last book, at least it’s the last book published in his lifetime. The man has had a long career, a very long career. Jack’s first story was published in the fairly new Amazing Stories in 1928. Jack has been able to adapt his fiction to the changing and maturing literature that we call Science Fiction, again and again.
One admirable quality of Jack’s work that remained consistent over the nine decades in which he wrote, was his ability to tell a good yarn. His stories can always hold your attention, and he never forgot to have a beginning, middle and an end. This may sound like a trait that all writers should have, but it is really not the case. This always kept Jack’s works above the average SF writer.
In The Stonehenge Gate, we have four poker buddies that find a gateway into other worlds. The four characters are academics who are excavating a site under the sands of the Sahara. Will is an English Professor who narrates the story. Ram is an African professor who has a strange birthmark that mimics the shape of the Stonehenge Gate that they find. Stranger still is that the birthmark seems to be hereditary.
They soon pass into many new worlds throughout this novel. The majority of the novel takes place in a world inhabited by a preindustrial society with institutionalized black slavery. The characters have to grapple with functioning in this world while supporting abolishinest causes. There’s a dark quality to this part of the journey that has more than a passing nod to Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness.
Harlan Ellison’s narration is spectacular. This is likely the only audiobook that is written by one SF Grand Master and read by another. Of course, there aren’t any SF Grandmaster’s that have also won an Audie award like Harlan has. Harlan throws himself into his acting. He’s energized and seems to be convincingly living the parts he’s portraying to a greater degree than can be said of most voice actors.
How does this book stack up against the rest of the Williamson cannon? I don’t believe this is one of Jack’s best books nor one of his lesser efforts. Placing it somewhere in the middle. But in the case of Jack, that’s a pretty damn good book.