New media darling Matthew Wayne Selznick has wra…

SFFaudio News

Brave Men RunNew media darling Matthew Wayne Selznick has wrapped up his unabridged podcast of Brave Men Run. At the very end of episode 17 he announced a couple of very cool things. First Brave Men Run will be available for purchase as an audiobook, an MP3-CD available through Lulu.com! Historians take note, this is the first commerical hard copy release of any podcast novel! Second, Matt also let slip that his NEW novel, a book called Light Of The Outsider will be coming out later this year again through Lulu.

Finding this out we just had to go straight to the source for more info, here’s what we found out:

Matt has plans on podcasting Light of the Outsider too! Light of the Outsider is set in what Matt calls his “Shaper’s World milieu” — it’s a fantasy genre novel “a totally original world” – if its anywhere as good as Brave Men Run we shall all be very happy campers indeed.

Matt’s got plenty of other irons in the fire right now too, but perhaps the biggest scoop we can actually tell you about is the title of the next Sovereign Era novel, it will be called Pilgrimage. We’re so excited!

You too can keep up with all the latest Matt Selznick News by subscribing to Matt’s email list. And if you didn’t have a chance to hear Brave Men Run it isn’t too late run on over to Podiobooks.com and grab a subscription! You won’t be sorry.

Happy birthday to us! It’s SFFaudio’s third birthday

SFFaudio News

Happy birthday to us! It’s SFFaudio’s third birthday today and we’re celebrating with cake. Want a piece? I sure hope it’s chocolate. That’d be nice, but secretly I’m looking forward to all the cool birthday presents more, let’s hope they’re all unabridged this year!

SFFaudio 's Third Birthday

Thanks so much to all the SFFaudio contributors and readers! We actually could have done it without you, but what fun would that have been?

Review of Ringworld by Larry Niven

Science Fiction Audiobook - Ringworld by Larry NivenRingworld
By Larry Niven; Read by Tom Parker
Audible Download – 11 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 1999
ISBN:
Themes: / Science Fiction / Hard science fiction / Physics / Space travel / Aliens /

I’ve started this review several times. I’m honestly not sure what to say about this classic novel. In a word, it’s wonderful. What else can I say? It was originally published in 1970, and won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel. Of course, the awards and all the accolades since were well deserved.

Blackstone Audio published this unabridged version in 1999, and I found it on Audible. Tom Parker does a fine job with this straight narration of the material. Not fantastic, but better than adequate. Once I eased into his flow, I had no problem maintaining attention, but I think a bit more could be asked in the characterization department.

The main character in Ringworld is a 200 year old human named Louis Wu, who is approached by a Puppeteer (one of an alien race) who in turn is building a team to visit a star system that has an fabricated ring around it. The complete team includes Louis Wu, the Puppeteer, a Kzin, and a human female. The reasons for all these choices become clear during the novel.

Niven’s style is such that you can be awed then amused on the same page. His characters are very comfortable with life. They talk physics like we discuss where to have dinner. After more than thirty years, the story remains interesting and the ideas fascinating.

I highly recommend this audiobook, whether you’ve experienced Ringworld already or not.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Paul Jenkins of The Rev Up Review has just celebrated1 year of podcasting

Online Audio

Paul S. Jenkins of The Rev Up Review has just celebrated his 1st year of podcasting! Congratulations Paul, your reviews are succinct, unflinching and always thoughtful. Those who aren’t subscribed can check out his 20th, and latest show HERE.

Lots of interesting new releases out this month….

New Releases

Lots of interesting new releases out this month…

V For VendettaV for Vendetta
By Steve Moore; Read by Simon Vance
Available in Cassette, CD and MP3-CD editions

Click HERE to listen to an MP3 sample.

First King Kong now this, Blackstone Audiobooks is offering another unabridged Movie Tie-In audiobook…

V For VendettaCallahan’s Legacy
by Spider Robinson; Read by Spider Robinson
Available in Cassette, CD and MP3-CD editions
Click HERE to listen to an MP3 sample.

It looks like the powers that be at Blackstone have allowed Spider Robinson to read another of his novels. Woohoo! I sure hope they get the rights to his upcoming collaboration with Heinlein too…

CBC Audio has released it’s fun 2004 summer Science Fiction humor miniseries…

Steve The FirstSteve, The First
By Matt Watts; FULL CAST
2 CDs – [RADIO DRAMA]
Product ID: ERART00166

The show has a cool cast: Don McKellar, Mark McKinney and Matt Watts to name a few. I heard it when it aired originally on CBC Radio One.

And hey look, they decided to release Steve the Second too:

Steve The ScondSteve, The Second
By Matt Watts; FULL CAST
2 CDs – [RADIO DRAMA]
Product ID: ERART00167

This is very neat, finally CBC is starting to release some of it commerically viable titles. I missed this one. I thought I’d missed it for good.

Podiobooks.com is releasing so many titles its hard to keep up, here’s the latest batch:

Podcast Novel - Doctor Janeway's PlagueDoctor Janeway’s Plague
By John Farrell

A science-fiction thriller about an astronomer who discovers that a cosmic ray source may be responsible for an ancient plague. Perhaps this is comparable to Scott Sigler’s latest novel?

Podcast Novel - Nina Kimberly The MercilessNina Kimberly The Merciless
By Christiana Ellis

A fantasy novel about a teenage barbarian princess who’s not going to let anyone else control her. Look out world she’s got a sword and knows how to use it!

Podcast Novel - SingularitySingularity
By Bill DeSmedt
A Science Fiction novel that takes as its premise that the real life cataclysmic Siberian explosion of 1908 was caused, not by a meteor or a comet, but instead by a microscopic black hole. Sounds intruiging!

Podcast Novel - Pirate JackPirate Jack
By Alessandro Cima
A modern young man sets off on an adventure through time to find pirate treasure and bring it home and save the family boat business. Previously available from CandlelightStories.com. A fun adventure novel that’s perfect for children too.

Recorded Books has a few new SF&F books we’d like to hear too:

Audio Book - A Brief History of the Dead A Brief History of the Dead
By Kevin Brockmeier; Read by Richard Poe
Available in both the CD and cassette formats – 8.75 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Listen to an excerpt in the RealAudio format HERE.
All residents of the City have recently died, and they will remain in the City only as long as someone still living on Earth remembers them. On Earth, the population has been devastated by a terrible pandemic. Laura Byrd, isolated at an Antarctic research station is the only person to have survived the pandemic. But she’s running out of time, supplies —and worst of all her memories are fading.

Hot new player Tantor Media has released a title I’ve been really looking forward to:

Sci-Fi Audio Book - Woken Furies Woken Furies
By Richard K. Morgan; Read by William Dufris
Available in CD, and MP3-CD editions – [UNABRIDGED]
The third Takeshi Kovacs novel. Returning to his homeworld Harlan’s World, Kovacs meets his eternal companions – betrayal, mystery, and revenge. Dufris is an SFFaudio favorite narrator so this should be an especially delicious treat!