Happiness is… a new episode of Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas.
Review of Ringworld by Larry Niven
Ringworld
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
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….
Lots of interesting new releases out this month…
V 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…
Callahan’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 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 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:
Doctor 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?
Nina 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!
Singularity
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!
Pirate 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:
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:
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!
SFSignal has pointed out that tonight I-Sci-Fi i…
SFSignal has pointed out that tonight I-Sci-Fi internet radio show will air an interview with Sten co-author Allan Cole about Lords Of Terror, which he co-wrote with Russian fantasy author Nick Perumov. The show starts @ 9:30 EST.
Though too modest to toot his own horn himself…
Though too modest to toot his own horn himself my co-editor and very dear friend Scott D. Danielson has made his very first professional sale and I think it is very newsworthy, even though it hasn’t yet been adapted to audio (yet)! Scott sold his first ever short story to none other than the new online magazine Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show!
Adrift
By Scott D. Danielson
Publisher: Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show – Issue 2
Published: March 2006
“He was floating in dark space, stars all around. Then he noticed a dark patch of space, as if a dark hole had opened. The hole grew larger and larger, the stars disappearing, until he realized that he was looking at another ship. An immense, completely dark craft approached.”
The print edition of Adrift appears today in issue #2 (that’s the March 2006 issue). This also happens to be the same issue as Middle Woman (the story I REVIEWED back on March 1st – which was a story read by SFFaudio reviewer Mary Robinette Kowal). Adrift has a setting not unlike that of the H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos, but is also influenced by the likes of Anne McCaffrey and William Gibson, if you can imagine that. Scott’s prose is polished, shiny, poignant – had I known he had it in him I’d have been way too intimidated to email him all those years ago – this guy’s a natural writer, talented quick and full of great ideas. Now as to the inspiration, were I to guess, I’d say Scott was inspired to write Adrift in particular for two main reasons:
1. Besides running SFFaudio Scott is working on another big site. His personal blog, SFFreader has primarily been a project in which he reads and comments on ALL of the Hugo and Nebula award winning short stories, novellas and novellettes. This neo-Hurculean task has already vastly deepened his already substantial knowledge of SF&F in the short form.
2. Additionally, a few months ago Scott and I had some discussions about what makes an SF story resonate with one person and not with another. When I asked Scott in a private skype conversation to “name a favorite Science Fiction story”, he named The Star by Arthur C. Clarke – a very good story but one that didn’t resonate with me the way it resonates with him. He then asked me to name one of mine and I named The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin – a story Scott hadn’t read at that time. Scott got a hold of a copy of The Cold Equations, read it and felt the same way I had about The Star. There was a distinct gap between the two tales as well as a gap between our two feelings about the stories. In my estimation, the gap was the difference between a meaningful universe and a meaningless universe. I think Scott agreed, because in my view Adrift bridges the gap between The Cold Equations and The Star quite effectively. Now I ask you is this mere coincidence? Or is it meaningful to you?
Do yourself a favour and find out, Issue #2 of Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show is only $2.50 USD and is available now!