Good news everyone. BBC7’s the 7th Dimension wil…

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BBC 7's The 7th DimensionGood news everyone. BBC7’s the 7th Dimension will be following up with another classic Isaac Asimov short next Saturday! Those listeners outide the UK can use the BBC7 Listen Again service to catch it for 6 days following the broadcast! The reading will be…

The Last Question by Isaac AsimovThe Last Question
By Isaac Asimov; Read by Henry Goodman
Approx 25 minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Airing between Midnight (00:00) and 12:30am UK TIME (with a repeat at 6pm) on March 18th 2006
Asimov’s classic “man versus machine” short story. In the not too distant future, technology has advanced to the point where global affairs are managed by a huge computer called Multivac which supposedly can provide the answers to all questions… such as… “Can entropy be reversed?”
Produced Gemma Jenkins.

BBC7’s the 7th Dimension had a terrific Isaac As…

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BBC 7's The 7th DimensionBBC7’s the 7th Dimension had a terrific Isaac Asimov short story on offer last night at midnight (UK time). Those listeners who missed it, or who live outside the UK can use the BBC7 Listen Again service to catch it for the next 6 days!

Jokester by Isaac AsimovJokester
By Isaac Asimov; Read by Henry Goodman
Approx 25 minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Airing between Midnight (00:00) and 12:30am UK TIME on March 11th 2006
“Where does man’s sense of humour come from? Discover the answer in this intriguing story by sci-fi master, Isaac Asimov. “

Review of Merian C. Cooper’s King Kong by Joe DeVito and Brad Stickland

Horror Audiobook - Merian C. Cooper's King KongMerian C. Cooper’s King Kong
By Joe DeVito and Brad Stickland; Read by a Full Cast
6 CDs – 6.75 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Full Cast Audio
Published: 2005
ISBN: 1933322497
Themes: / Science Fiction / Horror / Movie making / Gorillas / Dinosaurs /

Full Cast Audio has really perfected their style. The first audio I listened to by them was back in 2002 – I reviewed it for SFSite, and you can find it here. Their Full Cast style of audiobook narration was new to me, I was a little put off by it, though I enjoyed the book (as did my son).

Here we are in 2006, and Full Cast Audio presents Merian C. Cooper’s King Kong, during which I marveled at the expert production. The skillful acting, the flawless editing, and the classic story make this a title not to be missed. Nobody does Full Cast Unabridged narration better than Full Cast Audio.

The story is familiar to nearly all of us. Carl Denham is a recklessly ambitious filmmaker in 1930’s New York City. He gathers a crew and an actress (Ann Darrow) to sail to a secret destination where he can film his masterpiece. The crew finds the mysterious island, where they find King Kong in an adventure that turns dangerous in a big hurry.

I haven’t seen the original King Kong film for many years, and it didn’t have the effect on me that it did on so many others, including Peter Jackson. I have seen Peter Jackson’s version, though. This version of the story is not a novelization of the Peter Jackson script. It is an expansion of the original novelization of Cooper’s original Kong story.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Hey the The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas have opened d…

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The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas LogoHey the The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas have opened discussions for show 11; this stealthy band of Science Fiction geeks are going to be talking about the greatest Science Fiction novel ever written, that’s right my little ronin, they’re gonna be talking about Frank Herbert’s Dune! Woo-hoo!

You can get in on the discussion HERE.

You can subscribe to the show using iTunes by clicking HERE.

Wahhh? Alien EthOS: The Ethics Of Sci-Fi is back…

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alien EthOS: The Ethics of Sci-fi LOGOWahhh? Alien EthOS: The Ethics Of Sci-Fi is back and with a new show! I really thought they had pod-faded – given that their last show was podcast way back in early November 2005 I’m truly surprised they are back. Glad for it too because Show#5 is on “Religion and a Child’s Right to Life” with the SF media example being from the Babylon 5 episode entitled “Believers”.

Click HERE to download Show #5 directly.

Or subscribe through iTunes by clicking HERE.

Review of The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells

Science Fiction Audio Drama - The First Men in the Moon by H.G. WellsThe First Men in the Moon
By H.G. Wells, performed by a full cast
2 Tapes, Approx. 2 hours – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Alien Voices
Published: 1998
ISBN: 0671872281
Themes: / Science fiction / Aliens / Sociology / Space Travel /

Oars slap against water and thud against wood, waves lap against a small boat bobbing in the ocean, and shore birds scree along the not-too-distant shore. You close your eyes and are transported to another time and place, a sonic virtual reality in which two fisherman sit to either side of you, discussing the catch and the mysterious steel sphere that falls from the sky. Such richly detailed soundscapes draw you into this adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The First Men in the Moon, and whisk you along from the familiar sounds of earth to the speculative sounds of deep space and the moon.

The acting is uniformly excellent, as well, with Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie leading a talented cast with their spot-on characterizations of Professor Caver and Mr. Bedford. These two form a buzzing, absent-minded scientist and cool, craven capitalist odd-couple who develop a spaceship built around gravity-blocking shutters and then fly it to the moon. The civilization they discover beneath the moon’s surface is, well, substantially alien. This tale isn’t quite Wells’, but it is told with such ebullience and impressive audio depth that you can’t help liking it. In fact, the genial enthusiasm that suffuses the entire production proves both the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of the work: It makes for fun listening, but it winds up blunting some of Wells’ sharper observations about humanity and reason.

On the plus side, this adaptation does an admirable job of streamlining Wells’ sprawling narrative to lead us effectively from the thrill of invention to the uncertainty of exploration, from budding friendship to estrangement, and from difficult first contact to horrifying understanding. But there are several missteps along the way. For one thing, the voyage to the moon has been clumsily appended with a comet rendezvous that cheerily ignores even Newtonian physics and leads to an incomprehensible predicament with the Caverite shutters. What’s more, a staged “revolution” on the moon is utterly unconvincing, and even more disappointing, the Grand Lunar is transformed from a rational genius to a power-mad egomaniac.

But the most important transformation is thematic. Wells’ original compares human terrestrial civilization with the formic lunar one to contrast life as we know it with his vision of a completely rational society. Both have distinct horrors: We have war and poverty, the Lunarites have de-evolved sub-races and casual deactivation of inconvenient units. In this production, the comparison seems more like one between Capitalism and Communism, and it reverses the threat at the end to be something like a Red Scare, which makes no sense when you consider which society has the more demonstrably violent past.

On the whole, this is a fun production and a treat to listen to. Enjoy it for what it is, but do not attempt to substitute it for a reading of the original.

Posted by Kurt Dietz