alternate history – Page 6

LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Stories Collection #005

Friday, April 18, 2008Wednesday, December 9, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

The “Short Science Fiction Collections” from LibriVox are FREE and FUN! Here’s the latest, which includes mostly new stories (a couple of stories previously recorded by other narrators). My recommended listens from this collection include: Summit, Crossroads Of Destiny and A Matter Of Magnitude. Also, listen to The Untouchable and Quiet, Please, if only for the voice of new narrator Jerome Lawson. Lawson is trying and achieving distinctive voices for each character – it’s not polished to perfection yet, but he’s really got something there. Lawson also has great sound set-up too. I’d like to hear more of his work in the next collection – or in novella or novel length work. And, thanks to all the narrators and the administrators at LibriVox for these! We appreciate it folks!

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 005
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – Approx. 5.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
“Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories, originally published between 1931 and 1962, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.”

Stories included:

2BR02B
By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.; Read by Hoosemon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
In the not so distant future an over-populated planet requires that every birth be balanced by a death. When Edward K. Whelig, Jr.’s wife births triplets he needs to find three people willing to enter a local suicide booth and give him the receipt…

The Burning Bridge
By Poul Anderson; Read by Alex C. Telander
1 |MP3| – Approx. 52 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Usually there are two “reasons” why something is done; the reason why it needs to be done, and, quite separate, the reason people want to do it. The foul-up starts when the reason-for-wanting is satisfied … and the need remains! This story was first published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine’s January 1960 issue.
*From Worlds of If, January 1962.

Circus
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by RK Wilcox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Not a strange-looking man, Morgan thought. Rather ordinary, in fact. A plain face, nose a little too long, fingers a little too dainty, a suit that doesn’t quite seem to fit, but all in all, a perfectly ordinary looking man. *First published in 1963 in “The Counterfeit Man -More Science Fiction Stories”.

Crossroads of Destiny
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Alex C. Telander
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
No wonder he’d been so interested in the talk of whether our people accepted these theories! *First published in the July 1959 issue of Fantastic Universe Science Fiction magazine.

Egocentric Orbit
By John Cory; Read by Elanor
1 |MP3| – Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
It took a long time for human beings to accept that our little piece of meteoric rubble wasn’t the exact and absolute center of the Universe. It does appear that way, doesn’t it? It may not take so long for a spaceman to learn … First published in Astounding Science Fiction’s May 1960 issue.

A Matter Of Magnitude
By Al Sevcik; Read by RK Wilcox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
When you’re commanding a spaceship over a mile long, and armed to the teeth, you don’t exactly expect to be told to get the hell out … *First published in the pages of Amazing Science Fiction Stories, January 1960.

Quiet, Please
By Kevin Scott; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Groverzb knew what he wanted—peace and quiet. He was willing to scream his head off for it!
*First published in Worlds of If magazine’s November 1961 issue.

The Untouchable
By Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
“You can see it—you can watch it—but mustn’t touch!” And what could possibly be more frustrating … when you need, most violently, to get your hands on it for just one second… *From Analog magazine’s December 1960 issue.

Summit
By Mack Reynolds; Read by RK Wilcox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
Almost anything, if it goes on long enough, can be reduced to, first a Routine, and then, to a Tradition. And at the point it is, obviously, Necessary. *First published in Astounding Science Fiction’s February, 1960 issue.

The Yillian Way
By Keith Laumer; Read by John Larmour
1 |MP3| – Approx. 37 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 2008
The ceremonious protocol of the Yills was impressive, colorful—and, in the long run, deadly!

Subscribe to the podcast feed via this url:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/short-science-fiction-collection-vol-005.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases – S.M. Stirling, Mary Shelley, Frank Herbert

Thursday, March 27, 2008Thursday, March 27, 2008 Jesse Willis

New Releases

Another in S.M. Stirling’s alternate planet series (a parallel world first introduced in The Sky People), have a listen to the Dragon Page interview/chat with Stirling |MP3|, it too sounds like a cool book, The Sky People earned an SFFaudio Essential designation…

In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings
By S.M. Stirling; Read by Todd McLaren
10 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – 13 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
EAN: 9781400106103 (CDs), 9781400156108 (MP3-CD)
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Published: March 2008
On Mars, early hominids evolved civilization earlier than their earthly cousins, driven by the needs of a harsh world growing still harsher as the initial terraforming ran down. Without coal, oil, or uranium, their technology was forced onto different paths, and the genetic wizardry of the Crimson Dynasty united a world for more than 20,000 years. Now, in a new stand-alone adventure set in this world’s 2000 AD, Jeremy Wainman is an archaeologist who has achieved a lifelong dream: to travel to Mars and explore the dead cities of the Deep Beyond, searching for the secrets of the Kings Beneath the Mountain and the fallen empire they ruled.

Unhyped, unbalyhooed, and probably the last novel that needs to be re-recorded, never the less I think the fact that Simon Vance is narrating makes this a worthy edition…

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
By Mary Shelley; Read by Simon Vance
7 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – 8 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Published: February 2008
EAN: 9781400106349 (CD), 9781400156344 (MP3-CD)
Mary Shelley’s tragic story of a scientist who created a monster is perhaps even more compelling today than when it was written nearly two centuries ago. The brilliant Victor Frankenstein fashions a new form of life only to discover, too late, the irreparable damage he has caused.

Here’s the first in a new batch of old, non-Dune, Herbert novels getting their first unabridged releases…

Hellstrom’s Hive
By Frank Herbert; Read by Scott Brick
10 CDs, 1 MP3-CD – 4 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
EAN: 9781400105649 (CDs), 9781400155644 (MP3-CD)
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Published: March 2008
America is a police state, and it is about to be threatened by the most hellish enemy in the world: insects. First published in Galaxy magazine in 1973 as “Project 40,” Frank Herbert’s vivid imagination and brilliant view of nature and ecology have never been more evident than in this classic of science fiction.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 airing Slipstream a Nazi/UFO alternate history Radio Drama

Wednesday, March 19, 2008Wednesday, December 15, 2010 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Simon Bovey’s new SF thriller for BBC Radio 7 from March 24th to 28th, 2008. Simon Bovey is the scriptwriter for previous two Radio Drama thrillers: Cold Blood (Antarctic setting) and The Voice of God (Australia setting). In his new program, Slipstream. Bovey describes it as – “Part political thriller, part war story, part future shock.”

Slipstream
By Simon Bovey; Performed by a full cast
5 Parts – Approx. 2.5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Mon. 24th March – Fri. 28th @ 6pm & Midnight (UK time)
March 1945 and the Allies’ victory in Europe is a forgone conclusion. But then over a hundred RAF bombers are shot down in one night by a shimmering aircraft. Is this a new terror weapon? One that could turn the tide of war back in the Germans’ favour? A misfit team of specialists are parachuted behind enemy lines, in the crucible between the attacking armies of the Russians and the Americans, to grab this technology and nip the threat in the bud. What they find is more shocking and alien than they could have ever imagined.

[via Daily Space]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7 Robert Harris’ Fatherland RADIO DRAMA

Saturday, March 1, 2008Saturday, December 5, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Beginning on Monday and running daily, BBC7 is airing their adaptation of Robert Harris’ bestselling novel Fatherland. This powerful and award winning drama, examines an alternate history in which the Nazi empire never fell. The setting is 1960s Berlin, on the cusp of Hitler’s 75th birthday. Dramatised and produced by John Dryden, it stars Anton Lesser and Andrew Sachs. This will definitely be one to catch via the Listen Again service!

Fatherland
Based on the novel by Robert Harris; Performed by a full cast
5 Parts – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
BROADCASTER: BBC 7
BROADCAST: Monday March 3rd to Friday March 7th @ 9am, 8pm and 1am (UK time)
Nazi Germany has won the war. Churchill is living in exile. King Edward and Queen Wallis are puppet monarchs of the UK. It is 1964, a week before Hitler’s 75th birthday. Anton Lesser stars as the Berlin detective called to investigate the suspicious death of a retired German senior civil servant.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Ascent by Jed Mercurio

Friday, November 30, 2007Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Review

Ascent
By Jed Mercurio; Read by Todd McLaren
6 CDs – 7.5 7.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781400103683
Themes: / Science Fiction / Alternate History / War / Cold War / The Moon /

The sun swings behind the world. Night engulfs him. The dull metal craft plunges through space, its portholes pale beacons containing the silhouette of a man, and the only other lights are the stars themselves.

This alternate history novel is a faithful depiction of the Soviet Union’s race against the United States to put a man on the Moon. The sad reality is that it never happened this way, but that doesn’t nullify a tremendously magnetic story of how it very well could have done. The viewpoint character is Yefgeni Yeremin an orphan of WWII, a fighter pilot and a Korean air-war ace. His story is as compelling a depiction of a quasi-Nitzchean overman as I’ve seen in fiction. Yeremnin is a more human, more plausible kind of Ayn Randian character – but he’s also hard to empathize with. He’s a man who can’t quite break free of his upbringing, his colleagues, his country, but who despite this achieves what must be viewed as the ultimate in overcoming. The Ascent of the title is not just that of a man from the surface of the Earth, but of mankind from Earth and that which came before. Just as birth is the obvious, but arbitrary line in the moral sand of personhood, so too is the actual landing of a human being on the surface of the moon.

Ascent starts with a shock, builds brilliantly during the Korean War scenes and then plateaus. Mercurio tells a powerful story – the first half of the audiobook absolutely riveted the headphones to my head. That which follows is engaging, but not as impactful. Perhaps the tale could have been told in another manner. Perhaps part of the problem is in the novel form itself. I wonder if it might not have been better, shorter – as a novella say. Yeremnin too is hard to take at this length – he is a hard man, from a hard world, with little in him other than will. The technical jargon that predominates his space voyage, while I’m certain accurate, is burdensome, and the problems that face the protagonist are less thrilling than those in the first half of the book. The end, when it comes, simply…. is. It isn’t wrong for the book, but it isn’t right either. It may be that this kind of tale, with this kind of character, is not actually tellable another way. Todd McLaren helps, he does Russian accented English but doesn’t overplay it – this is a matter of fact delivery. I hope Mercurio can find another topic within Science Fiction with as much passion as that which he put into Ascent, this was a tremendously compelling listen.

Posted by Jesse Willis