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.
“…two Roger Zelazny audiobooks … have become available in unabridged form on CDs – Nine Princes In Amber and A Night In Lonesome October as originally read by Roger. You may know about these (and future Zelazny unabridged titles to finally be rereleased) but I just happened on the news. If you don’t know, the company is Speaking Volumes. I got the news from the newsgroup alt.books.roger-zelazny on Google. According to Chris Kovacs on this group, the releases will include Roger’s readings of Blood of Amber and Knight of Shadows which were not released in unabridged form on cassettes.”
It looks like Speaking Volumes will have quite a number of Roger Zelazny audiobooks published! But this new publisher doesn’t only have Zelazny, Speaking Volumes is doing some other titles that look very cool:
Drop that tasp and grab this link! I’ve got a FREE and UNABRIDGED version of Larry Niven’s Ringworld! You’ll need an Audible.com account. Hurry now, there’s no telling when this offer will dry up so grab it while you can!
Ringworld: Free Version
By Larry Niven; Read by Tom Parker (aka Grover Gardner) FREE Audible Download – Approx. 11 Hours 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 1996
Provider: Audible.com Welcome to Ringworld, an intermediate step between Dyson Spheres and planets. It is 93 million miles in radius – the equivalent of one Earth orbit or 600 miles long – 1,000 meters thick, and much sturdier than a Dyson sphere. What other advantages are there to this world? The gravitational force created by a rotation on its axis of 770 miles per second means no need for a roof. Walls 1,000 miles high at each rim will let in the sun and prevent much air from escaping.
Larry Niven’s novel Ringworld won the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1970 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1972 Ditmars, an Australian award for Best International Science Fiction.
John DeNardo of SFSignal.com recently asked me if I was “interested in participating in another Mind Meld.” I told him he should go back and audit a few more classes at the Vulcan Science Academy as he was obviously not mind melding with me well enough to know my answer would be: “Of course I would John!”
Here was the topic:
Q: What were the best genre-related books, movies and/or shows you consumed in 2009?
Here was my answer:
I expect to hear a few more audiobooks and audio dramas before the year is out, but at 11 months in I can already say 2009 has been a very good year for audio fans. Here are six genre audiobooks and audio dramas that I gave the SFFaudio Essential designation.
Audio Dramas:
The Adventures Of Sexton Blake – A rival of Sherlock Holmes, Sexton Blake is an unbelievably clever audio drama series. It is also very, very funny!
Blake’s 7 – The Early Years (Volumes 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4) – this superior prequel series mines the back-stories of the titular characters. B7 The Early Years is intelligent social Science Fiction.
The Red Panda Adventures, Season 4 – A free podcast audio drama series about 1930s Toronto superheroes. It features top notch acting, fresh scripts and more heart than all the X-Men put together.
Audiobooks:
Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper – A planetary romance about little aliens with a culture and language that borders on sapience. This Audio Realms edition features an able narration by Brian Holsopple.
Starship: Rebel by Mike Resnick – The penultimate chapter in Resnick’s galaxy spanning space opera. Narrator Jonathan Davis makes this audiobook version the ultimate way to enjoy this great series.
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak – A bucolic rumination on immortality, conflict, and human nature. Eric Michael Summerer’s clear narration makes Simak’s anachronistic grammar come alive.
You can read it |HERE| along with a bunch of other folk’s own lists, including Mike Resnick’s!
Proving that Twitter is good for more than fomenting revolutions and letting people know what you’re having for lunch, BBC Audiobooks America has assembled a collaborative audiobook written by Neil Gaiman and the “Twitterverse.” It’s available for FREE |HERE| and I’ve assembled the disparate MP3 files into a HuffDuffer podcast feed too.
Hearts, Keys, and Puppetry
By Neil Gaiman and the Twitterverse; Read by Katherine Kellgren
9 MP3 Files or HuffDuffer Podcast – Approx. 1 Hour 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audio
Published: December 1, 2009 So began the Twitter Audio project, with a dazzling first line penned by New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman. What followed was an epic tale of imaginary lands, magical objects, haunting melodies, plucky sidekicks, menacing villains and much more. From mystical blue roses to enchanted mirrors to pesky puppets, this classic fable was born from the collective creativity of more than one hundred contributors via the social network Twitter.com in a groundbreaking literary experiment. Together, virtual strangers crafted a rollicking story of a young girl’s journey with love, forgiveness, and acceptance.
The SFFaudio Podcast #043 – Jesse and Scott talk about all the Recent Arrivals and New Releases that have been piling up while Scott’s been away fiddling on a roof.
The Iron Heel, one of the books that we’re turning into AUDIOBOOKS for the 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge. It is being posted bit by bit, to a new website called TheIronHeel.net. The audiobook’s narrator and site runner, Matt Soar, is asking for feedback feedback on what he’s done so far. Here’s my feedback on your new site Matt:
Nice layout – simple and clean, with a blog format for easy RSS following. But! There is one serious deficiency that I see. There are simply not enough graphics!
<--So, I've made some for you!
Let's really jazz up this very modern themed (but old aged) novel about a dystopian 20th century that (sort of) never was.
Maybe someone out there on the internets has a cool map or something?
Matt's also looking for feedback on the audio. Have a listen to Matt's reading of the Foreword |MP3| and Chapter 1 |MP3|.
Personally, after listening, I think you’re doing a very good job. It sounds like the mic or the mic setup could use a tweak in some way – there’s something not 100% right there. Otherwise the voicing sounds really terrific Matt!