audiobook – Page 136

LibriVox: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Sunday, September 13, 2009Sunday, September 13, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Listening For The League's Gentlemen At LibriVox Here’s another older LibriVox audiobook featuring a character found in Alan Moore’s League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Wilhelmina “Mina” Harker (née Murray) is lucky enough to survive this novel and then go on to be the core characters around which the events of Moore’s first comix collection swirl. She’s the proper Englishwoman wearing a large scarf over her neck. She plays a literally pivotal role in Vol. 1 of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This version is not read by a single narrator, but, that’s okay in this case because Dracula is told from multiple (and ever shifting) viewpoints.

Dracula
By Bram Stoker; Read by various
27 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 16 Hours 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 10, 2006

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/dracula-by-bram-stoker.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Wednesday, September 9, 2009Sunday, October 4, 2009 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

SFFaudio Essential Hyperion
By Dan Simmons; Read by Various
19 CDs – 21 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781423381402
Themes: / Science Fiction / Artificial Intelligence / Aliens / Religion / Starships / Simulations / Transportation /

Seven people, all headed to the planet Hyperion to visit the Shrike, find themselves on the same ship. Regular pilgrimages are made to the Shrike, but these seven have been granted a visit to the Shrike together. To find out why this is, they all agree to tell each other their personal stories of what brought them. The result is a Canterbury Tales in space. A priest, a soldier, a poet, a scholar, a detective, and a consul each tell their story; all separate, all intensely personal, all very different, yet all involving the Shrike in some way.

The book is set in the distant future, and the ideas are plenty. There’s farcasting, where doorways are created to other worlds. One character has a house where every room is on a different world. Costs a fortune, but it can be done. There are artificial intelligences, starships, and sims. Against this backdrop is the Shrike, an alien creature that lives in the Time Tombs, and the seven on a pilgrimage who land in a city on the planet Hyperion, then make their way to see the Shrike over land. “Pilgrimage” is definitely the right word here, because the whole book has a mythic-religious quality. Each person is dealing with very difficult stuff, and what each person hopes to gain from the Shrike when they finally get to see it is nothing short of intervention of a higher power.

Audible Frontiers did a wonderful job with this audiobook. It used to be available only through Audible, but now Brilliance Audio is offering a hardcopy version on CD, which is how I listened. Each story is told by a different character, and each one uses a different narrator. The narrators were all excellent, so this is a perfect presentation of this book.

All seven of the stories are fascinating, well-written stories. There isn’t a weak one on the bunch. This is a top-shelf science fiction novel, up there with the greatest books of the genre.

Highly recommended, without question an SFFaudio Essential! The single caveat is that you must plan to read the next book in the Hyperion Cantos, (called The Fall of Hyperion), because the story doesn’t end with the end of this book. The Fall of Hyperion is also available from Audible (digital) and Brilliance Audio (CD), as are the two books that complete the series, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. This is the only one I’ve read, but I expect I’ll be reading them all.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #035

The SFFaudio Podcast #035 – Jesse and Scott talk new releases and recent arrivals with 2 of the 3 internet celebrities that were on last week’s podcast:

Gregg Margarite (LibriVox.org narrator and book coordinator),

and Luke Burrage (professional juggler and host of the Science Fiction Book Review Podcast) discuss…

Talked about on today’s show:
recent arrivals and new releases, Audible.com, The Fountains Of Paradise, A Fall Of Moondust, Arthur C. Clarke, space elevator, Dyson sphere, augmented reality, William Gibson’s Virtual Light |READ OUR REVIEW|, Minding Tomorrow by Luke Burrage, audiobook narration, The Prisoner, disaster, The Poseidon Adventure on the moon, the “BRADBURY 13” radio drama series, A Sound Of Thunder [BRADBURY 13] based on the story by Ray Bradbury, A Gun For Dinosaur by L. Sprague de Camp, A Galaxy Trilogy Vol. 3 includes (Giants From Eternity by Manly Wade Wellman, Lords Of Atlantis by Wallace West, City On The Moon by Murray Leinster), Tom Weiner, Hater by David Moody, apocalypse, zombies, Stephen King’s Cell |READ OUR REVIEW|, Left 4 Dead, what makes zombies so compelling?, Of Bees And Mist by Erick Setiawan, book reviewing (using stars or scores), Metacritic.com, A Dribble Of Ink, Subterranean Press, The Sharing Knife Vol. 4 Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse Of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold |READ OUR REVIEW|, Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster, Alien by Alan Dean Foster, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Predator by Paul Monette, The Abyss by Orson Scott Card, The Abyss (the movie), endings, the goldfish effect, Science Fiction exposes you to a world, Fantasy immerses you in a world, Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Abyss, The Terror by Dan Simmons, abridgements, Simon Vance, Hyperion by Dan Simmons, Q Squared by Peter David, John de Lancie, LibriVox.org, Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 025, Belonna Times, Brigands Of The Moon by Ray Cummings (read by Seth1864), The Pirates Of Erzats by Murray Leinster (read by mylantus), slide rules and calculators and abucci, Korean finger counting, Photoshop as a calculator, what jugglers are like, sculptor Jonathan Borofsky, The Pleasure Of My Company by Steve Martin, Magic square, Benjamin Franklin, Mandelbrot set, an entire issue of Astounding Stories of Super-Science – September 1930 as an audiobook, the Speech Accent Archive. An excerpt from Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster (the audiobook novelization of the 2009 film)

Posted by Jesse Willis

Aural Noir Review of Drive by James Sallis

Tuesday, August 25, 2009Tuesday, August 25, 2009 Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Review

Drive
By James Sallis; Read by Paul Michael Garcia
Audible Download – 3 Hours 26 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
Provider: Audible.com
Themes: / Crime / Noir / Los Angeles / Hollywood / Arizona /

“Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there’d be no doubt. But for now Driver is, as they say, in the moment. And the moment includes this blood lapping toward him, the pressure of dawn’s late light at windows and door, traffic sounds from the interstate nearby, the sound of someone weeping in the next room…”

Drive starts with an important dedication. “To Donald Westlake, Ed McBain and Larry Block.” If an author is going to choose any three modern crime writers as inspiration for a book they could pick no better three than these dudes. Drive starts off with an opening sentence that could have been written by Richard Stark (a pen-name of Donald Westlake), proceeds to punch-out clean and clinical prose like McBain’s 87th Precinct novels and punches the story along like Lawrence Block at his best. Drive stars “Driver”, a nameless Hollywood stunt driver by day and a criminal getaway driver by night. We get how he started in the business of stunt-driving, a few scenes of him pulling off those incredible feats of automotive control, and how he got involved in the punishing business of criminal getaway driving. It’s fast, but it ain’t furious, it’s more of a simmering sizzle.

Blackstone narrator Paul Michael Garcia, who I last heard as the reader of Starman Jones, has a young voice – I knew I’d enjoy his reading of something in this genre. Garcia’s narration made it an incredibly solid listen. What’ll keep it from being a classic of the niche is that same anonymity of the protagonist. I enjoyed the ride with the guy, the “driver”, he has an incredible story to tell, but it was like I got hypnotized by the road somehow – I got to the end, refreshed and exhilarated but not particularly aware of what route we took. Perhaps this makes Drive the ideal summertime, top down, high-gear audiobook? It’s a novella so it’s short and you’ll zip through it practically before the commute is over. I think its worth giving a try.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases – Bradbury, Knight, & Brown – from Wonder Audiobooks

Sunday, August 9, 2009Monday, March 1, 2010 Time Traveler

New Releases

Ray Bradbury’s fantastic tale of hyper-accelerated life spans of forgotten humans on an alien world.

The Creatures That Time Forgot
By Ray Bradbury; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
1 hr, 48 min.- [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2009

Available at Audible & iTunes

Mad! Impossible world! Sun-blasted by day, cold-wracked by night – and life condensed by radiation into eight days! Sim eyed the Ship – if he only dared reach it and escape! … but it was more than half an hour distant – perhaps the limit of life itself! From the author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man. Originally published in the Fall 1946 issue of Planet Stories. It was later reprinted under the title Frost and Fire.

And part of the Noir Masters series and the author of The Fabulous Clipjoint:

The Wench is Dead
By Fredric Brown; Read by William Coon
57 min.- [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2009

Available at Audible & iTunes

Howard Perry has become a drunk – a skid row bum. It wasn’t always so, and he has hopes of returning to be a respected university student. But now he spends his days washing dishes to buy enough booze to hopefully blackout at night. His only friend is a prostitute name Billie the Kid. But Billie is just a working girl, and it would be stupid for him to care too much for her.

Of course Perry isn’t exactly making the smartest choices as he continues his downward spiral. And when he goes to borrow a drink from Billie’s neighbor, who soon turns up murdered, things are looking even worse for Perry.

A wonderfully bizarre tale by SF Grand Master, Damon Knight.

Rule Golden
By Damon Knight; Read by William Coon
3hr- [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Published: 2009

Available at Audible & iTunes

As a newspaper publisher, Robert James Dahls found the news disconcerting; in fact, inexplicable. News items like two boxers simultaneously knocking each other out, prison guards sick and unable to guard the prisoners, policemen shooting fleeing culprits and collapsing themselves, battered wives with husbands suffering the same injuries that they inflicted.

Dahl catches wind of a large experimental facility that is being led by the U.S. Department of Defense. His suspicions coincide with the strange, beyond-coincidental behavior that he’s been observing. For what’s on the grounds of the facility is much more radical than anything that was claimed to be found in Roswell. Not just an alien but one that has a strange effect on the human race, where the Golden Rule works in reverse: Be done by as you do to others.

How can we get along without conflict? What will happen to the human race? Dahl soon finds himself a fugitive helping a bizarre alien save or destroy the Earth!

Did you know you can get either of these titles, as well as any other Wonder Audio title for just $7.49? Just sign up at Audible.com/WonderAudio

Posted by Rick Jackson

LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 022

Saturday, August 8, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s another almost all new-to-audio collection from LibriVox.org. Ten tales of Science Fiction from the tail-end of the “Golden Age Of Science Fiction.” These stories span the years 1947 to 1962. We’ve got LibriVox volunteers like
book coordinator Gregg Margarite, proof-Listener “julicarter” and meta-coordinator/cataloguer Lucy Burgoyne, to thank for ogranizing, proofing and cataloguing it. But we shouldn’t forget to thank the narrators either! Thanks for this fun collection of Public Domain audio goodness! We appreciate it.

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 022
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
Science Fiction is speculative literature that generally explores the consequences of ideas which are roughly consistent with nature and scientific method, but are not facts of the author’s contemporary world. The stories often represent philosophical thought experiments presented in entertaining ways. Protagonists typically “think” rather than “shoot” their way out of problems, but the definition is flexible because there are no limits on an author’s imagination. The reader-selected stories presented here were written prior to 1962 and became US public domain texts when their copyrights expired.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/short-science-fiction-collection-22.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Flight Through Tomorrow
By Stanton A. Coblentz; Read by Derek Bever
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
Super warfare has destroyed the old race of man, but elsewhere a new civilization is dawning… From Fantasy Book Vol. 1 number 1 (1947).

Happy Ending
By Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
A world had collapsed around this man—a world that would never shout his praises again. The burned-out cities were still and dead, the twisted bodies and twisted souls giving him their last salute in death. And now he was alone, alone surrounded by memories, alone and waiting… From Fantastic Universe September 1957.

Lost In The Future
By John Victor Peterson; Read by Reynard T. Fox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 8 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
Did you ever wonder what might happen if mankind ever exceeded the speed of light? Here is a profound story based on that thought—a story which may well forecast one of the problems to be encountered in space travel. From Fantastic Universe January 1954.

Master of None
By Neil Goble; Read by Dan Wylie-Sears
1 |MP3| – Approx. 33 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
The advantages of specialization are so obvious that, today, we don’t even know how to recognize a competent syncretist! From Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction February 1962.

No Pets Allowed
By M.A. Cummings; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 7 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
M. A. Cummings (Monette to her friends) returns with another hauntingly persuasive story of a Tomorrow that may not be as gleaming as we hope. Her recent story, The Weridies, apparently delighted some and startled others—and this in Los Angeles! What’s happening there? From Fantastic Universe August 1957.

Now We Are Three
By Joe L. Hensley; Read by Roger Melin
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
Where are we going? What will the world be like in the days—perhaps not too distant—when we have tested and tested the bombs to the finite degree? Joe L. Hensley, attorney in Madison, Indiana, and increasingly well known in SF, returns with this challenging story of that Tomorrow. From Fantastic Universe August 1957.

Rex Ex Machina
By Frederic Max; Read by Reynard T. Fox
1 |MP3| – Approx. 8 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
The domination of the minds of tractable Man is not new. Many men have dreamed of it. Certainly some of them have tried. This man succeeded. A science fictional letter from a father to a son. From Fantastic Universe May 1954.

A Transmutation of Muddles
By Horace Brown Fyfe; Read by Bellona Times
1 |MP3| – Approx. 44 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
An experienced horse-trader, bargain-haggler, and general swapper has a very special talent for turning two headaches into one aspirin pill… From Astounding Science Fiction September 1960.

The Velvet Glove
By Harry Harrison; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 44 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
SF writer and editor Harry Harrison explores a not too distant future where robots—particularly specialist robots who don’t know their place—have quite a rough time of it. True, the Robot Equality Act had been passed—but so what? From Fantastic Universe November 1956.

When I Grow Up
By Richard E. Lowe; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 4, 2009
A good many science fiction writers seem determined to depict children as little monsters. Not all children perhaps, and not with completely merciless regularity. But often enough to make us shudder. Only Richard Lowe remains independent. The youngster of this story isn’t a child monster at all. He’s just—a “destructor.” And that in itself is somehow unimaginably terrifying! From Fantastic Universe September 1956.

Posted by Jesse Willis