Tag: audiobook

Five Free Favourites #16: The 5 first H.P. Lovecraft episodes of The SFFaudio Podcast

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Five of my favourite SFFaudio podcasts are five of our H.P. Lovecraft episodes. I think they’re some of the best podcasts we’ve ever recorded.

Five Free Favourites

1. The SFFaudio PodcastSFFaudio Podcast #126 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Statement Of Randolph Carter by H.P. Lovecraft – featuring a reading by the incomparable Wayne June (from the essential Dark Worlds Of H.P. Lovecraft Volume 3) – participants in the discussion include: Participants Scott, Tamahome, Jenny, Mr. Jim Moon and myself.

|MP3|

Divider

2. The SFFaudio PodcastSFFaudio Podcast #138 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Crawling Chaos by Winifred V. Jackson and H.P. Lovecraft – featuring a reading specially recorded for us by the voice of Lovecraft the incredible Wayne June! – participants in the discussion included myself, Tamahome, Mr. Jim Moon and Wayne June himself!

|MP3|

Divider

3. The SFFaudio PodcastSFFaudio Podcast #147 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Pickman’s Model by H.P. Lovecraft – specially recorded by Mr. Jim Moon, of the incredibly awesome Hypnobobs Podcast – participants in the discussion included me, Tamahome, Wayne June, Mr. Jim Moon, and Mirko Stauch.

|MP3|

Divider

4. The SFFaudio PodcastSFFaudio Podcast #168 – AUDIOBOOK: Cool Air by H.P. Lovecraft – specially commissioned for SFFaudio and read by one of the best audiobook narrators in the artform, Jonathan Davis!

|MP3|

Divider

5. The SFFaudio PodcastSFFaudio Podcast #174 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Temple by H.P. Lovecraft – recorded, ably, by a first time narrator Mirko Stauch! The discussion which follows included myself, Julie Hoverson, and Mirko too!

|MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: No Great Magic by Fritz Leiber

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

No Great Magic by Fritz Leiber

It took me two attempts to get into this Fritz Leiber audiobook. Part of the issue was that the first person protagonist is female and the audiobook’s narrator is male. Phil Chenevert, the narrator, is a talented voice actor but he still sounded male. This bothered me all the way up to chapter four when I had my growning indignity balloon deflated by this choice paragraph:

I swung back to the play just at the moment Lady Mack soliloquizes, “Come to my woman’s breasts. And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers.” Although I knew it was just folded towel Martin was touching with his fingertips as he lifted them to the top half of his green bodice, I got carried away, he made it so real. I decided boys can play girls better than people think. Maybe they should do it a little more often, and girls play boys too.

Despite my loss of that criticism, I am still not fully satisfied with the story. Like The Big Time |READ OUR REVIEW| before it, No Great Magic is well written fluff – with not even the shape of a plot beginning until the very end.

It may just be that No Great Magic, and perhaps a good deal of other time travel related SF, are of a kind of “cozy” Science Fiction story that I just don’t fully embrace.

Still, the first person narration by the amnesiac heroine and Chenevert’s narrative skill make No Great Magic worth checking out – and perhaps your tastes and my tastes will differ.

Chenevert, incidentally, put it this way in a LibriVox forum post:

“I hope you have been involved in the theater somewhere in your past or present because this story smells heavily of greasepaint.”

LibriVoxNo Great Magic
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Phil Chenevert
8 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 1 Hour 53 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 27, 2012
|ETEXT|
They were a traveling group of Shakespearean players; perfectly harmless, right? wrong. For one thing, why did they have spacemen costumes in their wardrobes,right next to caveman ones? Why was the girl in charge of backstage suffering from amnesia and agoraphobia? No Great Magic is needed to perform the plays they put on, but sometimes great science. No matter where, or when. First published in Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1963.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/6656

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Here’s a |PDF| with the original illustrations from Galaxy.

Illustrations by Nodel:

No Great Magic - illustrated by Nodel
No Great Magic - illustrated by Nodel
No Great Magic - illustrated by Nodel

[Thanks also to DaveC]

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: Audio Realms: Ghoul by Brian Keene (read by Wayne June)

Jesse Willis

New Releases

This is the best audiobook trailer I’ve ever seen – graphics are nothing – just close your eyes and see it through your ears.

AUDIO REALMS - Ghoul by Brian KeeneGhoul
By Brian Keene; Read by Wayne June
Audible Download – Approx. 8 Hours 33 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Realms
Published: 2012
June 1984. Timmy Graco is looking forward to summer vacation, taking it easy and hanging out with his buddies. Instead his summer will be filled with terror and a life-and-death battle against a nightmarish creature that few will believe even exists. Timmy learns that the person who’s been unearthing fresh graves in the cemetery isn’t a person at all. It’s a thing. And it’s after Timmy and his friends. If Timmy hopes to live to see September, he’ll have to escape the … GHOUL.

Here’s a sample |MP3|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #174 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Temple by H.P. Lovecraft

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #174 – The Temple by H.P. Lovecraft, read by Mirko Stauch. This is a complete and unabridged reading of the short story (37 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Mirko, and Julie Hoverson.

Talked about on today’s show:
who’s the womanish Rhinelander?, Rhinelanders are manly(!), superstitious swine, Julie has a transsexual voice in the morning, Julie’s reading of The Temple, renaissance fairs, big crazy hats, Julie’s audio dramatization, the explanation, what’s with the curse, the practical and science-minded captain, insanity, The Call Of Cthulhu RPG, “panzaism”, WWI, unrestricted submarine warfare, The Crime Of Crimes by H.P. Lovecraft (a poem written in response to the sinking of the Lusitania), The Abyss, supernatural dolphins?, a heroic action villain, The Horror At Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft, Herbert West: Re-animator, The Call Of Cthulhu, Cool Air vs. Sunset Boulevard, a consistent philosophy, WWI vs. WWII, Kaiserliche Marine, Portland, New York, a proto-nazi, an “iron German will”, unrestricted submarine warfare, submarines don’t have windows, “stop hitting yourself”, the laurel wreathed figure, Atlantis, The City In The Sea by Edgar Allan Poe, Below (2002), Zach Galifianakis, cosmic horror vs. karmic punishment, teasing the insane, creepy sped up dolphin laughter, […UNTRANSLATABLE…], The Island Of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, nautical tales, William Hope Hodgson, 20° North, 35° West, Yucatan, S.T. Joshi, Mu and Lemuria, wrong ocean(!), the cousin of Cthulhu, Dagon by H.P. Lovecraft, a collection of short stories, poems, and propagandistic essays.

The Temple by H.P. Lovecraft

The Temple by H.P. Lovecraft - illustrated by Stephen Hickman

The Temple by H.P. Lovecraft - illustration by Mihail Bila

ad for The Temple by H.P. Lovecraft from Weird Tales, August 1925

Tim Kirk art for The Temple by H.P. Lovecraft

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: My Favorite Murder by Ambrose Bierce

Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Online Audio

My Favorite Murder by Ambrose Bierce

There are two readings of My Favorite Murder, by Ambrose Bierce, on LibriVox. Bill Mosley’s reading has a more appropriate accent, but Peter Yearsley’s is funnier, perhaps because of his English accent. The high minded language of the protagonist, combined with the frightening descriptions, makes Yearsley’s version more essentially hilarious.

If you’re familiar with Jack London’s Moon-Face, and liked that story, I think you’ll like this one too.

LibriVoxMy Favorite Murder
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Bill Mosley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 3, 2010
First published in the San Francisco Examiner, September 16, 1888.

LibriVoxThe Parenticide Club – My Favorite Murder
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: December 29, 2005

And here’s a printable |PDF|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Never Bet The Devil Your Head by Edgar Allan Poe

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Never Bet The Devil Your Head was written by Edgar Allan Poe to mock his critics. It’s wit is as sharp as Voltaire’s Candide and it’s smirk is as wide as Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, but it’s just the size of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal.

Never Bet The Devil Your Head is the tale of Toby Dammit, a man of vice, who comes to a bad end.

Here’s a choice snippet:

“At five months of age he used to get into such passions that he was unable to articulate. At six months, I caught him gnawing a pack of cards. At seven months he was in the constant habit of catching and kissing the female babies. At eight months he peremptorily refused to put his signature to the Temperance pledge. Thus he went on increasing in iniquity, month after month, until, at the close of the first year, he not only insisted upon wearing mustaches, but had contracted a propensity for cursing and swearing, and for backing his assertions by bets.”

I highly recommended it.

Here’s an unabridged reading:

Voices In The DarkNever Bet The Devil Your Head
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Dawn Keenan
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Voices In The Dark
Published: 2005
First published in Graham’s Magazine, September 1841.

And here’s a pointed, yet spritely, audio dramatization adaptation with the legendary Daws Butler playing Dammit:

CBS Radio WorkshopCBS Radio Workshop – Never Bet The Devil Your Head
Adapted from the short story by Edgar Allan Poe; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: July 28, 1957
Provider: archive.org

Cast:
John Dehner … Mr. Poe
Daws Butler … Toby Dammit
Howard McNear … the Devil

And finally here’s a |PDF|.

Posted by Jesse Willis