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.
First published in Tryout, November 1920, The Cats Of Ulthar is an unusual tale by H.P. Lovecraft. It reads more like an old fashioned fairy tale than any other I’ve read. The story features a young boy named Menes who loves cats. Lovecraft probably took that name from the writings of a Greek historian named Diodorus Siculus who related a tale of a legendary Egyptian pharaoh named Menes that he heard from some crocodile-god priests. Menes it was said fled from his own dogs, who attacked him, while hinting. His escape was assisted by a crocodile. But no dogs or crocodiles are mentioned in The Cats Of Ulthar.
The Cats Of Ulthar
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by James Pontolillo
1 |MP3| – Approx. 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 19, 2008
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First published in Tryout, November 1920.
And here’s a |PDF| made from the publication in Fantastic Novels, January 1951.
The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Neil Gaiman SoundCloud – Approx. 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: SoundCloud.com
Published: Jun 7, 2012
Set to be published in Shadow Show: All New Stories In Celebration Of Ray Bradbury.
And if you’d like to make the file downloadable use THIS site:
Here’s a rather timely re-post, one based on a post prompted back in 2006 by an astronomer at the University of Hawaii. Professor Esther M. Hu, pointed me towards this reading of an Arthur C. Clarke classic, one read by Clarke himself!
Listening to it again today, and thinking about the significance of science and history of such an event, and the related event happening today, I found Clarke’s reading of The Transit Of Earth to be an incredibly moving experience.
Since then I’ve noticed that there was an introduction written for it too, which appeared in the May 1984 issue of Omni. It’s rather timely, considering that Clarke mentions today’s transit of Venus (which will be the last until 2117):
The Transit Of Earth
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Arthur C. Clarke
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Caedmon
Published: 1975
Product #: TC-1566
I posted last about Philip K. Dick’s shortest short story back in 2010. I’m reposting it because I’ve made a three page |PDF| to go with it (made from it’s first publication, Science Fiction Stories).
The Eyes Have It, is just a simple story about a literal man and the ridiculous alien invasion he imagines. It’s a silly little piece of fluff. A mere lighthearted thought experiment. Just a fun little story of no real account or import. In fact it’s barely …. wait one second … could it … ? …. what if … ? … HEY! That’s that just what they want you to think!!!
The Eyes Have It
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 8 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 20, 2010
|ETEXT| A little whimsy, now and then, makes for good balance. Theoretically, you could find this type of humor anywhere. But only a topflight science-fictionist, we thought, could have written this story, in just this way…. First published in 1953 in Science Fiction Stories #1.
Both David and Wayne have taken public domain novels and made them into wondrous unabridged audiobooks. Both narrators are consummate professionals, as well as being two really cool dudes who love the stuff they’re recording.
Both have also made their audiobooks available for FREE (Stifel podcasts his audiobooks and June streams them).
I’ve heard both novels, and I can heartily recommend them to you. In fact, both The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson and At The Earth’s Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs are the subject of individual upcoming readalongs for The SFFaudio Podcast!
Click on through – and if you can afford it, please consider buying their audiobooks. These guys are truly awesome, I consider their audiobooks the definite editions, and their work is absolutely worth supporting.
Just crossed the border, literally (it came in the back of a Subaru), here’s a Brilliance Audio audiobook collection that does almost everything right! First, check out the awesome cover art for Welcome To Bordertown:
Next, note the detailed track listings on the back:
So that’s a look at the outside, inside the discs themselves don’t detail their contents, which is bad, but not fatal (considering you’ve got the back of the audiobook to go by). As to the audio content itself, well I’m looking forward to picking up stories here and there as I research the authors more – that’s usually how I listen to collections these days.
This is the official description:
Bordertown: a city on the Border between the human world and the elfin realm. A place where neither magic nor technology can be counted on, where elf and human kids run away to find themselves. The Way from our world to the Border has been blocked for thirteen long years. . . . Now the Way is open once again — and Bordertown welcomes a new set of seekers and dreamers, misfits and makers, to taste life on the Border.
Here are thirteen interconnected stories, one graphic story, and eight poems — all new work by some of today’s best urban fantasy, fantasy, and slipstream writers
Now I’ve already checked out Neil Gaiman’s entry, which is a poem entitled The Song Of The Song. And I listened to Holly Black reading her own introductory essay. In it she credits the original Bordertown books as ‘creating the urban fantasy subgenre’. Ellen Kushner, Black’s co-editor, reads Terri Windling’s introductory essay, which details the background for the Bordertown series itself. It’s is described as a “Thieves’ World for teens.” Windling also talks about the phenomenon of shared worlds. Also, and this is pretty cool, there’s an additional editorial introduction written, and read, by Ellen Kushner (one that’s not found in the paperbook edition at all).
The only thing missing from this great audiobook edition is the story named Fair Trade by Sara Ryan and Dylan Meconis. But that’s probably because it’s actually a comic and so it would have been very hard to translate into audio (there are two panels of it HERE). And finally, here’s a promo video for the book:
The Cats Of Ulthar
The Transit Of Earth
