Neil Gaiman audio roundup

OnlineAudio

If you start looking around the net for Neil Gaiman audio you’ll be hard pressed not to find it. The quantity is overwhelming in fact. Most of it consists of interviews, most from relatively mainstream media sources. But the guy gets podcast interviews like nobody’s business too. The MP3 files listed below are by no means the newest nor most exclusive but they are all good and they’re new links for us…

NeilGaiman.net / DreamHaven BooksFirst, from the DreamHaven Books and NeilGaiman.net bookstore we’ve got three ultra-short “sample” (but unabridged) MP3s:

Poetry: “Instructions” |MP3| from Speaking In Tongues.
The liner notes for this one reads: “This is a poem about what to do if you find yourself in a Fairy Tale. It is guaranteed to work. If you find yourself in a Fairy Tale, and, despite following these instructions to the letter, you are eaten by wolves or lost, never to be seen again, the publisher will refund the cost of this CD.”

A Christmas card (a very short story): “Nicholas Was” |MP3| from Warning: Contains Language.
Gaiman sez of it: “This is a Christmas card. Exactly a hundred words long (102, including the title).”

Poetry: “A Writer’s Prayer” |MP3| from Telling Tales.
Gaiman describe it as “…written shortly before I began American Gods. I knew the first two verses when I began it, and the conclusion was there when I reached it. This is why I love writing.”

Zombie AstronautNext up, the always reliable Zombie Astronaut has a bit of Neil Gaiman poetry: “The Day The Saucer Came” |MP3|.

And also, from the same moulderingly cosmic source, this recent radio drama gem…

Anansi Boys
Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – 1 Hour [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC World Service / World Drama
Broadcast: Nov 17th 2007
God is dead. Meet the kids. When Fat Charlie’s dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie “Fat Charlie.” Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can’t shake that name, one of the many embarrassing “gifts” his father bestowed — before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie’s life.

And from another site entirely comes…

Authors On Tour PodcastCheck out this 2006 “authors on tour” piece |MP3| of Neil Gaiman speaking to a receptive audience at The Tattered Cover bookstore. Gaiman reads from Anansi Boys tells stories and answers questions about the comic book, book, audiobook and movie businesses.

Posted by Jesse Willis

StarShipSofa Podcast covers James Tripree Jr.

SFFaudio Online Audio

Starship Sofa PodcastStarshipSofa , the terrific U.K. podcast that specializes in Science Fiction authors has one heck of a show there. The hosts, Tony and Ciaran, have an especially crackin’ show this week, one that I am truly chuffed to tell you about. On offer today is a show on James Tiptree Jr. (AKA Alice Sheldon), a writer who lived a very extraordinary life. As the boys say, she “blazed across the Science Fiction skies” with her short stories of the 1970s. And stay tuned for her shocking ending!

Download the show direct |MP3| or subscribe to the feed:

And don’t forget to revisit their earlier subjects:

Show # 1: Classic Author: Alfred Bester |MP3|
Show # 2: Classic Author: John Brunner |MP3|
Show # 3: Classic Author: Algis Budrys |MP3|
Show # 4: Classic Author: Cordwainer Smith |MP3|
Show # 5: Classic Author: Stanislaw Lem |MP3|
Show # 6: Classic Film: Dark Star |MP3|
Show # 7: Classic Author: Philip K. Dick (Part 1) |MP3|
Show # 8: Classic Author: Philip K. Dick (Part 2) |MP3|
Show # 9: Classic Author: Philip K. Dick (Part 3) |MP3|
Show # 10: Classic Film: Capricorn One |MP3|
Show # 11: Classic Author: Henry Kuttner |MP3|
Show # 12: Classic Author: Robert Silverberg |MP3|
Show # 13: Classic Author: Joe Haldeman |MP3|
Show # 14: Classic Author: L. Ron Hubbard |MP3|
Show # 15: Classic Author: Harlan Ellison |MP3|
Show # 16: Classic Author: Douglas Adams (Part 1) |MP3|
Show # 17: Classic Author: Douglas Adams (Part 2) |MP3|
Show # 18: Classic Author: Robert Sheckley |MP3|
Show # 19: Classic Author: Roger Zelazny |MP3|
Show # 20: Classic Author: Iian M. Banks |MP3|
Show # 21: Classic Author: Ursula K. LeGuin |MP3|
Show # 22: Christmas Special Part 1 |MP3| & 2 |MP3|
Show # 23: Email Show |MP3|

CBC Radio One’s The Best Of Ideas Podcast has The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson

SFFaudio Online Audio

Podcast - CBC Radio One - The Best Of IdeasCBC Radio One‘s program IDEAS is my favorite Canadian daily radio show, its podcast, The Best Of Ideas is five times too infrequent for me – at just once a week – but it isn’t often enough that I get a chance to talk about it. Thankfully the host, Paul Kennedy, has syndicated his reading Hans Christian Anderson’s Christmas classic The Fir Tree (a Danish fairy storie) in the latest podcast. This is a delightfully melancholic tale that is eminently suitable for listening to after the event of Xmas itself.

I won’t provide a link to a direct download on this one (though you can find it here) because I’d like to try to convince you of keeping The Best Of Ideas in your podcatcher, the show is just that good:

http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/ideas.xml

I’ve just discovered, better late than never, th…

I’ve just discovered, better late than never, that CBC Radio One‘s Between The Covers program is broadcasting a Connie Willis Christmas story. It airs between December 19th and December 23rd 2005. Details follow…

Miracle
By Connie Willis; Read by Veena Sood
Streaming Audio – Estimated 70 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio One
Broadcast: Dec 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd 2005

An office worker hopes her handsome colleague will finally notice her at the office Christmas party. Willis takes on consumerism, seasonal movies, office celebrations and matchmaking in this whimsical romp through the North American Christmas season.

The Penguin Podcast, the new podcasting arm of …

The Penguin Podcast, the new podcasting arm of Penguin Books UK and has decided to give a Christmas gift to everyone! They’ve started posting Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the unabridged audiobook as podiobook-like podcast instalments! The first of five episodes presenting the classic Christmas ghost story starts today. They will only be available until January 3rd 2005 so start grabbing it now for FREE now!

A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story Of Christmas
By Charles Dickens; Read by Geoffrey Palmer
5 MP3s – Approx. 3 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Penguin Podcast
Podcast: Dec 15th 2005 to January 3rd 2006
Themes: / Fantasy / Christmas / Ghosts / Victorian /

Ebenezer Scrooge, whose name is now synonymous with greed and parsimony, believes Christmas to be ‘humbug’. Refusing to donate any of his fortune to the poor, he comforts himself by saying, ‘I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.’ But then the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley, returns from the grave to haunt him. Dragging a long and heavy chain, representing his many sins, Marley sends down the three spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future to warn Scrooge against a similar fate…

Jesse Willis