fantasy – Page 82

LibriVox – Ghost Story Collection Volume #006

Sunday, September 21, 2008Sunday, September 21, 2008 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

This collection, number 6 in the LibriVox lineup of Ghost stories, has some non-ghostly tales; there are indeed some very ghostly things that happen in a lot of them but it isn’t a pure collection. I’d judge this as a very fair Fantasy collection made a shade horrific. It’s mostly ghostly. And, the inclusion of three Robert E. Howard yarns will likely make it one of the more popular of LibriVox’s many short story collections thus far released. Most narrators here have good recording conditions, some are raw amateurs, beginners in reading and recording, others are polished amateurs. Overall, very fun listening.

Here’s a bit from the forum the LibriVox thread that captures it all nicely:

“What is a ghost story? M.R. James listed a number of features of the ‘English’ ghost story: the pretence of truth; ‘a pleasing terror’; no gratuitous bloodshed or sex; no ‘explanation of the machinery’; with the setting being ‘those of the writer’s and reader’s own day’. Roughly speaking, this gives the taste of what we’re after, but the setting can be anywhere, of course. To me, the most effective stories have perhaps something of love in them, something of sadness, an other-worldliness, a touch of fear, a shiver of the hair on the back of your neck.”

Ghost Story Collection Volume #006
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – Approx. 3 Hours 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
“A collection of ten pieces, read by various readers, about the unreal edges of this world in legend and story; tales of love, death and beyond. If just one story prickles the hair on the back of your neck, or prickles your eyelids with the touch of tears, we will have succeeded.”

Stories included:

Children Of The Moon
By Richard Middleton; Read by Virgil
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
I liked the language in this one, and narrator Virgil seems to be having a lot of fun with it.

Ghosts That Have Haunted Me
By John Kendrick Bangs; Read by James Christopher
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
“My scheme of living is based upon being true to myself. You may class me with Baron Munchausen if you choose; I shall not mind so long as I have the consolation of feeling, deep down in my heart, that I am a true realist, and diverge not from the paths of truth as truth manifests itself to me.”

Gods of the North
By Robert E. Howard; Read by Rowdy Delaney
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
A winter war in the mountains of Vanaheim and a bit of gossamer are all that stand between Conan of Cimmeria and a frosty beauty who spurns him. First published in Fantasy Fan, March 1934. Alternate titles include: The Frost Giant’s Daughter, The Frost King’s Daughter.

A Haunted House
By Virginia Woolf; Read by David Federman
1 |MP3| – Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
A quick stream of consciousness tale with an iconic title by an icon of literature.

The Man Who Was Not On The Passenger
By Robert Barr; Read by Anna Simon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
An unaccounted for passenger on a luxury liner is somehow tied into a stranger annual payment given to a widow. A well written, almost modernly styled tale. Anna Simon’s reading is Germanic accented, but not at all displeasing.

No Living Voice
By Thomas Street Millington; Read by Annoying Twit
1 |MP3| – Approx. 23 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
Written by an English clergyman. Set in Italy. A vacationer with an out-of-order visa discovers some mischief and strange sounds.

The Old Nurse’s Story
By Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell; Read by Jane Greensmith
1 |MP3| – Approx. 51 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
First published in 1852, this is an early Victorian ghost story, a novella by the biographer and popularizer of Charlotte Brontë. This is a dramatic tale full of manor intrigue, mysterious rooms and more mysterious screaming. All that and plenty of descriptions of character complexions .

Rattle Of Bones
By Robert E. Howard; Read by Rowdy Delaney
1 |MP3| – Approx. 24 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
First published in the June 1929 issue of Weird Tales magazine. Solomon Kane, stops at a grim inn of the Black Forest. To survive the night he’ll need fight demonry and witchcraft, and bandits all.

The Red Room
By H.G. Wells; Read by Virgil
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
From the 19th comes one of the most copied stories of the modern 20th and 21st centuries. The Red Room illustrates the internal human conflict between rationality and the irrational fear of the unknown. The protagonist spends the night in a haunted room in isolated castle in an effort to debunk the legends surrounding it. The most recent example is the Stephen King’s story “1408” from the audio collection Blood and Smoke.

The Skull In The Stars
By Robert E. Howard; Read by Rowdy Delaney
1 |MP3| – Approx. 24 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21st 2008
First published in the January 1929 issue of Weird Tales magazine. The protagonist, Solomon Kane, is a Puritan who must go against his own moral code to defeat a creature of darkness.

Podcast feed:
http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/ghost-story-collection-volume-006.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Thursday, September 18, 2008 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Something Wicked This Way Comes
By Ray Bradbury;
Performed by Jerry Robbins and the Colonial Radio Players
2 CDs – 2 Hours [AUDIODRAMA]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433210792
Themes: / Horror / Fantasy / YA / Carnival / Americana / Ray Bradbury /

A good title might not have the verbal worth of a picture, but it’s certainly up there. And the title of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes is way up there. Not only is it delightful to say out loud, it also provides an insight into the language and theme of the story.

By evoking Shakespeare, Bradbury’s title announces his nervy aspiration to transform the language of America’s heartland into something approaching poetry. Hearing our rattle-trap vernacular transposed into song-like perfection is among the greatest attractions of this performance. Not that it always works, mind you. Sometimes, the witty exchanges between characters devolve into a series of confusing monosyllables, and sometimes the sheer weight of the mighty words flattens the actors beneath them. But the portentous speech of the lightning rod salesman in the opening scene is as perfect a transfiguration as the symphonic thunderstorm in Beethoven’s “Pastorale”.

But beyond simply the sound of the story, the title references MacBeth’s supernatural temptation, and thus foreshadows the wickedness to come. As MacBeth is undone by the crones’ magic, so are the residents of Greentown, Illinois undone by the magic of “Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show”. But since Bradbury writes not to noble Elizabethans, but to working class Americans, his heroes and victims are not men who would be kings, but aging fathers who wish to be younger and abler for their sons, fatherless young boys who dream of being old enough to be on their own, and solitary schoolteachers who yearn to relive their lives in better company. I think these differences say a lot about who we are as a people. The familiar and familial desires that lead Bradbury’s protagonists into peril seem comfortingly domestic compared to the brutish ambition that drives MacBeth.

Beyond the title, there is magic only Bradbury can conjure, such as the wonder and awe of his mythical boy-heroes. Such beings appear in many of his works, but Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade are two of his best. They climb down trellises in the middle of the night to feed on moonlight and shadow, train whistles and silence. They revel as much in books as in footraces, as much in fantasy as in fact. They are breathless and happy, serious and trustworthy. These characters are to real boys as their poetic utterances are to natural language: Graceful distillations of an awkward truth.

And I love the depiction of Will’s father. As with the other elements, the relationship between Will Halloway and his father is a Platonic ideal form of what is so often messy, confused, and rueful in our own lives. How I wish I could be that father—wise and patient, kind and indulgent in all the right ways—to my own son.

One final note on the story: I have always been a little disappointed by the ending. I know, I know, the weapon against evil employed here has its roots in folklore, but it still feels a bit like defeating Godzilla with a wiffle-ball bat. After the scene in the library between Will’s father and Mr. Dark, it is a bit anticlimactic.

But the novel is still a landmark, and this dramatic production is itself very good. Child actors are somewhat hit or miss with me, but the ones who play Will and Jim mostly hit. In the gentler scenes, the actor who plays Will’s father is excellent, although he sounds a little young for the part. If he can’t quite carry the load of some of the scenes of heavier conflict, I think Bradbury’s prose is partly to blame. Such lofty words don’t easily come off with the down-to-earth punch we’ve come to expect.

All in all, this is a very good production of an American classic. It should be played and replayed, savored and shared with the ones you love.

Posted by Kurt Dietz

Review of Assam and Darjeeling by T.M. Camp

Friday, September 5, 2008Sunday, August 22, 2010 Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Assam & Darjeeling
By T.M. Camp; Read by T.M. Camp
Podcast Download (iTunes and RSS Feeds can be found |Here| – Approx 23 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: T.M. Camp
Published: 2008
Themes: / Fantasy / Religion / Legend / Children / Underworld /

A masterful and nuanced book, Assam & Darjeeling is the story of a quest straight into legendary, mythological landscape. Two children’s’ efforts to save their mother serves as a lens through which we see pure love, redemption, and sacrifice.

It all begins with a car accident on a snow-covered road; two kids and their mother end up in intensive care. The kids are banged up . . . but their mom is in a coma, hovering on the edge of death. Drifting in a pale, ghostly world of their own, the kids resolve to find her and bring her back.

So begins their journey into the Underworld, where the remnants of Dante, shreds of folklore, and echoes of mythology struggle to keep pace with the world above.

Demons with cell phones, ancient deities tooling around in vintage convertibles… Gods and goddesses whose pantheons have fallen out of favor, waiting tables in an all-night diner to make ends meet… A lonely queen wandering through her winter palace, waiting for spring… A little boy named Edgar who set off on his own after the Black Plague to wander other worlds above and below, looking for something he lost long ago… A congregation of souls fooled into believing they’ve reached the fields of Heaven, while the demon who ensnared them feeds on their faith and their fear…

This story will appeal to anyone who knows and loves classic Western mythology. Camp has tweaked the old legends just enough to make us puzzle about each new situation and character’s origin. When it falls into place we feel a sense of triumph for getting it right … or the need to dash to the reference books to see what unknown myth he is referring to.

One of the truest pleasures of Assam & Darjeeling is the relationship between the forceful younger sister, Darjeeling, and the thoughtful, sensitive older brother, Assam. The way that they work together to save their mother, yet often clash in the details of how they must proceed is what carries the story and makes us believe in their relationship. It rings true to anyone who has siblings whom they love but who also have the capacity to irritate beyond belief in daily life.

Camp reads his own story and his understated delivery adds to pull the listener into the story. His accents are flawless and add definition to each character. His playful side shows in the touches he adds to the very end of each podcast where his contact information changes frequently and always has a humorously mystic tone.

This is hands-down one of my favorite books of the year. I absolutely loved it and anxiously awaited each weekly upload until the entire book was finished. I only wish that it were available in printed form so that I could give it to people who don’t listen to audio books.

Posted by Julie D.

Red Panda novel audiobook preview

Saturday, August 23, 2008 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Gregg Taylor of Decoder Ring Theater has recorded the first three chapters of his first Red Panda novel Tales of The Red Panda: The Crime Cabal! This isn’t audio drama, this is AUDIOBOOK! The print release is already available for pre-order, but I’m going to be lobbying hard for a full unabridged release. If that whole acting gig on RP doesn’t work out Taylor can begin an audiobook narrating career based on this sample alone. Check out the three chapter sneak peak audio version |MP3|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC 7: Brightonomicon by Robert Rankin

Friday, August 22, 2008Friday, August 22, 2008 Rich

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Brightonomicon
By Robert Rankin; Performed by a full cast
Broadcast: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Dates: August 23 – November 15th, 2008
Production: Hokus Bloke & Ladbroke Radio

The Brightonomicon, the much-acclaimed novel by British fantasy author Robert Rankin, involves the grand high magus Hugo Rune, and Rizla his amnesiac assistant, in a strange quest to solve the mystery of the Brighton zodiac (twelve ancient hidden constellations) and thereby thwart the evil Count Otto Black’s mad scheme to dominate the world.

The book was adapted into a full-cast audio drama and released earlier this year (CD box & downloadable) and features a terrific cast of notables: David Warner (Hugo Rune), Rupert Degas (Rizla), Andy Serkis (Count Otto Black), Jason Isaacs, Martin Jarvis, Mark Wing-Davey, Sarah Douglas, Ben Miller and Michael Fenton-Stevens, among others. In short, the very best of the UK’s acting and comedic talent.

For the broadcast version, 12 adventures are spread across 13 half hour episodes which will be aired on the 7th Dimension program beginning this Saturday, August 23, at 6:30PM GMT (repeated at 12:30AM GMT), and then on consecutive Saturdays for 13 weeks through November 15th. As always, for online listeners, the BBC7 Listen Again service will keep each episode available for 6 days after it airs so you won’t miss a single one.

Note this disclaimer from The Brightonomicon website: The episodes are edited for radio…but no, that doesn’t mean we’ve removed naughty words or some of the more bizarre elements that make Robert’s work so fantastic…it means a few trims here and there to get the length down to 28mins30secs. Can you spot the bits that have gone? Missing the missing bits? Well fear not. You can always buy the full version as a beautiful box-set or as a delightful download…

Hey, that’s not so much a disclaimer as it is a come-on. I think they did it on porpoise! Seriously though, if I like what I hear on the 7th Dimension broadcasts, I may well take them up on it.

Posted by RC of RTSF

Broken Sea: The Queen Of The Black Coast episode 3

Thursday, August 21, 2008Thursday, August 21, 2008 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

By Ishtar’s eyes! It’s the third episode of The Queen Of The Black Coast audio drama! And in this one we finally meet Belit!

Queen Of The Black Coast by Robert E. Howard AUDIO DRAMA Queen Of The Black Coast
Adapted from the story by Robert E. Howard
Performed by a full cast
Podcast – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: Broken Sea Audio Productions
Podcast: June 2008 – ????

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3|

Having survived the Sirens of Set in the dark waters of Stygia, CONAN, TITO and the crew of the ARGUS head still farther south into the waters of KUSH… And finally come into bloody conflict with the Queen of the Black Coast and her savage crew of corsairs.

Subscribe to the feed you dogs!

http://brokensea.com/conan/?feed=podcast

And, be sure to listen to the end, there’s a little preview of an upcoming BSAP audio drama based on the Mad Max and The Road Warrior series!

Posted by Jesse Willis