Fritz Leiber – Page 12

LibriVox short stories galore!

SFFaudio Online Audio

A “few” short hidden gems from Librivox.org. Among their short story collections, now up to number nineteen, are some very good short Fantasy, SF, and Horror stories. These stories run from two and a half minutes to nearly fifty two minutes long. All are good for a short listen between audiobooks.

Bread Overhead
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Cori Samuel
1 |MP3| – Approx. 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 25th 2007
The Staff of Life suddenly and disconcertingly sprouted wings — and mankind had to eat crow!

The Masque of the Red Death
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Juan Carlos Bagnell
1 |MP3| – 16 Minutes
Death comes to visit a prince who is trying to avoid a plague.
Themes: / Horror /

Dracula’s Guest
By Bram Stoker; Read by Dimitri Fotopoulos
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
A prequel to Dracula.
Themes: / Horror /

Ligeia
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 47 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
A haunting tale of lost love.
Themes: / Horror /

The Damned Thing
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Greg Elmensdorp
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
It shall not drive me away. No, this is my house, my land. God hates a coward….
Themes: / Horror /

Facts Concerning The Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
By H. P. Lovecraft; Read by Smokestack Jones
1 |MP3| – Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
A tale of unusual genealogy.

The Cats of Ulthar
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Cow Nose the 50 Pound Cat
1 |MP3| – Approx. 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Feline revenge.
Themes: / Horror / Cats /

Charon
By Lord Dunsany; Read by Steven Collins
1 |MP3| – 2 Minutes 30 Seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Fantasy /
The ferryman Charon’s last duty.

The Music of Erich Zann
1 |MP3| Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by Smokestack Jones
A college student wonders about the strange music played by an old man.
Themes: / Horror / Music /

In the Year 2889
By Jules Verne; Read by Esther
1 |MP3| – Approx 38 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Verne’s story about life in America a thousand years in the future.
Themes: / Science Fiction /

Crossroads of Destiny
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Trask
1 |MP3| – Approx. 23 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Science Fiction /
Parallel universes and a television show.

The Gifts of Asti
By Andre Norton; Read by Mark Nelson
1 |MP3| Approx. 41 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Fantasy /
Varta, the last priestess of Asti, lives alone with Lur, a telepath of the lizardfolk, in Asti’s isolated mountain retreat. Decadent Memphir has long since drifted away from the austere paths of Asti, and now the barbarians of Klem are sacking the city, and the smoke of its burning drifts up to the temple.

The Street That Wasn’t There
By Clifford D. Simak and Carl Richard Jacobi; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Science Fiction /
Classic pulp action.
Read by Peter Yearsley

The Hoard of the Gibbelins
By Lord Dunsany; Read by Mark F. Smith
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / Horror /
The Gibbelins eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man.

A World Is Born
By Leigh Brackett; Read by Rowdy Delaney
1 |MP3| – Approx. 52 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
The first ripples of blue fire touched Dio’s men. Bolts of it fastened on gun-butts, and knuckles. Men screamed and fell.
Themes: / Science Fiction /

Posted by Dave Tackett

New Releases – Wonder Audiobooks’ Classic SF

New Releases

[editor’s note – Shameless plug time! My publishing venture, Wonder Audiobooks, has it’s first four releases through Audible. These titles are also available at iTunes. My goal–great unabridged vintage fiction read by great readers! I’m proud of these titles and encourage you to check them out.]

Beyond Lies the Wub & The Hanging Stranger
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Mac Kelly
48 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and

A trading spaceship often has to carry unusual cargo. None as strange as the blubberous pig-like alien known as the wub. The captain of the ship decides that the wub may make an excellent meal for him and the crew. But the wub might have something to say about it.

Beyond Lies the Wub was Philip K. Dick’s first published story and appeared in the legendary Planet Stories pulp magazine.

Also included, The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick. When Ed Loyce, a respected citizen in a small town, finds a man hanging by a rope in his town square, he is very upset. But why doesn’t the rest of the town’s people care. Ed Loyce is going to find out.

Philip K Dick is now considered one of the most important authors of the 20th century. Numerous stories and novels have been adapted into movies, including Blade Runner, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly and Next.

Coming Attraction
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Paul S. Jenkins
29 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and

A future New York City has changed since a nuclear bomb left areas of radiation that threaten the residents. Women wear coverings over their faces as the latest fashion trend.

An Englishman in New York saves a girl from a speeding coupe with fish hooks on its fender. He finds himself attracted and repelled by the girl in this classic story of future shock from a science-fiction grand master.

Anthropological Note
By Murray Leinster; Read by Tara Platt
54 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and

Miss Cummings, a female anthropologist, is set down in the middle of a Venusian Krug village to study the alien culture. Ray Hale, a scoundrel and murderer, is on his way to the very same village. Miss Cummings and Ray Hale have a past, but what of their future?

This story not only examines an alien society, but takes a look at our own strange relationships between the sexes.

Author Murray Leinster is often called “The Dean of Science Fiction”. Actress Tara Platt has voiced numerous anime characters, for Naruto, Ravemaster, Digimon, and many others.

The Wind People
By Marion Zimmer Bradley; Read by Candace Platt
51 min – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Availiable at Audible and

To save her newborn son, Dr. Helen Murray has to remain behind on an alien world. But is she alone? As her son, Robin, becomes older, he acts strangely and describes other people that Helen cannot see.

posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show

Review of Here Today …Gone to Tomorrow edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin Greenberg

SFFaudio Audiobook Review

Here Today …Gone Tomorrow (Asimov’s All Time Favorite Time Travel Stories)
Edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin Greenberg; Read by various
4 Cassettes – Approx. 6 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Dercum Audio
Published: 1998
ISBN: 1556562586 [out of print]
Themes: /Science Fiction /Time travel /Anthology /

Stories: “Try and Change the Past” by Fritz Leiber, read by Bill Fantini; “A Loint of Paw” by Isaac Asimov, read by Bill Fantini; “The Long Remembering” by Poul Anderson, read by Nelson Runger; “There Is A Wolf In My Time Machine” by Larry Niven, read by Bill Fantini; “The Light Of Other Days” by Bob Shaw, read by Nelson Runger; “The Kings Wishes” by Robert Sheckley, read by Nelson Runger; “The Little Black Bag” by C.M. Kornbluth, read by Ann Wilcox.

Old school. That’s what this collection of time travel stories is, with all the blessings and baggage that implies. The stories concern mainly white men, with women appearing mostly as henpecking baffles for their claustrophobic concerns, and, in general, the voices presenting the stories are brusque and hairy-chested, like those from a third grade filmstrip on pool safety (and if that simile has any resonance for you, then I think you appreciate what I mean by “old school”). A female voice does narrate C.M. Kornbluth’s “The Little Black Bag”, but the story is so piquant with elitism and misogyny, it might as well be read by a Victorian-era Harvard College president.

The cover claims the stories were hand selected by Isaac Asimov from his own personal library, and the photo shows the great one with his trademark facial fur and engaging grin in front of a tall shelf packed with his own works.* Happily, his own works do appear in this collection, but only in the delightful – a word to describe almost anything Asimov uttered aloud – introduction he delivers himself, and the brief, forgettable story “A Loint Of Paw” which he does not.

The list of authors is impressive. The stories, however, while enjoyable, are neither essential nor groundbreaking. The best of them, and the only one to offer even a glimpse of the wistful ache that is the primary motivation for the idea of time travel, is Bob Shaw’s “The Light Of Other Days.” I was caught off guard after the relatively bland intellectual exercises of the forgoing stories because this one starts out looking similarly simple and heartless, yet builds to a subtle and profoundly moving finish.

As a whole, this is a decent collection, but not one I’d risk any injury rushing out to acquire. If it falls in your lap, or if you are a rabid fan of old school SF, I’d give it a listen. Otherwise, I think you could easily find something more satisfying to fill your ears with.

[editor’s note – the cover depicted above does not match Kurt’s description. Kurt’s scan of his copy of this audiobook was not available at the time of this post]

Posted by Kurt Dietz

2 versions of A Pail Of Air up on Zombie Astronaut

Online Audio

The Zombie Astronaut has again posted up two adaptations of the same script, this time its Fritz Leiber‘s classic short story A Pail Of Air.

Alfred and Effie live on an Earth that has been knocked off it’s orbit and is drifting without the warmth and light of the Sun. The last radio station went off the air a year before their son, Bud was born. They survive in an apartment building, slowly burning what coal they can find to keep warm and keep the air from freezing. Then one day when Bud went out to get a pail of frozen air, he saw a light moving through the building across the way…

WNBC X-Minus One |MP3|
WMUK Special Projects Future Tense |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Time Traveler Show #13 The Night He Cried by Fritz Leiber PLUS MORE!

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Time Traveler Show podcast #13 is out today. Along with the customary unabridged classic Science Fiction story (this one by none other than Fritz Leiber) the also show includes snippets from The Time Traveler’s recent visit to the ConFusion 2007 Science Fiction convention. While there TT recorded panels consisting of: John Scalzi, Karl Schroeder, Steven Harper Piziks, Toby Buckell, Tor editor Jim Frenkel, Elizabeth Moon, Howard Waldrop, Karl Schroeder, and Jim C. Hines!

You can also listen to the complete files for each panel on The Time Traveler’s site.

The Night He Cried
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Clarissa der Nederlanden
1 MP3 – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Time Traveler Show
Podcast: February 19th 2007

Attentive listeners should recognize the narrator of this story as Flying Squirrel from The Red Panda Adventures Audio Drama podcast!

To read the complete show notes for podcast #13 click HERE or download the show MP3 directly by clicking HERE. Alternatively, automatically downloading can be ensured by plugging this podcast feed into your podcatcher:

http://www.timetravelershow.com/shows/feed.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

Wonder Audiobooks releases 3 classic short stories by Leiber, Bradley and Dick!

New Releases

Wonder Audio, which is the brainchild of our very own Time Traveler (Rick Jackson), has released its first batch of downloadable audiobooks under the banner of “Unabridged Vintage Fiction”. These are mighty fine tales to start a publishing company with! Cast your gaze on these lovelies and behold their utter coolity:

Coming Attraction
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Paul S. Jenkins
1 MP3 – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
An Englishman’s dark journey into post-nuclear New York for a masked woman.

The Wind People
By Marion Zimmer Bradley; Read by Candace Platt
1 MP3 – Approx. 50 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
A woman alone must raise a child on an alien planet. Is she really alone?

The Hanging Stranger
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Mac Kelly
1 MP3 – Approx. 30 minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audiobooks
Published: December 2006
What happens when you find a man hanging in your own town, but nobody seems to care?

This is so awesome! With prices of just $2 or $4 and secure payment via PayPal you can’t go wrong. They are simply Wonder-ful! Click on over to Wonder Audio and buy! Buy! BUY!

They make great gifts, and being downloadable, DRM-free MP3s they are both environmentally friendly and hassle-free!

Posted by Jesse Willis