Review of Antibodies by Charles Stross

SFFaudio Audiobook Review

Science Fiction Audiobook - Antibodies by Charles StrossAntibodies
By Charles Stross; Read by Jared Doreck and Shondra Marie
1 CD – 54 Minutes 16 Seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: 2005
ISBN: 1884612474
Themes: / Science Fiction / Singularity / Conspiracy / Artificial Intelligence / Parallel Worlds /

– Click HERE to hear a sample –

“Damn it, Bob, I really had high hopes for this world-line. They seemed to be doing so well for a revelatory Christian-Islamic line, despite the post-Enlightenment mind-set.”

The announcement of the solution to the traveling salesman problem heralds the imminent destruction of humanity. No more salesman; no more problem. The story begins when a computer programmer is notified by RSS feed that all NP-complete problems lie in P, and thus computer encryption is forever compromised. Knowing the disaster for what it is, he flees, but with this being such a hard-takeoff he might not make it.

Stross’ ideas are hard, cold, pure, and funny, but it is his storytelling – the effectiveness of the complete tale – that elevates his perspective SF ideas into Science Fiction excellence. This is the kind of fiction I love; thought provoking with shrewdly surprisingly but necessary consequences of the premise. Stross goes from alpha to omega faster than you can guess, and in so doing delivers a solid entry into SF’s growing dialogue about The Singularity. Antibodies reminded of Isaac Asimov’s similarily elegant short story Living Space. Also refreshing is a humourous conspiracy that explains why Microsoft Windows-based computer viruses are so prevalent.

Allan Kaster, who runs the Infinivox wing of Audiotext, has put deep thought into this tale’s production. The narrators, Jared Dorek and Shondra Marie, pair up to deliver the action in this first-person perspective masterpiece of SF. Marie reads all the female voices and Dorek all the male. When each speaks the role of the hero and heroine, they do so in an amalgamated accent that is implied by the text. The production is carefully woven with transition music designed to show textual scene transitions and time passing. But it is the story that elevates this audiobook to SFFaudio Essential status. With a running time just shy of one hour you aren’t likely to have a more quintissential Strossian experience on audio.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Infinivox New Release – A Dry, Quiet War by Tony Daniel

New Releases

Science Fiction Audiobook - A Dry Quiet War by Tony DanielIt’s been a while since we mentioned Infinivox. Since they produce one of my favorite lines of audiobooks, I’ll take this new release as a chance to talk about them. Infinivox publishes excellent unabridged short science fiction on CD. The story selection and quality of the productions leaves me eager for their next release every time.

This new release is a story called “A Dry, Quiet War” by Tony Daniel. In addition to that, check out Infinivox’s author line-up: Charles Stross, Connie Willis, Stephen Baxter, Greg Egan, George Alec Effinger, Nancy Kress – and that’s just naming a few! Infinivox has great stories, they are very well produced, and are priced just right. You simply can’t go wrong here. Check them out!

Review of A Colder War by Charles Stross

SFFaudio Audiobook Review

Science Fiction Audiobook - A Colder War by Charles StrossA Colder War
By Charles Stross; Read by Pat Bottino
1 CD – 80 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: 2005
ISBN: 1884612482
Themes: / Science Fiction / Horror / Alternate History / Politics / War / Evil / Cthulhu Mythos /

“Warning. The following briefing film is classified SECRET GOLD JULY BOOJUM. If you do not have SECRET GOLD JULY BOOJUM clearance, leave the auditorium now and report to your unit security officer for debriefing. Failing to observe this notice is an imprisonable offense. You have sixty seconds to comply.”

The biggest single threat to NATO may be the Shoggoth Gap. The wild card is Lt. Col Oliver North, President Reagan’s man. Roger Jourgensen, CIA operative, is at the center of this crisis. If all the political wrangling doesn’t work out perfectly there will be hell to pay, or worse, far, far worse.

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! A modern novellete in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, rich in detail, frightening in execution! Stross’ stunning tale will pull you back into that old cold war era embalming fear and then magnify it into non-euclidian infinities. Imagine David Cronenberg directing Dr. Strangelove based on a script by H. P. Lovecraft. Imagine an alternate history in which nuclear bombs are not the ultimate weapon, but instead they are merely a stepping stone to eldritch technologies accessible through certain trans-dimentional forces first encountered in 1920s Antarctica, technologies which neither the USA nor the USSR can quite contain. Stross has admitted A Colder War is directly inspired by Lovecraft’s novel At The Mountains Of Madness. The amount of research and historical mastery Stross sprinkles throughout the narrative creates a verisimilitude necessary for truly effective alternate history. Insert the CD and then shudder in horror as the concept locks you in for the duration.

Pat Botino’s tremulous voice isn’t at all typical for professional narrators, but when it comes to subverting heroic self-assurance, he’s got no equal. Here it works extremely well. The production is loud and straight, the way I like it. A few voice effects are used to distinguish documentation bookmarks of each section. Nothing flashy, nothing distracting. I’d be satisfied if every straight reading single narration audiobook was done this way. For a while now I’ve been telling just about anyone who would listen that editor and producer Alan Kaster at Infinivox has been picking out the best modern short science fiction and tunring it into fabulously read audiobooks. This latest wave of Infinvox’s GREAT SCIENCE FICTION STORIES includes three Charles Stross audiobooks.Lobsters, Antibodies and A Colder War. Each of these is available for just $7.99 right now on the Infinivox website. There’s nary a better value on the web!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of House of Bones by Robert Silverberg

Science Fiction Audiobooks - House of Bones by Robert SilverbergHouse Of Bones
By Robert Silverberg; Read by Jared Doreck
1 CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: 2005
ISBN: 1884612431
Themes: / Science Fiction / Time Travel / Prehistory /

Another stunning audio achievement from Infinivox! House Of Bones is a unique time-travel story that imbues a deep sense of satisfaction on nearly every level. A top shelf reading by a dynamic reader, a dynamite story and an elegant production combine to make pure aural delight! House Of Bones is a modest tale, recounting the unfortunate fate of the world’s first and perhaps last time traveler. After a misguided test run he’s become trapped 20,000 years in our past, unequipped for survival his future is uncertain. What’s worse he’s surrounded by people so primitive they don’t even have a written language. So primitive they take in his unworthy and skilless self and accept him into their society. This glimpse of what life might have been like for Cro-Magnon man in the late Pleistocene epoch shows us precisely why we can’t judge a society by it’s lack of tool based technology. Silverberg skillfully extrapolates a fascinating working culture out of what little modern archaeologists and paleoanthropolgists know of these people, our ancestors and creates in the process something to think about when using words like “primitive”. House Of Bones is kind of a mirror image of Isaac Asimov’s The Ugly Little Boy. And like that tale this one is a keeper.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Here are the new releases for August! Antibodies …

New Releases

Here are the new releases for August!

Antibodies
By Charles Stross
Read by Shondra Marie and Jared Doreck
Infinivox, Unabridged
Stross won the Hugo this year for his novella “The Concrete Jungle”. It’s great to see some of his stories released on audio.

A Cold War
By Charles Stross
Read by Jared Doreck
Infinivox, Unabridged

Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein II: City of Night
By Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman
Read by John Bedford Lloyd
Books on Tape, Unabridged

Ender’s Shadow
By Orson Scott Card
Read by Scott Brick, Gabrielle de Cuir, and cast
Audio Renaissance, Unabridged
This is the first time Ender’s Shadow has been released in unabridged format.

Hart’s Hope
By Orson Scott Card
Read by Stefan Rudnicki
Blackstone Audio, Unabridged

Hideaway
By Dean Koontz
Read by Michael Hanson and Carol Cowan
Brilliance Audio, Unabridged

Lobsters
By Charles Stross
Read by Shondra Marie and Jared Doreck
Infinivox, Unabridged

Lord of Chaos
By Robert Jordan
Read by Kate Reading and Michael Kramer
Audio Renaissance, Unabridged
Volume 6 of Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

Magic Time: Ghostlands
By Marc Scott Zicree and Robert Charles Wilson
Read by Lloyd James
Blackstone Audio, Unabridged

The Shining
By Stephen King
Read by Campbell Scott
Simon and Schuster Audio, Unabridged
The first audio release of The Shining.

The Territory
By Bradley Denton
Read by Jared Doreck
Infinivox, Unabridged

If you have New Releases that you’d like to see posted here, let us know!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Congratulations to the 2004 Hugo Award winners! H…

SFFaudio News

Congratulations to the 2004 Hugo Award winners! Here they are:

BEST NOVEL
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
An unabridged audio version is available, published by Audio Renaissance.

BEST NOVELLA
“The Concrete Jungle” by Charles Stross
This one’s not available on audio, but Infinivox just released three of his works.

BEST NOVELETTE
“The Faery Handbag” by Kelly Link
No audio edition known.

BEST SHORT STORY
“My Travels with Cats” by Mike Resnick
No audio edition known.

Click here to see all the Hugo Winners this year.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson