2008 Audie Award Finalists

SFFaudio News

Audie Awards LogoJust in are the Audie Award Finalists for 2008. In the Science Fiction category:

The Draco Tavern, by Larry Niven, narrated by Tom Weiner, published by Blackstone Audio Inc.
Dune, by Frank Herbert, narrated by Scott Brick, Simon Vance and a full cast, published by Macmillan Audio
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney, narrated by Kristoffer Tabori, published by Blackstone Audio Inc.
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ravens of Avalon, by Diana L. Paxson, narrated by Lorna Raver, published by Tantor Media, Inc.
Selections from Dreamsongs 1: Fan Fiction and Sci-Fi from Martin’s Early Years: Unabridged Selections, by George R.R. Martin, narrated by Claudia Black, Mark Bramhall, Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne and Adrian Paul, published by Random House Audio

That’s an excellent list. In other categories, Joe Hill is on there twice, once for 20th Century Ghosts (Short Stories/Collections category) and once for Heart-Shaped Box (Thriller/Suspense category).

That multi-voice production of Dune is also recognized in the Achievement in Production and Multi-Voiced Performance categories.

Neil Gaiman makes a strong showing as well, with a nomination for Neverwhere in the Narration by the Author or Authors category and two in the Children’s Titles – Ages 12+ category; InterWorld and M is for Magic.

Looks like 2007 was a very strong year for genre fiction audiobooks! Here’s a link to a PDF containing the full press release about this year’s Audies from the Audio Publishers Association.

Add – The Audie Awards, by the way, will be given on May 30, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA. –sd

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Recent Arrivals – Blackstone Audio strikes again!

Science Fiction Audiobook Recent Arrivals

A big O’ heap of SFF goodness from Blackstone Audio.

Science Fiction Audiobook - Eifelheim by Michael FlynnEifelheim
By Michael Flynn; Read by Anthony Heald
14 CD, 17.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433206115

In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and was never resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend, Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn’t. Why? What was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago?

In 1348, as the Black Death is gathering strength across Europe, Father Deitrich is the priest of the village that will come to be known as Eifelheim. A man educated in science and philosophy, he is astonished to become the first contact between humanity and an alien race from a distant star when their interstellar ship crashes in the nearby forest.
Tom, Sharon, and Father Deitrich have a strange and intertwined destiny of tragedy and triumph in this brilliant novel by the winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award.

Fantasy Fiction Audiobook - The Sharing Knife; Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold The Sharing Knife; Vol. 1, Beguilement
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Bernadette Dunne
10 CD, 12 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433206238

Young, pregnant Fawn Bluefield has just fled her family’s farm to the city of Glassforge, where she encounters a patrol of the enigmatic soldier-sorcerers known as Lakewalkers. Fawn has heard stories about the Lakewalkers, wandering necromancers with no permanent homes and no possessions but the clothes they wear and the mysterious knives they carry. What she does not know is that the Lakewalkers are engaged in a perilous campaign against inhuman and immortal magical entities known as “malices”. When Fawn is kidnapped by one of these creatures, it is up to Dag, an older Lakewalker heavy with sorrows and responsibilities, to rescue her. But in the ensuing struggle, it is not Dag but Fawn who kills the creature—at dire cost—and an uncanny accident befalls Dag’s sharing knife, which unexpectedly binds their two fates together.

Science Fiction Audiobook - The Green Trap by Ben Bova The Green Trap
By Ben Bova; Read by Stefan Rudnicki & Kathe Mazure
8 CD, 10 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781433206177

Microbiologist Michael Cochrane has been murdered. His brother, Paul, wants to find out who did it and why. It’s clear that Michael was working with cyano-bacteria, the bacteria that crack water molecules and release free oxygen. It’s less clear why this would get anybody killed.

Accompanied by a beautiful industrial spy, Elena Sandoval, Paul follows the trail from California to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Along the way, the truth emerges: Michael had found a way to get cyano-bacteria to crack hydrogen out of simple water molecules, producing enough hydrogen to cleanly power the world, practically for free. No wonder everyone, from Middle-Eastern heavies to hired domestic muscle, suddenly seems to be trying to get in Paul and Elena’s way.

Science Fiction Audiobook - Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney Invasion of the Body Snatchers
By Jack Finney; Read by Kristoffer Tabori
6 CD, 6.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780786157815

“I warn you that what you’re starting to read is full of loose ends and unanswered questions….Now if you don’t like that kind of story, I’m sorry, and you’d better not read it. All I can do is tell what I know.”—from the book

On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved—the world as he knew it.

First published in 1955, this classic thriller of the ultimate alien invasion and the triumph of the human spirit over an invisible enemy inspired the acclaimed 1956 film, directed by Don Siegel and starring Kevin McCarthy, one of Time magazine’s 100 Best Films.

Science Fiction Audiobook - Where's My Jetpack? by Daniel H. Wilson  Where’s My Jetpack?
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
3 CD, 3 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780786160822

A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived

It’s the twenty-first century and let’s be honest—things are a little disappointing. Despite every World’s Fair prediction and the advertisements in comic books, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our moon colonies and servant robots?

In Where’s My Jetpack? roboticist Daniel H. Wilson takes a hilarious look at the future we imagined for ourselves. You will learn which technologies are already available, and if the technology is not public, you will learn how to build, buy, or steal it. Where’s My Jetpack? is an entertaining look at the world that we always wanted.

New Releases June/July

SFFaudio New Releases

A golden age of audiobooks is upon us! Just look at these beauteous new releases for June and July! It’s as if the gods of Science Fiction are smiling down upon us all!

First up, thanks to Tantor, is a long awaited Asimov mystery, with robots…

The Naked Sun by Isaac AsimovThe Naked Sun
By Isaac Asimov; Read by William Dufris
7 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – 8 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 140010422X (CDs), 1400154227 (MP3-CD)
A millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. On the beautiful Outer World planet of Solaria, a handful of human colonists lead a hermit-like existence, their every need attended to by their faithful robot servants. To this strange and provocative planet comes Detective Elijah Baley, sent from the streets of New York with his positronic partner, the robot R. Daneel Olivaw, to solve an incredible murder that has rocked Solaria to its foundations. The victim had been so reclusive that he appeared to his associates only through holographic projection. Yet someone had gotten close enough to bludgeon him to death while robots looked on. Now Baley and Olivaw are faced with two clear impossibilities: Either the Solarian was killed by one of his robots—unthinkable under the laws of Robotics—or he was killed by the woman who loved him so much that she never came into his presence!

Then, we head back in time, courtesy of the good folks at Blackstone Audio, to

Science Fiction AudiobookThe Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
By Jack Finney; Read by Kristoffer Tabori
1 MP3-CD or 6 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 9780786169559 (MP3 CD), 9780786157815 (CDs)
On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved—the world as he knew it.

Next, my fellow droogs, is a classic from Harper/Caedmon, never before released unabridged…

Harper Audio - A Clockwork OrangeA Clockwork Orange
By Anthony Burgess; Read by Tom Hollander
7 CDs – 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio / Caedmon
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 0061170623
A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess’s nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends’ social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. And when the state undertakes to reform Alex to “redeem” him, the novel asks, “At what cost?” *This edition includes both the controversial last chapter and Burgess’s introduction “A Clockwork Orange Resucked.”

Further, we travel with BBC Audiobooks America to the golden age of SF for one of the pillars of A.E. van Vogt’s mighty career…

Science Fiction Audiobook - Slan by A.E. van VogtSlan
By A.E. van Vogt; Read by Oliver Wyman
6 CDs – 7 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780792748946
Jommy Cross is a slan, a genetically bred superhuman whose race was created to aid humanity but is now despised by normal humans. Slans are usually shot on sight, but that doesn’t stop Jommy’s mother from bringing him to see the world capital of Centropolis, the seat of power for Earth’s dictator, Kier Gray. But on their latest trip to Centropolis, the two slans are discovered, and Jommy’s mother is killed. Jommy, only 9 years old, unwittingly becomes caught up in a plot to undermine Gray, who may be more sympathetic to slans than the public suspects. The nonstop action and root-for-the-underdog plot has made Slan a science fiction favorite.

Now with a quick jump forward with Books On Tape, to the modern sequel…

Science Fiction Audiobook - Slan Hunter by A.E. van Vogt and Kevin J. AndersonSlan Hunter
By Kevin J. Anderson and A.E. Van Vogt; Read by Scott Brick
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books On Tape
Publication date: July 10, 2007
ISBN: 1415940320
“This startling SF adventure novel is a collaboration between the classic SF grand master A. E. van Vogt and contemporary master Kevin J. Anderson. At the time of his death in 2000, van Vogt left a partial draft and an outline for the sequel to his most famous novel, Slan. Now the story is completed by Anderson and is sure to be one of the most popular SF novels of the year. Slans are a race of superior mutants, smarter and stronger than homo sapiens and able to read minds. Thousands of years in the future on Earth, the Slan Wars are over, and the slans were largely wiped out, but people still fear and distrust them. They are now a persecuted minority who live in hiding from the greater population. Slan Hunter tells of this towering conflict in the far future, a war among the races of mankind, as humanity–all types of humanity–struggles to survive. Mutant Jommy Cross, the hero of Slan, and the other great characters from that book return, including Kier Gray, Gray’s beautiful daughter Kathleen, and the villainous John Petty. The final Slan War now begins.”

And what Golden Age would be complete without a revist to an audiobook that’s probably had more incarnations than your average time lord? Yep, it’s Dune, this time done up in an unabridged multi-voiced version…

Science Fiction Audiobook - Dune by Frank HerbertDune
By Frank Herbert; Read by a full cast
? CDs – 27 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Renaissance
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 1427201439
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud’dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family—and would bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. Frank Herbert’s death in 1986 was a tragic loss, yet the astounding legacy of his visionary fiction will live forever.

And finally we conclude with respected first novel in a new fantasy series that Books On Tape is offering…

Fantasy Audiobook - His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi NovikHis Majesty’s Dragon
By Naomi Novik; Read by Simon Vance
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books On Tape
Release Date: June 26, 2007
ISBN: 1415940142
Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain’s defense by taking to the skies … not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons. When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future–and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarefied world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

My ears are tingling just thinking about all these!

Blackstone Audiobooks for Spring & Summer 2007

SFFaudio News

Audiobooks - Blacksone Audio Blackstone Audiobooks has a solid line-up of Science Fiction and Fantasy for the spring and summer 2007. Among the many titles is Variable Star, the “collaboration” between Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson which of course will be read by Spider Robinson. Also, interesting, but not listed below, Blackstone will be selling the The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas. Already underway is the Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series, the first of which came out this month – these are re-issued and re-recorded with multiple narrators, likely by master audiobook producer Stefan Rudnicki (the series was previously recorded in abridged versions for Dove Audio, with readings by Nana Visitor).

Here’s the all-new line up:

Science Fiction AudiobookMemory
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: March 2007

Science Fiction AudiobookRed Prophet (#2 In The Alvin Maker Series)
By Orson Scott Card; Read by various readers
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: March 2007

Science Fiction AudiobookWhere’s My Jetpack?
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: April 2007

Science Fiction Audiobook - Variable Star by Robert A Heinlein and Spider RobinsonVariable Star
By Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson; Read by Spider Robinson
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007

Science Fiction AudiobookThe Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
By Jack Finney; Read by Kristoffer Tabori
[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007