Jay Lake – Page 3

StarShipSofa

SFFaudio Online Audio

So, the StarShipSofa is one year old and to celebrate we are announcing The Sofanaut Awards! Over the year there’s been some fine stories played on the Sofa – just ask your blogger Jesse!

With the recent 52nd episode of Aural Delights, StarShipSofa has now delivered a year’s worth of poetry, short fiction and fact articles. What better time than now to hold the first ever StarShipSofa awards: The Sofanauts!

The Sofanauts with recognise listener favourites from the first 52 Aural Delights shows. You can access all of these shows here.

Nominations for the following categories are now open:

- - Best Flash Fiction
  - Best Main Fiction
  - Best Poetry Contributor
  - Best Fact Article Contributor
  - Best Narrator

You may nominate as many stories and contributors in each of the categories as you like. To make your nominations, please visit this online voting poll. Alternatively, you can head over to the StarShipSofa forums and list your favourites in each of the categories.

The top five stories and contributors receiving the most nominations in each category will make up a shortlist. Every nomination counts, so if someone on the forums has already nominated one of your favourites, you’ll still need to nominate it yourself to give it the best chance of making the shortlist.

You will be able to vote on the shortlist in an upcoming online poll. Stay tuned to StarShipSofa for further details.

Nominations will be open from the two weeks following Aural Delights #53.

What have been your favourites in a year’s worth of Aural Delights? Please get involved and have your say.

Aural Delights No 53 Ted Kosmatka mp3

Editorial: Tony C Smith 00:10

Poetry: An Eccentric In Orbit by Laurel Winter 06:00

Flash Fiction: Conspiracy Of Dentists by Jay Lake 07:30

Fact: Movie Talk by Rod Barnett 16:30

The Sofanauts Awards: by Mark Bormann 24:15

Main Fiction: Deadnauts by Ted Kosmatka 28:00

Narrators: Kate Baker, Diane Severson, Paul Caggie

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://www.starshipsofa.com/rss

Posted by Tony C. Smith

Review of METAtropolis

SFFaudio Review

METAtropolis
By Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi, and Karl Shroeder
Read by Michael Hogan, Scott Brick, Kandyse McClure, Alessandro Juliani, and Stefan Rudnicki
Audible Download – 9 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2008
Themes: / Science Fiction / Future Cities / Internet / Computers / Virtual Worlds / Survival / Economics / Environment /

METAtropolis is a shared-world science fiction collection with stories from five different authors who have been busy making their marks on the history of science fiction literature: Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi, and Karl Schroeder. The ties that bind these excellent stories are imagined future cities in the same future world, which is filled with detail and innovation by the authors.

Also excellent are the narrators. Scott Brick and Stefan Rudnicki are well-known and respected by audiobook listeners, and they read one story each with their usual professionalism. The other three stories are read by actors from Battlestar Galactica: Michael Hogan (Col. Tigh), Kandyse McClure (Dee), and Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Gaeta).

Jay Lake starts the collection with “In the Forests of the Night”, with Michael Hogan narrating. The story takes place in Cascadiopolis, a settlement in Oregon that is visited by a man named Tygre Tygre. John Scalzi, the editor of this collection, introduces each story, and here he says that Lake, who is skilled at world-building, did a lot of the heavy introductory lifting in this story. That’s true, and the story is filled with information, but it is never dull. Hogan’s narration keeps us on our toes.

Next up is Tobias Buckell who takes us to The Wilds of suburban Detroit in “Stochasti-city”, with Scott Brick reading. In the future, commuting to work becomes unsustainable, and entire neighborhoods are abandoned, but some still live there, like the protagonist of this story. He makes his living “turking” – finding odd jobs that someone on the net will pay for. I’ve never been to Detroit, but imagining the abandoned suburbs and the city itself was easy with Buckell at the helm of this rich, thought-provoking tale.

Elizabeth Bear, in “The Red in the Sky is Our Blood”, introduces us to Katie, who also lives in Detroit. Kandyse McClure narrates here, and does a wonderful job with the most character-driven story of the five. The story opens with Katie riding her bicycle through a downtown Detroit that is nearly impassable, due to potholes and general infrastructure failure. As it continues, she’s got some hard choices to make.

John Scalzi’s entertaining story is next, read by Alessandro Juliani. There are a couple of laugh-out-loud moments in “Utere Nihil Non Extra Quiritationem Suis”, which is about a recent graduate’s first job in the city. Also filled with detail (would you take a shower with grey water?) and entertaining. Juliani reads with perfect timing.

And last is Karl Schroeder’s story, “To Hie from Far Cilenia”, read by Stefan Rudnicki. This is a wonderful story of cities of a different type. Idea-rich, action-packed – it’s got it all. It’s a perfect cap to a great bunch of stories, taking things in a completely different direction. A virtual world superimposed on the “real” one, but ins’t the virtual one just as real? Rudnicki is excellent, like always.

The shared world idea is not a new one, but this completely successful collection of great stories may renew the enthusiasm for this sub-genre. Is this a sub-genre? The actual stories of any shared-world collection can be of any sub-genre. But the point is that this is a thought-provoking, exciting group of stories that deserves high praise. An SFFaudio Essential!

ADD: I forgot to mention – get the first story for free over at Audible! CLICK HERE for details.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #008

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #008 – here there be podcasts – we’ve adorned ourselves in too much gold, now we can’t move! So join us on our 8th show, where we’re always etymologically correct.

Scott: Oh ya right. I just forgot something man. Uh, before we dock, I think we ought to discuss the bonus situation.

Jesse: Right.

Scott: We think… we think we deserve full shares.

Jesse: Right.

Scott: Pass the cornbread.

Topics discussed include:
42Blips.com, METAtropolis, Jay Lake, John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Karl Schroeder, Mr. Spaceship, Philip K. Dick, Stefan Rudnicki, Wonder Audio, Anne McCaffrey, The Ship Who Sang, Michael Hogan, Battlestar Galactica, 18th Century Spain, Cascadia (Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and sometimes Idaho), Detroit, “Turking”, The Turk (the chess playing automaton), alternative economy, Kandyse McClure, infodump, shared world, Brandon Sanderson, hard fantasy, Elantris, Larry Niven, The Magic Goes Away, manna, unicorns, dragons, Dungeons & Dragons, Mistborn, Robert Jordan, The Wheel Of Time, Writing Excuses Podcast, Howard Tayler, SchlockMercenary.com, Dan Wells, The Dark Knight, Aural Noir, The New Adventures Of Mike Hammer, Stacy Keach, Mike Hammer, Full Cast Audio, Red Planet, Robert A. Heinlein, Bruce Coville, Mars, Heinlein’s Future History sequence, the Red Planet TV miniseries, Princess Academy, Shannon Hale, Blackstone Audio, The Collected Stories Of Philip K. Dick Volume 1, and Volume 2, Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, David Farland, Runelords, Collected Public Domain Works Of H.P. Lovecraft, LibriVox.org, October, Ray Bradbury, “Autumn ennui”, AUTHOR PAGES, LEIGH BRACKETT, FREDERIC BROWN, JAMES PATRICK KELLY, BBC7, RadioArchive.cc, Beam Me Up Podcast, MACK REYNOLDS, Robert Sheckley, Religulous, Constantine’s Sword, The Ultimate Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction: The Definitive illustrated Guide edited by David Pringle, space opera, planetary romance, Julie D., Forgotten Classics podcast, The Wonder Stick, time travel, alien intrusions, metal powers, Slan, The Demolished Man, comedic SF, aliens, artificial intelligence, “cosmic collisions”, Deep Impact, cyborgs, dinosaurs, the dying Earth, Gene Wolfe, elixir of life, immortality, Roger Zelazny, Robert Silverberg, genetic engineering, nuclear war, overpopulation, parallel worlds, robots, androids, Joanna Russ, Ben Bova, space travel, suspended animation, teleportation, transcendence = the Singularity ?, Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke, religion, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Monica Hughes, Crisis On Conshelf Ten, Hard SF, cyberpunk, psychology, New Wave, lost races, military SF, science fantasy, shared worlds, steampunk.

Posted by Jesse Willis

FREE AUDIBLE download IN THE FORESTS OF THE NIGHT by Jay Lake

SFFaudio Online Audio

Audible.com has made the first story in METAtropolis availble as a FREE DOWNLOAD.

In the Forests of the Night |GET IT| is available NOW. Be forewarned, an Audible.com account is necessary.

Posted by Jesse Willis

METAtropolis from Audible Frontiers: Lake, Scalzi, Bear, Buckell, Schroeder

New Releases

METAtropolis
By Jay Lake, John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Karl Schroeder; Read by Michael Hogan, Scott Brick, Kandyse McClure, Alessandro Juliani and Stefan Rudnicki
Audible Download – Approx. 9 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published October 21st 2008
Five novellas by five of the hottest SF authors of today.
Novellas included:
In the Forests of the Night by Jay Lake; read by Michael Hogan
High in Oregon’s Cascades, a mysterious stranger named Tygre Tygre walks into the off-the-grid settlement known as Cascadiopolis and claims asylum. He is a man with no past and seemingly otherworldly abilities. Will he be the Cascadians’ salvation?
Stochasti-city by Tobias Buckell; read by Scott Brick
OK, Reg. You’re a bouncer who’s barely eking out a meager existence in the decaying Wilds outside Detroit. So a little job tracking the Eddies on their patrols seems like easy money. Well, think again, Reg. Because a riot’s about to happen… and you’re going to be the cause…
The Red in the Sky is Our Blood by Elizabeth Bear; read by Kandyse McClure
How does the stranger know Cadie’s real name – and why she’s on the run – and what it all has to do with the Ukrainian mob? He’s offering her freedom from possessions and a totally new way of life. But he wants just this one little favor…
Utere Nihil… by John Scalzi; read by Alessandro Juliani
The only thing Benji lacks more than ambition is luck. And his new job has to be the lowest of the low. But something is stirring in the zero-footprint economy of New St. Louis. And Benji’s about to find himself chin deep in the muck!
To Hie from Far Cilenia by Karl Schroeder; read by Stefan Rudnicki
Gennady’s an expert on nukes, so when the Interpol man hires him to track some stolen plutonium, it seems like business as usual. Except for this: all signs lead to – a place that doesn’t exist.

Listen to two METAtropolis authors discussion (John Scalzi and Tobias Buckell) |MP3| disucss the collection…

“The authors converse about writing for audio, how they artfully handle peculiar prose called infodumps, and the fun behind world-building in collaboration. How this team of five incorporated their lives into their novellas for METAtropolis and whether their frightening visions of the future could ever happen are also among the topics covered.”

Posted by Jesse Willis