Larry Niven – Page 21

Recent Arrivals from Blackstone Audio

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

The Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 1
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Various
7 CDs – 8 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433228223

Philip K. Dick stories! Contents: “Autofac”, “Progeny”, “The Exit Door Leads In”, “A Little Something for Us Tempnauts”, “The Last of the Masters”, “The Preserving Machine”, “Novelty Act”, “The War with the Fnools”, and “The Electric Ant”.

The Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 2
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Various
7 CDs – Approx. 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433228308

MORE Philip K. Dick stories! Contents: “Colony”, “Upon the Dull Earth”, “The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford”, “Faith of Our Fathers”, “The Days of Perky Pat”, “The Variable Man”, and “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon”.

Inferno
By Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle; Read by Tom Weiner
5 CDs – 5.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433259050

Author in hell!

After being thrown out the window of his luxury apartment, science fiction writer Allen Carpentier wakes to find himself at the gates of hell. Feeling he’s landed in a great opportunity for a book, he attempts to follow Dante’s road map. Determined to meet Satan himself, Carpentier treks through the Nine Layers of Hell, led by Benito Mussolini, and encounters countless mental and physical tortures. As he struggles to escape, he’s taken through new, puzzling, and outlandish versions of sin—recast for the present day.

The Runelords: The Sum of All Men
By David Farland; Read by Ray Porter
17 CDs – 20.4 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433226946

I read this one in print a long while back – a great epic fantasy.

David Farland’s acclaimed Runelords series introduces a world where the social structure is based upon the magical exchange of “endowments” such as stamina, grace, and wit. The Runelords are those who receive these endowments from their vassals, becoming superhuman in exchange for the responsibility of caring those they have deprived of strength, or beauty, or sight.

Young Prince Gaborn of Mystarria is traveling in disguise on a journey to ask for the hand of the lovely Princess Iome of Sylvarresta. Armed with his gifts of strength and perception, the prince and his bodyguard stop at a local tavern, where they spot a pair of assassins who have their sights set on Princess Iome’s father. As they race to warn the king, they realize that more than the royal family is at risk—the very fate of the Earth is in jeopardy.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Theatre
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, William Gillette, and Yuri Rasovsky; Performed by a full cast
5 CDs – 5.5 hours – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2005
ISBN: 9781433279916

Audio drama extraordinaire!

Blackstone Audiobooks is pleased to present the first audio recordings ever of the only two Holmes plays written by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These new, specially commissioned productions of the Hollywood Theater of the Ear star Audie Award-winning readers Martin Jarvis as Sherlock Holmes and Kristoffer Tabori as Dr. Watson.

In Sherlock Holmes, the Napoleon of Crime, Professor Moriarity plots with would-be blackmailers to have Holmes killed. And the normally love-proof Holmes falls for an exceptional woman. The play was co-authored by the American matinee idol William Gillette, who played the title sleuth. A smash hit from the beginning, the play remained in Gillette’s repertoire until he retired more than thirty years after its premiere.

What is the secret of the shocking death of poor Enid’s sister? What did she mean by her dying words, “the speckled band”? What danger does Enid face from the brutal Dr. Rylott? Only Holmes can scope out the answer and save the helpless girl from certain death. Sir Arthur adapted The Speckled Band (1910) from his own short story of that name. A stage success on three continents, the play hasn’t received a professional revival in eighty-four years.

When Holmes turns fifty, he retires and becomes a beekeeper, creating a crisis for his friend Watson, whose income derives from the Holmes stories he contributes to the Strand magazine. Further, the Doctor owes money to mobsters who want either their cash or his blood. The surprising upshot is, as the headlines proclaim, a Ghastly Double Murder in Famed Detective’s Flat, a one-act comedy by producer-director Yuri Rasovsky, here receiving its audiobook premiere.

Besides winning the prestigious Audie Award, this audiobook won the 2006 Communicator Award for Art/Culture, an international award that recognizes recognizing creative excellence in communications.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #018

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #018 – a podcast about audiobooks, audio drama, History and most of all mutiny! This is mutiny mister!

Talked about on today’s show:
One way to get around DRM (swapping iPods), Blackstone Audio arrivals, The Selected Stories Of Philip K. Dick Volume 1, The Selected Stories Of Philip K. Dick Volume 2, X-Minus One: Colony, The Days Of Perky Pat, Alpha, Catherine Asaro, Inferno, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, New Releases, Starship: Rebel, Mike Resnick, Allen Steele, Coyote, Wayne June, The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, audio drama of The Maltese Falcon, Yuri Rasovsky, The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch, The Sacred Book Of The Werewolf, Victor Pelevin, Canadia: 2056 – Season 2, Matt Watts, Steve The First, Steve The Second, sez Scott: ‘Matt Watt’s stuff is way better than Red Dwarf‘, Matt Watt’s blog entry on Canadia: 2056, Nova Swing, M. John Harrison, Tantor Media, The Steel Remains, Richard K. Morgan, Replay, Ken Grimwood, Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles, Pierre Bayard, Pandora’s Star, Peter F. Hamilton, The DIY Scholar Blog, Stephen Pott’s UCSD Literature Of The World course on Science Fiction, LibriVox’s release of Uller Uprising, H. Beam Piper, the Sepoy Mutiny, 1984, George Orwell, what’s wrong with writers today (their works are not inspired by History), Mike Resnick’s the exception to this rule.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Orson Scott Card Selects #6 – Sirens Of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

SFFaudio Online Audio

Orson Scott Card’s October essay is available over on Audible.com. His subject this month is Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Sirens Of Titan!

“The job that science fiction is supposed to make us rethink reality, make us live in a different universe”

You can check it out on the site itself, or simply listen direct |MP3|. Sirens Of Titan is literary fiction using SF set-dressing – Card promises we’ll love it, even when we hate it.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Orson Scott Card Selects #5 – Protector by Larry Niven

SFFaudio Online Audio

Orson Scott Card’s September essay is available over on Audible.com. His subject this month is Larry Niven’s Protector!

“Larry Niven spews out incredible ideas the way other writers spew out commas and periods”

You can check it out on the site itself, or simply listen direct |MP3|. Protector isn’t just one of Larry Niven’s finest novels, it is one of the finest novels in all of SF. Check out our review of the audiobook version HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Fleet Of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner

SFFaudio Review

Fleet Of Worlds
By Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner; Read by Tom Weiner
8 CDs – Approx 9.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 1433229420
Themes: / Science Fiction / Hard SF / Aliens / Physics / Space Travel / Sociology /

Larry Niven teams up with fellow science-fiction writer Edward M. Lerner to take a closer look at the events leading up to Niven’s first Ringworld novel. Kirsten Quinn-Kovacs is among the best and brightest of her people. She gratefully serves the gentle race that rescued her ancestors from a dying starship and nurtures them still. But, if only the Citizens knew where Kirsten’s people came from! A chain reaction of supernovae at the galaxy’s core has unleashed a wave of lethal radiation that will sterilize the galaxy. The Citizens flee, taking with them their planets, the Fleet of Worlds. Someone must scout ahead, and Kirsten and her crew eagerly volunteer. But as they set out to explore for any possible dangers in the Fleet’s path, they uncover long-hidden truths that will shake the foundations of worlds.

Not knowing much about Edward M. Lerner or his style, it’s hard to know precisely what parts of this novel he wrote. On the whole it definitely feels like a Larry Niven book. And of course that’s a very good thing. Surprisingly nice, this “known space” novel doesn’t feel like it’s just embellishing the dark corners we’d little explored before. There is material to be mined, and mine it they do. We learn more about the General Products corporation, early Puppeteer influence on Terra, and the back story to Niven’s classic The Borderland Of Sol. The heart of the novel though is Nessus’ interaction with a crew of Humans. As well, Niven and Lerner, introduce an entirely new and compelling alien species, though we really don’t get to interact with them. Its hard to get into much more without giving out a lot of spoilers. Suffice it to say, this is a fine, though definitely lesser entry into the “known space” canon. When recommending a novel universe, I would always start with the strongest book in that universe, and expand out from there. If you haven’t read any Niven novels before this one, go listen to Protector and Ringworld first. Then, if you are as enchanted as I was with it, come back to Fleet Of Worlds for more.

Tom Weiner, who is one of Blackstone Audio’s new narrators, previously heard in A Galaxy Trilogy, brings authority to the narrative of Fleet Of Worlds. He has to work pretty hard to do both the puppeteer contralto that is supposed to sound like “Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Marilyn Monroe, and Lorelei Huntz all rolled into one.” But both it and the human females Weiner performs come off well enough – giving more of an impression of a voice change than any actual transformation.

Update: Edward M. Lerner tells me that that the follow up to Fleet Of Worlds, titled Juggler Of Worlds, is also slated for a Blackstone Audio release!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Five Free Favourites #1

SFFaudio Online Audio

Inspired by the idea that most visitors don’t dip into our 5 years worth of archives, here’s a new feature:
Five Free Favourites
…in which we’ll post about five different audio favourites. I’d be willing to bet any of these 5 will make your ears happy. In fact, I’m so confident you’ll like them I’ve already started thinking about another five more. And, I’ll be soliciting contributors to put together similar lists of their own. Here’s my first batch…

1.
Night On Mispec Moor
By Larry Niven; Read by Warren James
Intro |MP3| Part 1 |MP3|, Part 2 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Provider: Hour25Online.com
Created: October 31, 2001
Larry Niven isn’t just the master of Hard SF, he’s also the master of Hard Fantasy and Horror! This story is a story which includes all three. It’s about an “outworld mercenary” who finds himself a lone survivor of his routed army. After fleeing into a moor, his pursuers suddenly stop, they dare not follow him into “Mispec” at night. This is a creepy, clever and very memorable short story. The sound quality isn’t ideal, but you’ll certainly enjoy the content.

2.
Infidel
By Roger Gregg; Performed by a Full Cast
4 MP3s – [RADIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: The Sonic Society
Podcast: April 2007
Sonic Society #62 (Infidel part 1 of 4) |MP3|
Sonic Society #63 (Infidel part 2 of 4) |MP3|
Sonic Society #64 (Infidel part 3 of 4) |MP3|
Sonic Society #65 (Infidel part 4 of 4) |MP3|
Though it’s probably easier classified as “historical” I’d call it a Horror from History. Crazy Dog Audio Theatre’s Infidel fictionalizes the very real events of the 5th Crusade (1217-1221 ad) in this transformative audio dramatization. Sir Hugh of Beauvais and his brother Sir Philip are knights. They’ve enlisted themselves in the fifth campaign to free the holy lands. This is modern audio drama at its finest. It’s also available in a CD set which you can get HERE.

3.
The Pyramid of Amirah
By James Patrick Kelly; Read By James Patrick Kelly
1 |MP3| – 18 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Jim Kelly’s Free Reads
Published: June 28th 2008
Surrounded by boxes of goody-goody bars, her only food, Amirah lives alone in what was once her parent’s house. Its her home now, and she’s honoured to become a pyramid girl. During the day she vacuums up the limestone dust that drifts down onto every flat surface, at night she leaves the lights on all the time, even when she sleeps. As the years pass the light bulbs start to burn out one-by-one and Amirah wonders if the meaning of her living entombment will ever come. This is a live recorded version, I’m highly moved by this enigmatic “Fantasy.” This is one is extremely powerful. I think about it often.

4.
The Merchant And The Alchemists Gate
By Ted Chiang; Read by James Campanella
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: StarShipSofa
Podcast: 2008
Time travel, Ted Chiang, and a terrific narrator. These three combine into an absolutely unmissable listen. A wonderful SF novelette it conjures a 1,001 Nights-like atmosphere with a By His Bootstraps story-logic.

5.
Tk’tk’tk
By David D. Levine; Read by Paul Tevis
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Escape Pod
Podcast: May 18th 2006
I’ve heard Episode 54 of Escape Pod maybe a half dozen times and I’m still very impressed with it. I’m convinced Levine’s tale will become an enduring SF classic. It takes a very Jack Vance like situation, some truly alien aliens, and throws a human everyman into their society – it demonstrates a couple of real world psychological phenomenons – and all the while it is highly entertaining. Can you really ask for more than that?

What Five Free Favourites would you recommend?

Posted by Jesse Willis