Beam Me Up podcast: A World Is Born by Leigh Brackett

SFFaudio Online Audio

Podcast - Beam Me UpThe Beam Me Up podcast has a two part reading of Leigh Brackett’s A World Is Born. This short story was first published in the July 1941 issue of Comet magazine (that same issue that also featured The Street That Wasn’t There by Clifford D. Simak and Carl Jacobi as well as Vortex Blaster by E.E. Doc Smith)!


Beam Me Up - A World Is Born by Leigh BrackettA World Is Born
By Leigh Brackett; Read by Ron Huber
2 MP3s – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Beam Me Up
Podcast: February 2008
“The first ripples of blue fire touched Dio’s men. Bolts of it fastened on gun-butts, and knuckles. Men screamed and fell. Jill cried out as he tore silver ornaments from her dress.”

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7: The Last Days Of Shandakor by Leigh Brackett

Online Audio

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7BBC7’s the 7th Dimension is re-broadcasting their action-packed reading of a novelette by Leigh Brackett. The Last Days of Shandakor was originally published in April 1952 issue of Startling Stories magazine and was first broadcast on BBC7 back in March 2007.

NOTE: This is being broadcast in 2 parts on successive Sunday evenings with repeat broadcasts at 12:30am (Monday).

The Last Days Of ShandakorThe Last Days Of Shandakor
By Leigh Brackett; Read by Nathan Osgood
Broadcast in 2 parts – Approx. 50 minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday January 28th and Sunday February 3rd 2008
This is another new commission for the 7th Dimension.
An epic space adventure written in which Mars is portrayed as a dying planet where desperate Earthmen compete with the last Martians and other alien races for lost knowledge and hidden power.

And remember BBC7 provides the Listen Again service to catch it for 6 days following the broadcast!

A History Of Rome / A history of The Empire Strikes Back

SFFaudio Online Audio

The History Of Rome PodcastEver wonder where good SF writers get their ideas? In many cases they just steal them from the history books. For instance, it seems pretty clear to me that either Leigh Brackett or Lawrence Kasdan or George Lucas, plotted the action sequence that begins The Empire Strikes Back after sitting down to read a little Roman history – what’s the connection? Check it out – about 9 minutes into episode 17 of The History Of Rome podcast |MP3| you’ll hear historian and podcaster Mike Duncan explain it.

This is a terrific podcast that I’ve been listening to for a long time, it has about 0.02% SF content, but subscribe anyway:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheHistoryOfRome

Posted by Jesse Willis

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.

LibriVox - short story audiobook - Bread Overhead by Fritz LeiberBread 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

BBC7 has old Isaac Asimov and new Leigh Brackett

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC 7's The 7th DimensionBBC7’s the 7th Dimension has re-broadcast Isaac Asimov’s classic, The Last Question. It aired last year around this time and has just now aired again (Saturday). No less of interest, and this one is BRAND NEW, is an action-packed novelette by Leigh Brackett. The Last Days of Shandakor was originally published in April 1952 issue of Startling Stories magazine. Here are all the details for both…

The Last Question by Isaac AsimovThe Last Question
By Isaac Asimov; Read by Henry Goodman
Complete broadcast in 1 part – Approx 25 minutes – [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / 7th Dimension
Broadcast: March 10th 2007
Asimov’s classic “man versus machine” short story. In the not too distant future, technology has advanced to the point where global affairs are managed by a huge computer called Multivac which supposedly can provide the answers to all questions… such as… “Can entropy be reversed?”

The Last Days Of ShandakorThe Last Days Of Shandakor
By Leigh Brackett; Read by Nathan Osgood
Broadcast in 2 parts – Approx. 50 minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / 7th Dimension
Broadcast: March 10th 2007 and March 17th 2007
This is another new commission for the 7th Dimension.
An epic space adventure written in which Mars is portrayed as a dying planet where desperate Earthmen compete with the last Martians and other alien races for lost knowledge and hidden power. NOTE: This is being broadcast in 2 parts on successive Saturday evenings with repeat broadcasts at Midnight (Sunday).

And remember BBC7 provides the Listen Again service to catch both of these gems for 6 days following the broadcast!