Tag: LibriVox

Badge Of Infamy by Lester Del Rey

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s a terrific audiobook. It’s one I hadn’t thought of for a long while, but now, looking at its plot and themes, it seems fresher than ever before. It’s about healthcare, political lobbies by powerful interest groups, ethics in a time of corruption, and the red planet, Mars.

The complete audiobook is available from LibriVox, but what’s new here is a |PDF| made from a scan of it’s original publication in Satellite Science Fiction, June 1957! And it’s beautiful!

Satellite Science Fiction, June 1957 - cover illustration by Alex Schomburg

LIBRIVOX - Badge Of Infamy by Lester del ReyBadge Of Infamy
By Lester del Rey; Read by Steven H. Wilson
1 |M4B|, 15 Zipped MP3 Files, or Podcast – Approx. 3 Hours 19 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 17, 2007
Daniel Feldman was a doctor once. He made the mistake of saving a friend’s life in violation of Medical Lobby rules. Now, he’s a pariah, shunned by all, forbidden to touch another patient. But things are more loose on Mars. There, Doc Feldman is welcomed by the colonists, even as he’s hunted by the authorities. But, when he discovers a Martian plague may soon wipe out humanity on two planets, Feldman finds himself a pivotal figure. War erupts. Earth is poised to wipe out the Mars colony utterly. A cure to the plague is the price of peace, and only Feldman can find it.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/badge-of-infamy-by-lester-del-rey.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Illustrations from Satellite Science Fiction, June 1957 (artwork uncredited):
Illustration from Badge Of Infamy (artwork uncredited)
Illustration from Badge Of Infamy (artwork uncredited)
Illustration from Badge Of Infamy (artwork uncredited)
Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Occupant Of The Room by Algernon Blackwood

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s a haunted hotel story, that while being rather melancholy is also surprisingly uplifting.

LibriVoxThe Occupant Of The Room
By Algernon Blackwood; Read by Mooseboy Alfonzo
1 |MP3| – Approx. 23 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 15, 2008
First published in Nash’s Magazine, December 1909.

Here’s a |PDF|.

Lee Brown Coye illustration of The Occupant Of The Room from Sleep No More

[Thanks to Freedom School Records!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Yellow Wallpaper - original illustration from The New England Magazine

There are several readings of The Yellow Wallpaper on LibriVox, but the best one to my ears is Michelle Sullivan’s. I think that’s the one we’ll use on an upcoming SFFaudio Podcast.

LibriVoxThe Yellow Wallpaper
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Read by Michelle Sullivan
1 |MP3| – Approx. 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 7, 2008
First published in The New England Magazine, January 1892.


LibriVoxThe Yellow Wallpaper
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Read by Justine Young
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 2, 2006
First published in The New England Magazine, January 1892.


LibriVoxThe Yellow Wallpaper
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Read by Lola Rogers
1 |MP3| – Approx. 35 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibirVox.org
Published: February 13, 2007
First published in The New England Magazine, January 1892.


LibriVoxThe Yellow Wallpaper
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Read by jaggO
1 |MP3| – Approx. 41 [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 25, 2007
First published in The New England Magazine, January 1892.


LibriVoxThe Yellow Wallpaper
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Read by Kirsten Ferreri
1 |MP3| – Approx. 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 8, 2006
First published in The New England Magazine, January 1892.


Here’s a |PDF| made from the original publication.

And here’s one with the modernized title and with the author’s more familiar married name |PDF|.

The Yellow Wallpaper - original illustration from The New England Magazine

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

I could be wrong but I bet The Boarded Window is the second most popular Ambrose Bierce short story assigned in American schools (with the first being An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge).

The Boarded Window is super short (less than 2,000 words), leaves out the usual controversial themes Bierce went for, and is a good ghost story too.

LibriVoxThe Boarded Window
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Joseph Langley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 13 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 28, 2009
First published in the San Francisco Examiner, July 14, 1889.

Here’s a “Special English” adaptation. Designed for ESL students this version is read at a slower pace, with a simplified vocabulary.

Voice Of AmericaThe Boarded Window
Adapted by Lawan Davis from the story by Ambrose Bierce; Read by Shep O’Neal
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Voice Of America
Published: 2009
“A man in the deep woods deals with the death of his wife.”

Here’s a |PDF|.

And finally here’s an 1978 video adaptation for the International Instructional Television Cooperative:

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: No Great Magic by Fritz Leiber

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

No Great Magic by Fritz Leiber

It took me two attempts to get into this Fritz Leiber audiobook. Part of the issue was that the first person protagonist is female and the audiobook’s narrator is male. Phil Chenevert, the narrator, is a talented voice actor but he still sounded male. This bothered me all the way up to chapter four when I had my growning indignity balloon deflated by this choice paragraph:

I swung back to the play just at the moment Lady Mack soliloquizes, “Come to my woman’s breasts. And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers.” Although I knew it was just folded towel Martin was touching with his fingertips as he lifted them to the top half of his green bodice, I got carried away, he made it so real. I decided boys can play girls better than people think. Maybe they should do it a little more often, and girls play boys too.

Despite my loss of that criticism, I am still not fully satisfied with the story. Like The Big Time |READ OUR REVIEW| before it, No Great Magic is well written fluff – with not even the shape of a plot beginning until the very end.

It may just be that No Great Magic, and perhaps a good deal of other time travel related SF, are of a kind of “cozy” Science Fiction story that I just don’t fully embrace.

Still, the first person narration by the amnesiac heroine and Chenevert’s narrative skill make No Great Magic worth checking out – and perhaps your tastes and my tastes will differ.

Chenevert, incidentally, put it this way in a LibriVox forum post:

“I hope you have been involved in the theater somewhere in your past or present because this story smells heavily of greasepaint.”

LibriVoxNo Great Magic
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Phil Chenevert
8 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 1 Hour 53 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 27, 2012
|ETEXT|
They were a traveling group of Shakespearean players; perfectly harmless, right? wrong. For one thing, why did they have spacemen costumes in their wardrobes,right next to caveman ones? Why was the girl in charge of backstage suffering from amnesia and agoraphobia? No Great Magic is needed to perform the plays they put on, but sometimes great science. No matter where, or when. First published in Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1963.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/6656

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Here’s a |PDF| with the original illustrations from Galaxy.

Illustrations by Nodel:

No Great Magic - illustrated by Nodel
No Great Magic - illustrated by Nodel
No Great Magic - illustrated by Nodel

[Thanks also to DaveC]

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: My Favorite Murder by Ambrose Bierce

Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Online Audio

My Favorite Murder by Ambrose Bierce

There are two readings of My Favorite Murder, by Ambrose Bierce, on LibriVox. Bill Mosley’s reading has a more appropriate accent, but Peter Yearsley’s is funnier, perhaps because of his English accent. The high minded language of the protagonist, combined with the frightening descriptions, makes Yearsley’s version more essentially hilarious.

If you’re familiar with Jack London’s Moon-Face, and liked that story, I think you’ll like this one too.

LibriVoxMy Favorite Murder
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Bill Mosley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 3, 2010
First published in the San Francisco Examiner, September 16, 1888.

LibriVoxThe Parenticide Club – My Favorite Murder
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: December 29, 2005

And here’s a printable |PDF|.

Posted by Jesse Willis