Missouri – SFFaudio

The SFFaudio Podcast #912 – READALONG: The Green Eagle Score by Richard Stark

Jesse and Misha Burnett talk about The Green Eagle Score by Richard Stark

Talked about on today’s show:
happy birthday, Westlake/Stark, so good, Indianapolis, a guy named Stan Deavers, not an officer, in the airforce, upstate New York, flee the scene, at the end, Handy McKay, Presque Isle, Maine, legally inadvisable, the mode you need to be in to get to the thing, a burned out lodge, drawing on his stuff, early 60s late 50s, Korean War era, a volunteer or a conscript, it’s the saluting civil service, writing what he knows, a snowtop, does that on purpose, getting introduced to crime, crime writing, stealing money, roll in the dough, there’s always complications, some hook for this book, the varieties of evil, all different kinds of badguys, Parker on the beach, the machine, he’s got a code, it doesn’t follow the law it follows his laws, Claire, an opportunistic infection, nice way of puttin women, she doesn’t want to know about it, very succinctly put in the first few pages, she doesn’t want to know, the old guy getting out of prison, the broken man, got what it takes, willing to think about it, his ex-wife, she’s got my kid, she’s shacked up with another guy and I’m friends with him, the weak link, the wife, a type, through her psychiatry, working out why she’d married this guy, why she’d left him, takes over the story for a while, he is his own criminal, manipulative, perfectly good reasons for everything he does, second wife, mistress, using his patients as his crew, how subtly Westlake brought across the idea, the questions he asks, how are they planning on getting away, hesitant, meaning exactly the opposite, The President’s Analyst (1967), James Coburn, he’s gonna be the thing that fucks up the score, book 2 chapter 1, she’s not allowed to look at him, characterization, after this novel, that’s bad, she has to talk, how come Parker doesn’t know, a huge fucking problem, a problem throughout, criminals want to talk, tell sex stories and crime stories, tell the same stories, they have to talk, Parker doesn’t have to talk, to solve problems, from his end, she’s falling apart, to get her through, cut loose now that he’s got a sense of power, going home to kill his dad, a theme in here, the last lines of the book, and the casino after, turns her into a wildcat in bed, she doesn’t spend that money at the casino, that idea of risk and insurance, we gotta try to wear belts and suspenders, live our lives, we live at the hotel, Parker goes out for a swim, only asks the questions that are need, the phrase “self contained”, too talkative, garrulous, a mention of Salsa, a fun character, a good reliable guy, until they’re tested, a Parker wikipedia, Trent Reynolds’ The Violent World Of Parker, Westlake’s love of theatre, casting, varieties of evil, the man who was before, a revenge book, changes his identity, his face doesn’t matter, one of the characters had heard about Parker, a little list of characters, all the other Parker names for the Parker movies, that’s pure Westlake, Lynch, Charles Willis, it’s the money man, a dentist?, a mortuary guy, takes the elevator up, driving his big car he feels young, that perfect Westlake psychology, very hardboiled, talk about killing the kid, he can’t help but be funny, Porter, Walker, Archer, something like that, very clever, tippin his hand, writing it for himself, doesn’t even use his name, maybe the character lacks definition, Jason Statham, the Mel Gibson, a pre-reminder of the John Wick movies, a film that captured the hardboiled, Parker making a joke, the way he punctuates his chapters, a different angle, the most memorable villain, his own amateur antics going wrong, a master manipulator, throat cut by his patient, Westlake giving us some opinions, here are my politics, what makes Parker the character we’re interested in so interesting is his massive competence, a lady at a hotel, an ex-madam, runs her mouth all the time and drinks the coffee, these are genuine types, science fiction, thinking about Stanley G. Weinbaum all day, Kim Campbell, cosmic clearance, all the NATO papers, an executive summary, what actions to take or not take, the theoretical framework, how the reins of power work, personalities, maintenance, how universities actually operate, things are not done in committee meetings, they’re formalized, nothing ever happens in the committee meeting, the announcement of what’s already been decided, graft, ass-covering, rewarding your friends, a crime book, they look a lot harder, as long as everybody publicly liked that cop, suddenly the investigation doesn’t get any funding, things get lost, how do you live in the world?, The Sandbaggers, low budget spy-show, James Bond as a reality, agents are disposable, a patriot for some reason, you do think the soviets are bad, make Britain great again, a WWI fighter pilot [Harry Day], laws and regulations are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men, how fast they’re driving, conform yourself, a hedge against risk, driving is very dangerous, are you willing to get a self-driving car, your capability, a program outside of your own hands, a very good driver, a very careful driver, the problem happening in the driver’s seat, over the transmission, managing and assessing risk at all time, unacceptable, driving to conditions, in the rain, driving at night, anything perceived as blackness, the fog was incredibly thick, Illinois, Silent Hill, people barrelling past, all manner of idiocy, they’re out there, you can’t assume they’re going to do the smart thing, zen philosophy, why is it a bad idea to go to a psychiatrist, these aren’t tools that you use, too much uric acid, chemical imbalance, maybe you don’t want to just submit, where all this was leading, what’s enjoyable about the Parker novels, we get to feel superior, we get to see these situations, that’s just what I would do, the hyper-competent guy who’s got everything thought out and all together, we can aim at it, competency is the attraction, guessing right, walking the street, what’s going to happen, a problem on the horizon for them, guessing wrong guessing right, modelling somebody’s mind, distracted, bump into things, sleep hygiene, people making bad choices, sometimes surprised, a wise choice, we’re playing a game when reading these books, reading Agatha Christie, like Poirot, formulas to figure it out, puzzles, why science fiction and mysteries are compatible, Westlake as Stark sets up billiard balls on the table, this is not going to lead to anything good, how these good books work, those rules that Stan Deavers needs to learn, to show all the possible things that can go wrong, the mirror image of these books is the Dortmunder, they lose two-thirds of the money, three killed at the hand-off, had everything gone right, go to hide the vehicle, and the money’s gone, not answered in the book, would Parker have given him some catch, Parker would have killed him, stringing-him-along, put up a front, you did good, the one ironclad rule of the Parker novels: if you try to screw Parker you die, he’s gonna kill her too, a person not holding it together, French in The Rare Coin Score, that’s it, when team-members?, people a part of the score still their money, loyal to the people you assemble, pickup style basketball heisting, he gets tested a couple of times, off the guy, off the wife, off the kid, dark humour, what the rules are, 100% up front, where this job might need to go, Fusco, got the money, maybe you go to prison sometimes, you live on the run, down in Puerto Rico, those later books, Ask The Parrot, playing with the titles, very dry, dry jokes, the assessment of the girl of Parker to the psychiatrist, he wouldn’t care about her either, exactly right, she’s surprisingly insightful, I don’t think he’s evil, why is she even in the book, the connection between Fusco and Deavers, disagreements, such a funny tableau, sitting around the table mad at the doctor, tray in his room later, poor assessment, not seeing the psychiatrist would be a problem, a patsy he can use, a little in control, finally control, shooting people, plausible psychological portraits, finding them benign or able to hold their shit together, these people are resources I need to get my job done, stealing more money, the stealing of the money, the money is just an excuse for the job, there’s always a little bit of mistrust when somebody does need the money, he goes to visit his ex-wife, a salesman, selling encyclopedias door to door, Bank Shot, The Hot Rock, another chance to get for this emerald, Kengle didn’t know, a bunch of books, food freezers, are you free for a job, hell yes!, you’re using your skills, fix problems, returning back to homebase, assessing the problem, fixing it, and returning, out of the mentality of needing money, ice cream or having another pony or whatever, will you be happy, hap being luck, happiness is the exercise of vital powers through lines of excellence in a life affording them scope, was he happy?, a grouchy old bastard, it wasn’t just fucking and eating, engineers like to make problems, mechanics like to fix problems, a happy river, a shipwright, an ancient Greek king comes to you, they’re all hollow, show off to the other kings, building beautiful ships, teach those skills to someone else, since we all live in this 1967 American society, it’s all a fucking scam, it isn’t about the cruelty, what is necessary to get that thing done, almost like a reverse murder mystery, how to get away with the crime and why, a lot of per-assessment, the uniforms, the band-van, letterhead, nobody gets killed on the actual heist, some risk we didn’t assess properly, go wrong in a way that makes it a book, him looking over the job and deciding whether they meet his exacting standards, Breakout, Slayground, all the post-heist stuff, so many books in the series, definitely one of the better ones, an idea book, not all ideas are equally good, half-way through an idea story, I got a contract to fill, locked inside an amusement park, sounds really cool, kinda not enough there to keep a whole book going, back to Dortmunder, The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution, The Road To Ruin, Drowned Hopes, Bad News, Get Real, read by William Dufris, the voice of Bob the Builder, a tv producer…, what!?, the pay is good, what a crazy book, a private enterprise, money in his pockets, let’s do that, where the title comes from, bizarre, such a period guy, hints here and there, Dortmunder is getting older, when the new books start coming out, Chevvys, Pontiacs, the era is so different, the Rat Pack guys, Frank Sinatra, the internet is not even possibly a thing yet, bizarre man, Levine, cops, deliberately avoided, Lawrence Block’s Evan Tanner, super-hero premise, The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep, freelance James Bond for revolutions, the revolutionary spirit, the people must be free, a silly premise, sex-adventures, well-written, likes to travel, goes to some place, writes a book, can you write us a new one, Tanner On Ice, he was cryogenically frozen, woken up and decanted and not have aged, such a ridiculous problem, they were willing to publish the whole book series, not quite up to the snuff of your random Westlake novel, Westlake has a ton of short stories, The Letter by Donald E. Westlake, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, August 1965, bear with me, pretty good right?, massive preoccupation, The Risk Profession, A Murder In Hollywood by Donald E. Westlake, an insurance investigator, a very good murder mystery set in the 1970s, a new book, John Lange pseudonym, Stark’s more consistent.

The Green Eagle Score by Richard Stark - GOLD MEDAL

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #729 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The SFFaudio Podcast #729 – The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain – read by John Greenman for Librivox. This is a complete and unabridged reading of the novel (6 hours 42 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants include Jesse, Paul Weimer, and Trish E. Matson.

Talked about on today’s show:
1876, conflating some with Huckleberry Finn, the whitewashing of the fence, the whole business with the caves, the pirate incident, pretending to be dead, the business with the graves, Injun Joe, why people thought they were dead, play pirate, engaged, bosom friend Joe, what’s with his cousin, Sid, half-brother, Aunt Polly, single parent families, Judge Thatcher’s wife, Huck’s dad, gone, because the civil war, pre-civil war, set in the 1840s, disease?, pirates?, re-written as a science fiction book, there’s no outside communication with big cities, time placement with technology, lucifer matches, middle ages tech, St. Petersburg, Missouri, newfangled, no slavery we can see, the absence of industry, so kid oriented, so kid focused, a traditional plotted book, a bildungsroman, a picaresque, Twain’s first novel, incidents, a memory of growing up in this place at that time, not plot driven, Hannibal, Missouri, a made up town, the Illinois shore, going downriver to Illinois, he’s not making a mistake, we are making some misunderstanding, I had eleven toes, the bottom right hand corner, a fictionalization of his geography, an island, a sandbar, detailed fantasy map, how the cave system works, karst topography, mid-19th century American stuff, Ballou’s Dollar Monthly, right after Poe and before Twain, Atlantic Monthly, contemporary fiction magazine, a bent towards the fun, An Adventure Under Ground by W.D. Harrington, blooming for the grave, a story about a treasure in a cave, afeared, no companion Huck Finn, a body that has been covered in limestone, almost Lovecraftian cosmicism, stalactite dripping, a robber completely covered in limestone, turned into a statue, externally fossilized, locked inside of a tomb of limestone, a waterfall, the treasure was the escape, The Beast In The Cave by H.P. Lovecraft, Becky Thatcher, turned into a troglodyte, a C.H.U.D.?, a ghoul, The “Minions Of The Moon” by George L. Aiken, highborn noblemen rapists, pirates vs. robbers, the red handed, why he has to keep going to church, foster mom, you have to be a nobleman to be a robber, ancient tropes from the penny dreadfuls, Robin Hood, a Saxon nobleman, a lowborn local hero, pirates raid the triangle trade, pirates of the Caribbean, ex-slaves, Our Flag Means Death, unrealistic fantasy elements, Stede Bonnet, the romanticism of piracy, be and do that, all the fantasies that Tom and Huck have, what we remember vs. the majority of the book, fantasies interrupted by real events, keeping the guns in the cave, haunted house, adult versions of Tom and Huck are evil, actual robbers, murderers, low class people, absolute pronouncements, he’s read the books, overhearing adults, getting engaged, what’s consistently proven, blood oaths, children always report on each other, Huck’s rich!, when the beans are spilled, when Sid rats him our several times, a tattletale, preying on his conscience, jailed unjustly, the trial scene, “stealthy” or “stealthily”, I stealthily left the river, an interpretation, hiding behind a log, making silent agreements, things that would upset stories, when the murder quarrel sprung up, graverobbing, hidden agendas, through Tom’s eyes, protecting their own, strange dynamics of adults, male adult role models, judges, a source of awe, the senator isn’t 25 feet tall, a prize for excellent trading, an excellent businessman, so Twain, we’ll draw a veil over the rest of this, the meta-materials, that blue covered bible, Gustave Dore, that book didn’t exist yet, pre-Civil War, Mart Twain was in the Civil War for a brief period, when you read Mark Twain, using these racist epithets, this is not a racist book, the low class people use the n word, nobody but an injun, everybody who listening to this, the lack of racism with regards to blacks, one half-breed in this book, he’s about to name Injun Joe as the murderer, escapes into the wilderness, revenge, free range, whatever, free ranging, greatly disappointed, she thought of him that way before, a hanging crime, testifying against a murderer, move towns and change your name, all sorts of crazy things we can’t imagine in our society today, missing kids, a known murderer escapes, casual and expected daily beatings of children, it is unbelievable, historical fact, if this were a fantasy novel, corporal punishment, distasteful as a reader, conflict, love, punishing for the good of his soul, spare the rod and spoil the child, Sid breaks the sugarbowl, refuses to apologize, her conscience reproached her, parallel with Becky, the noblest lie, George Washington and the cherry tree, how interesting Twain as a man is, Stephen King’s It, sympathizing with children, not a trauma book, the adventures of not the travails of, Tom has Agency, very 19th century thing, a politeness/impoliteness contest, if you cross this I’ll beat your head off, two soldiers confronting each other, two medieval knights, some random kid, equal contemporaries, is Huck Finn a little older?, how old are these boys?, a timeless age, not older than 12, his interest in Becky, a kiss, chivalrous love, no vestige of sexual attraction, a wife, girls are yucky, he’s too old for that, Tom gets it, Huck’s not there yet, what are girls good for, when you’re a high class robber, Huck Finn doesn’t hate that idea, when Becky and Tom are missing, they’ve run off to the cave to have sex, they’re dead, between 9 and 12, how much death is a part of life, orphans, drowned in the river, stabbed by a half-breed in the graveyard, he’s so funny, they trade everything, a rat on a string, you can swing it, weird superstitions, incantations, spells, step on crack you break your mother’s back, step on a line break your mother’s spine!, witches, pictures himself dead in great and loving detail, fantasize, when I’m dead people will appreciate me, part of the fantasy, I’ll show them!, coming back in the middle of the funeral, too strong a coincidence, bury a dead cat as a cure for warts, special spell, works great!, a kitten with one eye, my cat with one eye, a knife that doesn’t cut things, a doorknob, a piece of blue glass, I’ll trade you my tooth, if you were an alien, a little kid on the playground, getting clout, telling lies that could be true because they’re so authentic, complete lies all the time, not exactly hypocrisies, taking sweetmeats and apples is hooking vs. stealing a whole ham, piracy vs. stealing, what is going to keep Tom and Joe from becoming Injun Joe and the other guy, found dead, the whole town wanted him hung, they want to pardon him, eating bats and candles and dying of thirst, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, black racism, the plot intrigue, figure out the throughline, the plot, the resolution, the description of how he’s died, the unspoken thing, the natives: where are they?, its sad but they were savages, a most horrible thing in this book, they don’t exist anymore, he’s not a specific kind of indian, what was the reason Nigger Jim left with Tom, he’s a runaway slave, Huck’s conscience torments him, that’s stealing from the owner, friendship or basic respect, a love story, a fellow human being, Hook vs. Huck, another pirate story with children, living in barrels, he’s Diogenes, living in a hog’s head, somebody adopts him, he’s a homeless kid who loves the lifestyle of being homeless, all the other kids admire and respect and wish they were him, he can swear and smoke, he doesn’t have to go to school or church, no chores!, grotesquely and lovingly described clothing, the seat of his pants is empty, ultimately respected, good at tricking people into doing things, the famous fence scene, completely free, he had to do this he had to do this, I’m way more free than he is, I have to have a job, he gets money from his parents, childhood psychology, fantasy reality, beautifully and classically, three or four sequels, Tom Sawyer, Detective, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, timelessness, anywhere and anywhen, he understands kids, one of the best books ever?, a very good book, so American, easy to fall into, completely immersive, Paul was a kid again, the world through Tom’s eyes, adult insights, “work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do”, a classic for sure, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a more “important” book, Huckleberry Finn has a greater standing, a mighty theme, Moby-Dick, autobiographical, To Kill A Mockingbird, white knighting, look at it in its time, rewrite the book, maybe it is wonderful, it’s not one groups job to not write a book so another group can, who is To Kill A Mockingbird for?, who was it written by?, written by a white lady for a white audience, it’s a movie for a white audience, a book (and a movie) with a message, the message is don’t be asshole, help people when you can, that weird metaphor, killing of a bird vs. killing a rabid dog, a symbol, we don’t have anything like that in this book, an axe to grind, it has a huge axe to grind, more adventurey, much more memory, there’s no growing up, how do you end a book about children: they grow up and get married, Tom Sawyer, Abroad, bringing his experiences to this book, fun and funny, appreciating it as an adult after reading it as a kid, too young for Paul?, quite to the contrary, go back and listen to it, four different comic adaptations, caught up in the fence painting scene, in the trailer, a very personal memory, health problems, a stroke, visiting the hospital, reading the whitewashing scene chapter, she was crying, feeling nostalgic?, it moved her, a generational book, shared thoughts and feelings, thematically less important, a cliche, a trope, reverse psychology, why it is so iconic, it’s the trope maker, a lot of classic literature is dreck that got carried over, considered every now and again, “careful, Jesse”, she hid these signs with a forced gaiety, what her sex call a “good cry”, some things humans have that other animals don’t: language, thoughts that can’t be formulated into words, infer she wants water, yes and no, we are not just talking communicating narrative characters, we are also animals, moved to tears in a positive way, a funny scene, hanging out with Mark Twain is just delightful, Mark Twain’s relationship with Dorothy Quick, old men and young girls, a special empathy, a young person who thought he was amazing, he is his own character, a transatlantic crossing, a correspondence for the rest of his life, what makes this book so special, he’s mighty good at what he’s doing here, a pretty good narration, Nick Offerman, Mark Nelson, Becky Thatcher is barely in the book, quasi-fantasy, a Jules Verne spoof, across Africa, a long great writing career, delightful to read, The Curious Republic of Gondour, Robert A. Heinlein, Missouri boys, Heinlein’s cute not funny, wrote a lot of juveniles, Heinlein’s juveniles are 13 to 20ish, an octagonal writing shed, a podcasting shed, soundproof it from the dogs cows and chickens, John Greenman is pretty good, first novel thought to be written on a typewriter, a printer’s apprentice, super-interested in technology, inventions, running out of money so he wrote books, Tom Sawyer Abroad by Huck Finn by Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer is three people I know, he’s Becky Thatcher as well, Mark Twain is not his real name, a pretty good job getting in Becky Thatcher’s head, the very sympathetic Aunt Polly, how she feels, punishing for the wrong reason, that logic holds, Mark Twain thinking as an adult, an empathetic guy, he would have been a great dad, a troublesome husband, two daughters, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, Innocents Abroad, chunky, 25 hours!, how is this longer?, Grover Gardner, The Mysterious Stranger, what is existence really?, an unfinished collection, a supernatural character, No. 44, translated from the jug, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, get Maissa or Evan.

The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Classics Illustrated - The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

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The SFFaudio Podcast #680 – READALONG: The Man Who Sold The Moon by Robert A. Heinlein

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #680 – Jesse, Paul Weimer, Maissa Bessada, and Will Emmons talk about The Man Who Sold The Moon by Robert A. Heinlein

Talked about on today’s show:
published in a book, Heinlein almost always renewed his copyrights, no great interior art, boardrooms and offices, spacecrafts and diamonds, Pike’s Peak, Harriman pointing and winking, underground bunker wife, dissemble to his wife (again), the covers, Jesse is not a philatelist, numismatics, Paul’s not keeping up with philately, Brewster’s Millions (1985), Charade (1963), forever stamps, “here’s the extras from my collection, son”, Canada Post, Star Trek, Superman, Captain Canuck, Archibald Lampman, Lawrence Block, when not killing people, grandpas working on it, a moment of history that’s captured, the Apollo 11 launch, here at the blast-off, then you become a famous serial killer, acquires value, a first day cover is infinite cachet, mail fraud, legit fraud, shading the truth, 6+ button, Moka Cola, x-fuel, bribing judges left and right, philatelic stores are done through the mail, a license to print money, has government value, its almost you could pay your taxes in stamps, mostly selling intangibles, TV advertising rights, the actual physical object, it plays an important role, they also forget to put him in, meta-framing, there are no intentions its all Heinlein, Harriman is the stamps, an excuse for him to go to the Moon, he’s been defrauded, he knew what he was doing, Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein, The Man Who Sold The Moon is a prequel to Requiem, his heart is bad, a spit and gumball guy, barnstormers, he gets to the moon and dies on the Moon, maudlin and schmaltz, they bury him on the Moon, an oxygen bottle is his headstones, Robert Louis Stevenson’s grave in Samoa, glad did I live and gladly dive, the hunter home from the hill, TIA (pre-heart attack), Job: A Comedy Of Justice, long pig, Farah Mendlesohn, Home Is The Hunter by Henry Kuttner, Weird Al Yankovic, poingiant, The Green Hills Of Earth, sentimental vs. excessively sentimental, hear the voice of Robert A. Heinlein, what does his voice sound like?, Heinlein with Arthur C. Clarke commenting on Apollo 11, so excited, change the date of humanity, today is the year zero, a Moonbase, Mars, off to the solar system, it did not work out how he wanted, how Elon Musk would like Space X to be, a private space program (not subsidized by the government), why we’re doing this show, billionaires going to so called space, Musk doesn’t go up with his rockets, aptain Kirk in space, a fascinating footnote to history, “I don’t wish any harm to William Shatner”, clapping for celebrities, on the backs of poor people, the government’s involvement is nil, the regulation agency for the fuel and the stamps, the real reason we have space exploration (is military expenditure), commerce and bootstrapping and loans, Space X, their one and oly client (uther than Musk’s side-business) is the government, NASA being defunded, capitalism eating itself, me too companies, Blue Origin/Virgin, not even orbital, extended vomit comet stuff, checkboxing, things to do, a conga-line of people up to Mt. Everest, I went to space, save Maissa’s sensibilities, dickswining, putting Musk at the back of the guillotine line, we will coup whoever we want, he wants to do what he wants to do, Jeff Bezos and the Virgin Guy [Richard Branson], what’s different about the D.D. Harriman like figure of Elon Musk, his wild dreams, he put a car in space, the product that is Elon Musk, you get the product that is him, when you buy a Tesla you buy into a piece of musk, Chevrolet Volt, Teslas everywhere, these other kinds of cars are stupid, electric cars are cooler, D.D. Harriman is not an engineer, dirty tricks, fucks over his wife and partners, right up to mail fraud, the most prosecutable crime, you’re crossing the biggest baddest bitch in the room (the government), people standing around, 12 Angry Men-style, do it in black and white, don’t put out this manifesto in the world, Elon Musk reads this story, he is this story, I got my own emerald mine, PayPal, I’m gonna go to the fuckin’ Moon, that single-mindedness, who do I have to fuck to get this to happen, something deeply sick, a sociopath, who did they get to the American Moon program [Wernher von Braun], the Soviet space program, The Chief Designer by Andy Duncan, Sergei Korolev, Comrade we’re doing Moon program, the sociopath that is the American government, certified denazified, SS tattoos, when NASA had his own rocket program, come look, we’re going to name this one Enterprise, Desilu Studios in the 1960s, Galaxy Quest (1999), you thought Idiocracy (2006) wasnt a true story, Red Plenty, Ascent by Jed Mercurio, a secret history of the Soviet Moon Program, Stalingrad, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, he’s got a camera, he dies on the Moon, that struggle, technical problems that need to be solved, Pike’s Peak is not ideal, Panama or Florida, he lives there, you should launch from near the equator, its not all about the engineering, the technical problems will not happen unless I get the sizzle, leveraging the government, people get inspired to do stuff, 1950/1949, seventy years for that vision to start to come true, a failure of Heinlein’s imagination, an ideology, space might become a frontier in the Cold War, he goes into the newspaper with a hammer and sickle on, that’s the media, the ideology is government is not the solution, purposely bypass, the only purpose of the government is the stamps, government is in the way, let me loose, Musk will not get to space without a contract to service the ISS, the Chinese Russian International space station, oh please private business, not a good Chinese accent, not good to do either accent, fail better, release all of your failures, greatness out of badness, Chris Hadfield, Marc Garneau, The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield, he sings/writes/takes picture, never a Mountie, F-16 fighter pilot, Heinlein’s future history, wildly wrong, seventy years later, Canada was created out of a railroad scheme, if we build this railroad, it makes more sense to be late, it makes more sense to be overbudget, government expenditure is the best way to make money always, Contact (1997), Carl Sagan was a bit naive, his big problem in that book was the religious figure, communication from aliens would languish for hundreds of years, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, leaving government out in an ideological way, squid-like vampire sucking, bribes most judges, why it has hate, powerful and therefore important, this manifesto turned into a movie, The Turner Diaries [by William Luther Pierce], Pallas by L. Neil Smith, corporations colonizing an asteroid, the government is evil bad an corrupt, that’s “freedom”, For All Mankind, Skylab was a sideshow, the alternative to GPS [is “GLONASS”], Russia has a very small GDP and yet they somehow seem to keep their rocket and GPS programs going, tax breaks for the 1%, we’re selling seats on this thing, selling seats on Russian launches, sell-outs, now NASA focuses on probes, what’s cape Canaveral, Maissa saw a Falcon Heavy launch, like a fireball going up into the sky, it was like a sword of the archangel Gabriel, Chris Hadfield’s Wikipedia entry, government propaganda, Canada has plastic money, you can wash your money in the sink, when the government is in control, tests, skills, loyal, I’m gonna hand pick my son, comparatively, I’m going and my brother, did the cowboy hat go up with him, I found these in the stratosphere, 10th birthday party, we’re going to make two corporations, put all the debts onto that company and keep all the assets in this company, to bilk the investors, defraud collectors, defrauds the boy scouts, always be honest, when it really counts fuck anybody, not bragging as much as stating facts, its a real sad thing, the naked horror, going to Mars, ginning up a war with the Martians, another song reference, not much of a Rocket Man, the Moon can control the Earth, Musk’s dream of Mars, Musk has made a big dent in the world, the guillotine party, give him some ice cream, somewhat mitigated badness, an earnest desire for extension, the Moses reference was telling and touching, dialing in the prophecy, Moses is denied the promised land, the Post Office was God, a very strange interpretation, it kinda fits, Butler, Missouri, religious fanaticism, a more sympathetic character, Musk is all me me me but he still hasn’t gone to space, a one way mission to Mars, The Marching Morons by C.M. Kornbluth, a lot of dummies, depressive and pessimistic, not good in two ways, a lot of people think it is real, Beggars In Spain by Nancy Kress is a troubling book, like Ayn Rand but more current, super-evil, people who are just better than you, a “Fans are Slans” style story, special people, this mass of black or white people who need to die, Hitler’s manifesto book, the argument that it makes is what makes it evil, what’s cool about the X-Men, Magneto and The League Of Evil Mutants, its a fantasy, if you have brain you need to sleep, they’re more elite than you, they studied harder than you, Justin Trudeau’s 1.2 million dollar trust fund, face-painting costume, gets to be prime minister when his dad dies, novels vs. novellas, Our Opinions Are Correct: “Heinlein is turgid”, this novel, you should just read Scalzi, women would be present, Harriman’s wife, couldn’t give Harriman a baby, lives in Colorado, just the Heinlein story, Heinlein’s infertility, Friday, To Sail Beyond The Sunset, ret-con, I’m not really sexist, standard Heinlein, very incestuous, rehabilitates Harriman’s story, she’s not important to this story, how important the Post Office, don’t go against the government interest, you can use the Soviets as a whipping tool to et the media, a military industrial complex vs. a space industrial complex, Ospreys and F-22s, “defense”, you can sell people on fear, the commies in Russia today, China wants to take Taiwan, the Alpha Centurians are stealing our precious bodily fluids, space fear, the Coca Cola corporation, Dr. Strangelove (1964), another novel, Firestar by Michael Flynn, female entrepreneur capitalist, Elon Musk but not as evil, Flynn’s views on education, a shooting star, the comet would be good at this point, a dinosaur apocalypse is needed, digitize it and get it up to the moon, NFTs, bitcoin is currency, pre-orders equal love, the character’s supposed to be sympathetic, space space space, fighting in the Balkans, quasi-libertarian is (mostly) evil, in the 90s Paul’s politics were not as enlightened as now, public schools vs. private schools, save a few, no offense, some offense, slap in the face no offense, we need to face facts, this has been a blueprint for people, echoes with what’s going on, what other books are lurking effecting people’s reality, some phenomenon happening on the earth, Asimovs and Heinleins, Bezos vs. Musk, I gotta focus on my plan, set up a Foundation somewhere, Paul Krugman thinks he’s Hari Seldon, I’m a psycho (historian), too good for Jesse, Sir there’s somebody waiting to see you, a historical setting, Overlord (2018), tell me a lie story, who has women in their space program?, the Soviets, part of their ideology is women ARE equal, team human, Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series, the Mercury 13, what if we weren’t super sexist?, a country that has to turn less sexist, Luke Burrage’s SCIENCE FICTION BOOK REVIEW PODCAST review of The Calculating Stars, the Nazis didn’t want women fighting, making strudel and soldiers, not caring about certain facts about ballistics, how many stages the rockets needs to be, recycling the capsule from a previous rocket, designing the capsule for the lifting device, Musk’s plan, a fuel tank with a little spaceship on the end, get this, this story was written before the actual Moon program, whether the fuel will ignite from gamma rays, how can we not care about those details, Heinlein cared so much he kinda made it happen, John F. Kennedy was trying to direct the military industrial complex into an Olympics style competition, for all mankind, now there’s a Space Force, the instincts to restrain insanity have gone away, more and more in the Harriman situation, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the Law Of The Seas, the Americans never ratify, a Dutchman named Hugo Grotius, why don’t we just be tolerant?, no torturing people, that’s all gone now, public schools are terrible, Jesse a nihilist, human civilization, asteroid/meteor/comet, When Worlds Collide, Rogue Planet, not focusing on the ballistics?, Jesse prefers to read books that are out of print?, public domain, [is Jesse an obscurantist?], gotta winnow, Will’s initial Heinlein journey, a deathmarch?, stop doing that, he’s got the goods, The Star Beast, would D.D. Harriman sell N.F.T.s, what wouldn’t he do to get to the Moon?, he wouldn’t break his word to a person, personal loan, personal honor, down the slippery slope lying road, skirting that line, NFTs are a scam, Tulipmania, Odo and Quark, Jesse doesn’t Grok what its about, you should sell some SFFaudio listener NFT, Philip K. Dick drawings NFTs?, the motivation is the mistake, an artificial scarcity, not for hateful means, the Kingdom of Redonda, M.P. Shiel was crowned King of Rednoda as a boy, this rapist plagiarist, its a scam that has legs, pretty sure these are NFTs, Vincent Price as a lord of Redonda, basically NFTs could be anything, software license keys, why do we want that?, infinitely replicable, why do we want to make it scarce, Substack will integrate NFTs, a technology that we don’t have a use for, your password for your account, the jpegs are largely useless proof of concepts, etherium wallet, software should be free, digital clothing for their avatars, PUBG, a book takes paper, sewing, glue, and trucks, stupid and wrong and evil, Elon Musk needs lithium for his car batteries not because he likes couping people, the purity of the goal, Bezos’s pure goal is *ME*, the people climbing Everest, me shaking Obama’s hand, flying back to Kathmandu, helicopter rides for everybody, why Shatner going to space is a marker as a society, government control of how we spend and communicate, the jpg thing is ridiculous.

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The Thing At Nolan by Ambrose Bierce

Friday, May 31, 2013 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Virtually all of Bierce’s tales are tales of horror; and whilst many of them treat only of the physical and psychological horrors within Nature, a substantial proportion admit the malignly supernatural and form a leading element in America’s fund of weird literature.”

-H.P. Lovecraft, from Supernatural Horror In Literature

A 1,500 word horror tale by Ambrose Bierce, typically bundled as the final of seven short horror stories, under the collective “Some Haunted Houses”, The Thing At Nolan was first published on its own. And that’s why I’ve edited up a special The Thing At Nolan from a larger LibriVox version.

The Thing At Nolan
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Peter Yearsley
1 |MP3| – Approx. 10 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: 2006
First published in San Francisco Observer, August 2, 1891.

And here’s a |PDF|.

There’s also a CBS Radio Mystery Theater adaptation, adapted by actor Arnold Moss! It fills in a lot of the details from the very sketchy sketch of Bierce’s original story. Moss also takes a role!

CBS Radio Mystery Theater CBSRMT #0920 – The Thing At Nolan
Adapted from the story by Ambrose Bierce; Adapted by Arnold Moss; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 44 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS Radio
Broadcast: November 20, 1978
Source: CBSRMT.com
When a father vanishes while digging a ditch in frontier Missouri, suspicions fall on the rebellious son who recently threatened him with bodily harm. His mother believes his claims of innocence, but the rest of the townsfolk do not.

Cast:
Court Benson
Russell Horton
Arnold Moss
Bryna Raeburn

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals: Blackstone Audio

Friday, September 3, 2010Friday, September 3, 2010 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Comic books and reference books were the two types of paperbooks I thought I’d never ever see turned into audiobooks.

“How could they do it?”

That was basically my entire argument. But then, a few years ago I was foiled: Graphic Audio does them! Still, reference books … nobody could ever do an audiobook of one of those. Right? Right?!?

Nope. You were wrong again Jesse!

The Twilight Zone Companion (Second Edition)
By Marc Scott Zicree; Read by Tom Weiner
13 CDs or 2 MP3-CDs – Approx. 15.4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: March 2010
ISBN: 9781433223426 (cd), 9781433223457 (mp3-cd)
The Twilight Zone Companion is the complete, five season (1959-64) show-by-show guide to one of television’s greatest series. Zicree’s well-written account is fascinating reading for even the casual fan. Coverage of each episode includes plot synopsis, Rod Serling’s opening narration, behind-the-scenes stories from the original artists who created the series, and a complete list of cast and credits.

Vampire Zero is the third in Wellington’s Vampire series, following after 13 Bullets and 99 Coffins…

Vampire Zero: A Gruesome Vampire Tale
By David Wellington; Read by Bernadette Dunne
9 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – Approx. 10.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2010
ISBN: 9781441739308 (cd), 9781441739339 (mp3-cd)
U.S. Marshal Jameson Arkeley, the country’s foremost authority on vampires, taught police investigator and vampire fighter Laura Caxton everything she knows about monsters. After a bloody war visited upon Gettysburg by an army of vampires, Arkeley gave up his own life to save others—except he didn’t exactly die. Arkeley accepted the curse and is now a vampire himself. What’s worse, he’s the savviest vampire ever; he knows all the tricks better than anyone. Caxton is now faced with the task of destroying her former mentor. But Arkeley knows all her tactics too; after all, he taught them to her. Caxton realizes she must finish Arkeley before he succeeds in his quest to exterminate his own family. But even more important, she has to prevent him from becoming a beast exponentially more dangerous: a vampire zero.

Voyagers, the 1st book in the “Voyagers” series, came out in 1981. Books 2 and 3 were published in ’86 and ’90 and The Return, book 4, came out in paperbook in 2009. 2010 brings…

The Return (Book IV of Voyagers)
By Ben Bova; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
11 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – Approx. 13 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: July 2010
ISBN: 9781433277702 (cd), 9781433277733 (mp3-cd)
After more than a century of exploring the stars, Keith Stoner returns to Earth to find that the world he has come back to does not match the one he left. The planet is suffering the consequences of disastrous greenhouse flooding. Most nations have been taken over by ultraconservative religion-based governments, such as the New Morality in the United States. With population ballooning and resources running out, Earth is heading for nuclear war. Stoner, the star voyager, wants to save Earth’s people. But first he must save himself from the frightened and ambitious zealots who want to destroy this stranger—and the terrifying message he brings from the stars.

Here’s the longest running series, in number of years, of this batch. The first Berserker book, a collection of short stories about the titular self-replicating war machines, came out in 1967. This is the 14th book in the series…

Rogue Berserker
By Fred Saberhagen; Read by Paul Michael Garcia
8 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – Approx. 9.3 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: December 2009
ISBN: 9781433217104 (cd), 9781433217135 (mp3-cd)
ROGUE: (1) A deceitful, double-dealing evildoer. (2) A fierce elephant or stamodont that has been banished from the herd. (3) Having a peculiarly malevolent or unstable nature. (4) No longer loyal, affiliated, or recognized, and hence not governable or accountable. Erring, apostate. (Galactic Dictionary of the Common Tongue)

Harry Silver has already had a lifetime of trouble from ordinary Berserkers, the automated killing machines programmed an age ago to denude the galaxy of life. But now one of these machines has gone rogue—and kidnapped his own family. What worse devilry will a deviant killing machine attempt? How will he stop it? And even if he can, will he ever see his family alive again?

Pat Murphy’s website describes Nadya as “an historic, feminist, werewolf novel with fist fights, Indian magic, daring rescues, and great sex. What more could you ask?” Maybe only that it be an audiobook with great cover art? Hey now!

Nadya: The Wolf Chronicles
By Pat Murphy; Read by Kirsten Potter
13 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – 15.4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2010
ISBN: 9781441733832 (cd), 9781441733863 (mp3-cd)
The daughter of Polish immigrants growing up in the 1830s on the Missouri frontier, Nadya knew she was not like other girls. But when she became a woman and the Change came, she discovered just how different she was. For Nadya was a shape changer, a werewolf like her Polish immigrant mother and father before her. After coming through a great personal tragedy brought about by her trusting nature and burgeoning sexuality, Nadya heads west to California, seeking a place to be wild and free. Nadya befriends the more cultured Elizabeth and the prepubescent Jenny, and together, the three young women fight their way across the vast American frontier. En route, they encounter rattlesnakes, Indians, the remains of the cannibalistic Donner party, and Elizabeth’s repressed sexuality, which leads to an affair between her and Nadya.

Posted by Jesse Willis