Tag: Neil Gaiman

Review of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

The Graveyard Book by Neil GaimanThe Graveyard Book
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Neil Gaiman
Audible Download – Approx. 8 Hours[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: 2008
Themes: / Fantasy / Ghosts / Childhood / Revenge / Parenting / Afterlife / Humor / YA /

In a few words: Not as disturbing as Coraline (which is… a bit) and every ounce as entertaining as I hoped.

Now, details: The Graveyard Book is Neil Gaiman’s latest YA novel. The story is about Nobody Owens, a young boy who starts the novel as a toddler that ends up in a graveyard late at night, all by himself. I’ll let Gaiman tell you how that happens, because the journey is all the fun here. Nobody Owens grows up, and Gaiman’s ghosts do all the parenting.

Again, Gaiman manages to be both sinister and funny at the same time, like he’s telling you the worst thing you’ve ever heard, but with a smile and a wink. Here’s the first lines of Chapter 1:

There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. The knife had a handle of polished black gold, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you may not even know you had been cut. Not immediately.

You’d think what follows would be a bit grisly, and I suppose it is, but it’s all so fantastic that I smiled through most of that chapter, with the sort of glow I get around Halloween. A pair of ghosts (the Owens’s) raising a live boy, that boy growing up and learning his letters off gravestones and his life’s philosophy from the perspective of dead but well-meaning people; well, it’s just a great idea, and it’s perfectly presented by Gaiman. My kids love it too. This is the kind of book that will be revisited in my house often. In addition, I’d say that if you have a Harry Potter fan on your Christmas list, this book might be just the right fit, and it has the added bonus of introducing him or her to the likes of Neil Gaiman, which in turn could open that fan up to the rest of the world of books as well.

Gaiman also narrates, and like I’ve said elsewhere, he’s one of the few authors I’ve heard that could make a comfortable living as an audiobook narrator. I can’t imagine this audiobook being read by someone else, and I’m very happy that it isn’t.

Edited to add the SFFaudio Essential, which was forgotten by the reviewer. He has been sacked.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Julie podcasts a taste of Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett

Scott D.

SFFaudio Online Audio

Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett Some lagniappe (a little extra sample), from Gaiman and Pratchett’s Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnus Nutter, Witch is the latest offering over at Forgotten Classics.

Get the MP3 |HERE|, or subscribe to the feed |HERE|!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #007

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #007 is so lucky! We’re super hoop-jumping, in this deadly to DRM show – we’re unspooling fences and digging ditches – working around the work-arounds – so, the long and the short:

Scott: Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.

Jesse: No it isn’t.

Topics discussed include:
Golden Age Comic Book Stories, Argosy magazine covers, Pellucidar, At The Earth’s Core, Edgar Rice Burroughs, LibriVox, A Princess Of Mars, multiple narrators, Ender’s Game, Stephen King, The Dark Tower, Frank Muller, George Guidall, Criminal Minds, Peter Coyote, Isaac Asimov, The Foundation Trilogy, more new LibriVox titles, The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole, The Last Man, Mary Shelley, The Wood Beyond the World, William Morris, Cori Samuel, On The Beach, Nevil Shute, The 2nd SFFaudio Challenge, Julie D., A House-Boat On The Styx, John Kendrick Bangs, Mur Lafferty, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, public libraries, NetLibrary.net, Recorded Books, DRM, overdrive.com, Bill C-61, blank media and iPod levies, what makes DRM evil, Blackstone Audio‘s solution, MP3-CD players, the proper settings for blog RSS feeds, “people will never pay for something they can get for free”, donation models, the Liaden book model, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #006

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #006 is here. Six is the loneliest number (after 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) dontchanknow. In this our 6th, and sixth loneliest, show we’re asking lonely questions like: ‘If you had to choose a universe without either Ray Bradbury or Neil Gaiman, which would you pick?’ And ‘Which is the worst audiobook recording ever made?’ Pod-in to find out the answers to these and many more exciting questions that nobody asked us.

Topics discussed include:

StarShipSofa’s Aural Delights, Paul Campbell, Michael Marshall Smith, The Seventeenth Kind, Estalvin’s Legacy, Rebels Of The Red Planet, Charles L. Fontenay, The 2nd SFFaudio Challenge, Parallel Worlds, The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, The Jungle Book, American Gods, The Fix Online, Audiobook Fix, author read audiobooks, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen King, Robert J. Sawyer, James Patrick Kelly, Good Omens, Terry Pratchett, Neverwhere, Gary Bakewell, if you had to pick…, Stardust, Douglas Adams, Roger Zelazny, The Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul, radio drama, BBC Radio 4, BBC iplayer, Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer, The Supernaturalist, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy [the Ivory Coast edition], The Spanish Prisoner, Strange Horizons, Shaun Farrell, From iTunes to the Bookshelves: The First Wave of Podcast Novelists, Podiobooks.com, Nathan Lowell, Quarter Share, Evo Terra, Pavlovian experience, Ed McBain, Donald E. Westlake, NPR, Driveway Moments,

Posted by Jesse Willis

Hear the entire The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Harper Audio - The Graveyard Book by Neil GaimanLibrarian Susan Duman points out…

Neil Gaiman’s new book, The Graveyard Book, was released this week and Neil’s on a U.S. book tour. At each stop he reads a different chapter of his book in front of an audience, which is recorded – both audio and video – and posted on the web. At the end of the tour, those following each video installment will have had the opportunity to hear the entire book. This approach has the potential to do a number of things, not least of which is to make Neil’s fans happy. (I’m a fan and it makes me happy!) But it also shows potential buyers of the audiobook (which Neil narrates) that Neil can indeed do a wonderful job reading his own material. And I guess the thinking is that if listeners like his public reading, then they might consider purchasing the audiobook version – a clean production minus audience coughs, claps, and other distracting noises. Or, if you prefer the print version, I suppose it still publicizes that as well.

Here are the first three…

Have a look at the rest of the readings as they are released HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Five Free Favourites #8

Scott D.

SFFaudio Online Audio

I’m Scott Danielson, and I’m currently not under investigation for a single impropriety. I’m one of the original members of the team here, and am the Reviews Editor. I love a great novel read by a great narrator – can’t get enough – and I also love great audio drama. Most of my listening time is spent with commercial audiobooks, and below are some of my favourites amongst the high-quality stuff I’ve found on the web for free.

Five Free Favourites

1.
NPRKrulwich on Science (NPR)
In a highly entertaining and wonderfully sounding manner, Robert Krulwich covers the world of science at the rate of one story per month. As a sample, I picked a story called “Lucy’s Laugh Enlivens the Solar System”, which is about what really happens to the radio noise we humans pump out into space. Find it here and enjoy!
 
2.
Star Ship SofaThe Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chaing (StarShipSofa)
Jesse picked this one in his first Five Free Favourites, but I simply can’t help picking it again. Ted Chiang is easily my favorite active short fiction writer. Highest on my audio wishlist is a well-narrated version of Stories of Your Life and Others. This story is well-narrated, with James Campanella performing. Go get it here.
 
3.
Escape PodThe 43 Antarean Dynasties by Mike Resnick (Escape Pod Episode 101)
I haven’t subscribed to Escape Pod for a while, because I simply don’t have the time to keep up with all the audio fiction being published nowadays, but I always keep my eye on them and grab stories that interest me. “The 43 Antarean Dynasties” by Mike Resnick is an absolute gem about some self-centered humans taking a tour of an alien site. Steven Burley and Gregg Taylor of the Decoder Ring Theatre turn in a fine narration. Find this one here.
 
4.
A Study in Emerald by Neil GaimanA Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (Audible.com)
Neil Gaiman is an example of an author who does an excellent job reading his own material. This story won a Hugo Award and is available at no cost through Audible. Sherlock Holmes, Cthulhu, Neil Gaiman… what are you waiting for? Find it here.
 


5.
Earshot - Audiofile MagazineEarshot! by Audiofile Magazine (podcast)
Earshot is a great way to keep up with what’s hot in the audiobook world as a whole (not just science fiction and fantasy). The daily short excerpts, provided by Audiofile Magazine help me discover new narrators and new audiobooks. Find the podcast here.
 
 
 
Posted by Scott D. Danielson