Robert Louis Stevenson – Page 8

AudiobookSync.com: 18 FREE Audiobooks (2 per week over the summer)

Thursday, July 1, 2010Thursday, July 1, 2010 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

OverDrive Media Console

Here’s a promotion that, if you’ve got a Mac or Windows machine, and are in the mood to jump through a couple of hoops, you’re sure to appreciate. And, you can start at it right now.

Starting today there are two FREE MP3 audiobooks available, per week, throughout the summer. This comes courtesy of a new website called AudiobookSync.com.

To get the audiobooks you must download the “Overdrive Media Console.” Then you’ll have to give your name and an email address. It’s a bit of a muddle on the site itself, but after clicking around for five minutes or so I think I’ve got the process completely streamlined in my notes below.

First, if you don’t have it already, you’ll need to download the OverDrive Media Console
MAC |HERE|
Windows |HERE|

After it is installed you’ll need to go to the…

First Download page |HERE| to fill in your details

and then, after that’s started, go to the…

Second Download page |HERE| and repeat the process.

Be sure to take careful note where the files are set to download to. Mine defaulted to a folder called:

“\My Media\MP3 Audiobooks\”

There’s also a promise of more audiobooks, week by week, throughout the month of July. And at least some of them are definitely worth getting!

Here’s the complete release schedule:

Available July 1 – July 7
The Angel Experiment by James Patterson [ABRIDGED]
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley [UNABRIDGED]

Available July 8 – July 14
Over the End Line by Alfred C. Martino
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

Available July 15 – July 21
Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Available July 22 – July 28
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Available July 29 – August 4
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Available August 5 – August 11
Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Available August 12 – August 18
Beastly by Alex Flinn
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Available August 19 – August 25
Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Available August 26 – September 1
Handbook for Boys by Walter Dean Myers
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Posted by Jesse Willis

SFPRP: The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

Sunday, January 17, 2010 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Luke Burrage, in the first of two shows with me as a guest on Science Fiction Book Review Podcast, is reviewing and talking about The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. Its a fun exercise, we run down the whole book and talk about other invisibility stories too. Have a listen…

SFBRP #078 – H.G. Wells – The Invisible Man
1 |MP3| – Approx. 58 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: SFBRP.com
Podcast: Monday, January 18, 2010

Here’s what we talked about:
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, the public domain status of the writings of H.G. Wells, Luke and Jesse in conversation, The War Of The Worlds, The Island Of Dr. Moreau, The First Men In The Moon, Luke’s review of The Time Machine, Sussex, invasion literature, mad scientist, horror, thriller, the village of Iping, invisibility, scientific invisibility, What Was It?, haunted house, the 2000 film Hollow Man, Smoke by Donald E. Westlake, the development of the invisibility meme, creating tension in a scene with exposition, Luke’s review of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan Raiders Of The Lost Ark story conference |PDF|, a Nazi monkey, Griffin (the titular Invisible Man) as an anti-hero, The Ring Of Gyges (found within Plato’s The Republic), invisibility as a cipher for moral character, invisibility is good for nothing other than spying, if you’re an invisible person you’ll need a confederate, The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Miss Pim’s Camouflage by Lady Stanley, WWI, Invisible Agent, WWII, isolation, moral isolation, anonymity, Eric Rabkin’s point about, refractive index, albinism, the sleight of hand that H.G. Wells uses in The Invisible Man and The Time Machine, The Crystal Egg by H.G. Wells, Mars, long distance communication, what is the serious problem with invisibility? [the answer is a DEFEATER for any truly HARD SF story], the background for The Time Machine is Charles Darwin, evolution and the class system, the background for The War Of The Worlds is invasion literature, war and colonialism, Eddie Izzard‘s colonialism through flags, the background for The Invisible Man is personal responsibility, isolation and moral character, Thomas Marvel (the tramp with an invisible friend), the parallels between The Invisible Man and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fawlty Towers, psychopathy, sociopathy, the one ring’s invisibility, invisibility for burglary is only half as useful as you’d expect, imagine the Sauron’s ring in the hands of Denethor, Boromir, or Gandalf!, the filmspotting podcast, visit Luke’s website!

http://www.sfbrp.com/?feed=podcast

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Friday, January 15, 2010Friday, July 30, 2010 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVox Strange Maps is a fun blog (and now a book) by Frank Jacobs. Here is a smidgen of the proprietor’s post on Treasure Island:

“…was there a real-life model for the generically named Treasure Island – and if so, where was it? It seems to have been a chance invention by Lloyd Osbourne, RLS’s stepson, while holidaying with the family in a Scottish Highland cottage. As Osbourne later recalled:

‘… busy with a box of paints I happened to be tinting a map of an island I had drawn. Stevenson came in as I was finishing it, and with his affectionate interest in everything I was doing, leaned over my shoulder, and was soon elaborating the map and naming it. I shall never forget the thrill of Skeleton Island, Spyglass Hill, nor the heart-stirring climax of the three red crosses! And the greater climax still when he wrote down the words Treasure Island at the top right-hand corner! And he seemed to know so much about it too – the pirates, the buried treasure, the man who had been marooned on the island … . ‘Oh, for a story about it’, I exclaimed, in a heaven of enchantment …’

And that is how Stevenson got started writing Treasure Island – as a back story to the map originally drawn by his stepson.”

Cool hey?

There’s more to the story, and I encourage you to have a read of the original post |HERE|. After that you should be sufficiently primed to download the public domain audiobook version from LibriVox.org…

Treasure Island
By Robert Louis Stevenson; Read by Adrian Praetzellis
17 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 7 Hours 33 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: December 14, 2007
A mysterious map, pirates, and pieces of eight! When young Jim Hawkins finds a map to pirates’ gold he starts on an adventure that takes him from his English village to a desert island with the murderous Black Dog, half-mad Ben Gunn, and (of course) Long John Silver. Arr Jim lad! R.L. Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Scotland and travelled extensively in California and the south Pacific.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/treasure-island-by-robert-louis-stevenson-2.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

A map of Treasure Island:

Treasure Island Map

And the 1934 film version:

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Tuesday, September 15, 2009Thursday, November 19, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Listening For The League's Gentlemen At LibriVox Alan Moore’s comic The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen is chock- full of public domain literary references (and characters). This is the third in a series of posts in which I root out the freely available audiobooks (at LibriVox.org) that either feature the characters in “the league” or which are at least alluded to in passing in the story. What’s especially interesting in this case is that Moore’s wasn’t the first comic book to take inspiration from Henry Jekyll’s chemically induced bipolarity. Marvel comics had its own take on Jekyll and Hyde with Bruce Banner’s transformation into The Incredible Hulk. Indeed it seems rather strange that I never saw this until I saw Moore’s own re-purposing.

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
By Robert Louis Stevenson; Read by Kristin Hughes
10 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 2 Hours 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 24, 2009
After hearing Mr. Enfield’s account of a distressing event involving Edward Hyde, the heir of his friend, Henry Jekyll, John Utterson is convinced that Jekyll’s relationship with Hyde is built on something sinister. Utterson’s concern for his friend is not unfounded but the reasons aren’t quite what he, at first, believes.
Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-strange-case-of-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde-by-robert-louis-stevenson-2.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC R1: Writers & Company talks to international crime writers

Monday, August 3, 2009 Jesse Willis

Aural Noir: Online Audio

This week’s CBC Radio 1 Podcast of Writers & Company focuses on international crime writers. Host Eleanor Wachtel talks to Gianrico Carofiglio (Italy); Asa Larsson (Sweden); Louise Welsh (Scotland); Giles Blunt (Canada). They talk about mystery writing, their books and their inspirations (Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, Greek mythology, the Old and New Testament villains King David, Judas, Cain, O.T.-God) . |MP3|

Podcast feed:

http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/writersandco.xml

P.S. CBC is still embargoing a J. Michael Straczynski radio drama series that Canadians have already paid for. That’s not polite CBC! Release it!

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and The Rapture

Thursday, July 23, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

It’s that time of the week for a quick scan of the forthcoming BBC Radio schedules in the Radio Times. There are two solid items to set your Radio Downloader program humming: The first runs just an hour, the second in 15 minute chunks for 10 weekdays in a row.

First up, a repeat of the play first broadcast in early 2007…

BBC Radio 4 - Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde The Saturday Play: Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
Based on the book by Robert Louis Stevenson; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 60 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Saturday July 25th 2009
When a London lawyer studies the last will of his old friend Dr Jekyll, his suspicions are aroused. Why has respectable Dr Jekyll left everything to sinister Edward Hyde? Directed by Claire Grove.
Cast:
Dr Jekyll …… Adam Godley
Utterson …… David Horovitch
Enfield …… Mark Straker
Mrs Utterson …… Christine Kavanagh
Lanyon …… Sam Dale
Poole …… Joseph Kloska
Sir Danvers …… Ian Masters
Girl/Maid …… Emma Noakes
Housekeeper …… Bethan Walker

Next, described as an “eco-thriller”…

BBC Radio 4 - The Rapture by Liz Jensen Book At Bedtime: The Rapture
By Liz Jensen; Read by Denise Black
10 Parts – Approx. 2.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Monday-Friday July 27th – 31st August 3 -7 @ 22:45-23:00
It is a June unlike any other before, with temperatures soaring to asphyxiating heights. All across the world, freak weather patterns—and the life-shattering catastrophes they entail—have become the norm. The twenty-first century has entered a new phase. But Gabrielle Fox’s main concern is a personal one: to rebuild her life after a devastating car accident that has left her disconnected from the world, a prisoner of her own guilt and grief. Determined to make a fresh start, and shake off memories of her wrecked past, she leaves London for a temporary posting as an art therapist at Oxsmith Adolescent Secure Psychiatric Hospital, home to one hundred of the most dangerous children in the country. Among them: the teenage killer Bethany Krall.

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis