Tag: science fiction

Review of By Heresies Distressed by David Weber

Scott D.

SFFaudio Review

Science Fiction Audiobooks - By Heresies Distressed by David WeberBy Heresies Distressed
By David Weber; Read by Jason Culp
Approx. 25 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781427206794 (CD)
Themes: / Science Fiction / Empires / Religion / War /

The Empire of Charis has been founded out of the marriage between King Cayleb of Charis and Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm, and further expanded by the annexation of Charis’ enemy Emerald. Now Cayleb and Merlin go on the offensive. Sharleyan stays behind to construct the new government out of the former Kingdoms, while Cayleb leads their Navy and tens of thousands of Charisian Marines against the League of Corisande and Prince Hektor. Hektor was the willing puppet of the Church of God Awaiting when he led an armada from several of Safehold’s nations against Charis. That armada was defeated with the aid of the technologies introduced by Merlin, but not before Cayleb’s father, King Haarahld, was killed.

Retribution is also dealt against the Kingdom of Delferahk, greatly offending the Church in the process when the priests responsible for the massacre are called to account. Merlin’s SNARCs, autonomous flying, invisible spy cameras, continue to provide a massive tactical advantage and help to solidify Cayleb’s reputation as a master tactician especially as the battle moves onto land. Some of the advances hinted at in the previous books are seen in action and their effects, amounting to almost two centuries of advancement in our history, are somewhat predictable. Unfortunately, the SNARCs can’t be everywhere, and Merlin and his A.I., Owl, can’t review everything that they record. The Church loyalists manage to slip past Merlin’s security, and target Empress Sharleyan in an attempt to break the new Empire.

Being the third book in the series, Weber brings the anticipated final conflict with Mother Church several steps closer. There is less focus on the new technologies being introduced in this book than in those that proceed it. The tactics and politics assume much more the focus. The land battles are clearly drawn, and the narrator, Jason Culp, keeps the back and forth between the combatants clear.

There are a noticeable number of lengthy monologues, in some cases in the middle of what was a normal conversation. They could have been more concise, however Jason delivers them well. He brings all of the many characters to life with ease, from the lowest soldier in the middle of a battle to the nobility and the priesthood.

Merlin is a magical character to the inhabitants of Safehold, but of Arthur C. Clarke’s variety: sufficiently advanced technology. Although that technology plays an important part in the events, it doesn’t really intrude. Merlin’s visions are provided by his SNARCs and the explanation of, what amounts to a mobile phone, in one scene is as intrusive as it gets. Weber’s Safehold series should appeal to fans of alternate history as well as fantasy and Science Fiction.

Posted by Paul [W] Campbell

Spider Robinson reads two Theodore Sturgeon SF stories

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Spider On The Web - Spider Robinson’s podcastSpider Robinson‘s latest podcast features what he calls a “a suicide prevention kit” of an episode. The kit‘s contents includes more of Spider’s favorite music, and TWO unabridged readings of short Science Fiction stories about suicide from the pen of Theodore Sturgeon! The first of the two is A Saucer Of Loneliness. It was first published in Galaxy Magazine’s February 1953 issue. It was adapted into a radio drama for X-Minus One in 1957. Was again adapted, for television this time, into a segment of one episode of The Twilight Zone in 1986. Finally in 2004 it received a ‘Retro Hugo’ award. A well deserved honor for this very solid story. The second, Suicide, was first published in 1970 in Adam Bedside Reader (this same issue included Harlan Ellison’s Wanted In Surgery).

Galaxy Science Fiction - February 1953Adam Bedside Reader - June 1970 [Number 43]“A Saucer of Loneliness” and “Suicide”
By Theodore Sturgeon; Read by Spider Robinson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 79 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Spider On The Web
Podcast: August 22, 2009

Podcast feed:

http://www.spiderrobinson.com/iTunes_feed.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[via Quasar Dragon]

Posted by Jesse Willis

SFOHA: The Science Fiction Oral History Association

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Science Fiction Oral History AssociationThe Science Fiction Oral History Association, has a new blog (that’s also soon to be a podcast). SFOHA is currently presided over by el presidente Rick Jackson. Rick is a former reviews editor for SFFaudio. The site is just getting started – but it’s a terrific start with several cool convention panels Rick recorded at Penguicon 2009 (a combination Science Fiction and open source software convention) and CONfusion 2009.

Penguicon 2009:

Copywhat Copyrights! Open Source Licensing in Literature |MP3|
Panel: Rick Jackson,

Creating a Wikinomic Online Community |MP3| Panel: Rick Jackson, Sarah Elkins

Legal Issues and Podcasting |MP3|
Panel: Rick Jackson, Steve Eley

Selling Your Soul – Marketing Your Work on a Limited Budget |MP3|
Panel: Rick Jackson, Jim C. Hines

Cyptic CONfusion 2009:

What Turns Great Ideas Into Short Stories Or Novels?
Panelists: Kelley Armstrong, Violette Malan [M], Paul Melko, Catherine Shaffer and Sandee Rodriguez
1 |MP3| – Approx. 46 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Recorded: Saturday January 24, 2009 10am
We all know where ideas come from, don’t we? But what are we supposed to do with them after that? How do we translate those ideas into successful stories and novels? Come and find out!

Did Captain Kirk Own A Wallet?
Panelists: Cory Doctorow, Tobias Buckell [M], Philip Edward Kaldon, Paul Melko and Matthew Stewart-Fulton
1 |MP3| – Approx. 52 Minutes [CONVENTION PANEL]
Recorded: Recorded: Saturday January 24, 2009 11am
Economics and SF how has science fiction has portrayed economics of the future over the years how have things changed, what are some of the enduring themes?

Setting: Haven’t I been here before?
Panelists: Violette Malan [M], Karl Schroeder, Catherine Shaffer, Doselle Young and Jim Frenkel
1 |MP3| – Approx. 46 Minutes [CONVENTION PANEL]
Recorded: Recorded: Saturday January 24, 2009 12pm
How important is setting to a reader’s understanding and enjoyment of the story? Is setting the real difference between S and SF? Are we overusing the settings we have, and are there any new ones?

Meet the New Boss: Young Adult SF
Panelists: Cory Doctorow, Kelley Armstrong, Anne Harris [M], Jim Frenkel, Doselle Young, Steven Harper Piziks
1 |MP3| – Approx. 56 Minutes [CONVENTION PANEL]
Recorded: Saturday January 24, 2009 1pm
How it is the same and different from adult SF and how it has evolved over the years and where it is going. Will it overtake Paranormal Romance and become the next big thing?

Big Brother Is Watching You!
Panelists: Cory Doctorow, David Rozian, Steve Buchheit, Karl Schroeder [M], Catherine Shaffer
1 |MP3| – Approx. 58 Minutes [CONVENTION PANEL]
Recorded: Saturday January 24, 2009 3pm
Personal privacy in the electronic age we now have or will have chips on everything we own including pets, where is this all going? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Podcasting — the future of it
Panelists: Cat Rambo, Matthew Stewart-Fulton, Alexander Bouchard, and Rick Jackson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 45 Minutes [CONVENTION PANEL]
Recorded: Sunday January 25, 2009 12pm

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Review

Podiobooks.com - Quarter Share by Nathan LowellSFFaudio EssentialQuarter Share
By Nathan Lowell; Read by Nathan Lowell
17 MP3 File Podcast – Approx. 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: February – March 2007
Themes: / Science Fiction / Space Travel / Galactic Civilization /

When Ishmael Wang is orphaned by a flitter crash, he must make some hard decisions about how to survive in a Company-owned universe. With limited time and fewer options, he lands a job as the newest hand on the Solar Clipper Lois McKendrick and learns there’s more to life than making coffee. Join Ish, Pip, Big Bad Bev, and the rest of the Lois McKendrick’s crew as they sail the galaxy in search of profitable trade.

I listened to this podcast novel with no intention of reviewing it. But after putting $10 in the tip jar at Podiobooks.com it kind of seemed dumb not to give you another $0.02 with my opinion of it. It was just too good not to recommend. The story follows Ish Wang, a young kid without enough education or cash to make his way off the planet he’s orphaned on. He experiences a lot of other hurdles too. But, through perseverance, the kindness of a few strangers and a generous natural ability, he finds his place in the universe; and that place is as an able spaceman aboard a merchant spaceship called the Lois McKendrick. Nathan Lowell’s universe depicts a galactic civilization that is probably the least Science Fictiony ever created. Sure they’re traveling in interstellar spacecraft at faster than light speeds, but that doesn’t mean the beds don’t have to be made and the coffee filter doesn’t have to be scrubbed out. There are things to do to make this ship and crew run for heaven’s sake! Making friends and making profit aren’t usually the major plot points in a Science Fiction novel set in space. But, then again Nathan Lowell’s characters aren’t your typical space navy types either. Their more realistic for one. Their more dynamic than virtually any cosmic deckhands than I’ve spent time with in any other novel. there are now 5 novels in this series and a new 6th is forthcoming. I’ve just heard this one, the first, but the very next assembly job I take on will be made all the more enjoyable by having a Nathan Lowell audiobook in my ears.

This podiobook is read by the author, he tells this tale as if it were his very own life story. I would swear he must have been in the merchant navy at some point. What else could explain his vivid and fascinating depiction of such duty? I listened to most of Quarter Share while assembling a gazebo in my mother’s front yard. Let me give you a piece of advice. If you’ve got a gazebo to assemble you really want to have Quarter Share in your MP3 player. Quarter Share is a novel about work. Work, done well, by good, honest and hardworking people. I’ve never heard a novel that spent as much time talking about work, the minutae of it, or for that matter one that tells me how good coffee gets made (it’s all about having a clean pot dontcha know). If Nathan Lowell ever swings by these parts I’ll invite him over. Maybe we’ll even swing by my mother’s gazebo. He can make the coffee.

For more testimonials about how awesome Quarter Share is be sure to check out the official comments thread for it over on Podiobooks.com

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Blake’s 7 – Point Of No Return and Eye Of The Machine

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Review

Blake's 7 - Point Of No Return and Eye Of The MachineSFFaudio EssentialBlake’s 7 – Point Of No Return and Eye Of The Machine (Vol. 1.2 & 1.3)
By Ben Aaronovitch and James Swallow; Performed by a full cast
2 CDs – Approx. 70 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: B7 Media
Published: November 2008
ISBN: 9781906577063
Themes: / Science Fiction / Politics / Crime / Artificial Intelligence / Terrorism / Noir /

‘Blake’s 7 draws much of its inspiration from the legend of Robin Hood. It follows a small band of outlaws, under a figurehead leader, leading a rebellion against a tyrannical regime.’

–A History and Critical Analysis of Blake’s 7 by John Kenneth Muir

This is the second release in the first season of Blake’s 7 prequel stories. For more information on the original the Trilogy Box Set and Volume 1.1 of the prequel series read our reviews HERE and HERE.

Point of No Return and Eye Of The Machine are two more rousing and unconventional adventures in the Blake’s 7 reimaginging. As is typical with most excellent series the music, sound design and acting are absolutely stellar. But, it is the writing which amazes me the most. There are two ways you can go with remakes of old television series. One is to write it so that the dumbest people in your audience won’t have any trouble following it (New Doctor Who I’m looking at you). The other is to re-imagine, re-construct and re-engage with those who loved a smart Science Fiction series for its intelligence. I’m happy to say that this new Blake’s 7 series is in the latter category. Feelings of surprise and utter engagement followed from the opening moments of a rainswept city soundscape to the final credit sequence. I was rapt, imagining the goings-on as vividly as if they were projected onto 1,000 foot screen. Here are my thoughts on each of the two episodes in this set…

Point of No Return – (Episode 1.2)
Written by James Swallow, directed by Andrew Mark Sewell

Point of No Return depicts a critical juncture in the life of Major Stefan Travis. Travis is a Blake’s 7 baddie, the Guy of Gisborne to Roj Blake’s Robin Hood. In this prequel story we find Travis assigned to investigate Carl Varon. Varon is a kind of proto-Blake – a political troublemaker who claims to have been setup by the powers that be. The evidence is against Varon is damning. There’s a laundry list of horrific charges against him. Plus, there’s all the video evidence. So what’s Travis’ problem? Just that Varon may be entirely innocent. Travis has two duties. 1. A duty to the state. 2. A duty to the truth. Which will he choose?

Actor Craig Kelly plays Travis. To my ears his voices sounds pretty similar to the original TV series actor Brian Croucher. What benefits Kelly here is that he gets a much meatier role than poor Croucher (the TV Travis) ever got. He also benefits by playing against a veteran like Peter Guinness. Guinness has a Jekyll And Hyde-like role in this story, we get him as the innocent man in jail and as a political terrorist (during some video playback sequences). Jake Maskall has the least to do here, playing Sub-Lieutenant Garcia. His role being to mostly act as a naive assistant to Travis.

Eye Of The Machine – (Episode 1.3)
Written by Ben Aaronovitch, directed by Andrew Mark Sewell

Eye Of The Machine also follows a baddie (but one of the less bad baddies). Kerr Avon (the Will Scarlet of Blake’s 7) in this prequel story is a brilliant and geeky post-graduate student at Oxford in 2230. The university’s campus, like so many on Earth, is roiling with political protest movements. Avon wants nothing to do with politics, but a fellow student is hot for two things – political change and Kerr Avon. Meanwhile Avon’s brilliance in his chosen studies has caught the eye of a respected cyberneticist professor. Professor Ensor is working on an artificial intelligence breakthrough – he needs a mind like Avon’s. Will Avon’s attendance at Freedom Party meetings or the ambitious Professor Ensor be his undoing?

Colin Salmon (playing Avon) is a movie star with stage acting chops. Anna Grant (played by Keeley Hawes) is fast talking and passionate. She’s terrific. Ensor, is played by Geoffrey Palmer, a veteran of virtually every television series made in the U.K.. In this he’s slimy, mean-spirited and perfect. The script jumps back and forth between the events as they unfolded chronologically and sometime shortly after ‘what happened’ wherein Ensor and Grant give one sided answers to an interrogator’s questions. Both Episode 1.2 and 1.3 use just three actors each but we don’t need even more. These scripts are perfectly polished audio drama gems. Highly recommended.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Blake’s 7 – When Vila Met Gan (Vol. 1.1)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Review

Blake's 7 - When Vila Met GanSFFaudio EssentialBlake’s 7 – When Vila Met Gan (Vol. 1.1)
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – Approx. 50 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: B7 Media
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 9781906577056
Themes: / Science Fiction / Crime / Dystopia /

Earth. 2230 AD. A time of social and political turmoil. Olag Gan wants to marry the woman of his dreams. Vila Restal wants to steal anything that isn’t nailed down. When they form a partnership, a perfect combination of strength and skill, it seems that nothing stands between them and the easy life. But fate hates to give a sucker an even break and the course of true love never did run smooth.

Though set after the events of the Blake’s 7 – Audio Adventures (Trilogy Box Set) |READ OUR REVIEW| When Vila Met Gan is primarily a prequel showing Gan and Vila back on Earth. There they work in the criminal underworld, Vila as a burglar and Gan as syndicate muscle. This is where the show shines, with Ben Aaronovitch having carefully constructed even more of the world he illustrated in the Trilogy Box Set. Very little of Earth was shown in the original television series – so Aaronovitch makes the tyranny of Earth actually tyrannical by drawing heavily upon the culture and lexicon of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. The story on Earth is set within a framing sequence in which a post-Trilogy Box Set Vila and Gan are visiting a colony world. They are there to take some much needed shore leave – but after they’ve spent all their money boozing up the planet Gan gets misty, and pines for his lost love back on Earth. It is at this point the narrative jumps back to Pre-Trilogy Box Set London (Rog Blake is still just a reformer candidate in upcoming planetary elections).

The story itself runs 30 minutes. The writing is fresh and funny with Gan and Vila make a terrific pair. Michael Keating, reprising the role he created in the original TV series, sounds just like he did on the show (even 30 years on). Owen Aaronovitch plays Gan. Also noticeable in this script is Ben Aaronovitch’s addressing of the original TV series “teleport” capabilities. The TV B7 “teleporter” and Star Trek‘s “transporter” technologies have been seen by SF fans as a kind of deus ex-machina. I think that’s why they were left out of the Trilogy Box Set. But, in When Vila Met Gan, our stranded heroes bemoan the lack of teleport technology. It verges on self-parody, but in the context of the framing story it works very well. This is a serial audio drama series of the highest caliber.

Also included on the CD are the Season 1 trailer, and the Season 2 trailer!

Posted by Jesse Willis