Tag: science fiction

Blake’s 7 The Audio Adventures update

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SFFaudio Online Audio

Blake's 7 Audio AdventuresBlake’s 7 The Audio Adventures series, now streaming exclusively on the Sci-Fi Channel UK website, has been pumping out their short audio drama segments at a delightfully quick pace. Added to the cast, in the more recent episodes, has been Robin Of Sherwood alumnus, Michael Praed. The total run for this show is going to be 36 segments, with new parts released Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Rebel – Chapter 1: Hard Targets
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 7 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 2: Enemy Of The State
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 9 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 3: First Contact
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 7.5 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 4: The Derelict
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 7 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 5: No Surrender
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 6 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 6: Plan B
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 6 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 7: Space Fall
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 5 minutes 30 Seconds Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 8: Survivors
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 7 Minutes 30 Seconds [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 9: Tertiary Stage
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 6 Minutes 30 Seconds [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 10: Hero
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 6 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 11: The Offer
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 7 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Rebel – Chapter 12: Exiles
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
Streaming Audio – 6 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Sci-Fi Channel UK
Published: May 2007

Resonance FMAlso, Resonance FM, a community based radio station in London, U.K., has a lengthy “behind the scenes” style interview with the creators of the Blake’s 7 The Audio Adventures. It was recorded at this year’s Bristol international Comic Expo. U.S.A. audio drama creators will be extremely jealous of the obvious popularity of audio drama in the U.K.. Not mentioned in the interview, but also fascinating, is that the actors union in the U.K. has negotiated a precedent setting contract with the B7 Audio Adventures team. Have a listen |MP3|.

posted by Jesse Willis

FREE Elizabeth Bear audio fiction from Subterranean Press!

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Subterranean PressSubterranean Press, which produces the “Subterranean Online” magazine, has just released their Summer 2007 issue, and is offering another free audiobook, this one from the issue’s primary focus SF author Elizabeth Bear! This audiobook is read by the talented narrator, and SFFaudio’s very own, Mary Robinette Kowal! Wax is the second standalone tale in Bear’s new mosaic novel New Amsterdam.

Subterranean Press - Wax by Elizabeth BearWax
By Elizabeth Bear; Read by Mary Robinette Kowal
7 MP3s – Approx. 1 Hours 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: May 2007
|MP3 Chapter 1|MP3 Chapter 2|MP3 Chapter 3|
|MP3 Chapter 4|MP3 Chapter 5|MP3 Chapter 6|
|MP3 Chapter 7|
Abigail Irene Garrett drinks too much. She makes scandalous liaisons with inappropriate men, and if in her youth she was a famous beauty, now she is both formidable–and notorious. She is a forensic sorceress, and a dedicated officer of a Crown that does not deserve her loyalty. She has nothing, but obligations. Sebastien de Ulloa is the oldest creature she has ever known. He was no longer young at the Christian millennium, and that was nine hundred years ago. He has forgotten his birth-name, his birth-place, and even the year in which he was born, if he ever knew it. But he still remembers the woman who made him immortal. He has everything, but a reason to live. In a world where the sun never set on the British Empire, where Holland finally ceded New Amsterdam to the English only during the Napoleonic wars, and where the expansion of the American colonies was halted by the war magic of the Iroquois, they are exiles in the new world–and its only hope for justice.

posted by Jesse Willis

Canadia: 2056 episode 6 airing now!

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Canadia 2056Another Friday, so you know what that means! Yep, it’s Canadia: 2056 day, and today’s CBC Radio One broadcast is of episode 6. It’s airing on every single CBC Radio One station across Canada this morning starting at 11:30 am in all time zones (Noon in Newfoundland). And of course, if you’re not conveniently sitting by your radio at 11:30 am you still have a chance to hear it ONLINE via the Streaming Radio Map – just click the time zone in your area at 11:30am in your time zone, or do a bit of math and you can also time-shift a bit. Only four more episodes left after today’s!

Here’s the official CBC Radio hotsheet description:

“Head for outer space this morning aboard Canadia 2056, the lone Canadian government spacecraft, sent to support an American space armada fighting hostile aliens. This week, the crew loses the ability to navigate the ship, when control is taken over by a cloud. The up side is that the cloud grants them wishes, and the down side is also that the cloud grants them wishes – in other words, they make some questionable choices! Also, Anderson is pining away for Connie, his first love. Canadia 2056, this morning at 11:30 (noon NT) on CBC Radio One.”

I’m sad to say, there’s been no response to my queries to the CBC, about the status of a Canadia:2056 podcast. Perhaps their tired of hearing my lone voice? If you want CBC to make their Radio Dramas available via podcast, or at least by something equivilent to the BBC “Listen Again” service try calling the toll-free phone number (Canada only): 1-866-306-4636 or using the web-contact form.

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7’s The Seventh Dimension has a Brian Aldiss short story!

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BBC 7's The 7th DimensionI missed telling you about a cool tale broadcast last Sunday. Though I have been remiss, all is not lost, you can still listen to this specially commissioned reading through the “Listen Again” service of BBC Radio 7. The story is Song Of The Silencer and it is a “chilling account” of man’s attempt to make order out of chaos by constructing an ‘ultimate machine.’ First Published in 1979. The reader is Nigel Anthony, a winner of both Sony award and Radio Times awards for radio performances.

BBC Radio 7 - Song Of The SilencerSong Of The Silencer
By Brian Aldiss; Read by Nigel Anthony
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday May 20th, 2007 @ 6.30pm and 12.30am (U.K. Time)
Humanity has built a massive computer out in space simply called the Ultimate Machine, that perfectly mimics the human brain — but some are predicting disaster once it is activated.

posted by Jesse Willis

Book Lust podcast delivers Connie Willis & Guy Gavriel Kay

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Book LustThe Book Lust podcast has two half-hour interviews you’ll want to hear. with SF writer Connie Willis and Fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay. Connie talks about her novels, Doomsday Book, Bellwether, her first story Firewatch and the origins of her love of Science Fiction and lots more. Guy talks about his Fionavar Tapestry, his latest novel, his involvement with editing J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion and the nature of High Fantasy fiction. These are two terrific interviews conducted by a real fan of the two authors.

Connie Willis interview |MP3|
Guy Gavriel Kay interview|MP3|

You can subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://www.seattlechannel.org/podcasts/BookLust.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein

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SFFaudio Audiobook Review

Science Fiction Audiobook - Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. HeinleinRocket Ship Galileo
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Spider Robinson
5 CDs, 4 Cassettes or 1 MP3-CD – 5.5 hrs [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780786162765 (CDs), 9780786147892 (cassettes), 9780786172092(MP3-CD)
Themes: / Science Fiction / Young Adult / Space Travel / Rocket Science / Espionage / Moon /

Ross Jenkins, Art Mueller, and Morrie Abrams are not your average high school students. While other kids are cruising around in their cars playing ball, this trio, known as the Galileo Club, is experimenting with rocket fuels and preparing for their future education at technical colleges.

Robert Heinlein created something new when he started writing his “juvenile” SF novels. He wasn’t the first person to write what publishers would categorize as Young Adult SF but he was the first respected SF author to do so. Not only did it not harm his reputation, it actually enhanced it. Some of these, like Citizen of the Galaxy, The Star Beast, and The Rolling Stones still stand as some of his best books and are considered classics.

His first juvenile, from 1947, was Rocketship Galileo. It’s a tale of three young fellows that have their own amateur rocketry club. When one of their rocket experiments go awry with an explosion, they find that one of the boys’ uncles was injured on the grounds. The injured man is Doctor Donald Morris Cargraves. He’s a scientist with his own background in atomic propulsion. With true do-it-yourself ethos, Cargraves recruits the boys to build their own rocket to the moon. There are incidents of sabotage, which creates the mystery of who is responsible for the sabotage.

Eventually the boys with Cargraves in tow head to the moon. On occasion the story seems to stop for a science lesson. Once they reach the moon, they learn they are not alone. I’ll leave the nature of the co-habitants to the listener. I will say the answer that lies behind the sabotage attempts are less than satisfactory. What seems dated and implausible today was likely just as implausible in 1947 when the book was written. Although this novel is not the best of Heinlein’s juveniles, it is still an enjoyable ride with an optimistic future for mankind.

The book is narrated by SF author Spider Robinson. Spider is a gifted narrator with a flair for voice characterizations. His natural narrator’s voice seems a bit nasally at times, but he still conveys ease, and his pacing is unhurried.

This is not the first paring of Robert Heinlein with Spider Robinson. Spider recently coauthored a book with Mr. Heinlein called Variable Star. Using notes and an unfinished outline, Spider Robinson was chosen by Heinlein’s estate to complete it. The story is said to be reminiscent of one of the master’s juvenile novels circa 1955. The good news doesn’t end there. Robinson was tapped by Blackstone Audio to narrate the audiobook for Variable Star, which has just been released.

posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show podcast