science fiction – Page 70

CBC: The Vanishing Point: The Dispossessed (adapted from the novel by Ursula K. Le Guin)

Thursday, October 31, 2013 Jesse Willis

A six part radio dramatization of The Dispossessed was broadcast on CBC Radio in weekly 1/2 hour installments from June 12 to July 17, 1987 for The Vanishing Point (a long running SF radio drama series). Airing at 7:30pm on Friday nights this serial was based on the 1974 novel of the same name, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Subtitled “An Ambiguous Utopia” it tells the story of the occupants of twin planets, Urras and Annares. A sprawling epic of its era it features tree-planting, dinner parties, copulation, physics, homosexuality, anarchism, social justice, copulation, spankings, propaganda, culture, copulation, pregnancy, babies, famine, revolution, class consciousnesses, politics, and copulation.

Here’s the official plot:

“Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Urras, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.”

The Vanishing Point – The Dispossessed
Adapted from the novel by Ursula K. Le Guin; Dramatized by David Lewis Stein; Performed by a full cast
6 Episodes – Approx. 3 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio
Broadcast: 1987

Part 1 |MP3| Jun. 12, 1987

Part 2 |MP3| Jun. 19, 1987

Part 3 |MP3| Jun. 26, 1987

Part 4 |MP3| Jul. 03, 1987

Part 5 |MP3| Jul. 10, 1987

Part 6 |MP3| Jul. 17, 1987

Podcast feed: http://huffduffer.com/tags/vpdispossessed/rss

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Cast:
Gary Reineke as Shevek
Barbara Gordon
Gaysa Kovacs
John Swindells
Gillie Fenick
Greg Elwand
Hrant Alianak
Terry Waterhouse
Francine Volkhurt
Mary Durkin
Marsha Moreau
Michael Hogan
Phil Aiken
Beth Robinson

Music by Marsha Coffee

Part 1 of 6:

Part 2 of 6:

Part 3 of 6:

Part 4 of 6:

Part 5 of 6:

Part 6 of 6:

Posted by Jesse Willis

Expediter by Mack Reynolds

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Expediter by Mack Reynolds

Mack Reynolds is an SF author who needs more attention. Unfortunately his non-public domain works, the majority of his work, are languishing, orphaned. Escape Pod has paired this less than stellar novelette with an excellent narrator, Corson Bremer, but even so it’s a less than stellar representative example of Reynold’s most thoughtful societal thinking. Expediter merely hints at the kinds of things Mack Reynolds could do. Come to think of it, what we really need is an expediter to make the still copyrighted works of Mack Reynolds available as ebooks (and audiobooks).

Expediter
By Mack Reynolds; Read by Corson Bremer
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Escape Pod
Podcast: October 28, 2013
His assignment was to get things done; he definitely did so, Not quite the things intended, perhaps, but definitely done. First published in Analog, May 1963.

Podcast feed: http://escapepod.org/podcast.xml

Here is the |ETEXT|.

And I’ve assembled a |PDF|.

Expediter by Mack ReynoldsIllustrated by George Schelling

Posted by Jesse Willis

Riya’s Foundling by Algis Budrys

Wednesday, October 23, 2013 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Riya's Foundling by Algis Budrys

Julie Hoverson recently recorded Riya’s Foundling. It’s a little Science Fiction gem from the hands of Algis Budrys and the pages if Science Fiction Stories, #1 (1953).

It’s a story about an intelligent cow (actually a cow-like alien being) that adopts a young human calf.

I’m not very much interested in the earthbound setup – frankly it’s weak – but there’s something very Alfred Besterian about the writing and the alien POV is really fascinating (and somehow familiar).

Here’s the audio, |MP3| Approx. 19 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

And here’s the |PDF| version!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Crucible by Troy Denning

Wednesday, October 16, 2013Monday, October 14, 2013 Jenny

Crucible (Star Wars)
By Troy Denning; Read by Marc Thompson
Publisher: Random House Audio
Publication Date: 9 July 2013
ISBN: 9780385362924
[UNABRIDGED] – 12 hours, 8 minutes
Listen to an excerpt: | MP3 |

Themes: / Star Wars / Jedi / space / science fiction /

Publisher summary:

When Han and Leia Solo arrive at Lando Calrissian’s Outer Rim mining operation to help him thwart a hostile takeover, their aim is just to even up the odds and lay down the law. Then monstrous aliens arrive with a message, and mere threats escalate into violent sabotage with mass fatalities. When the dust settles, what began as corporate warfare becomes a battle with much higher stakes—and far deadlier consequences.

Now Han, Leia, and Luke team up once again in a quest to defeat a dangerous adversary bent on galaxy-wide domination. Only this time, the Empire is not the enemy. It is a pair of ruthless geniuses with a lethal ally and a lifelong vendetta against Han Solo. And when the murderous duo gets the drop on Han, he finds himself outgunned in the fight of his life. To save him, and the galaxy, Luke and Leia must brave a gauntlet of treachery, terrorism, and the untold power of an enigmatic artifact capable of bending space, time, and even the Force itself into an apocalyptic nightmare.

Star Wars Crucible takes place after the Fate of the Jedi series and is the furthest in the Star Wars timeline to date. I came to this book without having read Fate of the Jedi but didn’t have any trouble what was going on in the story and Denning explained sufficiently for those of us not in the know. Luke, Han, and Leia are getting pretty old at this point, and this novel seems to represent something of a retirement for them or a passing of the torch to the new generation. Denning plays to the characters’ strengths throughout most of the novel. You can’t have Han getting up to his full antics without a buddy, so a healthy dose of Lando is also in there too. If anyting, I liked how this is a nice standalone Star Wars book from that era of Star Wars instead of being part of some 9+ book series.

The general plot of the story has to do with Luke, Han, and Leia going to visit Lando (the ever present entrepreneur) to help him with problems at his mining operation in the outer rim. Cue the bad guys that can even give Jedi problems and the story gets going. The plot is interesting because it pits the gang against highly intelligent organized crime figures (Qrephs) who have an old grudge to settle. There is an element of Battlestar Galactica in here too because anyone could be working for the bad guys so you don’t know who is a cylon…err…agent of the Qrephs. I liked the novel for the most part except near the climactic battle when things to all trippy and weird like anime (Evangelion I’m looking at you).

Luke and Leia were pretty good in this book but Denning really made Han and Lando fun in this book. Since this takes place so far out and they’ve done so many great things, the characters are pretty well revered by people they encounter in the book. Han and Lando setting up a sabaacc game to draw in competition was definitely fun to go through. The sabaacc time goes kind of heavy into logic and tactics sometimes and really makes it look like Han is stronger in the Luck than Luke is in the Force any day.

As for the audiobook, Marc Thompson does as good a job with this book as any other Star Wars book I’ve listened to. All of the background music, ambient sounds, and special effects you’d expect are there and they do a great job of adding that little bit of extra immersion to the experience. Thompson does a great job impersonating the main cast down to Lando pronouncing “Han” with the ‘a’ instead of ‘o’ sound. I also really liked the stoic and simpering voices he used for the Qrephs.

Posted by Tom Schreck

The SFFaudio Podcast #233 – READALONG: Oryx And Crake by Margaret Atwood

The SFFaudio Podcast #233 – Scott, Luke Burrage, and Jenny talk about Oryx And Crake by Margaret Atwood.

Talked about on today’s show:
Where’s Jesse?, Eric S. Rabkin, SPOILER TERRITORY, Jenny loves post-apocalyptic dystopian novels, it ends with more questions than answers, a man wandering on the shore, a back and forth structure, Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, big disease, a week, Jimmy’s story, the story of the apocalypse, pigoons and rakunks, The Year Of The Flood, corporate compounds, New New York, dystopia, a future world and then an apocalypse, Octavia Butler, religion, Parable Of The Sower, a parallel story with backstory and humor, a sermon and a hymn by God’s gardeners, the audiobook, a planned trilogy?, the Culture series by Iain M. Banks, extinctathon, Madadam, expert splicers, a hacker genius, the world’s best ever minds, the floor model crakers, war is misplaced sexual aggression, they could eat their own poop, it seems like Jimmy survived through the plague because he wasn’t entirely human, he doesn’t have the right smarts, creating a creation myth, the blood and roses game, nothing was a mystery anymore, yup and tick, Quicktime Osama, Civilization V, is Oryx really Oryx?, SPOILER, “I’m counting on you.”, “If only he’d paid attention to his fridge magnets.”, the way that Jimmy comes to conclusions is kinda different, “he knew why he picked Oryx”, the First Law series, Joe Abercrombie, the music at the end of the audiobook started way too early, narrator Campbell Scott, Jenny hates the convenience of canned and frozen food, wolvogs, any other complaints?, Luke really didn’t like reading about people getting off on child pornography, Jimmy is obsessed with having people tell them stuff while he’s having sex with them, Atwood’s larger point, nighty-night.com, satire, in other parts of their brains and gonads, a big turn off, do I really have to listen to this now?, why is Crake destroying humanity?, neuronormative, there will be no child abuse, random levels of technology, a good novel, good Science Fiction?, technology, DVDs, most SF writers know, Colossus: The Forbin Project,

“Although ‘MaddAddam’ is a work of fiction, it does not include any technologies that do not already exist, or bio-beings that do not already exist, are not under construction, or are not possible in theory.”

it didn’t feel intentional, it felt clunky and badly thought out, Margret Atwood doesn’t want to call it Science Fiction, she’s just not interested, a lot different in tone and feel than most SF, the Booker prize list, this is a book about humans, super-reductive, what does it tell us about humanity?, social Science Fiction, this is pretty bad Science Fiction (but a good novel), the Science Fiction falls out of Crake’s brain, J.G. Ballard, Jenny’s book club experience, boycotted, people refusing to read Oryx And Crake because it is SF, SF lumpers try to deny, Star Wars isn’t SF, a literature of ideas, “the fear of this battlestation”, a perfect description of SF, literary fiction that’s SF, Gravity’s Rainbow, Infinite Jest, Luke doesn’t like sub-genres, gmail has tags, assigning, where do you shelf it?, in the modern world a book can be shelved in many shelves, Goodreads, own-poetry-unread, STAR RATINGS!, the Force is a fantasy element, “oh, here’s another Death Star.”

Posted by Jesse Willis

It’s A Good Life by Jerome Bixby

Tuesday, October 1, 2013Tuesday, October 1, 2013 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

It's A Good Life by Jerome Bixby

It's A Good Life by Jerome Bixby - illustration by Quinn

It’s A Good Life is a 1953 short story by Jerome Bixby. Set in the small town that used to be in Ohio. It’s entire population loves and fears three year old Anthony Fremont. Anthony is omnipotent.

This story has been adapted several times by The Twilight Zone. The original series did a very faithful adaptation, a sequel episode, “It’s Still A Good Life“, featured a grown-up Anthony and his daughter. There was also an adaptation within Twilight Zone: The Movie. Even The Twilight Zone radio drama series adapted it.

Here’s the audiobook, as podcast in two parts on Rick Jackson’s The Time Traveler Show (along with an interview with the narrator, William Dufris).

It’s A Good Life
By Jerome Bixby; Read by William Dufris
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| – Approx. 2 Hours 4 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Time Traveler Show
Podcast: August 2006
Anthony Fremont can go anywhere he wants, he can read thoughts, he can project sensory information, he can create, he can destroy, he can mold reality, he can kill. Anthony Fremont is three years old. First published in Star Science Fiction Stories No.2.

Podcast feed:

http://www.timetravelershow.com/shows/feed.xml

Here’s a |PDF| made from the publication in Science Fantasy, #16, 1955.

Posted by Jesse Willis