science fiction – Page 84

Lightspeed: The Way Of Cross And Dragon by George R.R. Martin

Friday, October 5, 2012Thursday, October 11, 2012 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Does it matter if what you believe is factual?

George R.R. Martin has an answer here in his very thoughtful piece of SF. The Way Of Cross And Dragon, which was recently audiobooked by Lightspeed, explores the concepts of heresy, blasphemy, faith and metaphor.

Omni, June 1979 - illustration by Bob Venosa - The Way Of Cross And Dragon by George R.R. Martin

Lightspeed – The Way Of Cross And Dragon
By George R.R. Martin; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
1 |MP3| – Approx. 52 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Lightspeed
Podcast: June 2012
First published in Omni, June 1979.

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Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #180 – READALONG: The Death Of Grass by John Christopher

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #180 – Jesse, Tamahome, and Jenny Colvin talk about The Death Of Grass by John Christopher.

Talked about on today’s show:
post-apocalyptic, John Christopher’s real name was Samuel Youd, also known as No Blade of Grass, an anti-pot novel?, “it’s not my idea of a good time”, Stephen King’s The Stand, it’s almost like a play, there is a BBC audio drama adaptation, why not fish?, the Inuit, apocalyptic expert Jenny weighs in, John is like a feudal lord, moral lines are crossed, John’s transformation, the terrible 1970 movie version, “why hello I think I will come with you”, the cons of agriculture, Jenny’s quinoa granola, just drop a few bombs, can’t they make Soylent Green?, potatoes can let you down, real African grass virus, Paolo Bacigalupi’s Windup Girl, famines today, George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides |OUR READALONG|, David Pringle’s Science Fiction: The Best 100 Novels 1949-1984 and The Ultimate Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction, John Joseph Adams’s Wastelands, Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon, Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, LeVar Burton loves it, women in the novel, Stockholm syndrome, The Walking Dead, “Dun dun dun!”, “maybe Luke can re-edit it”, Starship Troopers, Doomsday Preppers

Sphere SF - The Death Of Grass by John Christopher

No Blade Of Grass by John Christopher

No Blade Of Grass The Saturday Evening Post April 27 to June 8, 1957

Posted by Tamahome

Mindwebs: The Gun Without A Bang by Robert Sheckley

Thursday, September 20, 2012 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

“One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.”
-Anton Chekhov, November 1,1889.

The Gun Without A Bang by Robert Sheckley

The Gun Without A Bang - illustrated by Dick Francis

Mindwebs – The Gun Without A Bang
By Robert Sheckley; Read by Michael Hanson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 19 Minutes [UNABRIDGED with a musical bed]
Broadcaster: WHA Radio (Madison, WI)
Broadcast: August 4, 1982
Provider: Archive.org
Alfred Dixon is a weapons expert assigned to test, in hostile alien jungle conditions, a new deadly disintegration pistol. The thing kills alright, but there’s one thing it doesn’t do. It won’t report. First published in Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1958.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Midas Plague by Frederik Pohl

Wednesday, September 19, 2012 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

“the curse of want gives way to the curse of plenty”
-Frederik Pohl, in the anthology Nightmare Age

Broadcast on BBC Radio 4, as a part of “The Shape of Things to Come” season in 1991 (a series of plays looking at the future) The Midas Plague was adapted from the acclaimed novella by Frederik Pohl.

Now, thanks to the terrific service RadioArchive.cc you can experience this positively smirk inducing satire of a consumer society flipped on it’s head.

Here’s my description of the premise:

Morey Fry lives in a post-scarcity world where cheap production has made commodities, consumer goods, and food ubiquitous. The “poor” are forced to spend their lives in a constant state of frantic consumption, continually upgrading their devices, clothes, jewelry, and appliances. But “poor” Morey can only wear-out his shirts so fast, and taking double cream in his coffee is giving a sick feeling. Meanwhile a black market in counterfeit ration book stamps flourishes, yet Morey is an honest man. When poverty stricken Morey marries a “rich” girl from the right side of the tracks they move into his well appointed mansion. There, the efficient household staff of robot butlers, valets, maids, cooks, and footmen foist endless consumer goods upon them both at a furious rate, something that upsets Morey’s new “wealthy” spouse – after all she’s is accustomed to a certain luxurious lifestyle.

The Midas Plague, illustrated by Emsh - from Galaxy, April 1954

The Midas Plague
Adapted by Mark Power from the story by Frederik Pohl; Performed by a full cast
1 MP3 (via TORRENT) – Approx. 44 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: September 4, 1991

Directed by Alec Reid

Cast:
Morrey Fry – Michael Drew
Cheri Fry – Diane White
Howland – Alan Covenay
Judge Elon – Eric Allen
Grace Elon – Caroline Hunt
Semmelweiss – Nick Chivers
Newman – Nick Chivers
Fairless – Clarence Smith
Sam – Clarence Smith
Wally – Richard Pearce
Blaine – Richard Pearce
Tanaquil – Catherine Neal
Wainwright – Fraser Kerr
Henry, the Robot – Geoffrey Collins
Profirio – Geoffrey Collins

More illustrations from the publication in Galaxy, April 1954:
The Midas Plague, illustrated by Emsh - from Galaxy, April 1954

The Midas Plague can also be found in…
Ballantine Books - Nightmare Age edited by Frederik Pohl

and…
The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, Volume II, B

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: Eloquent Voice: A World Of Talent and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick

Tuesday, August 28, 2012 Jesse Willis

New Releases

Here’s William Coon’s fourth collection of Philip K. Dick short stories and novellas. It’s available via Amazon, Audible, Audiobooks Online, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, BooksOnBoard, Read Without Paper, Waterstone’s.

These stories are Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

And three of the five stories have never been audiobooked before!

“A novelist carries with him constantly what most women carry in large purses: much that is useless, a few absolutely essential items, and then, for good measure, a great number of things that fall in between. But the novelist does not transport them physically because his trove of possessions is mental. Now and then he adds a new and entirely useless idea; now and then he reluctantly cleans out the trash – the obviously worthless ideas – and with a few sentimental tears sheds them. Once in a great while, however, he happens by chance onto a thoroughly stunning idea new to him that he hopes will turn out to be new to everyone else. It is this final category that dignifies his existence. But such truly priceless ideas… perhaps during his entire lifetime he may, at best, acquire only a meager few. But that is enough; he has, through them, justified his existence to himself and to his God.”
– Philip K. Dick, 1977

A World of Talent and Other Stories
By Philip K. Dick; Read by William Coon
Audible Download – Approx. 4 Hours 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Eloquent Voice, LLC
Published: August 17, 2012
In this collection of five stories, all first published in the 1950s, Dick justified his existence by exploring a number of truly interesting ideas. In “Small Town” a man creates a perfect scale model of his own town, as a means of escaping his unbearable reality. In “Human Is” the wife of a scientist notices that her husband has returned from a scientific expedition a changed man, but she’s not complaining. In “Foster, You’re Dead” a father’s unwillingness to participate in his country’s preparations for a war that never happens, leads to unexpected consequences for his family. In “The Hanging Stranger” a man is unable to convince his fellow townspeople that something terribly wrong is happening to them all. Finally, in “A World of Talent“, society’s reactions against those who have unusual talents have pushed the situation to the brink of interplanetary war.

Sample |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: No Great Magic by Fritz Leiber

Tuesday, August 21, 2012Sunday, August 19, 2012 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

No Great Magic by Fritz Leiber

It took me two attempts to get into this Fritz Leiber audiobook. Part of the issue was that the first person protagonist is female and the audiobook’s narrator is male. Phil Chenevert, the narrator, is a talented voice actor but he still sounded male. This bothered me all the way up to chapter four when I had my growning indignity balloon deflated by this choice paragraph:

I swung back to the play just at the moment Lady Mack soliloquizes, “Come to my woman’s breasts. And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers.” Although I knew it was just folded towel Martin was touching with his fingertips as he lifted them to the top half of his green bodice, I got carried away, he made it so real. I decided boys can play girls better than people think. Maybe they should do it a little more often, and girls play boys too.

Despite my loss of that criticism, I am still not fully satisfied with the story. Like The Big Time |READ OUR REVIEW| before it, No Great Magic is well written fluff – with not even the shape of a plot beginning until the very end.

It may just be that No Great Magic, and perhaps a good deal of other time travel related SF, are of a kind of “cozy” Science Fiction story that I just don’t fully embrace.

Still, the first person narration by the amnesiac heroine and Chenevert’s narrative skill make No Great Magic worth checking out – and perhaps your tastes and my tastes will differ.

Chenevert, incidentally, put it this way in a LibriVox forum post:

“I hope you have been involved in the theater somewhere in your past or present because this story smells heavily of greasepaint.”

No Great Magic
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Phil Chenevert
8 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 1 Hour 53 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 27, 2012
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They were a traveling group of Shakespearean players; perfectly harmless, right? wrong. For one thing, why did they have spacemen costumes in their wardrobes,right next to caveman ones? Why was the girl in charge of backstage suffering from amnesia and agoraphobia? No Great Magic is needed to perform the plays they put on, but sometimes great science. No matter where, or when. First published in Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1963.