science fiction – Page 99

CBS Radio Mystery Theater: The Walking Dead (aka Fondly Fahrenheit) by Alfred Bester

Friday, October 7, 2011Friday, October 7, 2011 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Fondly Fahrenheit is Alfred Bester’s superlative achievement in short Science Fiction. Apparently the story was based an account of an U.S. Antebellum Era slave owner who refused to surrender his murderous chattel because the man was just too valuable. In Fondly Fahrenheit Bester makes brilliant use of the psychological concept of transference, literally smacks you in the forehead with an allusion to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and employs POV shifts that effortlessly blow your consciousness right out of your mind (and into someone else’s)!

The story was adapted as a telepay in 1959 under the title Murder And The Android, an episode of NBC’s Sunday Showcase. But the version I want to tell you about is one that I hadn’t realized existed, until just a few days ago! Bester had again adapted his story, and again changed it’s name! Here is Alfred Bester’s own radio drama adaptation of Fondly Fahrenheit, from 1976 He called it The Walking Dead!

CBS Radio Mystery Theater #0484 – The Walking Dead
Adapted by Alfred Bester; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 44 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: CBS
Broadcast: May 20, 1976
Provider: CBSRMT.com

Cast:
Jack Grimes
Paul Hecht
Gilbert Mack
Rosemary Rice
Joan Shay

Check out the art I cobbled together for it, thanks in part to Brain Plucker’s new “Lost Art” feature (Virgil Finlay!):

The Walking Dead by Alfred Bester

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Defenders by Philip K. Dick

Thursday, October 6, 2011Wednesday, April 4, 2012 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Italian cover mirroring The Defenders

Did you know that Philip K. Dick’s fifth published story, The Defenders, is public domain? It is!

Like many of Dick’s tales The Defenders this is a post-atomic war story. The planet’s surface devastated, flushed with radioactivity, and has been abandoned. The population now lives in vast underground cities. In their place intelligent robots fight in their place.

I’ve put together a |PDF| from the original publication in Galaxy Science Fiction, which includes terrific illustrations by Ed Emshwiller. And there’s a complete ETEXT version available through Project Gutenberg. And LibriVox has the audiobook edition. Enjoy!

The Defenders
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 21, 2009
No weapon has ever been frightful enough to put a stop to war—perhaps because we never before had any that thought for themselves! From Galaxy Science Fiction January 1953.

And here’s the radio drama adaptation:

X-Minus One X Minus One – The Defenders
Based on the story by Philip K. Dick; Adapted by George Lefferts; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: May 22, 1956
Provider: Internet Archive
East and West make war above ground with robots while both sides live underground … or do they?

Cast:
Lydia Bruce
Warren Parker
Grant Richards
Mike Ingram
Stan Early

Galaxy January 1953 - The Defenders by Philip K. Dick - illustrated by Ed Emshwiller565

The Defenders by Philip K. Dick illustrated by Ed Emshwiller

Here’s the X Minus One adaptation that I’ve put together with the original art from its publication in the Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1953 issue:

Posted by Jesse Willis

Hypnobobs: What Was It? by Fitz James O’Brien

Tuesday, September 27, 2011Sunday, March 3, 2013 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Mr. Jim Moon, a recent guest on SFFaudio Podcast #126, has recorded another story you just have to hear! It’s an old one, it’s wonderful, it’s obscure and it’s been recorded with an amateur’s enthusiasm and a professional’s sound. Mr. Moon, who I’m coming to realize is something of an expert in weird fiction, tracked down the complete text – apparently nearly all modern editions have used a slightly condensed version – cleanly narrated it (without any added sound effects or annoying bed music), then complimented the reading with what I can only describe as a very thoughtful commentary of an impassioned researcher.

Honestly, how could anyone ask for more than that?

My figurative hat is off to you Mr. Jim Moon. You are what makes the internet a wonderful place to visit.

What Was It?
By Fitz James O’Brien; Read by Jim Moon
1 |MP3| – Approx. 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Hypnobobs
Podcast: September 18, 2011
One of the earliest known examples of invisibility in fiction is What Was It? by Fitz James O’Brien – He’s been called “the most important figure after Poe and before Lovecraft” and this story serves as a kind of a bridge between the supernatural and the scientific, between the likes of de Maupassant’s The Horla and Wells’ The Invisible Man.

Podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Hypnobobs

Posted by Jesse Willis

Clarkesworld: Pack by Robert Reed

Thursday, September 22, 2011Wednesday, April 24, 2013 Tamahome

SFFaudio Online Audio

In another cute move similar to Sfbrp #138, see if you can understand what’s happening in this 30 minute Robert Reed story called Pack over at Clarkesworld online magazine. *spoiler alert* Narrator Kate Baker gives her theory at the end. By the way, in the beginning, I thought the story was all Web 2.0 about blogging, but Kate was talking about her acceptance speech for her Hugo.

|MP3|

Podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/clarkesworldmagazine/podcast?format=html

Posted by Tamahome

Coode Street podcast #65 with Tor.com blogger Jo Walton

Monday, September 19, 2011Tuesday, September 20, 2011 Tamahome

SFFaudio Online Audio

The accented SF author and blogger Jo Walton was the guest on Notes From Coode Street podcast #65. She talked about her new half fantasy/half autobiographical novel Among Others. She went on to discuss her Revisiting the Hugos series at Tor. She covers Hugos in the years 1953-2000.

Somehow this led me to obsessively clicking through each year, looking for good books that stood the test of time. I was surprised that she hated Neuromancer (didn’t like the characters, look for bluejo in the comments), and hated The Sparrow (don’t know why). She also has lots of separate blog posts about rereads of different novels she loved, covering plenty of C.J. Cherryh, Samuel R. Delany, and Lois McMaster Bujold. I didn’t find a nice index, but here’s a listing of all of ‘bluejo’s’ (Jo Walton’s) Tor.com posts. I’m looking forward to her series on Hugo-winning novellas.

|MP3| of the podcast episode.

(Note: we’re recording a Neuromancer discussion on November 12th.)

Posted by Tamahome

LibriVox: The Big Time by Fritz Leiber

Friday, September 16, 2011Saturday, December 31, 2011 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Narrator Karen Savage has finished her SFFaudio Challenge #5 audiobook, calling The Big Time, by Fritz Leiber, “A classic locked room mystery, in a not-so-classic setting.” And she’s right about that, this is an SF/Mystery classic.

Fritz Leiber says, in his 1982 introduction to The Big Time, that the novella was written over the course of exactly 100 days in 1956 and 1957.

For more on the plot |READ OUR REVIEW| of the Audible Frontiers edition. Savage has a great voice, this is an amazingly clear recording, and she affects a very serviceable set of intonations and accents for the half dozen or so characters with speaking parts in this excellent reading. My only complaint, as with the Audible edition, Savage does not use the tune of Lili Marlene for the reading of the lyrics at the end of chapter 3. Oh well.

The Big Time
By Fritz Leiber; Read by Karen Savage
16 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 3 Hours 44 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 16, 2011
|ETEXT|
You can’t know there’s a war on—for the Snakes coil and Spiders weave to keep you from knowing it’s being fought over your live and dead body! First published in Galaxy Science Fiction’s March and April 1958 issues.