Tag: WWIII

LibriVox: Second Variety by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVoxWe talked about it on the most recent SFFaudio Podcast, I’ve listened to it, and I declare it: awesome. Here comes one of the coolest new releases from LibriVox.org this year:

Second Variety by Philip K. Dick!

And with the release there’s now a new file format that makes it easier for some users too. The M4B format is a fully bookmarkable file type that’s compatible with what I use to listen to most audiobooks, Apple iPods. Here’s the full description:

An M4B file is an audio file which can be bookmarked. This is the audio-book file type. These files can have chapter markers which can be skipped through as you would skip through files on a play list. They can have built in cover art and chapter images. They will remember where you left off each time you stop the file and come back to it . And variable speed settings on iPods and a growing number of other mp3 players can be utilized by this file type. The ability to bookmark allows for as little as one large file instead of many small ones without the burden of fast forwarding to find your spot every time you resume listening or the fear of otherwise losing your place. The reduced number of files also makes browsing through your files to find your book and your place in it much less effort.

In fact there’s a whole catalogue of M4B LibriVox audiobooks available.

LIBRIVOX - Second Variety by Philip K. DickSecond Variety
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |M4B| File or 2 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 1 Hour 44 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: April 22, 2010
Early victories by the USSR in a global nuclear war cause the United Nations government to retreat to the moon leaving behind troops and fierce autonomous robots called “Claws”, which reproduce and redesign themselves in unmanned subterranean factories. After six bloody years of conflict the Soviets call for an urgent conference and UN Major Joseph Hendricks sets out to meet them. Along the way he will discover what the Claws have been up to, and it isn’t good… First published in the May 1953 edition of Space Science Fiction Magazine.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/4248

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[Thanks also to Betty M. and Elizabeth Klett]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: On The Beach by Nevil Shute dramatized

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 4Roy of the U.K. writes in to say there’s a “Classic Serial” on BBC Radio 4 that is worthy of our attention. It’s a BBC dramatisation of this recently mentioned Nevil Shute novel: On The Beach…

A 1957 novel set in the then future 1963. A nuclear conflict has devastated the northern hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with radioactive fallout and killing all animal life. While the nuclear bombs were confined to the northern hemisphere, global air currents are slowly carrying the fallout to the southern hemisphere. The only part of the planet still habitable is the far south of the globe, specifically Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and the southern parts of South America, although all of these areas are slowly succumbing to radiation poisoning as the fallout continues to circulate southwards!

BBC Radio 4 Radio Drama - On The Beach based on the novel by Nevil ShuteOn The Beach
Based on the novel by Nevil Shute; performed by a full cast
2 Parts – Approx. 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / Classic Serial
Broadcast: Sunday Nov. 2nd 2008 & Sunday Nov. 9th 2008 @ 15:00-16:00

These will each be repeated once at 21:00-22:00 on the following Saturdays.

And, Roy tells us to stick around for the “Bookclub programme” that immediately follows the first broadcast of Part 1 as it features Fay Weldon discussing her 1989 novel The Cloning Of Joanna May. That’s later repeated the following Thursday at 16:00 (30 minutes).

Thanks Roy!

Posted by Jesse Willis