David Farquhar, of the audio drama theatre troupe Voices In The Wind, describes The Pigeon Drop as a “little experimental piece” that’s “a full cast reading with music and sound effects.” Myself I think that’s just another way of saying it’s an audio drama with narration. But then I’m saying this because I don’t want to be a pigeon. As the narrator tells in the story: “At this time the pigeons were usually worried at the prospect of the money slipping away. And they were also confused by the double-talk, but were hesitant to admit it, less they appear stupid.” Don’t let David’s words fool you, this is an audio drama (with narration).
The Pigeon Drop
By Michael A. Black; Adapted by David Farquhar; Performed by a full cast MP3 Download – Approx. 11 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Voices In The Wind
Published: September 2010 A little crime story about the oldest con.
Cast:
KEITH BURNETT: The Narrator
NOELLE DUPUIS: Laura
PAT GOUGH: Mildred
JAN HOLT: Andrea
NORM MCLEOD: Police Detective
Directed by: Pat Gough
Recording/Post Production by: David Farquhar
Check out the Wikipedia entry on the pigeon drop scam.
In his 1977 essay introduction to The Best Of Raymond Z. Gallun, entitled Raymond Z. Gallun, The Quiet Revolutionary, John J. Pierce wrote:
“[Gallun] never bothered with self-promotion. He never even tried very hard to get people to pronounce his name right (it rhymes with ‘balloon’ being an old dutch name, so don’t say ‘gallon’). He let his science fiction speak for itself.”
After trying to pronounce it myself I’m still not sure if the narrator of The Planet Strappers (by Raymond Z. Gallun), Richard Kilmer, has it right. It sounds like he pronounces Gallun, “gah-lun” and not “gah-luhn.” Or should it be “gal-uhn” or maybe “guhl-oon”? I can see why Gallun never bothered trying to clear this up. In any case, Kilmer’s reading of this 1961 novel is clean, uninflected and voluminous in volume – a solid straight reading. I’ll have to get back to you on whether this novel speaks to me.
The Planet Strappers
By Raymond Z. Gallun; Read by Richard Kilmer 16 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 7 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 21, 2010 The Planet Strappers started out as The Bunch, a group of student-astronauts in the back room of a store in Jarviston, Minnesota. They wanted off Earth, and they begged, borrowed and built what they needed to make it. They got what they wanted–a start on the road to the stars–but no one brought up on Earth could have imagined what was waiting for them Out There!
Am I the only one who thinks the trailer for The Reapers Are The Angels makes it look like a foreign language film? It’s purportedly written by Alden Bell, but that’s a pseudonym for Joshua Gaylord (which also kind of sounds like a pseudonym). That name change must be for marketing purposes right? In which case, I wonder what my urban fantasy marketing name would be? Maybe Jesse Willis, urban fantasy author, would be asked to become: JAY CROWN. I can picture it now…
A Is For Aerostat, Z Is For Zombie (#1 in the Delinquent Dirigible Series) by Jay Crown
How’s that? The title sounds a little YA, that’d have to be changed. And then maybe I’d be asked to take a wholly female sounding name, in which case I’d be: JANICE LAWS or some such. “Alden”, by the by, is a gender neutral name meaning “old friend.” Charlie Huston likes The Reapers Are The Angels and it’s going to a reviewer who likes Charlie Huston audiobooks. Maybe I’ll ask her to play my little game, giving herself an urban fantasy author name, the next time we speak.
The Reapers Are The Angels
By Alden Bell; Read by Tai Sammons
6 CDs – Approx. 6.8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: August 2010
ISBN: 9781441765994 For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can’t remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her off on her personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulted remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.
And speaking of Charlie Huston…
Here’s book three in the Joe Pitt Casebook series. The first audiobook in the series, Already Dead |READ OUR REVIEW|, was very well received by our reviewer Julie Davis.
Half The Blood Of Brooklyn (The Joe Pitt Casebooks, Book 3)
By Charlie Huston; Read by Scott Brick
7 CDs – Approx. 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: August 2010
ISBN: 1441753206 There’s only so much room on the Island, only so much blood, and Manhattan’s Vampyre Clans aren’t interested in sharing. So when the Vyrus-infected dregs of New York’s outer boroughs start creeping across the bridges, the Clans want to know why. Bad luck for PI Joe Pitt. Joe used to be a Rogue, work off his own dime, pick his own gigs, but tight times and a terminally ill girlfriend pushed him to the renegade Society Clan. Now he has all the cash and blood he needs, but at a steep price. The price tonight is crossing the bridge, finding the Freak Clan, and figuring out what’s driving the savages to scratch at the Society’s door. No need to look far. The answer lies around the corner in Gravesend. From uptown to the boardwalk, war drums are beating. Murderous family feuds and personal grudges are being drawn and brandished, along with the long knives.
This video interview isn’t about the audiobook, but it does make a compelling case for reading a Charlie Huston book:
“Celebrating books made into films, takes us to Margaret Atwood’s 1985 interview with Peter Gzowski on CBC’s Morningside about her book, The Handmaid’s Tale. It has since been adapted into film, stage, radio and an opera. Talk about multi-tasking!”
I figured, maybe it is just the modern 2010 Margaret Atwood whose utterances so utterly discommode my corpus collosum. Maybe the Margaret Atwood from 25 years ago wasn’t so bloody annoying?
Nope.
And while it is an interesting discussion, I must take umbrage with the Gzowski/Atwood contention that 1984, Brave New World and A Clockwork Orange are not Science Fiction. Damn you Atwood in all your ages!
Did you know there’s a swift and peppy radio drama companion piece to the unabridged reading of Erskine Childers’ The Riddle Of The Sands? There is! Originally broadcast as a part of BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Night Theatre, and lovingly preserved over on RadioArchive.cc, you’re sure to enjoy this fast paced nautical espionage tale that not only changed the course of history, but also practically invented a whole new genre of fiction!
Saturday Night Theatre – Erskine Childers’ The Riddle Of The Sands
Adapted by Roderick Graham; Performed by a full cast
1 MP3 File – Approx. 90 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / Saturday Night Theatre
Broadcast: January 8, 1994
Provider: RadioArchive.cc Edwardian nautical adventure yarn in which a hobby sailor, Davies, and his pal, Carruthers, upset Germany’s preparations for WWI.” Technical Presentation by Ian Pratt. Directed by Jane Morgan. Cast:
Carruthers …… Laurence Kennedy
Davies …… Charles Simpson
Dolman …… Frederic Jaeger
Clara …… Joe Unwin
Von Brunning …… Wolf Kahler
Grimm …… Mikael Rolff
Barthols …… John Baddeley
Kiel Clerk …… Colin Pinney
Hawkins …… Simon Treves
My friend Julie Davis, of the Forgotten Classics podcast, has completed her recording a new/old novel. It’s new to me and its more than 100 years old. I had heard the title, The Riddle Of The Sands, around for a while but somehow over the years I had managed to conflate it with a movie called Woman In The Dunes. When I heard BBC Radio 4’sIn Our Time discussion of The Riddle Of The Sands that cleared up all my confusion. You can hear that IOT discussion in |REALAUDIO| or via downloading the In Our Time 2008 |TORRENT| (it has the more portable MP3 version). Julie’s reading, complete in 18 parts, is in her podcast feed and her website.
The Riddle Of The Sands: A Record Of Secret Service
By Erskine Childers; Read by Julie D.
18 MP3 Files – Approx. 17 Hours 5 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Forgotten Classics
Podcast: April 2010 – September 2010 Containing many realistic details based on Childers’ own sailing trips along the German North Sea coast, the book is the retelling of a yachting expedition in the early 20th century combined with an adventurous spy story. It was one of the early invasion novels which predicted war with Germany and called for British preparedness. The plot involves the uncovering of secret German preparations for an invasion of the United Kingdom. It is often called the first modern spy novel, although others are as well, it was certainly very influential in the genre and for its time. The book enjoyed immense popularity in the years before World War I and was extremely influential. Winston Churchill later credited it as a major reason that the Admiralty decided to establish naval bases at Invergordon, the Firth of Forth and Scapa Flow.
The Pigeon Drop
In his 1977 essay introduction to The Best Of Raymond Z. Gallun, entitled Raymond Z. Gallun, The Quiet Revolutionary, 
