Author: Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals – Blake’s 7 – Cally: Blood & Earth / Flag & Flame

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Hey, look what showed up in the Canadian PO Box today…

Blake's 7 - Blood And Earth and Flag And FlameBlake’s 7 – Cally: Blood & Earth / Flag & Flame
By Ben Aaronovitch and Marc Platt; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – Approx. 60 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: B7 Productions
Published: August 24, 2009
ISBN: 9781906577070
“It’s a source of utter bewilderment that Cally is still part of my life, but delighted to embrace her return. It’s astonishing to be playing the character thirty years on and to know that Blake’s 7 still has such an ardent following. Who would have known that back in 1978 we were making television history.”

This is going to the top of my “to be listened to stack”!

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 7 and Radio 4: Fatherland and You’re Entering The Twilight Zone

SFFaudio Online Audio

SFFaudio’s covert agent in the U.K., codenamed “Roy”, has dug up some very interesting intel and delivered it to our email dead drop:

“As you said on SFFAudio that you liked Anton Lesser in the Falco series, you may want to note that he stars in the five part serialisation of Robert Harris’s Fatherland running on BBC7 this week (this serialisation from 1998 is actually an extended version of the 2 hour play first broadcast on R4 in 1997). You may not have spotted this as it is not in the daily dedicated ‘7th Dimension’ slot.”

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7Beginning on Monday and running daily, BBC7 is airing their adaptation of Robert Harris’ bestselling novel Fatherland. This powerful and award winning drama, examines an alternate history in which the Nazi empire never fell. The setting is 1960s Berlin, on the cusp of Hitler’s 75th birthday. Dramatised and produced by John Dryden, it stars Anton Lesser and Andrew Sachs. This will definitely be one to catch via the Listen Again service!

BBC Radio Drama Fatherland by Robert HarrisFatherland
Based on the novel by Robert Harris; Performed by a full cast
5 Parts – Approx. 2.5 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
BROADCASTER: BBC 7
BROADCAST: Monday September 7 – Friday September 11 @ 1.30pm, 8.30pm and 1.30am (UK time)
Nazi Germany has won the war. Churchill is living in exile. King Edward and Queen Wallis are puppet monarchs of the UK. It is 1964, a week before Hitler’s 75th birthday. Anton Lesser stars as the Berlin detective called to investigate the suspicious death of a retired German senior civil servant.

Also on the schedule…

You're Entering The Twilight Zone (Radio Times - Jeremy Aspinall)BBC Radio 4There’s a new documentary called You’re Entering The Twilight Zone, which looks back at the venerable The Twilight Zone franchise. It airs on BBC Radio 4 next week. It’s a 30 minute doc that sounds very solid so I’ll be adding this to my Radio Downloader subscription too. It airs September 15th 2009 on BBC Radio 4 @ 11:30 (U.K. time).

“Alan Dein explores the classic American television series The Twilight Zone, as well as the life and imagination of its creator, Rod Serling.

Fifty years ago, Serling ushered audiences into a new realm of light and shadow. He had already electrified the new medium of television with his powerful dramas and their explorations of race, morality and capitalism, but now he offered glimpses of American dreams and nightmares.”

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Hypersonic Tales – a webzine of FLASH FICTION

SFFaudio Online Audio

Hypersonic Tales - Speculative Flash Fiction in Text and AudioPamela Perkins of Hypersonic Tales writes in to say:

“We’re a free speculative fiction webzine that creates audio productions of everything we run.”

Indeed, Hypersonic Tales, which bills itself as being about “Speculative Flash Fiction – Text and Audio” does have audio files for every story (along with the text versions). In fact they’ve got quite a few stories in all four of its issues produced so far. The problem is these are only accessible via a built in player. Now to be fair this is probably how a good percentage of some group out the people out there on the web consumes their audio (especially of “flash” length). Heck, there are people who are making web browsers for the Commodore 64! So, I certainly wouldn’t put it past some people to do their listening the hard way. But me, I’m for the easy way, and so listening while staring at my monitor isn’t how I listen to fiction, even flash fiction. I listen via my iPod. That means it needs a podcast feed, or, at the very least, direct links to the MP3 files so I could make my own podcast feed using HuffDuffer.com. I also suggest the site itself be given the full blog treatment. Because everyone who knows what an RSS feed is uses one.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Science Fiction and Politics University Course (has new lectures)

SFFaudio Online Audio

Science Fiction and PoliticsCourtney Brown has added some new classes to his Science Fiction and Politics podcast. Brown is a professor of Political Science at Emory University who posts many of his lectures to his website (he’s actually been podcasting since 2006).

For the first two lectures of the Spring 2009 semester Brown, and class, are talking about Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics. That’s a non-fiction book that bashes the various untestable string theories that physicists have been spinning over the last couple of decades. The second set of two lectures is about a 1991 “feminist science fiction/cyberpunk novel” called He, She And It by Marge Piercy. Next is just one MP3 discussing Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age. And the final two have Courtney and class talking about Philip K. Dick’s Ubik. These are the first new lectures from Courtney Brown talking Science Fiction since 2007.

Here are the new lectures that have been added to course’s podcast:

Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics – Part 1 |MP3|
Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics – Part 2 |MP3|
Marge Piercy’s He, She And It – Part 1|MP3|
Marge Piercy’s He, She And It – Part 2 |MP3|
Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age |MP3|
Philip K. Dick’s Ubik – Part 1 |MP3|
Philip K. Dick’s Ubik – Part 2 |MP3|
Podcast feed:

http://www.courtneybrown.com/classes/scifi/mp3/cb_SciFiPoliticsClass1.xml

For previous lectures either check out one of our older posts about Brown and his classes, |HERE|, |HERE| and |HERE|, or visit Professor Brown’s website directly |HERE|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC’s Between The Covers podcasts Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer

SFFaudio Online Audio

CBC Radio - Between The Covers podcastCanada’s only book reading radio show, Between The Covers, no longer airs on CBC Radio One’s terrestrial radio network. But, it is still in production as a weekly podcast and continues to air on CBC Radio’s Sirius Satellite Radio channel 137. There, beginning tomorrow, you’ll hear daily 15 minute installments of Robert J. Sawyer’s 2007 novel Rollback. It’s being read by Battlestar Galactica‘s own Mr. Gaeta, Alessandro Juliani! You have to love taxpayer funded Science Fiction.

CBC Between The Covers - Rollback by Robert J. SawyerRollback
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Alessandro Juliani
25 MP3s via Podcast – Approx. 6 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: CBC / Between The Covers
Podcast: September 7 – October 9, 2009
It’s 2009. Sarah Halifax decodes the first radio transmission from aliens. Thirty-eight years later a second message is received and Sarah – now 87 – may have the key to deciphering this one too …if she lives long enough. What would you do differently if you suddenly had another 60 or 70 yrs of life? Hugo and Nebula award-winner Robert Sawyer explores ethics on both the human and cosmic scale in this novel about becoming young again.

Podcast feed:
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/betweenthecovers.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. Hey CBC! Why don’t you put that J. Michael Straczynski radio drama series (that’s just gathering dust) onto your Sirius 137 station? I dare you!