Author: Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals – Joe Haldeman and Robert J. Sawyer

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Hot out of the microphones and into SFFaudio’s Audible Accounts, two Science Fiction titles from Audible Frontiers…

First up, a Joe Haldeman story that I first heard about on Prisoners Of Gravity, which is always a source for good Science Fiction!

The Hemingway Hoax by Joe HaldemanThe Hemingway Hoax
By Joe Haldeman; Read by Eric Michael Summerer
Audible Download – 4 Hours 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: April 2008
The hoax proposed to John Baird by a two-bit con man in a seedy Key West bar was shady but potentially profitable. With little left to lose, the struggling, middle-aged Hemingway scholar agreed to forge a manuscript and pass it off as Papa’s lost masterpiece. But Baird never realized his actions would shatter the history of his own Earth – and others. And now the unsuspecting academic is trapped out of time – propelled through a series of grim parallel worlds and pursued by an interdimensional hitman with a literary license to kill.

Intelligent design and creationism versus the fossil record, it should be a slam-dunk, until the alien arrives…

Calculating God by Robert J. SawyerCalculating God
By Robert J. Sawyer; Read by Jonathan Davis
Audible Download – 12 Hours and 4 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 2008
An alien walks into a museum and asks if he can see a paleontologist. But the arachnid ET hasn’t come aboard a rowboat with the Pope and Stephen Hawking (although His Holiness does request an audience later). Landing at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the spacefarer, Hollus, asks to compare notes on mass extinctions with resident dino-scientist Thomas Jericho. A shocked Jericho finds that not only does life exist on other planets, but that every civilization in the galaxy has experienced extinction events at precisely the same time. Armed with that disconcerting information (and a little help from a grand unifying theory), the alien informs Jericho, almost dismissively, that the primary goal of modern science is to discover why God has behaved as he has and to determine his methods. BONUS AUDIO: Author Robert J. Sawyer explains how the creationism vs. evolution debate informed the writing of Calculating God.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Escape Pod HUGO 2008 NOMINEE: Tideline by Elizabeth Bear

SFFaudio Online Audio

The latest Escape Pod podcast, #155, has an absolutely unmissable story! Tideline reminds me of the Anne McCaffery’s short story version of The Ship Who Sang – which is no small feat. This is emotionally resonant Science Fiction with a rich backstory. I’m not sure any of the ideas are particularly new, but the whole tale has an unshakable persuasive power. I felt manipulated, but not in an unpleasant way. Tideline is the first in a batch of four 2008 Hugo Nominated short stories that will be airing on Escape Pod. Steven Baxter Last Contact wont be included.

Tideline
By Elizabeth Bear; Read by Stephen Eley
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Escape Pod
Podcast: April 24th 2008
They would have called her salvage, if there were anyone left to salvage her. But she was the last of the war machines, a three-legged oblate teardrop as big as a main battle tank, two big grabs and one fine manipulator folded like a spider’s palps beneath the turreted head that finished her pointed end, her polyceramic armor spiderwebbed like shatterproof glass. Unhelmed by her remote masters, she limped along the beach, dragging one fused limb. She was nearly derelict. The beach was where she met Belvedere.

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://escapepod.org/podcast.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Challenge Audio: Rebels Of The Red Planet by Charles L. Fontenay

SFFaudio Online Audio

SFFaudio’s Make An Audiobook Win An Audiobook Challenge #2Produced as part of the 2nd Annual SFFAudio Challenge, Rebels Of The Red Planet is now a FREE UNABRIDGED audiobook! All props go to Paul Campbell of Estalvin’s Legacy and Cossmass Productions for the entirety of the production. Paul tells us he’s taking a holiday in Spain staring tommorow. After this marathon of audiobook narration we should probably pay for the whole trip. Instead, cheap bastards that we are, we’ll offer him something far less expensive, but far more esteemed than mere money – our sincere appreciation. We at SFFaudio salute you Paul Campbell – and thank you for the hours of rebellious Martian fun you’ve brought to life!

I’m going to listen to the whole novel straight away.

When Paul gets back from that trip, he can choose his prize from among the Challenge offerings. If you’re inspired by Paul’s acheivement, check out the challenge, there are plenty of prizes left and titles to be claimed.

Now, here it is, first published by Ace Books in 1961 and now available for the first time as an audiobook (and podiobook) we are pleased to present…

Science Fiction Audiobook - Rebels Of The Red Planet by Charles L. FontenayRebels Of The Red Planet
By Charles L. Fontenay; Read by Paul Campbell
18 MP3 Files – 5 Hours 54 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Cossmass Productions / Podiobooks.com
Published: December 2007 – April 2008
MARS FOR THE MARTIANS! Dark Kensington had been dead for twenty-five years. It was a fact; everyone knew it. Then suddenly he reappeared, youthful, brilliant, ready to take over the Phoenix, the rebel group that worked to overthrow the tyranny that gripped the settlers on Mars. The Phoenix had been destroyed not once, not twice, but three times! But this time the resurrected Dark had new plans, plans which involved dangerous experiments in mutation and psionics. And now the rebels realized they were in double jeopardy. Not only from the government’s desperate hatred of their movement, but also from the growing possibility that the new breed of mutated monsters would get out of hand and bring terrors never before known to man.

Subscribe to the podcast feed:

http://cossmass.co.uk/series/rebelsredplanet/feed

Or download the individual files from HERE.

Or get a custom Podiobooks feed HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Time Traveler Show has the ULTIMATE Sir Arthur C. Clarke Podcast

SFFaudio Online Audio

Podcast - The Time Traveler ShowThe latest Time Traveler Show podcast is a MUST LISTEN.

The whole show is a tribute to the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke. This is a podcast to beat all podcasts, with the prime attraction being an unabridged reading of “The Hammer of God” by Arthur C. Clarke!

This story appeared in the Audio Literature collection The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke. On top of that there’s an interview with the narrator, Scott Brick, who has also written the screenplay for the upcoming Rendezvous with Rama movie. Likewise interviewed is Dean McCreary, the production designer for the film. Also on board, audiobook narrator and producer, Stefan Rudnicki, Vernor Vinge and a rare recording of the man himself! Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s 1965 Hugo ceremonies speech entitles “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Learned to Love Stanley Kubrick.”

The Time Traveler Show #26 - The Hammer Of God by Arthur C. ClarkeThe Hammer Of God
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Scott Brick and Gabrielle de Cuir
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Time Traveler show
Podcast: April 25th 2008
Kali is the asteroid that will hit earth. Captain Robert Singh is commanding Goliath, the spaceship that will be fitted to Kali to deflect it from earth impact course.

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://www.timetravelershow.com/shows/feed.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Daily Space blog on BBC7’s upcoming Terry Pratchett week

SFFaudio Online Audio

Daily Space - The Blog Of Thunder Child SF & Fantasy WebzineDaily Space, the blog of Thunder Child SF & Fantasy Webzine, has the scoop on next week’s BBC7 programming. It’s a “Terry Pratchett Week”…

April 28 – May 1 will be Terry Pratchett week at BBC Radio 7

I am very pleased to report that BBC Radio 7 will be having a Terry Pratchett tribute, for his 60th birthday, coming up the week of April 28-May 1.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/drama/pratchett.shtml

The more so because I will finally be able to hear the dramatisation of my all-time favorite Pratchett book, Small Gods, and starring a favorite actor of mine – Patrick Barlow, as the Great God Om. (Indeed, see my blog for him, The Patrick Barlow Experience – still under construction.)

Three years ago the Great God Om decided to pay a visit to his believers and do a little smiting, but when he materialized on Earth he was not a gigantic, ravening bull as he expected, but a small, one-eyed tortoise. He comes to learn that in all the great land of Om, crushed under the heels – and racks and pincers – of the Inquisition, the only person who still truly believes in him – is a young man named Brutha.

This was first broadcast about 3 years ago, and I missed it, and I have yearned to hear it ever since.

[I have to admit I’m a bit apprehensive about it. Adaptions are really a hit and miss affair. I’m sure I’ll enjoy Barlow’s performance but I hope they do justice to this – my favorite Pratchett book.)

Also to be broadcast is an adaption of Mort (one of my least favorite Pratchett’s – I’ll skip this one) and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents – an excellent adaption which I’d listen to if I hadn’t already recorded it.

Also, Philip Pickard will read Truckers, an excellent Young Adult book written by Pratchett, the first in a trilogy.
Tue, Apr 22, 2008 8:00

Posted by Jesse Willis