Jesse Willis – Page 374

The Red Monday Audio Drama explodes into existence today!

OnlineAudio

Guess what today is? Yup, it’s Red Monday! That countdown clock website turned out to mean something after all! I got this chilling email early this morning…

You are receiving this message because you asked to be notified of the “Event.” Consider this your notification. We weren’t able to stop it. It has already occurred.

> A nuclear weapon has just exploded in Los Angeles.
> Millions of people are trying to get out.
> ..three are trying to get in.

Hi, I’m J. Marcus Xavier, executive producer of Red Monday–the all-new action / adventure audio drama from StarKnight Productions. The countdown clock has finally reached zero, and Red Monday has arrived. The premiere episode is now live and available for FREE download at www.redmonday.com. Please visit and listen.

Check out the RedMonday.com site where you can download the first episode for free. Subsequent episodes sell for $1.67 each or just $4.99 for the entire series.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC WS: The Internet Wants A Chat – A Radio Drama

SFFaudio Online Audio

A BBC World Service play that just aired is available throught their “listen again” feature until the weekend…

Strange goings on in the world wide web is a matter of national security. When the virtual world gets a mind of its own, there are those in the real world who are not happy. Control of the internet is at stake and I.T. experts are forced to contain – and eradicate – a bloke called Binge, who wakes up in the virtual world, and just wants to get a life.

The Internet Wants A Chat
By Thomas Crowe; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – 1 Hour [AUDIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC World Service / World Drama
Broadcast: Nov 24th 2007 @ 20:01 GMT

Posted by Jesse Willis

Slice Of Sci-Fi talks to new Star Trek audio drama creators

OnlineAudio

Slice Of Sci-Fi, the premier podcast resource for TV and movie related SF, has an interview with the creators of a new Star Trek audio drama. |MP3|

Sebastian Prooth and Andy Tyrer, executive producers of Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, join us to talk about this exciting new audio drama that revolves around the Trek Universe first created by the late Gene Roddenberry. “The Continuing Mission” focuses on the Starfleet crew aboard the Federation vessel, the USS Montana and its captain and crew.

The first episode comes out December 25th 2007!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of the The Secret World Chronicle by Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libbey

SFFaudio Review

The Secret World Chronicle – Book One – Invasion
By Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libbey; Read by Veronica Giguere
8 MP3 Files (podcast) – Approx. 10 Hours 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: SecretWorldChronicle.com / Podiobooks.com
Podcast: 2006 – 2007
Themes: / Fantasy / Superheroes / Supervillains / Nazis / Communism / Invasion /

The Secret World Chronicle opens with a metahuman named Eisenfaust (“Iron Fist”) warning of an imminent Nazi invasion. Of course the invasion occurs (from another spacetime) and this forms the backdrop for the story, in which heroic deeds are done – if at the high cost of both civilian and metahuman lives. Echo is an organisation of ‘metahumans’ (a word which you can freely translate into ‘superheros’ for our purposes). There are Echo offices and campuses around the world, from which private individuals, non-governmental orginizations and governments can hire superheroes to do good deeds. The Echo mandate is “To support security and peace through intervention by and collaboration between metahumans and international law enforcement.” Comprising over forty separate bases of operation across six continents. This plot may remind some of Jeffrey R. DeRego Union Dues stories that have been heard on Escape Pod. Like DeRego’s tales, The Secret World Chronicle superhumans all have comic book names and costumes, Handsome Devil, Red Saviour, Shahkti, and Yankee Pride. At the end of “book one” there are unresolved story threads around the whys and wherefores of the Nazi invasion, but it just feels like more to look forward to. It may have improved the telling to get inside the lives of the ordinary people, to understand just how the phenomena of the metahumans impacts the regular folks – perhaps that will happen in later books. I can’t say I’m very familiar with either Mercedes Lackey or Steve Libbey individually, but together they tell a good story. Characters are reasonably well drawn and sufficiently believable, but don’t expect any in-depth character analysis. Don’t listen to The Secret World Chronicle to learn about yourself, or the human condition, listen for fun.

People have different ways of classifying the content they put onto their MP3 players. I typically use either ‘drama’ or ‘books’ – the latter consisting of anything that’s read by one person. I break this rule for The Secret World Chronicle. Narrator Veronica Giguere does mostly a solo act in telling the story, the result though is that of discrete characters with whom we can really identify. It is an immersive experience. Veronica Giguere’s pacing is flawless, the variety of intonations and accents sufficient for the story. She gets the story straight into the brain’s pleasure zone with her terrific performance.

You can subscribe to the podcast feed for the series via this URL:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/secretworldchronicle

You can also get the complete book one via this feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/SecretWorldChronicleBookOne

Posted by Nick Gassman

National Review Online: Conan and George R.R. Martin

SFFaudio Online Audio

The National Review Online, the web-version of the National Review magazine, has an audio program called Between The Covers (not to be confused with the CBC Radio One book reading program of the same name). Available now, for online listening in the Flash audio format (SWF) are:

Paul M. Sammon on Conan: The Phenomenon:

“John J. Miller asks Paul M. Sammon, author of Conan: The Phenomenon, just why Conan is still a phenomenon after so very long. Sammon responds that these stories, which date back to the 1930s, ‘featured vivid storytelling, compelling characters, exotic locales, horrible creatures, delectable damsels; and all of this was wrapped up in propulsive prose and a consistent worldview.'” |SWF|

George R.R. Martin on Dreamsongs:

“George R.R. Martin, author of Dreamsongs (Vols. I and II), has been called the ‘American Tolkien.’ But he tells John J. Miller that science fiction, horror fiction, and fantasy were all his first loves, and that he his written in each of these genres. ‘It was all ‘weird stuff’ as my father liked to call it; imaginative literature as opposed to realistic literature — just different flavors thereof.'” |SWF|

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases

New Releases Science Fiction Audiobook - Escape Route by Peter F. Hamilton Escape Route
By Peter F. Hamilton; Read by Jared Doreck
– 2 hours and 35 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: 2007
The starship Lady Macbeth encounters a long-abandoned alien spacecraft, with its escape route still intact – but leading where? If the crew claims salvage rights, the technology inside could make them wealthy enough to buy planets. But first they need to make sure it’s as empty as it seems.
Listen to an |MP3| sample.

This one is a follow up to the “Infinite Crisis” series from DC Comics…

52 – Part 1 (of 2)
By Greg Cox; Based on the DC Comics series; Performed by a full cast
6 CDs, 1 MP3-CD, or WMA Download – Approx. 6 hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Graphic Audio
Published: December 2007
ISBN: 1599503689
A year without Superman. A year without Batman. A year without Wonder Woman. But not a year without heroes… Earth’s most revered heroes have vanished. In their absence, the cities of Metropolis and Gotham have fallen prey to the machinations of super-villains and the criminal activities of Intergang. Booster Gold, a hero from the future, has stepped into Superman’s boots only to find them too big to fill, especially when rival hero Supernova arrives on the scene. Recruited by the mysterious crime fighter known as the Question, detective Renee Montoya investigates an even more mysterious vigilante prowling the streets: Batwoman. These and other veteran and rookie heroes around the world must unite against a vast conspiracy of evil about to usurp control of the Earth once and for all… (Part 1 of 2)

The first book in the Doc Smith’s “Skylark” series…

The Skylark Of Space
By E.E. Doc Smith; Read by Reed McColm
Audible Download, CDs, Tapes or MP3-CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books In Motion
Published: November 2007
ISBN: various
The Skylark of Space is the first and one of the best space operas ever written. Breezy dialogue, romantic intrigue, fallible heroes, and complicated villains infuse humanity and believability into a conflict of galactic proportions.

Two Neil Gaiman titles that somehow flew-in under the radar…

Interworld
By Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves; Read by Christopher Evan Welch
CDs – 5 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 0061254606
“Nationally best–selling, award–winning author Neil Gaiman teams up with Emmy Award–winning screenwriter Michael Reaves for an exciting science fiction tale of teenagers saving many universes from evil. Fourteen–year–old Joey Harker always had a terrible sense of direction–one day he gets lost in his own town and finds himself in another version, where there’s a family and a school almost like his. When an older version of himself tracks Joey down, Joey learns that he’s a Walker–one who can travel between dimensions–and that an army of different versions of himself is battling the two evils that want to conquer all the worlds. Joey finds himself in a battle against the forces of magic and science that could destroy him–and all the others like him.”

M Is For Magic
By Neil Gaiman; Read by Neil Gaiman
CDs – 5 Hours 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 0061254592
“Stories to delight, enchant, and surprise you. Bestselling author and master storyteller Neil Gaiman here presents a breathtaking collection of tales that may chill or amuse readers—but always embrace the unexpected. Collection includes: The Case Of The Four And Twenty Blackbirds, Troll Bridge, Don’t Ask Jack, How To Sell The Ponti Bridge, October In The Chair, Chivalry, The Price, How To Talk To Girls At Parties, Sunbird, The Witch’s Headstone, Instructions.”

This one, from infrequent SFF provider Highbridge Audio, has one of the best titles ever…

Soon I Will Be Invincible
By Austin Grossman; Read by Coleen Marlo and Paul Boehmer
CDs – 10 Hours 18 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Published: June 2007
ISBN: 1598870963
Listen to an |MP3| sample.
Doctor Impossible—evil genius, mad scientist, diabolical time-traveler, wannabe world dominator—has just broken out of prison�again. He�s tried to take over the world in every conceivable way: doomsday devices (nuclear, thermonuclear, nanotechnological), armies (robot, insect, dinosaur, fungus, fish), mass mind control, even a corporate conquest (Impossible Industries LLC). Each time, he has been foiled. This time, it’s going to be different.

Posted by Jesse Willis