BBC Radio 4 has splashed up a very pretty new website for their new Dirk Gently series of Radio Dramas. Lots of goodies to be found about the production including a video trailer of the series. Also cool, the all in one nature of the site makes listening to the shows super easy, even for folks not habitating on Albion itself.
Check it out HERE.
We all might want to have a listen to the BBC Radio 4 Book At Bedtime slot for next week. They’ll be airing a tale in five parts, Monday to Friday October, of a reading of a new ghost story from author Susan Hill. This is the author of The Woman In Black, which became a popular West End play (it is still running there, 18 years after it debuted). Thanks to our eagle eyed U.K. contributor, Roy, for the head’s up.
The Man In The Picture
By Susan Hill; Read by Nigel Anthony and Imogen Stubbs
5 Broadcasts – Approx 75 Minutes [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC RADIO 4 / Book At Bedtime
Broadcast: 10:45-11:00pm Monday to Friday October 15th to 19th
This chilling tale centres on a mysterious depiction of masked revellers at theVenice carnival that hangs in the college rooms of an old professor at Cambridge. One cold winter’s night, sipping whisky by the fire, the picture’s eerie secret is revealed by the ageing don. The dark art of the Venetian scene, instead of imitating life, has the power to entrap it. To stare into the painting is to play dangerously with unseen demons and to become a victim of its macabre beauty…
Also, each of the five parts will be available on the BBC R4 Book At Bedtime page the day after they air.
posted by Jesse Willis
Audible.com has just begun their releases of StoryPod 3.0. That’s their subscription podcast featuring stories by James Patrick Kelly. On offer are another 13 stories over 13 weeks. Just a few of the stories on offer in this bunch are Jim’s classic Hugo Award-winning novelette, 10 to the 16th to 1, The Best Christmas Ever, a Hugo nominee and Itsy Bitsy Spider which was nominated for both the Hugo and a Nebula!
Get started with the promisingly titled Proof of the Existence of God!
Jim not only narrates each story, he provides insightful commentary for them too. StoryPod 3.0 subscribers will get a new story, delivered automatically, every Friday. Subscribers who are a bit late to the party need not worry, all the previous stories in the 3.0 series will be delivered too.
Here’s one new Audible exclusive that’s really worth signing up for – we’ve been looking forward to hearing it since it was first announced back in August…
Old Man’s War
By John Scalzi; Read by William Dufris
Audible Download – Approx 10 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audio Rennaissance / Audible.com
Published: October 2007
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First, he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce – and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So, we fight, to defend Earth and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea of what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine. And what he will become is far stranger.
Available through REB Audio Books and Fictionwise.com:
The Caretaker’s Story
Based on the story by Edith Olivier; Dramatized by Bill Mills
1 MP3 File – Approx. 30 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: REB Audio Books
Published: October 8, 2007
A grisly tale of supernatural revenge. A terror tale worthy of Lovecraft or Poe written by a remarkable woman author in 1934! A rich English gentleman thinks he has found the perfect caretaker for an isolated cottage near the sea: a veteran sailor with a taste for
solitude. But when he returns to the cottage months later, the gentleman
can find no trace of the caretaker.
Previously released in 2005, first published in 2001, here’s a popular young adult audiobook…
The Dark Is Rising Sequence, Book Two: The Dark Is Rising
By Susan Cooper; Read by Alex Jennings
CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780739359730
On the Midwinter Day that is his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers a special gift–he is the last of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to keeping the world from domination by the forces of evil, the Dark. At once, he is plunged into a quest for the six magical Signs that will one day aid the Old Ones in the final battle between the Dark and the Light. And for the twelve days of Christmas, while the Dark is rising, life for Will is full of wonder, terror, and delight.
There may be a fist-fight over this one when it eventually lands in the SFFaudio mailbox…
Selections From Dreamsongs – Volume One
By George R.R. Martin; Read by various readers
12 CDs – 15 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: October 2007
ISBN: 780739357125
George R. R. Martin delivers a rare treat for readers: a compendium of his shorter works, collected into two stunning volumes, that offers fascinating insight into his journey from young writer to award-winning master. Gathered here in Volume I are the very best of George R. R. Martin’s early works, including never-before-published fan pieces, his Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards—winning stories–plus the original novella The Ice Dragon, from which Martin’s New York Times bestselling children’s book of the same title originated. A dazzling array that features extensive author commentary, Dreamsongs, Volume I, is the perfect collection for both Martin devotees and a new generation of fans.
Random House (which owns Books On Tape Inc.) has decided not to release an unabridged CD version of Naomi Novik’s latest alternative history/fantasy novel. But there is an abridged “download only” 6 hour version available exclusively through Audible.com (and therefore iTunes). Here’s the unabridged version…
Empire Of Ivory
By Naomi Novik; Read by Simon Vance
10 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Books on Tape
Published: September 2007
4th in the Temeraire series. An abridged “download only” 6 hour version is also exclusively available through Audible.com (and therefore iTunes).
Matt Watts, creator, scripter and actor in the comedic Science Fiction radio series Canadia: 2056 wirtes:
“We recorded the first two episodes of the new season of Canadia last week… It was fun to have the cast together again… Currently, I’m writing the next two episodes, which record at the end of the month. So there.
The plan is to re-air the first season starting in January, then continue on with the new episodes.
And I can finally say that the show will be airing in two timeslots.
Wednesday’s at 11PM and then Friday’s at 11:30AM. It’s Afghanada’s timeslot again… Which I love because it must confuse listeners to tune in one week and hear a seriously dramatic show about Canada’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan, and then the next week hear a retarded show about Canada’s involvement in an outer space war.
Still no update on podcasts… People are working on it. And the CD’s are scheduled to come out… Sometime… Maybe around Christmas. Ho, ho, ho.”
Cool!
P.S. FREE Apocalypse Al!