Mark Nelson is narrating another audiobook for the SFFaudio Challenge!

SFFaudio News

Mark Nelson, the narrator of The Green Odyssey by Philip Jose Farmer, has staked his claim for another title from the SFFaudio Challenge list! Behold our art for it…

Librivox Audiobook - The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper

This is Mark’s second entry in our challenge – if you’ll recall, back in November I challenged anyone to turn in any one of a number of previously unreleased public domain novels into an unabridged single voiced audiobook. As an incentive, I offered a BRAND NEW unabridged commercial audiobook to the first person to complete and release one of the books from the list. Mark did it and it was an absolutely terrific audiobook! I am super-juiced at the idea he’s doing another.

Look for The Cosmic Computer AKA “Junkyard Planet” by H. Beam Piper to show up on the pages of LibriVox in “a couple of weeks”!

Congratulations again Mark and thanks!

Now since my original challenge will soon be running out of the original batch of audiobooks (at least two out of the three Blackstone Audiobooks I purchased for the event are going to be mailed out shortly), I’d like to ask what you SFFaudio readers would like to see included in the SECOND CHALLENGE!

YUP, that’s right, we’re going to add to the list and RENEW the challenge with more incentive audiobooks. So I’ll ask you folks. Which, of the more modern Science Fiction, Fantasy (and Horror if there are any) public domain books on Manybooks.net or Project Gutenberg would you like to see added to the list? I’ll also ask you what kind of commerical audiobooks you would like to see given out by us as the incentive for the SECOND CHALLENGE? Post your thoughts! Make your voice count! And claim your titles!

Audible Daily Deal is The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

SFFaudio News

Audible.com has posted a daily special ($9.95) on Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Vor Game. This was a Hugo award winner (“Best Novel of 1991”), and we reviewed it last year. It was also a 2005 Audie Award Nominee.

Here’s the outline:

Miles Vorkosigan graduates from the Barrayaran Military Academy with high expectations of ship command, but is disappointed with an assignment as meteorologist to Lazkowski Base, an arctic training camp. His tenure in the windy, snow-covered north is cut short when Miles narrowly averts a massacre between the trigger-happy base commander and mutinous recruits. After a brief stay under ‘house arrest’, Miles is re-assigned to investigate a suspicious military build-up near a wormhole nexus. Reviving his undercover persona as mercenary Admiral Miles Naismith, his routine information-gathering duty expands to a rescue mission when the Emperor of Barrayar disappears during a political conference on a nearby space station. Miles must use his considerable negotiating skills to avoid a showdown between competing powers for control of the wormhole, find the Emperor, and watch his back for the arctic base commander seeking bloody vengeance.

Second Shift podcast offers Limited Edition hardcopy

SFFaudio News

Second Shift PodcastThe folks at Second Shift , a super-fun original audio drama series, have released a “limited edition” three-CD set of the first five episodes of their first season! These are regular audio cds and can be played on any CD player – but added to them are bonus features you can access on your computer. Each of the Limited Edition CDs is signed by the cast and crew, and is individually numbered up to #40. Proceeds go to supporting the show!

Second Shift The Beginning

Second Shift is the tale of three college students who, while waiting in line for the opening of the latest genre blockbuster movie, are transported into a fantasy world where magic works, at least sometimes.

If you’re too poor to pony up the $12.00 then just plop this feed into your podcatcher and listen the free way:

http://www.secondshiftpodcast.com/xml/2shift.xml

The Lipstick Aliens Podcast

Online Audio

Podcast - Lipstick AliensThe Lipstick Aliens, Lynne and Cat, are two “Sexy sci-fi fan girls” who host a podcast about genre TV, movies, toys, games and even musical theatre. Additional material covered includes interviews with purveyors of podcast fiction! Interviewees so far include the likes of J.C Hutchins, Mur Lafferty and Scott Sigler.

Subscribe to the podcast with the feed:

http://lipstickaliens.libsyn.com/rss

Beam Me Up podcast does Xmas Science Fiction

Online Audio

Podcast - Beam Me UpPaul Cole and his Rockland, ME based podcast called Beam Me Up have been posting some very interesting SF stories in the feed of late. These include readings of stories by Mark Long, Belinda Subermann, Shaun Saunders, James Patrick Kelly and Lloyd Biggle Jr.! The latest, is a cover story from the December 1984 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. It is of course, a Xmas story and by none other than Jack McDevitt!

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction MagazineShow # 32 Part 3 of Promises To Keep by Jack McDevitt
Show # 31 Part 2 of Promises To Keep by Jack McDevitt
Show # 30 Part 1 of Promises To Keep by Jack McDevitt

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://beameup.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

WHYY declares Chanukah: A Time for Superheroes

Online Audio

WHYYHey you didn’t think we forgot about Chanukah did you? Nah, we got your Chanukah, we got it right here in a show that just aired on WHYY Radio (Wednesday, December 20th, 10 pm – 11 pm):

Chanukah a Time for Superheros illuminates the connection between ancient heroes and modern-day superheroes. Host Arye Gross begins with the Chanukah story of the Maccabees, the Hebrew band of brothers who fought against the religious repression of the Syrian-Greeks over 2000 years ago. This heroic tale has inspired comic book writers since pow, zap and bam first appeared in print and on the silver screen.Listeners enjoy insights from Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee and DC Comics’ Wil Eisner, who describe their humble origins and the backdrop of their Jewish experience that informed Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and Wonder Woman. Listeners also hear from filmmakers Sam Raimi (“Spiderman”) and Brian Singer (“X-Men,”) from Michael Chabon, the acclaimed author of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” and they visit the studios of Art Spiegelman and the Hanouka brothers, cutting-edge graphic novelists.

“Chanukah: A Time for Superheroes” includes archival radio and movie clips, music and readings, all woven around the compelling tale of how the holiday evolved from a story of military victory to one of light and inspiration.

You can still listen! Head over to PRX.org (a nonprofit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs) where they’ve archived the 1 hour show! You’ll need to sign up to listen to the stream but sign-up is free and relatively painless.

Happy Chanukah!