Scott D. – Page 66

Mark Time and Ogle Awards 2006

SFFaudio News

Ladies and Gentle – wait. Is this thing on? tap tap tap. There we go. Ladies and Gentlemen, SFFaudio is proud to announce the winners of the 2006 Mark Time and Ogle Awards! The awards were given this past weekend at CONvergence (a con I have GOT to get to one of these years), and here they are:

Mark Time Awards for Science Fiction Audio Theater

Science Fiction Audio Drama - Anne Manx on Amazonia GOLD
Anne Manx on Amazonia
Radio Repertory Company of America
Angelo Panetta, producer. Written by Larry Weiner.
Check out the SFFaudio review of this one here. Great stuff.

CBC Radio One SILVER
Steve the Second
CBC Radio A & E
Joe Mahoney, producer. Written by Matt Watts.

Fantasy Horror Audio Drama - Willamette Radio Workshop HONORABLE MENTION
Strawberry Automatic
Apex Audio Theatre
Richard Sellers, producer. Written by T. Ray Gordon.

And the Ogle Awards for Fantasy/Horror Audio Theater

A tie for the GOLD!

Fantasy Horror Audio Drama - Willamette Radio Workshop The Confessions of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde
Willamette Radio Workshop
Sam A. Mowry, producer. Written by William S. Gregory.

AND

Fantasy Horror Audio Theater - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Colonial Radio Theatre On the Air
Jerry Robbins, producer/writer.

Fantasy Horror Audio Drama - A Long Vacation SILVER
A Long Vacation
Northwest Folklore
Birke Duncan, producer. Written by Garrett Vance & Birke Duncan.

Find out more about the awards and the Science Fiction Audio Hall of Fame at Great Nothern Audio! And, as always, you purchase a lot of these over at The Lodestone Catalog.

Thanks to Jerry Stearns for keeping us up to date!

posted by Scott

Star Trek: The Opportunity

SFFaudio Commentary

Science Fiction Audiobook - Star Trek Vulcan's Soul Vol. 1 Simon and Schuster Audio has been publishing Star Trek audiobooks regularly since the late 1980’s. The most recent audiobook in the series (Vulcan’s Soul, Vol. 1 by Sherman and Shwartz) was published in 2004. This loosely coincides with the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise. Has Star Trek finished its run on audio?

I mention all this because it seems to me that they are missing an opportunity. And because I like the darn things. Since me liking them is not enough of an incentive for them to make these audiobooks, let’s discuss what I view as the missed opportunity.

A quick perusal of the Star Trek wing in the local bookstore shows that Pocket Books has started publishing a series about the crew of the U.S.S. Titan, which is the ship that Riker and Troi were headed for at the end of Star Trek: Nemesis. With nothing at all happening on the screen for Star Trek, it seems to me that picking up this series of novels, applying the excellent production standards of the previous Star Trek audiobooks… well, they’d be the only show in town, so to speak. Why not produce them while there is no other place to get Star Trek?

Now, I have to assume that the Titan novels are good stories. I haven’t read them, but that would be an obvious prerequisite. I sure hope they are. But just as obvious to me is that a series like that on audio has an excellent chance of success because of a few reasons. First, there is no Star Trek on the screen, yet the buzz of film number 11 is keeping the series on the mind of fans. Second, if film number 11 actually ends up being a prequel, the appetite for Trek’s other incarnations will increase, but will not be satisfied. And third, a Titan series with Riker commanding is something that Star Trek fans would LOVE to see, yet the chances of that actually coming together on the screen is slim. Enter audio, stage left, to fill this desire.

How about it, Simon and Schuster?

Click here for SFFaudio’s Star Trek page.

posted by Scott

Review of Star Trek TNG: Q-Squared by Peter David

SFFaudio Review

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Q-Squared
By Peter David; Read by John de Lancie
2 Cassettes – 3 hours [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
Published: 1994
ISBN: 0671891804
Themes: / Science Fiction / Star Trek / Q / Gods / Time / Multiple Universes /

You have no idea how screwed up this is.
— Q to Picard, Q-Squared

All the Star Trek talk floating around the internet has stirred my interest, so I dug out one of the first (and best) Star Trek audiobooks from my permanent stash. I sit here with hopes that the Paramount powers-that-be stop considering prequels. Does anyone want to see someone other than Nimoy play Mr. Spock? The future is wide open – pick a place out there and tell some great stories.

Before a cane stretches out from stage left to drag me off, I’ll get back to the review at hand. Q-Squared has everything I love in a Star Trek audiobook. First, it’s a big story. One that would be difficult to film for various reasons. Second, there are lots of pieces of Star Trek mythos throughout. You know, the kind of thing that makes a Trekker think “I remember that!” and sends him/her to watch the episode it occurred in. Third, the sound effects create the Star Trek feel without being overpowering. This is a luxury that these audiobooks have – the sound of a turbolift door, a few beeps, and the listener is on the bridge of the Enterprise without a sentence of prose. And fourth, an excellent reader. John de Lancie not only voices Q, the character he played on the screen, but he also skillfully portrays all the other characters.

In the book, Q has been given the difficult task of keeping an eye on Trelane who is a character from the Original Series episode entitled “The Squire of Gothos”. Peter David makes quick work of connecting Trelane to the Q Continuum. Unfortunately for Picard and crew, Trelane is even farther off plumb than he was in Kirk’s heyday – a fact demonstrated by the fact that he considers ripping apart the universe to be a valuable use of his spare time. To the Star Trek: The Next Generation characters, this results in the intersection of at least three well-conceived alternate universes. As the story moves forward, the universes flip like cards being shuffled in a deck.

Luckily, the audiobook is brilliantly abridged and edited. Though the universes shifted quickly, I had no problem keeping one Picard from another. This audiobook, if it was a Star Trek episode, would consistently be considered one of the finest the show had to offer. There are lots of copies of this one around – I urge you to find one.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Introducing The Time Traveler Show Podcast

SFFaudio News

Podcast - The Time Traveler Show The Time Traveler Show is a new podcast that will appear from the mists of time every other week. Each show will contain a complete unabridged short story and an interview.

“The emphasis of the show,” says the mysterious Time Traveler, “is on the nexus of Speculative Fiction and Audio. We’ll be interviewing not only authors of the genre but the audiobook professionals who are producing some of the most interesting audiobooks and sound dramas in the industry.” The podcast will reintroduce a new generation of listeners to many classic science fiction stories from the 1930’s through the 1960’s.

The podcast can be found at www.timetravelershow.com, or by searching for “Time Traveler Show” at iTunes.

The first installment consists of an interview with Matthew Wayne Selznick and the story “Warm” by Robert Sheckley read by Matthew.

Robert Sheckley? Yeah, baby! This one is going on my subscribe list immediately.

posted by Scott

Teaching Company Course – Science Fiction: The Literature of the Technological Imagination

SFFaudio News

Two nice pieces of news from The Teaching Company, which publishes excellent college courses on audio and video.

First, their title Science Fiction: The Literature of the Technological Imagination can be purchased on cassette for only $15.95. Our earlier SFFaudio review of that course can be found here, and the direct link to purchase it is here.

Second, many of their courses are now available as MP3 download. Sweet!

posted by Scott

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Tertiary Phase Wins Audiobook of the Year

SFFaudio News

This just in – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Tertiary Phase was named the Audiobook of the Year by the Audio Publisher’s Association at this weekend’s Audie Awards! Congratulations to adapter/director Dirk Maggs and everyone involved with it. It’s fantastic to see a science fiction audio drama win this award. See the SFFaudio review of this title here.

In a tough Science Fiction category, the winner was Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan. Find the SFFaudio review here.

Genre winners in other categories:

Classic
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, read by Jim Dale, Listening Library

Children’s Titles for Ages 8+
The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson, read by Patricia Conolly, Recorded Books

Solo Narration – Female
Davina Porter for A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Audio Drama
The Sherlock Holmes Theatre by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, performed by a cast, produced by Yuri Rasovsky, Blackstone Audio
ed – OK, this may not technically be a genre title, but most SF fans like Holmes, and Yuri Rasovsky has genre ties, including the excellent 2000X series.

Achievement in Production
At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald, performed by a cast, Focus on the Family

Not a bad genre showing! Find the complete list of winners and nominees at www.theaudies.com. Unfortunately, the website is a little cryptic as of this writing – to see the winners and nominees, you’ve got to download a 6Mb PDF file that is titled “The Audies Sampler”. If I can find a clean HTML list, I’ll let you know.

posted by Scott