We made several minor changes throughout the site, hopefully making it a bit easier to navigate. The most significant additions are a Blackstone Audio review page here and a Recorded Books review page here. We’ll create those for other publishers too as we review more and more. Also, we added a Star Trek page here, which we hope to keep updated with the very latest.
Thanks for visiting!
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
Jesse pointed out Bill Thompson’s Eye on Books website, which carries some audio book reviews. That is, book reviews that you can listen to, not reviews of audiobooks. The science fiction stuff on the site is here and the fantasy stuff is here.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
Another for my list of favorites… almost done!
2000X: Tales of the Next Millennia
Hollywood Theater of the Ear
Executive Producers – Andy Trudeau and Stefan Rudnicki
Project Director / Producer-Director – Yuri Rasovsky
Hosted by Harlan Ellison
2000X aired on National Public Radio in 1999 and 2000. It’s a diverse series of 46 dramatized science fiction stories from authors like Robert A. Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, C.L. Moore, Robert Sheckley, Connie Willis, and Octavia Butler, just to name a few. This is audio drama at it’s highest quality – both the scripts and the performances are as good as I’ve heard.
I’ve got two favorites in the series:
By His Bootstraps
From a story by Robert A. Heinlein
Adapted, Produced, and Directed by Yuri Rasovsky
Mixed by Richard Fairbanks
Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Cordis Heard, Kascia Marciniak, and Ira Burton
Themes: / Time Travel / Paradox / Far Future /
This production won the Ohio State Award in 1982, and was included later in the 2000x series. It’s a fine dramatization of the story of time travel from one of the masters of the genre, performed by Richard Dreyfuss. It twists and turns back on itself in a brilliantly paradoxical manner. The production is fascinating to hear, as the stereo levels are managed to provide separation between the characters, which gets pretty complicated during the story. This one is best in stereo, while wearing headphones.
“Repent, Harlequin,” said the Ticktockman
Based on the story by Harlan Ellison
Dramatized, Produced, and Directed by Yuri Rasovsky
Recorded and Mixed by Warren Dewey
Starring Robin Williams, Harlan Ellison, Stefan Rudnicki, Arte Johnson, James Otis, Scott Brick, Hamilton Camp, Laura Kellogg, Melinda Peterson, and Phil Proctor
This is a fine way to experience Harlan Ellison’s classic story. It’s introduced and narrated by an enthusiastic Harlan Ellison. Robin Williams is perfect as the Harlequin, and Stefan Rudnicki’s voice makes the Ticktockman positively ominous. It’s an audio treat, full of sound, energy, and humor.
For a play list of all the productions in the series, click here. The 2000X homepage is here. And don’t forget to support your local public radio station!
2000X is currently available is two ways. First, Fantasic Audio has published a collection of some of the shows on cassette. It includes Repent, Harlequin and By His Bootstraps along with several others.
Second, the shows are available individually from Audible.com.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
The Mark Time Awards (named for a character from Firesign Theater) are presented annually for the best audio science fiction of the year. The Ogle Awards (named for Charles Ogle, who played Frankenstein in Thomas Edison’s 1910 film) are presented annually for the best fantasy/horror productions of the year. This year, they were presented on July 4, 2003, at the ConVergence convention in Bloomington, MN.
The awards are given soley for audio theater. For the whole scoop, click here.
The winners are:
GOLD MARK TIME AWARD:
Anne Manx and the Trouble on Chromius
The Radio Repertory Company of America
Angelo Panetta, Producer. Elmwood Park, NJ.
A fast-moving 2 hour action adventure with Anne Manx, played by Claudia Christian as a future detective.
SILVER MARK TIME AWARD:
Not From Space
The Borgus collective
Jeffrey Bays, Producer. Marshall, MO.
A very subtle invasion from Mars that takes years, wrapped in a production that sounds like modern commercial radio.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Nebulous Rex
Dave Cerf and Faustus Caceres, Producers. San Francisco, CA.
Shirley & Spinoza, Internet Radio.
Things go wrong on the spaceliner, but is it just accidents?
Red Shift
Seem Real Theater
Thomas O’Neill, Producer. Bridgeport, CT.
Has the Dalai Lama been reincarneted on Mars? A polisci-fi religio-comic rumination.
www.doctechnical.com
GOLD OGLE AWARDS: (Tie)
Fears for Ears
Positive Living Productions
Aida Memisevic, Producer. Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Five superbly produced horror short stories, made in Canada.
www.fearsforears.com
Dragon Song
Texas Radio Theater Company
Richard Frohlich, Producer. Arlington, TX.
A modern urban fantasy story, performed live.
SILVER OGLE AWARD:
Up On the Rooftops
Imagination X
Jeffrey Adams, Producer. Monmouth, OR.
A very short take on those noises on the roof at Christmas.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Background
Imagination X
Jeffrey Adams Producer. Monmouth, OR.
A short graphic ghost story with a true horror ending.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
There’s lots of great science fiction stuff over on Canada’s CBC radio network:
Find a Jane Yolen interview here, from CBC Radio One’s Richardson’s Roundup.
An interview of Margaret Atwood, author of Oryx and Crake, can be found here, also from CBC Radio One’s Richardson’s Roundup.
And one of William Gibson here.
Thanks for the info, Jesse!
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
Falling Free
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Michael Hanson and Carol Cowan
7 Cassettes – 9 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: The Reader’s Chair
Published: 1996
ISBN: 0962401099
Themes: Science Fiction / Genetic Engineering / Slavery / Space Travel /
Wikipedia defines Space Opera as “a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic adventure, faster-than-light travel and space battles where the main storyline is interstellar conflict.” A fair definition, I think. I also think that this definition of Space Opera is what most folks outside of science fiction fandom would accept as a definition of the whole genre of science fiction. The perception is both well-earned and difficult to fight since nearly every successful science fiction film and television series fits that definition of Space Opera. I’ve expressed several times how I wish that perception wasn’t true, because I enjoy only so much of this kind of SF. I like my science fiction to have meat on the bones, and there is plenty of that around in written SF. Enough, in fact, that the average Space Opera doesn’t even have to be on the menu.
Of course, there are the exceptions and Lois McMaster Bujold is one of them. She’s the author of the Vorkosigan series of novels – an extremely well-written series which proves that Space Opera can be done well. Falling Free is a Nebula-award winning novel in a series that has also picked three Hugos. The story, which takes place 200 years before the other books, involves a company that genetically engineers a new race of humans (Quaddies) that is uniquely adapted for work in zero-gravity. Enter Leo Graf, an engineer hired to teach zero-g welding techniques to this new race of slave labor. Think you know where this is heading? Bujold pulls it off brilliantly.
The audio version of this book is another exception. It’s performed by two narrators – Michael Hanson and Carol Cowan. They swap narrating duties with changes in the story’s point of view – a technique I first heard in this audiobook and that I find very effective. The two narrators also perform some conversations together during the story, somewhat like an audio drama. This is something I have found to be extremely INeffective in other audiobooks I’ve heard since this one, but here I enjoyed their interplay and didn’t experience the jarring effect that I’ve felt in other books that have attempted the same technique.