Scott D. – Page 85

And the winners are…. The 8th Annual Audie Aw…

SFFaudio News

And the winners are….

The 8th Annual Audie Awards were given this weekend. Here are the science fiction related winners:

Science Fiction

Dune: Butlerian Jihad

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, read by Scott Brick, Books on Tape, Inc.

Fiction or Non-Fiction, Licensed or Distributed

Two Plays For Voices by Neil Gaiman, read by Brian Dennehy, Bebe Neuwirth and a full cast, HarperCollins Publishers.

Achievement in Production

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, read by a full cast, Focus on the Family

Find the winners and nominees in all the categories here.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Commentary: Star Wars audiobooks

SFFaudio Commentary

In 1999, Del Rey published Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore. This novel was the first in a projected 22 novels in a series called The New Jedi Order. This week, the Star Wars website has a sneak peek of the penultimate novel in the series, The Final Prophecy. Only one more to go.

What does this have to do with audio? Well, every single one of these novels has been produced as an audiobook. And well-produced at that. I’ve listened to and enjoyed three of the titles – Vector Prime (Book 1) by R.A. Salvatore, Dark Tides I: Onslaught (Book 2) by Michael A. Stackpole, and Dark Journey (Book 10) by Elaine Cunningham.

These books have an overriding story, which readers (and listeners) like me really appreciate. Most media tie-in series are held in a tight grip – stuff is not allowed to happen. Each novel must end exactly where it began, allowing the next author’s tale to make sense. But in the New Jedi Order series, there was an overall plan to the 22 volumes to start with. Each author wrote his or her part of the story arc, and the results are excellent. In short, stuff happens in these books.

A quick note on setting: the series takes place years after Return of the Jedi. Luke is trying to rebuild the Jedi Council. Han and Leia are married, with three children, all teen Jedi. The bad guys in the series are the fascinating and sinister Yuuzhan Vong, a race of invaders from another galaxy who exist outside the Force.

Enjoy!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The Science Fiction Writers Association (SFWA) gav…

SFFaudio News

The Science Fiction Writers Association (SFWA) gave their Nebula Awards this weekend, and the Best Novel winner was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. HarperCollins produced an excellent unabridged audio version of the novel, read by one of the best – George Guidall. It’s also available for rental at Recorded Books.

Ursula K. LeGuin won a Grand Master Award at the same ceremony. Fantastic Audio has published several unabridged Le Guin titles, including The Birthday of the World and Other Stories and most of the incomparable Earthsea series.

Locus Magazine Online has a list of all the Nebula winners along with some pictures.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Internet radio is growing more popular and there a…

SFFaudio Online Audio

Internet radio is growing more popular and there are several science fiction and fantasy related talk shows out there. My favorites are I-SCI-FI and Hour 25.

I listened to I-SCI-FI live last night – it’s “on the air” for two hours each Thursday night starting at 9pm Eastern. Last night their guests included Walter Koenig and Richard Herd, who are both going to be in Denver at a Starfest convention on April 25-27. The focus of the show is on media science fiction – Star Trek, Babylon 5, and any science fiction or fantasy currently on TV or in theaters are common topics. I-SCI-FI accepts phone calls from listeners, and they also run a chat room and webcam during the show. It’s one heck of a lot of fun and I enjoy it more and more every time I catch it. Some of their past shows available on their website. I-SCI-FI is also included in the Cosmic Landscapes rotation. More on that below…

Hour 25 is a great interview show. The guests are mostly science fiction and fantasy authors, with an occasional science guest. Warren James, a huge fan and voracious reader, insightfully interviews the guests, which include many of the top writers in the field. They’ve got a huge archive of past shows here. The website is a treasure trove of information, too – resources on each guest is provided.

If you want to sample some shows, go to Cosmic Landscapes which is a Live 365 station carrying several science fiction talk shows in rotation. They currently feature Interstellar Transmissions and Sci-Fi Overdrive (Boca Raton, FL); Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction (Stony Brook, NY); Hour of the Wolf (NYC); Shockwave (Minn, MN); Radio Sci-Fi (Orlando, FL); The Six Siders (Salinas, CA); The Warp Zone (Wichita, KS); FanBoy Radio (Fort Worth, TX); I-Sci-Fi (Salt Lake City, UT); Sci-Fi Talk (NYC); and DragonPage (Phoenix, AZ).

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Locus Online reports that Robert J. Sawyer’s weekl…

SFFaudio News

Locus Online reports that Robert J. Sawyer’s weekly radio column Science FACTion: The Cutting Edge of Science has been picked up as a regular weekly feature by CBC Radio after a successful eight-week test run. The column consists of Sawyer’s three-minute commentaries and will be heard on local CBC morning shows across Canada, starting July 1st 2003. It’s possible that the CBC Radio website will carry the commentary – if that’s so, we’ll let you know.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Audible.com is publishing some excellent science f…

SFFaudio News

Audible.com is publishing some excellent science fiction and fantasy on audio. Earlier this year, they put out three collections: The Best of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 2002, The Best of Analog Science Fiction Magazine 2002, and The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine 2002. I reviewed all three titles for SF Site and enjoyed them all. My clear favorite, though, was the Fantasy and Science Fiction collection, so I was very pleased to see them follow up with two more titles: The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, January-February 2003 and The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, March-April 2003. The stories are all unabridged, and each collection runs five to six hours.

Over the past two or three years, I’ve experienced a growing appreciation for short-form science fiction on audio. Unabridged novella and novellette length stories make the finest audiobooks, in my opinion, and there is a lot of good science fiction and fantasy out there at that length that has yet to be recorded. I’ve got a copy of The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, January-February 2003 and have listened to the first story, called “Anomalous Structures of My Dreams” by M. Shayne Bell. M. Shayne Bell is an intensely emotional writer. All of his stories I’ve read to date have been memorable – he really makes me feel. His website is here. It hasn’t been updated for a long while, but you can read “Lock Down”, one of his best. The site also has his essay A Defense of Science Fiction and Fantasy, which is worth a read.

There are five other stories in the The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, January-February 2003 collection:

“Vandoise and the Bone Monster” by Alex Irvine

“Grey Star” by Albert E. Cowdrey

“Old Virginia” by Laird Barron

“The Seasons of the Ansarac” by Ursula K. Le Guin

“Reach” by Sheila Finch

(Readers include Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir)

There are also six stories in the The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, March-April 2003 collection:

“The Resurrections of Fortunato” by John Morressy

“Decanting Oblivion” by Lawrence C. Connolly

“Shutdown/Retrovival” by Aaron A. Reed

“Hunger: A Confession” by Dale Bailey

“The Lightning Bug Wars” by Gary Shockley

“Seeing is Believing” by Paul Di Filippo

(Readers include Harlan Ellison and Gabrielle de Cuir)

I’ll revisit these once I get them heard… but I hope they continue to produce these titles. Current science fiction and fantasy audio by great writers, right there for the grabbing.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson