First published in the May 1930 issue of Weird Tales. Illustration by Boris Dolgov.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Category: News
Neil Austin’s Masters Of Fantasy (from Famous Fantastic Mysteries 1947 – 1950) DESKTOP WALLPAPER
I made this desktop wallpaper for my new computer’s desktop – that’s what I did yesterday instead of actually unpacking and setting up the computer itself. Click through to get the full size version. The images were drawn by Neil Austin for issues of Famous Fantastic Mysteries from 1947 to 1950.
Pictured are H.P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, Robert W. Chambers, Sydney Fowler Wright, Algernon Blackwood, H.G. Wells, Stephen Vincent Benét, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Machen, M.P. Shiel, John Taine, Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton Smith, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, Olaf Stapledon, and M.R. James.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Stephen King’s The Mist in 3D Sound
The Mist, a legendary audio dramatization based on a 1980 Stephen King novella, is available from Simon & Schuster Audio. It’s actually been available since the mid 1980s. It started on LP, being released by it’s producers at ZBS Foundation, then was acquired by Simon & Schuster to be released on cassette and later CD. Today it’s still available on CD, as well as a Audible.com download. Every time it has been re-released I’ve been reminded of how astoundingly great an audio drama it really is.
Here’s the official description:
After a mysterious mist envelops a small New England town, a group of locals trapped in a supermarket must battle a siege of otherworldly creatures . . . and the fears that threaten to tear them apart.
And here’s the text from the back of the first CD edition:
Sound so visual you’re literally engulfed by its bonechilling terror! Stephen King’s sinister imagination and the miracle of 3-D sound transport you to a sleepy all-American town. It’s a hot, lazy day, perfect for a cookout, until you see those strange dark clouds. Suddenly a violent storm sweeps across the lake and ends as abruptly and unexpectedly as it had begun. Then comes the mist…creeping slowly, inexorably into town, where it settles and waits, trapping you in the supermarket with dozens of others, cut off from your families and the world. The mist is alive, seething with unearthly sounds and movements. What unleashed this terror? Was it the Arrowhead Project—the top secret government operation that everyone has noticed but no one quite understands? And what happens when the provisions have run out and you’re forced to make your escape, edging blindly through the dim light? The Mist has you in it grip, and this masterpiece of 3-D sound engineering surrounds you with horror so real that you’ll be grabbing your own arm for reassurance. To one side—and whipping around your chair, a slither of tentacles. Swooping down upon you, a rush grotesque, prehistoric wings. In the impenetrable mist, hearing is seeing—and believing. And what you’re about to hear, you’ll never forget.
The YouTube version, below, is NOT in stereo. Stereo is ESSENTIAL to the experience, but if you want to get a sense of the story and how it plays out, have a look:
Here are two illustrations from the Dark Forces: The 25th Anniversary Special Edition , which came out 25 years after the original publication of the original Dark Forces anthology that included The Mist:
And of course there was a film adaptation which was, surprisingly, great too:
Posted by Jesse Willis
Recent Arrivals: Simon & Schuster Audio: Total Recall: My Unbelievable True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger
This just in!
The unabridged, 20 CD audiobook of Total Recall: My Unbelievable True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The narration is done by Arnold himself, and Stephen Lang. Lang, besides being a terrific narrator, appeared as the villain of the latest Conan movie – maybe he’s been tasked with reading the evil chapters of Arnold’s autobiography?
Maybe. Chapter 1 is read by Schwarzenegger and Chapter 2 is read by Lang.
Here’s a sample |MP3|.
I’m well into the book now, and so far here are my thoughts:
-Hearing about little Arnold in childhood will provide a reminder of his role in Kindergarten Cop, indeed who else could pronounce “poo” as well as the real Arnold?
-There’s something of an ideology thrown in here and there in this autobiography, and the remembrances Arnold is sharing, though detailed greatly (as advertized in the title) seem to be clouded by metaphors that can’t quite be literal. Early on Arnold says that both he and his brother thought a local shopping area, in his late 1940s early 1950s country town, was as big as “The Mall Of America” (that’s something that wouldn’t exist for a few decades).
-The many photographs in the hardcover are of course absent, oh well.
-The little entrepreneurial Arnold made money by delivering groceries, selling ice-cream cones, and panhandling (grifting actually) with sob stories (he’d tell nice old Austria ladies that he’d lost his all his money so needed money for the bus).
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Nine Billion Names Of God by Arthur C. Clarke (read by Colin)
Colin‘s reading of The Nine Billion Names Of God by Arthur C. Clarke is not nearly popular enough.
As of this post it’s only received a mere 17 viewings (or hearings).
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Nine Billion Names Of God by Arthur C. Clarke (from Dercum Audio, 1991)
This recording of Arthur C. Clarke’s The Nine Billion Names Of God was produced by Dercum Audio – it’s that signature opening, that terrific, haunting music that begins at the ten second mark – that’s the giveaway. Produced in 1991, it is long out of print and a real treasure.
Part 1 of 2:
Part 2 of 2:
Posted by Jesse Willis