Treehouse Of Horror XVII: The Day The Earth Looked Stupid

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Speaking of Gloomy Sunday and the 1930s … October 30th, 1938 was a Sunday. And as it happens an important one.

I’ve been re-watching all The Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror episodes. There’s a terrific, and hilarious sequence in The Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror XVII called “The Day The Earth Looked Stupid.” It’s a parody and satire of the Orson Welles’ broadcast of The War Of The Worlds with a little Fallout 3 and Iraq War thrown in.

Orson Welles: “They’re grinding up the bodies of human beings.”

[SOUND EFFECT]

Orson Welles: “Now they’re riding horses in the rain.”

[SOUND EFFECT]

Orson Welles: “Now they’re playing the xylophone while bowling near an airport.”

[…..]


I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire |MP3|

[via Rocker Chris Video and Archive.org]

Posted by Jesse Willis

FREE @ Audible.com: Any one of 50 Audiobooks (for NEW MEMBERS ONLY)

SFFaudio News

Audible.com: Summer Free Audiobook Giveaway

It seems I posted the last post a bit too quickly. Audible.com is offering any one of FIFTY audiobooks to NEW Audible.com MEMBERS. Here’s the text:

“Welcome to Audible.com’s Summer FREE Audiobook Giveaway! We’re offering some of the season’s top titles, along with a number of our best-sellers, absolutely free with no strings attached. This is your best opportunity to try an audiobook absolutely free and kick-start your summer with a great book. Choose 1 FREE audiobook on us. There is no credit card required to participate. This event ends July 2, 2010, at 11:59 PM EST.”

Titles of interest include:
METAtropolis |READ OUR REVIEW|
The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
On Basilisk Station by David Weber |READ OUR REVIEW|
Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian
The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
I Am Legend: Free Version by Richard Matheson |READ OUR REVIEW|
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
The Lion’s Game by Nelson DeMille

There are plenty of others available too. Check it out |HERE|.

There is a limit of 1 audiobook per customer. Some audiobooks may not be available outside the United States and Canada.

Addendum: If you already have an existing account you probably won’t be eligible for this deal. Click on through to find out.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Lightspeed Magazine

SFFaudio News


 

When John Joseph Adams announced that he’d be editing a new online science fiction magazine, I had high hopes. The magazine, he said, would focus on the kind of stories I like best: science fiction. A mix of originals and reprints, and some non-fiction too. Yeah, baby!

What I didn’t expect was that Lightspeed Magazine would also be a podcast. Twice a month, Lightspeed Magazine is going to publish audio stories. And these are high quality, folks – Stefan Rudnicki and his Skyboat Road crew are producing.

The first two stories of the first issue are online now. The first story, “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You In Reno” by Vylar Kaftan is provided on audio by Escape Pod (EP 243), with a great reading by Mur Lafferty. (I’m not sure if the connection with Escape Pod is a one-shot promotion thing, or if it will continue.) The story is an intriguing look at a relationship affected by relativistic space travel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The second, posted just yesterday, is a new story by Jack McDevitt: “The Cassandra Project”. Stefan Rudnicki narrates the audio version, and it’s fabulous. As the United States prepares for a return trip to the Moon, a photograph of a far-side crater comes to light, taken in 1968 by a Russian spacecraft, that shows a structure near the rim. Later photographs taken by American spacecraft show no such thing. McDevitt unravels the puzzle in satisfactory ooh-wow fashion.

Two stories in and I’m a huge fan of Lightspeed Magazine. May it live long!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Graphic Audio Interviews E.E. Knight

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Graphic Audio Logo

 

Graphic Audio Director Ken Jackson interviews E.E. Knight (aka Eric Frisch) about his series Vampire Earth that will be released in GraphicAudio® this August.

Here’s the link: |LINK|
And the Graphic Audio podcast feed is: http://www.graphicaudio.net/t-rss.aspx

About the Vampire Earth series:

The story begins in 2065 in a post-apocalyptic American setting. Forty-three years ago, in 2022, an alien race known as the Kurians triggered a series of natural disasters (as well as artificial ones) that enabled them to gain control of the planet and subjugate humanity. A plague has reduced the world population to 25% of its pre-cataclysm level; nuclear explosions have created a mild form of nuclear winter, cooling the earth, and smaller events everywhere have added to the chaos. In America, the New Madrid fault let go, destroying much of the Midwest. Major rivers such as the Mississippi have been unleashed.

In the year 2022 CE, a seemingly immortal extraterrestrial race called “Kurians” has wrested control of the Earth from its inhabitants. The Kurians derive their endless lifespans from draining the “vital aura” of other life forms. To facilitate this addiction to life energy, the Kurians employ killing machines known as “Reapers”.

Following the Kurian takeover, many humans made the decision to serve the new overlords. These traitors, known as Quislings, are set up as members of the police and supervisory government for the Kurian Order. Nearly every other human who is not a Quisling is known as a Territorial, and is either a slave scratching out a living in various trades, or fighting with rebel organizations such as the Southern Command.

After a time, the Kurian Order reduced Earth to a technological and social Dark Age, with only the few remaining pre-2022 machines and transportation networks surviving, with most of these under Kurian control. As an incentive to good and loyal service to the Kurian Lords, Quislings are awarded “ten year badges”, which protect the wearers from the Reapers. Even more sought after is the “Brass Ring”. A Brass Ring ensures that one never has to fear being randomly taken by the Reapers at night, although it can be revoked and cannot be passed to one’s children.

Pockets of resistance do exist, however. The main rebel group fighting the Order at the beginning of the series is known as Southern Command. A formal military (though classified by the Order as terrorists) is charged with the defense of the Ozark Free Territory; Southern Command would be doomed were it not for the Hunters.

Definitely would like to try this one…

Posted by Scott D. Danielson