Hugh McGuire, of LibriVox and iambik audiobooks, speaking at TEDx Montreal. His topic is “The Blurring Lines Between Books and the Internet.”
Posted by Jesse Willis
Review of Elvenquest AUDIO DRAMA
Elvenquest
Written by: Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto
Cast: Stephen Mangan, Alistair McGowan, Sophie Winkleman, Darren Boyd, Kevin Eldon, Dave Lamb. Also featuring Chris Pavlo, Carrie Quinlan, Lizzy Watts, and Clare Willie.
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Released: 3 August 2009
Publisher: AudioGO
Synopsis: Sam is a fantasy novelist who is whisked off to a Tolkien-style parallel universe by a noble elf, a sexy warrior princess, and a feisty dwarf called Dean. Why? Because Sam’s dog is the Chosen One who is destined to save “Lower Earth” from the evil Lord Darkness.
Three words: Fun. Fun. Fun.
A smartly written script and a great cast make for a wonderfully hilarious send-up of the fantasy quest story and of fantasy novels in general.
Writers Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto hit all the right notes: the Chosen One, a prophecy, elves, dwarves, warrior maidens, demons, goblins, trolls, unicorns, deadly traps and puzzles, and colonic irrigations, to name a few. Imagine Lord of the Rings as written by Douglas Adams, Mel Brooks, and the Monty Python troupe and you get the picture.
Most importantly–the cast. The cast, I think, really nails the script with excellent performances and crackerjack comic timing.
Stephen Mangan as Sam Porter seems to be, at times, channeling Simon Jones as Arthur Dent and it works. Sam, like Arthur, is out of his depth in Lower Earth and is simply trying to fit in.
Alistair McGowan plays Lord Darkness like a mixture of Alan Rickman’s Sheriff from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves and Rowan Atkinson’s Edmund Blackadder. He’s even got a Blackadder-like delivery and intonation.
Vidar the Elf Lord isn’t the brightest crayon in the box but makes up for it by being gung-ho and bombastic and Darren Boyd captures that beautifully. He sounds like he’s having too much fun declaiming and waxing rhapsodic.
Dave Lamb, as Amis the Dog/the Chosen One, is canine exuberance personified. Sophie Winkleman is superb as Penthiselea the Warrior Princess, lending the right touch of kick-ass chick with a sword, as well as being the voice of grounded reason for the others and, in many cases, the straight man–er, woman.
As Dean the Dwarf and Kreech the evil sidekick, Kevin Eldon manages to portray seemingly polar opposite characters who happen to share a “love” for violence. Dean wants to dash into battle at every opportunity while Kreech wants to unleash the goblin hordes on the questers.
The one thing that irked me while listening was the laugh track. I didn’t think it needed to be there and, at first, was distracting. But I got used to it enough that it “faded” into the background.
According to this site, the show was recorded in front of a live audience. Explains the track.
But I still think it’s unnecessary.
Other than that, this is a top-of-the-line production and I highly recommend it. Especially if you love comedy and fantasy. And comedic fantasy.
Posted by Abner Senires
The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey (read sinisterly Rob Beschizza )
The Poky Little Puppy is a horror classic, if you read it the way Rob Beschizza does. He’s right too. How else can we interpret lines like: “NO DESSERTS EVER” ?
Although, this reading, done for YouTube by a bowtied gentlemen named “Travis Tickle”, is creepy in a whole other way:
[via BoingBoing.net]
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Derelict by William Hope Hodgson
I’ve started reading a lot of William Hope Hodgson lately. Ever since The House On The Borderland he’s somehow captured my imagination.
But that wasn’t my first encounter with Hodgson. Indeed, I’d forgotten there was an adaptation I’d heard of one of his most famous stories. Forgotten until reading the original novelette that is!
William Dufris, audiobook narrator and audio drama producer, is largely responsible for this terrific adaptation of William Hope Hodgson’s The Derelict. Broadcast and podcast five years ago, it’s still available on the Radio Drama Revival.
Radio Drama Revival #38 – The Derelict
Adapted from the novelette by William Hope Hodgson; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: Radio Drama Revival
Podcast: October 4, 2007
An unsettling tale of a ghost ship found afloat deep in the Indian Ocean. Produced by Mind’s Eye Productions.
Here’s the original story narrated in two parts for the excellent Cthulhu Podcast:
Cthulhu Podcast – The Derelict
By William Hope Hodgson; Read by FNH (Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot)
2 MP3s – Approx. 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Cthulhu Podcast
Podcast: February and March 2012
First published in The Red Magazine, December 1, 1912.
And here are two different PDFs I’ve assembled:
Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1943 |PDF|
Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 4 |PDF|
Posted by Jesse Willis
Voices In The Dark: The Empire Of The Ants by H.G. Wells
The Empire Of The Ants
By H.G. Wells; Read by Sean Puckett
1 |MP3| – Approx. 36 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Voices In The Dark
Published: 2005
A Brazilian navy gunboat, sent up the Amazon river to investigate reports of problems inland, discovers that large ants have begun taking over parts of the jungle. Showing signs of intelligence, the insects prove extremely hard to deal with. First published in the Strand Magazine, December 1905.
And here’s a |PDF| made from the publication in Amazing Stories, August 1926.
Posted by Jesse Willis
The SFFaudio Podcast #172 – READALONG: The Odyssey by Homer (Books XVII – XX)
The SFFaudio Podcast #172 – Scott and Jesse talk, in the fifth of a six part series, about the books XVII, XVIII, XIX and XX of The Odyssey.
Talked about on today’s show:
Scott is struck, building tension, the nurse, “to be wroth against”, Eumaeus, names are handy, Hiro Protagonist, Neal Stephenson, parody, William Gibson, Eurycleia, Odysseus rolls a saving throw against a stool, first bum fight in literature, twinning, Odysseus is Athena’s avatar on Earth, The Iliad vs. The Odyssey, being of two minds, gods as metaphors, externalization, a primitive version of Matthew 25:40, “my good for nothing belly”, appetites, metastory, the tip jar is open, Turkic and Gaelic bards, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, “reached for the good things close at hand”, “Odysseus Goes To Town”, Eric Shanower, Argos (the hound), “the black hand of Death”, it’s not an anti-slavery polemic, the washing of the feet, the stringing of the bow, Julian Jaynes’s idea about The Iliad and The Odyssey and consciousness, Penelope is just as smart as Odysseus, the prelude to the crisis, the walls turn red, Yuri Rasovsky’s The Odyssey, Blackstone Audio.
Posted by Jesse Willis