SFFaudio – Page 726 – News, Reviews, and Commentary on all forms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror audio. Audiobooks, audio drama, podcasts; we discuss all of it here. Mystery, crime, and noir audio are also fair game.

Jack McDevitt on The World Fantasy Convention 2008 Podcast

SFFaudio Online Audio

I’ve been listening to the World Fantasy Convention 2008 Podcast for a while now (in reverse order), and I’ve just come across the special episode for Christmas – which features a special Jack McDevitt panel from a convention held in Calgary, Alberta. WOW! McDevitt reads from two stories, outlines the premises behind others and answers a few questions from the audience. One of the coolest panels I’ve ever heard! Check it out via the |MP3| or by subscribing to the podcast feed:

http://worldfantasy2008.libsyn.com/rss

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases – Scott Sigler, Manda Scott

New Releases

This first one came out April First, but no foolin’ this one’s for real! A podiobook success story like no other – the first major print release from Scott Sigler is an audiobook! Random House is comparing Sigler’s technothriller,Infected (AKA Infection) to the works of Chuck Palahniuk, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King!

Infected – Director’s Cut
By Scott Sigler; Read by Scott Sigler
9 CDs – 12 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: April 1st 2008
ISBN: 9780739328859
Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families. Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common – they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science. Meanwhile Perry Dawsey – a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey – awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected.

Also from Random House (and coming later this month)…

The Crystal Skull
By Manda Scott; Read by Susan Duerden
CDs – [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: April 15th 2008
ISBN: 9780385340106
In a spellbinding blend of history, myth, and science, a thriller that sweeps from the secrets of the Mayans to the court of a sixteenth-century queen to a shattering end-times prophecy.

Posted by Jesse Willis

StarShip Sofa podcasts And The Deep Blue Sea by Elizabeth Bear

SFFaudio Online Audio

StarShipSofa and her Aural Delights brings for you today Elizabeth Bear and her short story And The Deep Blue Sea

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:http://www.starshipsofa.com/rss

Posted by Tony C. Smith

This just in from the future… Dick Dynamo self destructs ?!?!

SFFaudio Online Audio

Holy wazzengas! The latest Dick Dynamo: The 5th Dimensional Man show (show #5) starts off normal, then turns into an absolute train-wreck!! It appears the show is ending. The DD team has broken up (?). Jon Baker tells why the show is ending (?) in this, the last (?) podcast.

I am saddened.

On the other hand, this is probably one of the more original endings (?) for a show you’ll ever hear. I loved the poem. Have a listen to the final (?) show |MP3|. And normally I’d suggest you subscribe to the podcast, but what’d be the point? Anyway I guess that’s still here:

http://dickdynamo.libsyn.com/rss

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. This new “tech man” show – it sounds kind of kewl.

P.P.S. J.C. is so totally a Yoko Ono.

P.P.P.S. Is it just me or does Deck Rhynamo sound exactly like Decoder Ring Theatre’s Deck Gibson?

Maria Lectrix SF Podcast: Despoilers of the Golden Empire by Randall Garrett

SFFaudio Online Audio

Maureen O’Brien, of the Maria Lectrix podcast, has been podcasting SF novels faster than a Corellian can make a Kessel run. But for April 1st 2008 she’s turned her attention to a shorter piece called Despoliers Of The Golden Empire. This is an extremely compelling tale (that you ABSOLUTELY DON’T WANT TO RESEARCH before listening to – trust me) – Maureen sez of it:

“…a very good story by Randall Garrett, and it makes a very good comment on sf as a genre….it was originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, for April Fools’ Day.”

And “Randall Garrett was known for his skill in writing adventure science fiction, alternate world fantasy mysteries, and stories full of great humor and horrible puns. This story, first published in Astounding in March 1959 under the pseudonym ‘David Gordon’, is truly characteristic of his body of work.”

I agree, this is a fun story, very pulpy – deliberately so – it even has its own Wikipedia entry (which is quite rare for a short story) – but don’t click on it until after you hear the story.

Despoilers Of The Golden Empire
By Randall Garrett; Read by Maureen O’Brien
5 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Maria Lectrix
Podcast: April 1st 2008
A seasoned military commander travels to another world to find the metal that brings power, and ends up bringing down a barbaric empire.