BBC Radio 4: The Birds by Daphne du Maurier + More eh?

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Hey, more for the BBC, one on today, another on Saturday!

Most of the national BBC radio stations have been carrying a lot of Daphne du Maurier related programming of late. This, no doubt, to mark the centenary of her birth. In particular there’s an upcoming new radio production of her most famous work…

Online AudioSaturday Play – The Birds
Based on the short story by Daphne du Maurier; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 1 Hour [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Saturday May 26th 2007 @ 14:30-15:30

Listen during the Saturday Play “Listen Again” program.

Also upcoming is a show one listener describes as: “Not particularly memorable from its first outing.” It’s a comedy series, set in 2012 – the second season, made up of four parts, starts Thursday night.

Online AudioDeep Trouble
By Jim Field Smith and Ben Willbond; Performed by a full cast
4 Parts – Approx. 30 Min. X 4 [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Begins Thursday May 24th 2007 @ 23:00-23:30
The antics of an incompetent Royal Navy crew of the nuclear stealth submarine HMS Goliath. This episode: Disaster is threatened in the form of a new crew member, a noxious gas and a bad haircut.

Thanks go to Roy for this info!

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7’s The Seventh Dimension has a Brian Aldiss short story!

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BBC 7's The 7th DimensionI missed telling you about a cool tale broadcast last Sunday. Though I have been remiss, all is not lost, you can still listen to this specially commissioned reading through the “Listen Again” service of BBC Radio 7. The story is Song Of The Silencer and it is a “chilling account” of man’s attempt to make order out of chaos by constructing an ‘ultimate machine.’ First Published in 1979. The reader is Nigel Anthony, a winner of both Sony award and Radio Times awards for radio performances.

BBC Radio 7 - Song Of The SilencerSong Of The Silencer
By Brian Aldiss; Read by Nigel Anthony
1 Broadcast – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday May 20th, 2007 @ 6.30pm and 12.30am (U.K. Time)
Humanity has built a massive computer out in space simply called the Ultimate Machine, that perfectly mimics the human brain — but some are predicting disaster once it is activated.

The Adventure Hear Podcast – Lets you Hear Adventures!

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Podcast - Adventure HearThe Adventure Hear podcast’s and its host Jamie Monroe goal is to “share and expand the exciting world of Audio Drama and Audio Books.” Each episode brings you a new or classic audio drama or audiobook. Also on tap are reviews, interviews, news, commentary and a “unique behind the scenes look at what goes into producing audio drama and audio books.” Have a look at their first half-dozen shows listed below…

Episode 1: Children Of The Gods – [AUDIO DRAMA] |MP3|

Episode 2: “The Watchbird” (from Come Let Me Whisper) by Russell L. Burt [AUDIOBOOK] |MP3|

Episode 3: Star Wars: Nothing Changes – [AUDIO DRAMA] & an interview with Russell L. Burt |MP3|

Episode 4: The Room – [AUDIO DRAMA] |MP3|

Episode 5: Broken Sea‘s Grog & Gryphon – Episode 1 – [AUDIO DRAMA] |MP3|

Episode 6: An interview with Bill Hollweg creator of Grog & Gryphon and a chapter of Mur Lafferty‘s podiobook Heaven|MP3|

A couple of notes:

#1. If you’ve already heard the Come Let Me Whisper podiobook be sure to listen to second episode show just to hear what the host thinks about “What’s Wrong With Audio Drama Today.” Then head back in time to read my thoughts on that same topic (our most controversial post of 2006).

#2. If you’re unsure where to start with the above shows, I recommend Episode 5 which features the first episode of – Grog & Gryphon. It’s not just the name of a show, its also the name of the tavern located out on the edge of the civilized lands. Listeners are invited to grab a tankard of ale, sit back and listen to heroic tales of yore. Plus, it has a crackerjack opening song by the soon-to-be-massive Brobdingnagian Bards!

Subscribe to the Adventure Hear podcast by plugging this feed into your podcatcher:

http://adventurehear.mypodcast.com/rss.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC4 Afternoon Play The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

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Just a reminder, the BBC 4 Afternoon Play that just aired is still available through the “Listen Again” service. Of it, one listener writes: “I was riveted by today’s drama, The Veldt. Truly chilling and a brilliant evocation of a whole, troubling yet thoroghly (SIC) engaging environment. Radio drama at it’s best.” I’m listening to it now. I have to agree, sounds great so far!

Online AudioAfternoon Play: The Veldt
By Ray Bradbury; Performed by a Full Cast
1 Broadcast – Approx. 45 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Tuesday 22nd May -14:15-15:00 (U.K. Time)
“An updated version of a classic SF story by Ray Bradbury, adapted from the stage play by Mike Walker, about a playroom that becomes a beguiling tempter, drawing two young children into secret, deadly adventures”

This is available via the Radio 4 Afternoon PlayListen Again” service for 7 days following the broadcast.

posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases April/May

SFFaudio New Releases

Lots of new release out right now. First up is a FREE one. A podiobook that took nearly a year to finish. Tracy Hickman’s near future dystopia The Immortals is now COMPLETE! Point your web-browser towards Podiobooks.com, sign-up and subscribe.

Podiobook - Immortals by Tracy HickmanThe Immortals
By Tracy Hickman; Read by Tracy and Laura Hickman
40 MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Started: April 2007
It’s 2020, and an attempted cure for AIDS has mutated into a deadlier disease, V-CIDS. The U.S., under martial law, has set up “quarantine centers” in the Southwest. Searching for his gay son, Jon, media mogul Michael Barris smuggles himself into one of centers only to discover that it and the other centers are actually extermination camps. With a strange assortment of allies, including the leader of the camp’s gay barracks, an army officer and a local cowboy, Barris precipitates an inmates’ rebellion that promises the unraveling of the death-camp system and the overthrow of the government that established it.

Let’s not forget the venerable and always reliable TellTaleWeekly, selling short stories for great prices!

H.G. WellsThe Star
By H.G. Wells; Read by Alex Wilson
1 MP3 , Ogg Vorbis or AAC File – Apprx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: TellTaleWeekly.org
Published: April 2007
Just $1.00 payable via PayPal. One hundred and one years before the films Armegeddon and Deep Impact entered U.S. theaters, the father of modern Science Fiction scared the crap out of Victorian London with this, the first of such death-from-above SF tales.

Hurray for Tantor Media! They’ve got lots of waycool stuff in the works including lots of Asimov…

Audiobook - No Humans Involved by Kelly ArmstrongNo Humans Involved
By Kelley Armstrong; Read by Laural Merlington
10 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – Approx. 12 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: May 2007
ISBN: 1400104416 (CDs), 1400154413 (MP3-CD)
Jaime knows a thing or two about showbiz, as a woman whose special talent is raising the dead, her threshold for weirdness is pretty high: she’s used to not only seeing dead people but hearing them speak to her in very emphatic terms. But for the first time in her life—as invisible hands brush her skin, unintelligible fragments of words are whispered into her ears, and beings move just at the corner of her eye—she knows what humans mean when they talk about being haunted.

The Caves Of Steel by Isaac AsimovThe Caves of Steel
By Isaac Asimov; Read by William Dufris
6 CDs or 1 MP3-CD – 7 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: May 2007
ISBN:1400104211 (CDs), 1400154219 (MP3-CD)
A millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together. Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer. The relationship between Baley and his Spacer superiors, who mistrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw. Worst of all was that the “R” stood for robot—and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim!

Simon & Schuster Audio even has a new title!

City Of Bones by Cassandra ClareCity Of Bones
By Cassandra Clare; Read by Ari Graynor
12 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: March 2007
ISBN: 0743566572
When 15-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing — not even a smear of blood — to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

And of course, nobody is publishing more Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror audio than the wonderous Blackstone audio…

Science Fiction AudiobookWhere’s My Jetpack?
By Daniel H. Wilson; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
3 Cassettes, 1 MP3-CD or 4 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: April 2007
ISBN: 9780786148707 (Cassettes), 9780786171606(MP3-CD), 9780786160822 (CDs)
It’s the twenty-first century and let’s be honest—things are a little disappointing. Despite every World’s Fair prediction and the advertisements in comic books, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our moon colonies and servant robots?

Science Fiction Audiobook - Variable Star by Robert A Heinlein and Spider RobinsonVariable Star
By Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson; Read by Spider Robinson
8 Cassettes, 1-MP3-CD or 10 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007
ISBN: 9780786149384(Cassettes), 9780786170159 (MP3-CD), 9780786158843 (Cds)
At his death in 1988, Robert A. Heinlein left a legacy of novels and short stories that almost single-handedly defined modern science fiction. But one of Heinlein’s masterpieces was never finished. In 1955, he began work on Variable Star, a powerful and passionate tale of two young lovers driven apart by pride, power, and the vastness of interstellar time and space. Then he set it aside to focus on other novellas. The detailed outline and notes he created for this project lay forgotten for decades, only to be rediscovered almost a half century later. Now the Heinlein estate has authorized award-winning author Spider Robinson to expand that outline into a full-length novel. The result is vintage Heinlein, faithful in style and spirit to the Grand Master’s original vision.

Komarr by Lois McMaster BujoldKomarr
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Grover Gardner
8 Cassettes, 1 MP3-CD or 9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: May 2007
ISBN: 9781433202575 (Cassettes), 9781433202599 (MP3-CD), (CDs)
Komarr could be a garden with a thousand more years’ work, or an uninhabitable wasteland if the terraforming fails. Now, the solar mirror vital to the terraforming of the conquered planet has been shattered by a ship hurtling off course. The Emperor of Barrayar sends his newest imperial auditor, Lord Miles Vorkosigan, to find out why.

The L.A. Times Fesitval Of Books

SFFaudio Online Audio

L.A. Times Festival Of BooksThe L.A. Times Festival Of Books had a panel that SF author Cory Doctorow got permission to post as an MP3. It’s called “Science Fiction: The Road From Here to There.” The panel featured John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow and Kage Baker and Harry Turtledove. Snag the entire |MP3|. If this panel piques your interest browse through the previous Festival Of Books catalogues. I’ve selected a number of SF & Fantasy related recordings and detailed them below. Item numbers are in either square brackets “[]” to indicate cassette only options, numbers with round brackets “()” indicate a CD edition.

2006 PDF Catalogue:
(1064) Young Adult Fantasy Writing
(2092) Fantasy & Time Travel

2005 PDF Catalogue:
(1061) Science Fiction – Worlds Of The Future

2004 PDF Catalogue:
(1136) William Gibson (A Barnes & Noble Stage Presentation)
(2033) William Gibson & Bruce Wagner
(2074) Clive Barker & Brien Lopez
[2111] Fables & Fantasies
(2132) Dean Koontz (A Barnes & Noble Stage Presentation)
(2133) Neal Stephenson (A Barnes & Noble Stage Presentation)

2002 Catlaogue:
[1112] Utopias, Hysterics and the Great Con
[2021] Science Fiction Writing

2001 Catalogue:

[1121] The Face of the Frantastic: Fantasy Writing

2000 Catalogue:
[1061] Terry Brooks
[1082] Michael Crichton
[2082] Ray Bradbury
[1013] Clive Barker
[2063] Harlan Ellison
[2064] Ursula Le Guin
[2082] Ray Bradbury

posted by Jesse Willis