Two BRAND NEW specially commissioned programs …

The 7th Dimension

Two BRAND NEW specially commissioned programs start airing on BBC 7‘s The 7th Dimension this weekend. First is Jefferson 37 an original radio drama series. Second, is I Am Legend, which looks like an UNABRIDGED reading of the fantabulous Richard Matheson novel. Of the latter, there are differening reports on its number of instalments either 9 or 10 half-hours. Super sweet either way! Here are the details of both:

Jefferson 37
By Jenny Stephens; Directed by Peter Leslie Wild
4 Part Serial – Approx 120 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Saturday Jan 21st 2006
Starring: David Birrell, Alison Carney, Oliver Hembrough and Dharmesh Patel
“A gripping thriller, set in the near future, and explores the idea of clones being created specifically to provide body parts to those who can afford it.”

I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson; Read by Angus McInnes
9 or 10 Part Reading – approx 5 Hours [UNABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC 7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Mon-Fri 6pm and 12 midnight Jan 23 – Feb 3 2006 (?)
“Taking place in New York, it’s a tale of vampires and a man immune to the plague that has decimated most of the population”.
Adapted by Scott Stainton Miller
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie

posted by Jesse Willis

Commentary: Back in 1947

SFFaudio Commentary

Back in 1947, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists first informed the world what time it was on the “Doomsday Clock“. Since then, the minute hand of that clock has moved forward and back to reflect the subjective level of nuclear danger and the state of global security. I suggest we SF & F fans institute another clock, one for which we can easily see the subjective coolness of the times in which we are living. When Sci Fiction closes it’s doors the “uncoolness clock” hand sweeps 5 minutes towards Midnight, when Charles Stross writes another awesome story it sweeps the clock’s hand back a minute. Everybody on board with the idea?

Good. Now I have a candidate for sweeping the hand back a minute. Here’s the argument:

We should sweep the hand of the “uncoolness clock” back for reason of Escape Pod. Escape Pod is our favorite Science Fiction Podcast Magazine. It’s been scoring coup after coup in the game of audio Science Fiction coolness at least once a week for more than six months and without fail. And it’s really starting to get popular. Just look at the evidence:

1. Escape Pod got mentioned in the February 2006 issue of the venerable Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine (along with SFFaudio and TellTaleWeekly). Very Cool!

2. E-Pod got a BoingBoing.net post a few months back – with BoingBoing being the single most popular blog on the internet – the furtive attention of which has crashed many a server due to the mass of click-throughs. Way Cool!

3. Just two weeks ago Escape Pod podcast a Scott Sigler short story entitled Hero. Significant in that Sigler is the only podcast novelist so far with two podiobooks available (EarthCore and Ancestor) both of which encroach on a five digit subscribership. Damn cool!

4. And finally, we come to today’s instalment of Escape Pod, a short story, by maverick Science Fiction author Cory Doctorow entitled Craphound. Keener cool!

That’s four cool reasons why Escape Pod is worthy of sweeping the “uncoolness clock” back a minute from midnight. But perhaps the best reason is E-Pod’s quality, there’s never been a bad story on Escape Pod, with more than 40 tales under the whimisical editorial hand of Steve Eley that’s really saying something. Oh ya and it’s 100% FREE!

So what I’m saying is nuclear annihilation may still loom over us all but I’m telling you thing’s are still really cool in the Science Fiction department. You cool with that?

posted by Jesse Willis

Review of A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

SFFaudio Review

Science Fiction Audiobook - A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice BurroughsA Princess of Mars
By Edgar Rice Burroughs; Read by John Bolen
6 CD’s – 6 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 2001
ISBN: 1400100186
Themes: / Science Fiction / Mars / Aliens / Swordplay / Classic /

There are few classic novels with as much influence as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars. First published in 1912 (serialized in All-Story magazine with the title Under the Moons of Mars), Burroughs sparked the imagination of many of science fiction’s golden age writers, including Ray Bradbury and his Martian Chronicles. The audiobook cover is a detail from the 1919 Grosset & Dunlap cover.

A Princess of Mars is an imaginative adventure novel in which John Carter, a Virginian military man who starts the story running from Indians in the Arizona desert, is magically transported to Mars. Burroughs does not go into detail on the mechanics of the transportation, but does go into great detail about the inhabitants of Mars, called “Barsoom” by its natives.

There are two races on Mars – a four-armed green warrior race, and a red human-like race. The princess of the title is Dejah Thoris of Helium, whose beauty captures John Carter when he sees her taken by him in chains by some four-armed Barsoomians.

The novel is filled with damsel-in-distress/derring-do-male-hero sensibility that is laughable at times, but still the story holds up as a classic of the genre. Burroughs’ description of an alien culture is a forerunner of an entire category of science fiction, and I found it entertaining on that level. I also felt a great deal of nostalgia, because I read this book a few times as a early teen, along with the other ten Mars volumes, and a Tarzan or three.

John Bolen performs the whole book as John Carter, with a southern gentlemanly manner that the character demands. This means not only Carter’s attitude, but his southern accent, which took me a few minutes to settle into.

Check out Tantor’s science fiction and fantasy section for more Edgar Rice Burroughs titles.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

2006 starts with some fine titles: Anne Manx on A…

SFFAudio Header New Releases

2006 starts with some fine titles:

Anne Manx on Amazonia, audio drama from Radio Repertory Company of America, starring Claudia Christian, Pat Tallman, and Barbara Harris
This audio drama is excellent entertainment – a comic book for your ears!

Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries by Jeffrey A. Carver, read by Jonathan Davis, Audio Renaissance, Abridged
In the tradition of Star Trek and Star Wars audiobooks, here’s the first audiobook from the best current show on television.

The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein, read by Patrick Lawlor, Blackstone Audio, Unabridged
Click here to listen to a sample.
Another classic Heinlein novel from Blackstone Audio!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary Phase by Douglas Adams, performed by BBC Radio, Audio Partners
The penultimate Hitchhiker’s radio show.

H.P. Lovecraft Collection – Volume 3 by H.P. Lovecraft, Audio Realms
More Lovecraft from Audio Realms! This one contains “The Horror at Red Hook”, “The Statement of Randolph Carter”, “The Outsider”, and “Herbert West Reanimator”. The first Lovecraft collection from Audio Realms landed on our SFFaudio Essential List.

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson, read by Yuri Rasovsky, Blackstone Audio, Unabridged
Click here to listen to a sample.
A classic novel by Richard Matheson read by the mighty Yuri Rasovsky.

The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock, Audio Realms
The second of the original Elric saga from Audio Realms. If quality is half of the first one (Click here for the SFFaudio review of Elric of Melnibone) then this is a must-have.

Star Wars: The Dark Nest III: The Swarm War by Troy Denning, read by Jonathan Davis, Random House Audio, Abridged
The latest in the long-running Star Wars audio series.

Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe, read by various readers, Blackstone Audio, Unabridged
Click here to listen to a sample.
Contains some of Poe’s greats – “The Tell Tale Heart”, “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, and others.

If you are a publisher and have titles that you’d like to be included here, then contact Scott or Jesse.

Review of A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

Fantasy Audiobook Review

Fantasy Audiobook - A Feast for Crows by George R.R. MartinA Feast for Crows
By George R.R. Martin; Read by John Lee
26 CDs – Approx. 31 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2005
ISBN: 0739308742
Themes: / Fantasy / Epic Fantasy / Medieval setting / Power Struggle / Dragons /

There’s a long story behind A Feast for Crows, but I’ll make it short. George R.R. Martin, while writing the fourth installment of the superior A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy series, found it was getting too long. Long enough, in fact, that if he published it as-was, it would need to be broken up into two volumes. So, rather than break the book into two pieces at the middle, he split the book by character, including the complete story of select characters in one volume, leaving the rest of the characters to appear in the next volume. A Feast for Crows, then, is the fourth book, and a new fifth book (A Dance with Dragons) will be published relatively soon. This novel is a bit shorter than the previous volumes, but still clocks in at 31 hours on unabridged audio.

Roy Dotrice read the first three volumes in the series, but this time British actor John Lee narrated. I’m not sure why the change was made; the narrators were very different. While Dotrice has a rough, earthy delivery, Lee’s style is smooth and skilled. Both narrators succeed with Martin’s story, because with such a large number of characters, ranging from royalty to peasants, each found places to shine.

The myriad of characters brings me to my next point. This is the first of these large novels that I’ve heard before I read. Some listeners have complained that the novels are difficult to follow on audio because there are so many entrances, but I didn’t feel that way until now. With this novel, I found that the portions of the book that involved characters I didn’t know from previous books were indeed difficult to follow. When a character I knew arrived on the scene, I was fully engaged with the story.

There is a very simple remedy to this. There are acres of real estate on the packaging for large audiobooks. Why not include a Cast of Characters (Dramatis Personae)? Why not include the maps from the print version? Both of these items would have been welcome.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am a huge fan of Martin’s, and especially this series. I felt that this one started a bit slowly, but ended with a bang. I reveled in being in Westeros again. Many of the characters I like were not included in this novel, which both disappointed me and heightened my anticipation for the next volume. A Feast for Crows delivers much – I was riveted to the last third of this audiobook – but I can’t help to feel that it is incomplete, because of the missing characters and because it is the middle of a long wonderful saga that I am patiently waiting to see through.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson