Jack London (1943) – a biographical feature film about Jack London

SFFaudio News

Jack London is a 1943 biographical feature film about Jack London!

It’s also available for download via Archive.org: |AVI|MP4|OGV|

This movie got me thinking. Is it the only biopic of an Science Fiction author?

So I looked around and found a list of biographical films on Wikipedia. And while I had remembered there had been movies featuring Mary Shelley, like Gothic – that isn’t a biopics per se.

Based on the Wikipedia list, it appears that Edgar Allan Poe has been a character in some quasi-biographical films, notably the recent John Cusak movie, The Raven (which has its roots in earlier dramatized biographical snippets like The Raven (1915)). The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) is a true biographical film, but it’d be hard to argue that twain wrote Science Fiction (though the case for Fantasy is pretty easy). Robert E. Howard got a biopic, in a solid little movie called The Whole Wide World (1996) but it’s just a snippet of Howard’s life.

I don’t think there have been any other Science Fiction writers who’ve had an actual biographical film made about him or her. Maybe writer’s lives are too sedentary for good drama?

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #156 – READALONG: The Odyssey by Homer (Books IX – XII)

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #156 – Scott and Jesse talk, in the third of a six part series, about the books IX, X, XI, and XII of The Odyssey.

Talked about on today’s show:
What’s the plural of cyclops?, cyclopskin?, cyclopean, Charybdis and Scylla, from this book many books have come, Philip K. Dick’s early fantasies are peppered with Odysseian goodness, Upon The Dull Earth, On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, Odysseus is a smart liar, “my fame has reached the skies”, Telemachus runs the first four books, Odysseus in third person runs in the second four books, Odysseus in the first person runs the third four books, Calypso vs. Circe, “deep in her arching caverns”, the land of the lotus eaters, lotus addiction, Piper In The Woods by Philip K. Dick, “I’m a plant, doctor”, the 1968 Italian miniseries adaptation of The Odyssey (L’Odissea), why does Odysseus listen to the Sirens?, Circe’s wand, Hermes’ wand, the origin of wizards and sorceresses, Polyphemus, cheeses!, Beowulf, Grendel’s attack in the hall, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, a bachelor’s home vs. a maiden’s home, the cyclops island is a libertarian utopia!, Zeus vs. Poseidon, twenty-power wine!, manifest destiny, the guest gift, “I’ll eat nobody”, “I have a cunning plan my lord”, Odysseus is always messing with the gods, “you shameless cannibal”, the prophecy that Odysseus would blind Polyphemus, raider of cities, swag, Odysseus is not a righting-wrongs kind of hero, Polyphemus’ prayer to his father, Poseidon doesn’t make an on-screen appearance in The Odyssey, what is Aquaman’s hair colour?, Circe (the bewitching queen), Ian McKellan‘s narration of the audiobook, “and so he mounted her bed”, “breeding” great trust, tame lions and wolves, Eurylochus goes on the “away mission”, Eurylochus was “unmanned”, Hermes and the moly, the Wikipedia entry for moly, potions and poison, “The Book Of The Dead”, Cimmeria, Robert E. Howard, “the original Fantasy”, Odysseus becomes the bard, “one death is enough for both men, but you shall now have two”, Hercules, Achilles, Agamemnon is bitter about Clytemnestra murdering him, Charybdis and Scylla is like an old fashioned version of The Cold Equations, O’ Brother Where Art Thou, Dante’s Inferno, Paradise Lost, Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer, The Aeneid, Strange Eden by Philip K. Dick, Star Trek (Who Mourns for Adonais?), Beyond Lies The Wub by Philip K. Dick, “oh boy”, Hyperion, Odysseus never takes the blame for anything, immortal zombie cows, how does Odysseus end up in that tree?, Ithaca at last!

N.C. Wyeth - Circe

Odysseus Performing The Nekyia

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Release: El Borak And Other Desert Adventures by Robert E. Howard

New Releases

Here’s a release I wasn’t expecting! No story listing is available but I suspect it contains the entire text of the Del Rey edition even if it doesn’t use the art. And the narrator sounds okay too!

El Borak And Other Desert Adventures
By Robert E. Howard; Read by Michael McConnohie
Audible Download – Approx. 25 Hours 17 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible, Inc.
Published: March 2, 2012
Robert E. Howard is famous for creating such immortal heroes as Conan the Cimmerian, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn. Less well-known but equally extraordinary are his non-fantasy adventure stories set in the Middle East and featuring such two-fisted heroes as Francis Xavier Gordon, known as “El Borak”, Kirby O’Donnell, and Steve Clarney. This trio of hard-fighting Americans, civilized men with more than a touch of the primordial in their veins, marked a new direction for Howard’s writing and new territory for his genius to conquer. The wily Texan El Borak, a hardened fighter who stalks the sandscapes of Afghanistan like a vengeful wolf, is rivaled among Howard’s creations only by Conan himself. In such classic tales as “The Daughter of Erlik Khan”, “Three-Bladed Doom”, and “Sons of the Hawk”, Howard proves himself once again a master of action, and with plenty of eerie atmosphere his plotting becomes tighter and twistier than ever, resulting in stories worthy of comparison to Jack London and Rudyard Kipling. Every fan of Robert E. Howard and aficionados of great adventure writing will want to own this collection of the best of Howard’s desert tales.

AUDIBLE - El Borak And Other Desert Adventures by Robert E. Howard

Posted by Jesse Willis

Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter: The Roof Of The World

SFFaudio Online Audio

BrokenSea Audio Productions: Jake Sampson: Monster HunterThe latest Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter serial has just wrapped. If you’re young enough you probably won’t appreciate all the historical and mythological detail that’s in these terrific adventure stories – but they’re definitely in there! Previous adventures have seen Jake and crew visiting lush jungles or dessicated deserts – this one sees them flying up to THE ROOF OF THE WORLD!!!

Here’s the official description:

Jake is summoned to Massachusetts to visit an aging former professor. Soon the gang is involved in a quest for a magic flower that only grows in a remote part of Tibet. Others also hunt the secrets held within that mysterious land, but for a more nefarious purpose. What is the price for immortality, and does the fabled lost city of Shambala really exist? Weird tales abound in the land known as The Roof of the World!

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3| Part 5 |MP3|

Podcast feed: http://brokensea.com/jakesampson/feed/

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter – The Hyborean Gate – in Lego

SFFaudio Online Audio

Inspired by the first Jake Sampson serial and the recent fan art posted to the Jake Sampson blog, I’ve constructed my own Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter playset out of Lego!

BrokenSea Audio Productions: Jake Sampson: Monster HunterJake Sampson: Monster Hunter – The Hyborean Gate
By Paul Mannering and Mark Kalita; Perfomed by a full cast
5 MP3s – Approx. 62 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: BrokenSea Audio Productions
Podcast: September 2007
Jake Sampson is called to Cross Plains, Texas by a small-time writer to investigate the appearance of a ferocious creature from a world believed to be fictitious.

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3| Part 5 |MP3|

Podcast feed: http://brokensea.com/jakesampson/feed/

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Although it hasn’t been specified in the show so far I imagine that Jake Sampson purchased a prototype of the Grumman Goose. The period is almost exactly right for it, and Sampson is just the sort of wealthy American customer that actually commissioned the Goose’s creation. Based on that, and my enduring affection for this long running adventure series, I’ve been building a Lego version of the Jake Sampson airplane. Here they are: Texas Holdum, Jake Sampson, and Lucy Carter atop a Grumman Goose:

Texas Holdem, Jake Sampson, and Lucy Carter atop a Grumman Goose

And here’s an apocryphal scene from the first serial, The Hyborean Gate. Passionate listeners will of course be aware that the airplane in that story was actually WWI-era biplane and not a Grumman Goose:

The Hyborean Monster rages as Jake and Lucy escape to the Grumman Goose

Jake Sampson and Lucy Carter escape:

Jake Sampson and Lucy Carter escape!

“Wherever there is strange…”:

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: In Our Time: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time with Melvyn BraggThe latest BBC Radio 4 In Our Time podcast, dated December 22, 2011, is a discussion of Daniel Defoe‘s Robinson Crusoe. Did you know that the novel was originally published pseudonymously? Or that Defoe wasn’t actually born with the name Defoe, but rather “Foe”? (he added the “De”). As usual In Our Time‘s podcast is a quick solid introduction to a fascinating topic. Here’s the official description:

“Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe. Published in 1719, it was an immediate success and is considered the classic adventure story – the sailor stranded on a desert island who learns to tame the environment and the native population. Robinson Crusoe has been interpreted in myriad ways, from colonial fable to religious instruction manual to capitalist tract, yet it is perhaps best known today as a children’s story. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Karen O’Brien, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education at the University of Birmingham; Judith Hawley, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London and Bob Owens, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the Open University.”

|MP3|

Podcast feed: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/iot/rss.xml

Thank you very much British taxpayers!

Posted by Jesse Willis