The producers of METAtropolis: Cascadia have placed a selection of video interviews with the narrators on YouTube. Here they are:
Creating Distinctive Voices:
Check out that awesome bookshelf full of audiobooks behind Wil Wheaton!
Environmental Themes:
Acting vs. Narrating:
Posted by Jesse Willis
The provocative sequel to the Hugo and Audie Award-nominated METAtropolis features interconnected stories by today’s top speculative fiction writers, performed by a galaxy of Star Trek ® stars.
As the mid-21st century approaches, the Pacific Northwest has been transformed — politically, economically, and ecologically — into the new reality of Cascadia. Conspiracies and secrets threaten the tenuous threads of society. The End of Days seems nearer than ever. And the legend of the mysterious Tygre Tygre looms large.
METAtropolis: Cascadia is the creation of Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake; Mary Robinette Kowal, winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; New York Times best-selling author Tobias S. Buckell; Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear; Aurora Award winner Karl Schroeder; and critically-acclaimed author Ken Scholes.
The team of narrators is any sci-fi fan’s dream: Star Trek’s Rene Auberjonois (“Odo”), Kate Mulgrew (“Capt. Kathryn Janeway”), Wil Wheaton (“Wesley Crusher”), Gates McFadden (“Dr. Beverly Crusher”), Jonathan Frakes (“Cmdr. William Riker”), and LeVar Burton (“Geordi La Forge”). Jay Lake, who also served as Project Editor, introduces this stunning sequel, written and produced exclusively for digital audio.
Exciting! Audible is also offering one of the stories from last year’s METAtropolis for free – |DETAILS HERE|. And |HERE| is our review of that excellent collection.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
The SFFaudio Podcast #080 – Jesse talks with Eric Shanower, the cartoonist for Marvel Comics’ The Wizard Of Oz series and Image Comics Age Of Bronze: The Story Of The Trojan War (available at HungryTigerPress.com).
WATCH OUT FOR THE FALSE ENDINGS!
Talked about on today’s show:
Artist Skottie Young, L. Frank Baum, black and white comics vs. color comics, colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu, Classics Illustrated, the Tin Woodsman‘s story, Eric’s obsession with Oz, Oz is the first American fantasy, the Emerald City, Marvel Illustrated, DC’s Vertigo imprint, Roy Thomas‘ The Iliad, Age Of Bronze: The Story Of The Trojan War: The Thousand Ships, comics inspired by audiobooks, The March Of Folly: From Troy To Vietnam by Barbara W. Tuchman, the many and varied stories of the Trojan War, Conan comics, Garth Ennis, Neil Gaiman, Roy Thomas, marketing and promoting comics, Image Comics, comicbook end matter, maps, genealogical charts, pronunciation guides, bibliographies, Cressida’s star-fixation, the absence or presence of the supernatural, Homer’s The Iliad, Troilus and Cressida, where is the Trojan Horse?, Homer’s The Odyssey, The Judgement Of Paris, is there a tongue theme going on?, a seven part series, the industry trending from single issue comics to graphic novels, Garth Ennis’ Battlefield series, would a colour Kindle reinvigorate single issue comics?, Throwaway Horse, annotating comics, James Joyce‘s Ulysses (digital annotated), annotating The Age Of Bronze, re-coloring The Sandman, visiting the real Troy (in Asia Minor), the magnificent Windy Ilios, the Lion Gate at Myceane, the geography and economy of ancient Troy, portraying Odysseus’ madness, distracting Agamemnon, Homer’s dog (Argos), a very very old dog, listening to audiobooks, George Guidall’s reading of The Iliad (Recorded Books), The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, historical fiction, Audible.com, Aeneas and The Aeneid, WATCH OUT FOR THE FALSE ENDING!, LibriVox.org, Iambik Audio, Paul Auster, City Of Glass, the listening habits of artists, It’s Superman by Tom De Haven, Blackstone Audio, paranormal romance, The Book Of Illusions by Paul Auster, Hunt Through The Valley Of Fear by Gabriel Hunt (aka Charles Ardai), Hard Case Crime, Memory by Donald E. Westlake, Jim Thompson’s The Grifters, Fools Die by Mario Puzo, I thought George Guidall could do no wrong until he read a Lillian Jackson Braun audiobook, RadioArchive.cc, audiobook torrent sites, Conan Properties International, The Hound Of The Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Skype screen sharing, The Guns Of August by Barbara Tuchman, Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household, Michael Jayston, LOOK OUT – THERE’S ANOTHER FALSE ENDING!, a costumed Halloween party, Frog Went A-Courting, the frog vs. the prince, A New Brain, vampires vs. zombies, going zombie, dinosaur Halloween costumes, making costumes is hard!, the Shaggy Man, The SFFaudio Challenge, The 4th SFFaudio Challenge on BoingBoing.net, The Mysteries Of Paris by Eugene Sue, The Wandering Jew by Eugene Sue, Hugh
McGuire, the number of listeners to the SFFaudio Podcast is insane, the difference between a professional narrator and an amateur narrator is that the amateur narrator gets to choose his books, Gregg Margarite, Edith Nesbit, pronunciation and inflection are important, music and sound effects in audiobooks is wrong, Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time, Peter Pan, multiple narrators for plays, audio drama, BBC, quality control in comics, cartoonists are better off today than ever before, Sturgeon’s Law, superheroes in comics, why podcast discussions are better than radio interviews, commercial concerns.
Posted by Jesse Willis
The SFFaudio Podcast #078 – Jesse talks with Fred Godsmark of Audio Realms and TheAudiobookShop.com:
Talked about on today’s show:
Audio Realms, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror audiobooks, Dark Realms Audio, Dark Desires Audio, what’s up with all the paranormal romance?, paranormal romance makes money, “paranormal romance is horror without the teeth”, the demographics of paranormal romance, Richard Laymon, The Travelling Vampire Show, Flesh, horror-thriller, Stand By Me, Dark Mountain, People Of The Dark, Robert E. Howard’s Celtic Conan vs. Robert E. Howard’s Cimmerian CONAN, C.H.U.D., Bram Stoker’s Lair Of The White Worm, The D’Ampton Worm, The Last Man On Earth, Vincent Price, Jesse’s Vincent Price Picture, Mel Blanc, Jack Palance, Kirk Douglas, Rumpelstiltskin, Dorchester Publications, Hard Case Crime, The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories by Algernon Blackwood, Wildside Press, The Haunted Island, Mr. Creepy Voice: Wayne June, The Call Of The Wild by Jack London, The SFFaudio Challenge, Dracula, H.P. Lovecraft, Gene Simmons‘ H.P. Lovecraft, S.T. Joshi, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, best fantasy novel 2007: Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper |READ OUR REVIEW|, Brian Hollsopple, The Caspak Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Doug McLure, Michael Moorcock, Audio Realm’s the Elric audiobooks, “there’s something wrong with living in Texas”, Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock |READ OUR REVIEW|, Audio Realms is a small company with a big attitude, Audible.com, Brian Keene, TheAudiobookShop.com (MP3 downloads with no DRM), “Audible.com is where audiobooks happen”, the many formats of Audio Realms audiobooks, laserrot, the merits of the MP3-CD, dealing with distribution, Amazon.com is the Borg of books, working with robots named Bambi and Thumper, selling audiobooks to library, do you know anyone who uses WMA format?, Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arvid Nelson’s Warlord Of Mars comic, The SyFy Channel vs Space: The Imagination Station, Sanctuary, it could be a “princess” movie, Donald Duck Of Mars, Duck Dodgers, BoingBoing’s Scrooge McDuck/Inception story, Donald Duck audiobooks, keep that horse in hay, horses are the new green cars.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
By Stieg Larsson; Read by Saul Reichlin
Audible Download – Approx. 18 Hours 50 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Whole Story Audio Books
Published: May 2009
Provider: Audible.com
Themes: / Mystery / Murder / Intrigue / Political Intrigue / Hacking / Violence / Sex / Sweden / Politics / Feminism /
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder – and that the killer is a member of his own family. He employs journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.
Better to read than to listen…maybe. There are too many characters in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and we get to know all their names and all their breakfast habits, no matter how minor a role they play in the story. And like the overdeveloped minor characters, there are also many overly lengthy descriptions and over-described scenes that are not key to the plot. It may be that both the character and the storyline problems that I describe are more distracting in the audiobook version than in the print book. After finishing The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I started reading the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, in paperback in order to compare the experiences. I still notice the excessive detail in the paperbook, but it is a more minor annoyance than in the audiobook. At first I thought my discomfort was because The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a translation from Swedish, but I recognized that the translation is seamless. The only other Swedish books, in translation, that I recall reading are those of Astrid Lindgren and, if memory serves, they weren’t nearly as cluttered as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. A quick look at the paperbook edition of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo revealed that the print edition comes with a genealogical table for keeping track of the numerous members of the Vanger family.
On the whole the almost 19 hours of listening is pleasant enough. There is no doubt that the main character is compelling, the plot interesting and that the reader, Saul Reichlin, is brilliant – but as an audio experience it can be daunting – at least without carrying around a character map.
[Here’s one!]
Posted by Elaine Willis
If you like Star Trek and zombies, there’s a book for that. I’m not sure how good the audiobook would be, even after listening to the sample MP3 below, but I am sure the book trailer is most excellent.
Night Of The Living Trekkies
By Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall; Read by Zach McLarty
Audible Download – Approx. 6 Hours 41 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: August 2010
ISBN: 9780307877369
Provider: Audible.com
Sample |MP3|
This sci-fi /zombie/comedy/adventure follows a group of rag-tag Trekkies getting together for the fifth annual FedCon (billed as the “largest Starfleet Convention in the western Gulf Coast region”). Our heroes are dressed in homemade uniforms and armed with prop phasers but soon find themselves defending their hotel and convention center against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Suddenly, all of their useless knowledge about particle physics and old Star Trek episodes has genuine real-world applications! And while hotel employees and regular civilians are dying left and right, our Trekkies summon strength and courage by emulating their favorite starship-voyaging characters. Packed with hundreds of gags referencing Star Trek, comic books, and fan conventions, Night Of The Living Trekkies reads like the strange lovechild of Galaxy Quest and Dawn Of The Dead. Journey to the final frontier of zombie science-fiction mash-ups!
[via Bish’s Beat]
Posted by Jesse Willis