audio drama – Page 11

3 FREE Audiobooks from Random House Audio

SFFaudio News

Random House Audio is offering three FREE audiobooks to folks who subscribe to their monthly newsletter. HERE is the link to the website where you can sign up. An email confirming your subscription will include a link to where you can download all three audiobooks. All three are in the MP3 format. The audiobooks are:

Merrano Of The Dry Country Approx. 58 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA] Based on the story by Louis L’Amour
The master storyteller once again brings the Old West to life in this action-packed, full cast dramatization. Violence and prejudice are brewing in the drought-stricken land of Mirror Valley, where death turns friends into enemies and enemies into friends. From 1990.

Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House, No. 1) by Mary Pope Osborne – Approx. 39 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Where did the tree house come from? Before Jack and Annie can find out, the mysterious tree house whisks them back to the prehistoric past. Now they have to figure out how to get home. Can they do it before dark, or will they become a dinosaur’s dinner? From 1992.

Percy Jackson And The Sword of Hades by Rick Riordan – Approx. 77 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
First published in a back to back paperbook version for World Book Day in the UK. This short novella takes place between Books 4 and 5 of the Percy Jackson series. As far as I can tell this is its fist audiobook release.

[via Mary Burkey’s Audiobook Blog]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Aural Noir Review of FALCO: Venus In Copper – a RADIO DRAMA

Aural Noir: Review

SFFaudio Essential Falco: Venus In Copper
Based on the novel by Lindsey Davis; Performed by a full cast
3 CDs or Audible Download – Approx. 3 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Publisher: BBC Audio / Audible.com
Published: July 2006
ISBN: 1846071399
Themes: / Crime / Ancient Rome / Detective / Murder / Noir /
Sample: MP3

“Greetings! Marcus Didius Falco at your service, private informer, investigator to you. If you need references ask the emperor. I’ve just done a big job for him. It went very well, so well his chief spy got jealous and threw me in prison, accused me of stealing some imperial lead. Those ingots are going to haunt me forever. I’d have given them the money if anyone had bothered to ask. Still it wasn’t all bad rotting in jail. I had company, a very friendly rat. But before I had time to get to know him better my mother bailed me out.”

Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator of Venus In Copper (the third in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis). Falco’s narration and dialogue is sprinkled with half-nods and sly-winks to the private detective stories of the 20th century. At least one or two lines out of Falco’s mouth each episode echoes something from Chandler, Chinatown or another quip you’ll half recognize. Falco lives in 70’s AD Rome under the rule of Emperor Vespasian. He works as a ‘private informer’ solving mysteries for the citiy’s elites or the nouveau riche freed slaves. That latter is the case with this mystery, concerning the investigation of a black widow set to marry into a rich family made up of freed slaves. The serpentine plot takes the fore of the drama with Davis and dramatist Mary Cutler (a friend of Davis’s) beeing careful to detail Falco’s personal life just enough to make us care about them all. I mentioned that the program seems to delight in referencing the 20th century private detective story. But it also seems highly interested in showing us actual historical 1st century AD detail. The feel for Rome itself, the interplay between fact actually informs the plot – how wonderful and refreshing for a historical mystery! Te program is both comforting in its familiarity and simultaneously fascinating in its new setting. The characters are likewise familiar and new. Venus In Copper is wonderful.

Anton Lesser, playing Falco, is absolutely extraordinary, carrying the program to the heights of radio drama excellence. Anna Madeley, playing Falco’s aristocratic girlfriend, is also amazing. In fact the entire cast does excellent work. Falco’s world is depicted with a rich soundscape with atmospheric effects and well themed music. The only flaw in the entire production was an artificial sounding talking parrot – but then again I don’t think I’ve ever heard a convincing talking parrot imitation. The program is available in stereo on CD or (occasionally via BBC iplayer) or in monaural via Audible.com. Highly recommended.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: a caveman comedy and

SFFaudio Online Audio

Our U.K. radio spotter, Roy, has pointed out a couple of recent BBC broadcasts that are still available for your listening pleasure.

BBC R4 Monday 1st June 11:30-12:00 Newfangle episode 1/6.
Radio Times says:

“Sitcom set among a tribe of proto-humans. Newfangle is bottom of the heap – despised by his mother, savaged by Alf on a daily basis and ignored by Snaggle, his favourite female. But Newfangle is a hominid with big ideas. In this opening episode he invents language, which he hopes will transform his situation, only to find words have a way of being twisted to unpleasant uses”.

BBC R4 Tuesday 2nd June 14:15-15:00 Afternoon Play: On Ego
Says the Radio Times:

“Alex believes people and emotions are just a bunch of neurons and uses a teleportation device to prove it. When the machine malfunctions, & his wife falls ill, he is forced to question his beliefs. A Sci- Fi drama from writer Mick Gordon and neuropsychologist Paul Broks”.

These are still be available via ‘listen again’ – or even better via Radio Downloader!

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

DRT Summer Showcase #3: The Knightmare

SFFaudio News

And here are details from the first of Decoder Ring Summer Showcase #3‘s program…

The Knightmare by Bill Cunningham

The man behind this production, Bill Cunningham, says that “The Knightmare is a hero cut from the same cloth as The Shadow or The Green Hornet.” Not unlike Decoder Ring’s Red Panda himself! In this 2-part episode, The Knightmare is fighting Hollywood gangsters, Hollywood cops and Nazis (probably not from Hollywood). Unlike RP this story is set in Los Angeles.

The Knightmare (The Murder Legion Strikes at Midnight)
By Bill Cunningham; Performed by a full cast
2 Parts – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: Decoder Ring Theatre
Podcast: May 30th, 2009 & June 6th, 2009

Podcast feed:

http://decoderring.libsyn.com/rss

Here’s a downloadable sample from the intro to the show |MP3| and |HERE| is the full press release.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Decoder Ring Theatre: Summer Showcase 2009

SFFaudio News

Decoder Ring Theatre - Summer Showcase #3

Gregg Taylor, of Decoder Ring Theatre, writes in to tell us about his upcoming Summer Showcase #3 (this is the third year):

“We start our next edition of the DRT Summer Showcase in a week and a half with a two part thriller by New Pulp Media Baron Bill Cunningham called The Knightmare and then continue with a pair of Westerns (one old-timey, one much less so, both by Phil Bledsoe). Through the course of the summer we’ll also have a pair of science fiction stories, Thinking In Ternary by Tim Prasil who wrote “The Crasher and Magic Of The Movies for us a couple of seasons back, and Shienki by Matthew Stephens. We’ll also be running a couple of Decoder Ring Spotlight episodes, where I’ll be turning the bright lights of our lovely audience on a pair of audio production groups of which I am very fond, Icebox Radio and Texas Radio Theatre… and that’ll bring us through to the fall.”

Thanks Gregg! It sounds like we’re in for a terrific summer!

And, since the regular season has wrapped up, that means the Red Panda Adventures and Black Jack Justice are complete – time for me to get listening.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Logan’s Run – inspired by greatness

SFFaudio News

Bill Hollweg, the audio dramatist who adapted Robert E. Howard’s Queen Of The Black Coast, also worked on an adaptation of Logan’s Run. He recently scanned the first few pages of MTI edition of the novel upon which the movie, and BSAP’s own fan adaptation, were based. There are TWO FULL PAGES detailing who and what the authors were inspired by…

Can you spot all the RADIO DRAMAs on the list?

Logan’s Run
By William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson
Paperback book with stills from the film
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1967 /1976
ISBN: 0553025171

First dedication page:

Logan's Run dedication page 1

Second dedication page:

Logan's Run dedication page 2

Here’s the podcast feed for Broken Sea Audio Productions audio drama of Logan’s Run:

http://brokensea.com/logansrun/feed/

Posted by Jesse Willis