audiobook – Page 100

Uvula Audio: The Rocket’s Shadow by John Blaine

SFFaudio Online Audio

Uvula Audio‘s James Campanella, of Uvula Audio, has just completed an unabridged reading of the 1947 adventure/mystery/science novel The Rocket’s Shadow by John Blaine. The Rocket’s Shadow was the first in a 24 book series which used “realistic science” and, according to the Wikipedia entry, the publishers were averse to “any suggestion of the supernatural in the series.” Sez James:

“The Rocket’s Shadow follows the adventures of Rick Brant and is the first in a long juvenile pulp series that was published from the late 1940’s until the late 1980’s . Rick is young (~19 since he just finished high school in the first book), but not a kid. This first exciting book in the series introduces readers to Rick , the son of a famous scientist, Hartson Brant. As with all the Brant series, quite a bit of actual down to earth science was the basis of the books– unlike Tom Swift, for example. Hartson brant is trying to win the $2 million Stoneridge Prize for the greatest scientific accomplishment of the year. The group of scientists headed by Rick Brant’s father works desperately to complete their moon rocket experiment before the deadline of year is up. But, someone in that closely knit group is a traitor – unknown and unscrupulous – who menaces the success of the experiment at every turn.”

Sounds fun hey?

The Rocket’s Shadow
By John Blaine; Read by J.J. Campanella
7 MP3 Files – Approx. [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Uvula Audio
Podcast: December 2010
Rick Brant is the son of scientist/inventor Hartson Brant and they live on an island called Spindrift. The island houses a research facility and several scientists also live there. Some of those scientists are descriptively similar to members of Doc Savage’s group. Rick has as his sidekick Scott, an ex-marine, capable of physically defending himself when necessary. This story, the first in the Rick Brant series has Rick’s father trying to build a rocket to hit the moon. A large monetary prize has been offered for the first group able to do so and the Brant group is the leading contender. However, there are other groups in the chase and one of them is a criminal group that does everything it can to sabotage the Brant effort.

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 | MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3| Part 5 |MP3| Part 6 |MP3| Part 7 |MP3|

Podcast feed: http://www.uvulaaudio.com/kids/Kids.xml

And, for those looking for something a bit more xmasy, look out for more files in the feed. Uvula will be presenting a Christmas special “covering L. Frank Baum’s Life”, the Adventures Of Santa Claus and Kidnapped Santa Claus!

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Skylark Of Space by E.E. Smith

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Skylark Of Space
By E.E. Smith; Read by Richard Kilmer
19 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 9 Hours 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: December 16, 2010
The novel begins with the accidental discovery, in a Government laboratory in Washington D. C., of a form of clean nuclear power. Our hero, Dr. Richard Seaton, uses this power to build first a flying belt and then an interstellar spaceship. He later discovers that the process operates by generation and manipulation of gravity fields. When his government coworkers do not believe him, Seaton acquires rights to his discovery from the government and commercializes it with the aid of his friend, millionaire inventor Martin Crane. A former colleague, Dr. Marc DuQuesne, joins with the unscrupulous World Steel Corporation to try to steal Seaton’s invention. The resulting conflict escalates, as Seaton and Duquesne develop greater and greater technical capabilities and enlist more and more powerful alien races as allies.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/4865

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[Thanks also to mim@can and Barry Eads]

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Asteroid Of Fear by Raymond Z. Gallun

SFFaudio Online Audio

Asteroid Of Fear
By Raymond Z. Gallun; Read by Gregg Margarite
2 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 1 Hour 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: December 15, 2010
John Endlich needed to clean up his act. Gambling, drinking, a hot temper and wanderlust were the last things Rose and the kids needed. So he went to the Homesteaders Office and signed up to terraform Vesta, a chunk of a once thriving alien planet that had exploded from within; a flat lump of crust which was now the remains of a farm on one side and a mining operation on the other. The miners hated Endlich and sabotaged his plans at every opportunity. They were going to kill him and his family if he didn’t find a way to stop them. First published in the March, 1951 edition of Planet Stories magazine.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/5014

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 |MP3|

[Thanks also to Betty M.]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Commentary: SFSignal Mind Meld on the best of 2010

SFFaudio Commentary

JP Frantz, of the wonderful SFSignal blog, recently asked me to participate in their annual year end “Mind Meld.”

Here’s the topic:

Q: What were the best genre-related books, movies and/or shows you consumed in 2010?

Here was my answer:

Audiobooks in 2010:
The year isn’t over yet, and I’m really enjoying the new Brilliance Audio (Audible Frontiers) reading of The Speed Of Dark by Elizabeth Moon. Of the audiobooks I’ve reviewed this year I’m pleased to report the first audiobook released in the Gabriel Hunt series, Hunt: Through The Cradle Of Fear |READ OUR REVIEW|, and it’s bonus short story “Nor Idolatry Blind the Eye” have really scratched the Fantasy Adventure itch that I occasionally get. Another pair of novels released by Blackstone Audio, written by the recently deceased John Steakley, were designated SFFaudio Essentials. As read by the powerful Tom Weiner Armor |READ OUR REVIEW| and Vampire$ |READ OUR REVIEW| make for a very interesting pair of novels – they have multiple character names in common and yet one is Science Fiction (in the tradition of Starship Troopers) and the other is Fantasy (with vampires). Similarly, Full Cast Audio’s unabridged reading of Robert A. Heinlein’s Red Planet is, in my mind, now the definitive telling of the novel. It features a full cast of actors performing the entirety of the novel’s text (minus attributions). This brings the story to life in a way no TV or movie adaptation ever could – it doesn’t change a single golden word. Finally, George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides, available through Audible.com and Brilliance Audio, was perhaps the highlight of my audiobook year. Earth Abides had me reconsidering much of my outlook on life – that’s a powerful piece of SF.

Audio Drama in 2010:
In the audio drama department BrokenSea‘s expansive adaptation of Escape From New York |READ OUR REVIEW| blew my socks off! It’s a hardcore retelling of the movie of the same name with enhancements and inspiration from the novelization of the script. And, as always, the ever dependable Red Panda Adventures |READ OUR REVIEW|, now in it’s fifth season, is ramping up to a wonderful World War II arc – turning Toronto superheroes against the baddest baddies of them all – those evil Nazi scum. 2010 was a very good year for audiobooks and audio drama.

In the 2010 comics department:
I’ve been swept up in Eric Shanower’s epic quest to retell the entirety of the Trojan War in his Age Of Bronze series of graphic novels. I am also currently reading The Walking Dead and enjoying it very much. But I am not yet ready to admit that either The Walking Dead comics or on the TV show are even half as great as the zombie freaky awesomeness in the Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows series Crossed (which I read in the spring). Crossed is one scary good comic. I also thoroughly enjoyed Logicomix: An Epic Search For Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou. It’s kind of about Bertrand Russell and kind of about the only part of philosophy that I am really bad at, natural deductive logic.

Movies and TV in 2010:
The only movies that I’ve seen, worthy of the designation Science Fiction, in 2010, were Moon and Inception. If you made me pick which was superior I’d take Moon over Inception and not just because I root for the underdog. In TV, Spartacus: Blood and Sand turned out to be well worth wading through – it’s 300-style green screen visual effects nearly drowned me, but I stuck with it, and the story and acting paid-off supremely.

You can read it |HERE| along with a bunch of other folk’s own lists.

And, I participated in the 2009 Mind Meld on the same topic too!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Telling Atwood’s Tale

SFFaudio Commentary

Offered here, with small commentary, is a complete listing of the audio editions and adaptations of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. A note from the Wikipedia entry:

“The [paperbook version of the] novel concludes with a metafictional epilogue that explains that the events of the novel occurred shortly after the beginning of what is called ‘the Gilead Period.’ The epilogue itself is a ‘transcription of a Symposium on Gileadean Studies written some time in the distant future (2195),’ and according to the symposium’s ‘keynote speaker’ Professor Pieixoto, he and ‘a colleague’, Professor Knotly Wade, discovered Offred’s narrative recorded onto thirty cassette tapes. They created a ‘probable order’ for these tapes and transcribed them, calling them collectively ‘the handmaid’s tale’.”

Enotes.com offers a critical analysis of Offred’s experiences in the Republic of Gilead; There, you’ll find an assertion that the novel’s title title – arguing that it’s – a “sexist pun on the word tale/tail” playing off the association with Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and the role that handmaids are forced to play in Gileadean society.

BBC Radio:

The Handmaid’s Tale
3 Broadcasts (2 Cassettes) – Approx. 3 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: 2000
ISBN: 0563553561
Recorded on location in and around New York.

Off The Shelf – The Handmaid’s Tale
By Margaret Atwood; Read by Jocelyn Cunningham
fifiteen 15 Minute Episodes – Approx. 3 Hours 45 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC World Service / Off The Shelf
Broadcast: May-June 1993

Book At Bedtime? – The Handmaid’s Tale
By Margaret Atwood; Read by Buffy Davis
10x 30mins or 10x 15mins [ABRIDGED?]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / BBC Radio 7?
Broadcast: 1995 / December 2007?

English National Opera – The Handmaid’s Tale*
Based on the novel by Margaret Atwood;
1 Broadcast – Approx. 2 Hours 45 Minutes [OPERA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 3
Broadcast: 2003
*Performed for the first time in Copenhagen in 2000.

CBC Radio:

The Handmaid’s Tale
Based on the novel by Margaret Atwood; Adpated by Michael O’Brien; Performed by a full cast
2 Broadcasts, 2 CDs – Approx. 1 Hour 43 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBC Radio / Sunday Showcase
Broadcast: August 11 and 18, 2002
Publisher: BTC Audiobooks
Published: 2004
ISBN: 0864923414
Cast:
Janey Amos … Cora
Greg Bryk … Guardian
Alex Bulmer … Ofglen #2, Woman being chased
Emma Campbell … Offred
Kim Campbell … Aunt Elizabeth
Richard Clarkin … Nick
John Cleland … Guardian, TV announcer
William B. Davis … The Commander
Shirley Douglas … Aunt Lydia
Michelle Fisk … Rita
Catherine Fitch … Oflgen #1
Donna Goodhand … Serena Joy
Juliana Hayden-Nygren … Daughter
William Johnston … Guide, Guardian, TV announcer
Kim Kuhteubl … Ofjohn, Woman
Richard Lee … Cashier, Tourist, Man who dies, Guardian
Hardee T. Lineham … Doctor
Juno Mills-Cockell … Ofwarren
Rahnuma Pathaky … Woman in gym, Woman, Woman in washroom
Andrew Tarbet … Luke, Guardian
Kristen Thomson … Moira
Diana Tso … Tourist, Woman, Woman greeting
Terry Tweed … Mother

Dramatized by Michael O’Brien
Directed and produced by Ann Jansen
Recording Engineer Joe Mahoney
sound Effects by Wayne Richards and Matthew Wilcott
Mastered by Lloyd Hanson
Introduction by Robbie O’Neill
Original music by Michael White

Audiobooks:

The Handmaid’s Tale
By Margaret Atwood; Read by Joanna David
8 Cassettes – Approx. 10 Hours 15 Minutes Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Chivers Audio
Published: 1985
ISBN: 0745168086
Near the end of the 20th century, birth control and the effects of nuclear fallout have caused fewer births, so the Biblical story of Rachel is invoked to handle the declining birth rate.

DURKIN HAYES - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood The Handmaids Tale
By Margaret Atwood; Read by Julie Christie
2 Cassettes – Approx. 3 Hours [ABRIDGED]
Publisher: Listen For Pleasure / Durkin Hayes Audio / dhAudio
Published: 1987 / 1988
ISBN: 0886462142
“A dystopian novel of a world ruled by militaristic fundamentalism in which sexual pleasure is forbidden.”

The Handmaid’s Tale
By Margaret Atwood; Read by Betty Harris
8 Cassetes or 10 CDs – Approx. 11 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 9781556902161 (cassette), 9781436179850 (cd)
ISBN: 2002
This novel has been described as “a women’s 1984.” As with Orwell’s futuristic thriller, The Handmaid’s Tale is well-written, politically astute, and contains enough reality mixed in with the fantastic to compel and horrify. Although the novel has a feminist perspective, it addresses the universal issues of individual autonomy and freedom.

Posted by Jesse Willis

With A Little Help by Cory Doctorow (and his friends)

SFFaudio Online Audio

Check out the impressive list of narrators reading the stories in this new FREE short story collection from Cory Doctorow. The Neil Gaiman read story, The Right Book, takes on the future of books, ebooks and publishing. The Wil Wheaton read story, Scroogled, imagines a future (or perhaps present) in which your Google searches shall be held against you in the airport security screening, free wi-fi and webcams everywhere means you’ve constantly surveilled and Cardinal Richelieu get’s his revenge. This is a very cool project.

I’ve added a HuffDuffer podcast feed for the the entire collection or pick and choose individual stories.

With A Little Help
By Cory Doctorow; Read by various
14 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 10 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Craphound.com
Published: December 7, 2010
With A Little Help is my first serious experiment in self-publishing. I’ve published many novels, short story collections, books of essays and so on with publishers, and it’s all been very good and satisfying and educational and so on, but it seems like it’s time to try something new. With A Little Help consists of 12 stories, all reprints except for “Epoch” (commissioned by Mark Shuttleworth) This book is also available as a limited edition hardcover, a free ebook (in several formats) and an audiobook. It is licensed Creative Commons BY-NC-SA. Download the book, buy the limited edition hardcover and audiobooks at craphound.com/walh. This cover by Rick Lieder. Three other covers available.

Podcast feed: http://huffduffer.com/tags/with_a_little_help/rss

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

1. Introduction
By Jonathan Coulton; Read by Jonathan Coulton
1 |MP3| – Approx. 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

2. The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Hugh A.D. Spencer
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

3. The Right Book
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Neil Gaiman
1 |MP3| – Approx. 17 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

4. Other Peoples’ Money
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Mur Lafferty
1 |MP3| – Approx. 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

5. Scroogled
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Wil Wheaton
1 |MP3| – Approx. 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

6. Human Readable
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Spider Robinson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour 38 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

7. Liberation Spectrum
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Leo Laporte
1 |MP3| – Approx. 55 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

8. Power Punctuation!
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

9. Visit The Sins
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Roy Trumbull
1 |MP3| – Approx. 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

10. Constitutional Crisis
By Cory Doctorow; Read by J.C. Hutchins
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

11. Pester Power
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Mary Robinette Kowal
1 |MP3| – Approx. 12 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

12. Chicken Little
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Emily Hurson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 2 Hours 7 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

13. Epoch
By Cory Doctorow; Read by Jesse Brown
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour 24 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

14. Afterword: I’m Only In It For The Money
By Russell Galen; Read by Russell Galen
1 |MP3| – Approx. 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

[Thanks tamahome02000‎!]

Posted by Jesse Willis