audiobook – Page 117

Blackstone Audio and Audiofile Magazine: FREE Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland audiobook

SFFaudio Online Audio

Blackstone Audio and Audiofile Magazine are giving away a FREE unabridged audiobook of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll!

These free downloads are available only until March 16, 2010.

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
By Lewis Carroll; Read by Michael York
Zipped MP3 Files or Zipped M4B Files Download – Approx. 3.1 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
Alice chases the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole and encounters a world of delightfully eccentric characters like the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, the Mock Turtle, and the Queen of Hearts. This enduring and evocative tale can be read on many levels and enjoyed by adults and children alike.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Talents, Incorporated by Murray Leinster

SFFaudio Online Audio

Yum yum!

Talents, Incorporated
By Murray Leinster; Read by Mark Nelson
12 Zipped MP3 Files – Approx. 6 Hours 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Published: LibriVox.org
Published: February 14, 2010
Bors felt as if he’d been hit over the head. This was ridiculous! He’d planned and carried out the destruction of that warship because the information of its existence and location was verified by a magnetometer. But, if he’d known how the information had been obtained–if he’d known it had been guessed at by a discharged spaceport employee, and a paranoid personality, and a man who used a hazel twig or something similar–if he’d known that, he’d never have dreamed of accepting it. He’d have dismissed it flatly!

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/3832

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[Thanks also to Tricia G]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Golden Age Stories: FREE AUDIOBOOK – The Devil’s Rescue by L. Ron Hubbard

SFFaudio Online Audio

GoldenAgeStories.com, which is a site promoting Galaxy Press audio and ebooks, is offering a FREE audiobook download to visitors who “sign up for the Stories from the Golden Age newsletter.” To get the audiobook you need to answer a couple innocuous-sounding questions and type in your name, mailing address, email. Here is the result…

The Devil’s Rescue
By L. Ron Hubbard; Read by R.F. Daley
Zipped MP3 Download – Approx. 43 Minutes [UNABRIDGED NARRATION WITH SOUND EFFECTS]
Publisher: Galaxy Press
Published: 2009?
Edward Lanson has been drifting in a lifeboat far below the Cape of Good Hope for weeks and seems destined for the watery depths until an ancient clipper ship rescues him. But what seemed to be salvation may indeed be his destruction when he is confronted with the captain of a crew of faceless sailors—a man known only as the Dark One—who has his own plans for Edward. First published in Unknown Fantasy Fiction, October 1940.

[via Bish’s Beat]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro

SFFaudio Review

Sunrise Alley
By Catherine Asaro; Read by Hillary Huber
10 CDs – Approx. 11.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: December 2007
ISBN: 1433213007
Themes: / Science Fiction / Romance / Androids / Artificial Intelligence / California / Cyborgs /

When a shipwrecked stranger washed up on the beach near research scientist Samantha Bryton’s home, she was unaware that he was something more than human. He said his name was Turner Pascal—but Pascal was dead, killed in a car wreck. This man only held the remainder of Pascal’s consciousness in a technologically-enhanced humanoid body. He was, in fact, an experiment by the notorious criminal Charon, a practitioner of illegal robotics and android research. Charon has been secretly copying human minds into android brains, with plans to make his own army of slaves. On the run from this most ruthless criminal, Samatha and Turner seek help from Sunrise Alley, an underground organization of AIs and androids that have gone rogue. But these cybernetic outlaws are rumored to have their own hidden agenda.

It may not be so much that women and men are from different planets as women and men care about different things. Or it may be just that Catherine Asaro and I care about different things. Very different things. I have this hypothesis: people, even when they are lying to you, or writing fiction, can tell you a lot about themselves by what they focus on over and over. The word that kept coming up over and over again in Sunrise Alley was “trust.” Catherine Asaro, or at least her viewpoint character, Samantha Bryton, cares a whole helluvalot about trust. Me, I don’t care about trust, at least not in the way Asaro seems to wants me to. Based on the scenes in Sunrise Alley Asaro seems to think that being chased is also of great interest to a reader. Maybe it is to some readers. It isn’t to me. Turner Pascal, the mobile MacGuffin, is being chased prior to the novel’s start. Then Turner, the bellboy turned android, and Samantha, the scientist turned beachcomber, are chased all over the globe. They are chased in cars, by helicopter, by jet, on foot, in cars again.

The meme of an artificial person, android or evolving intelligence as Asaro dubs it, is often an interesting idea to work with in fiction. Philip K. Dick did some amazing things with it Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? as did Alfred Bester in Fondly Fahrenheit. Even later career Robert A. Heinlein managed to tell a compelling story with an artificial person in Friday. William Gibson’s Neuromancer is a globe trotting adventure with an artificial intelligence as the MacGuffin. But Catherine Asaro’s take on AI and androids leaves me empty and depressed.

When Samantha and Turner aren’t being chased by unseen foes they are usually making love in one of Samantha’s many beds (in one of her many houses), or in a tastefully decorated secure facility bedrooms (where they are being held prisoner). But those looking for scene after scene of socially redeeming hot piston on human action will also be sadly disappointed. The order of the day in Sunrise Alley is for the scientist and the bellboy to show each other their emotions, their vulnerable sides and speak essentially the same dialogue over and over.
The android, Turner, has an inferiority complex and his savior/companion/scientist girlfriend is needed to shore up his insecurities. The central problem in the novel, other than their being chased, comes when Turner starts to modify his body in order to solve their problems and escape their captors (because apparently Samantha has no skills herself). In doing this Turner is increasingly loosing the handsome human looks he was given by his evil maker (the bad guy who we don’t get to meet for more than half the novel). This makes Samantha have to deal with the increasing repulsion she feels towards Turner’s increasingly mechanical-looking body. And that is basically encapsulates my big problem with this story. Writing sentences about a character’s emotional life and his/her feelings towards another character’s body parts makes me really, really annoyed.

I like idea fiction, stories that tell me something on an intellecutal level. Asaro’s Sunrise Alley seems to be merely operating on the level of wish-fulfillment. Samantha Bryton is beautiful, wealthy, and unemployed by choice. When the novel begins a handsome, insecure man has just washed up on her beach. She rescues him and drags him to the safety of her inviting home. Did I mention that Samantha also has two homes in the woods? One is near the beach in a forest, another is in some other forest, just a convienient chapter’s distance away. Both homes are filled with top-notch security, lovely decor and garages full of vehicles to make James Bond greatly envious. The explanation of why a quietly retired scientist needs to own two woodsy homes within a few hours driving distance of each other isn’t at all satisfactory. And neither is the explanation as to why she has a spy cars with built-in cloaking devices, bulletproof glass, oil slick droppers and mortars.

The worst sin that Asaro commits, in my opinion, is the final revelation which comes in the form of a pathetic pseudoscience, namely repressed memory.Sunrise Alley is not just a bad novel, but badly conceived, badly written and generally bad. This is the worst novel I have ever read. This is the worst I have ever reviewed. This is the worst I have ever finished.

Narrator Hillary Huber is tasked with making Samantha Bryton’s neurotic thoughts come alive. She pitches her voice a little deeper when voicing Turner Pascal. Huber is a fine narrator, this material is beneath her skill.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Completed AUDIOBOOKS from the SFFaudio Challenge

SFFaudio Online Audio

Commenter Marco Ooijer asks:

I was wondering: what about titles from earlier challenges which haven’t been claimed? I’ve made a mistake about choosing to record Project Mastodon (from the 3rd challenge) when I thought the 3rd challenge was still running. I’d still like to record it, I think it’s a cool story. This brings me to another point: where can we download finished books?

Marco, the Third Challenge is still running, the SFFaudio Challenges run until we run out of prizes or titles for each. There are still a couple of titles left to choose from that could earn you a prize. Now, even though Diane Severson hasn’t completed Project Mastadon yet it is still recordable by anyone else (including you) – you just wont be eligible for a prize for it.

As to where you can download the completed audiobooks … HERE THEY ARE …

First Challenge (2006):

The Green Odyssey
By Philip Jose Farmer; Read by Mark Nelson
10 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 6 Hours 7 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: December 17, 2006
A slave among barbarians longs to return to Earth. Presently he learns of two Earth astronauts held captive in a far off kingdom and sets off to rescue them so they can rescue him. But first he must reach them and therein hangs a tale. Read quite professionally by Mark Nelson who is responsible for a many of the best Science Fiction novels in the LibriVox catalog.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-green-odyssey-by-philip-jose-farmer.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Badge Of Infamy
By Lester del Rey; Read by Steven H. Wilson
15 Zipped MP3 files or Podcast – Approx. 3 Hours 19 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 17, 2007
Political lobbyists band together and take over the world swelling the size of government (a ludicrous idea eh?). Our physician protagonist violates his duties by providing emergency services outside the system and escapes to Mars where he can practice medicine without a license. There he discovers something that threatens not only the lobbyists but all of humanity. Read by Steven H. Wilson with a crisp natural style.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/badge-of-infamy-by-lester-del-rey.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

The Cosmic Computer
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Mark Nelson
8 Zipped MP3 Files, 1|M4B| or Podcast – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 15, 2006
Conn Maxwell returns from Terra to his poverty-stricken home planet of Poictesme, “The Junkyard Planet”, with news of the possible location of Merlin, a military super-computer rumored to have been abandoned there after the last war. The inhabitants hope to find Merlin, which they think will be their ticket to wealth and prosperity. But is Merlin real, or just an old rumor? And if they find it will it save them, or tear them apart?

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-cosmic-computer-by-h-beam-piper.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/five-sci-fi-short-stories-by-h-beam-piper.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Plague Ship
By Andre Norton; Read by Mark Nelson
18 Zipped MP3s – Approx. 7 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 2007
Lured by its exotic gems, the space trader Solar Queen lands on the little-known planet of Sargol, only to find the ruthless Inter-Solar Company there ahead of them. Adapting quickly to the culture of Sargol’s feline inhabitants, the crew of the Queen beat out their rivals and successfully make a deal with the natives. But soon after takeoff, the Queen’s crew is stricken with a plague, and they are now banned from landing on any inhabited planet. Will the Queen’s crew save themselves, or be condemned to drift forever through space?

Podcast feed:
http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/plague-ship-by-andre-norton.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Star Surgeon
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Scott D. Farquhar
14 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – 5 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: October 2007
Dal Tigmar is an alien doctor with a sort of interstellar Médecins Sans Frontières. As a recent graduate of the Galaxy’s most prestigious medical school, on Earth, he’s been trained to treat every disease in the book. But racism isn’t a disease even he can treat. This is a real peppy 50 year old novel, that still crackles with energy. It plays out like a typical Heinleinian juvenile, minus the lectures. You’ll love it.

Second Challenge (2007):

The Blue Tower
By Evelyn E. Smith; Read by Betsie Bush
Completed: November 30th 2007
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34.5 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Completed: November 30th 2007
The Belphins came from the stars, they are the caretakers of humanity – but not everyone thinks they should rule.

Red Nails – A Tale Of Conan
By Robert E. Howard; Read by Mark Kalita
7 MP3s – Approx. 3.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BrokenSea Audio Productions
Published: January 6th 2008
Provider: Archive.org
“Red Nails, a tale featuring the legendary Conan the Barbarian, was written by Robert E. Howard and began its written serialization in the July 1936 issue of Weird Tales. This thrilling audio novella begins with pirate-adventuress Valeria of the Red Brotherhood on the run after slaying a notable brigand. She is followed by Conan and the two soon fight their way to a great, walled city inhabited by two warring peoples. The adventure seekers soon find themselves embroiled in the feud and mayhem ensues as the city’s rulers make unholy plans for the mighty Cimmerian and his feisty female companion. Listen now as an ancient evil returns from oblivion and a wicked sorceress seeks to gain immortality at the cost of our Hyborian heroes!”

Time Crime
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Nathan Lowell
Podiobook – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: March 2008
“The Paratime Police had a real headache this time! Tracing one man in a population of millions is easy—compared to finding one gang hiding out on one of billions of probability lines! This story from 1955 has rocket ships, time travel, slaves, post-hypnotic suggestions, drugged citizens, and a complete disregard for human rights. And those are the good guys. As a look back in time at “classic” science fiction, it’s an interesting snapshot of a time when tobacco was common, sexism was unconscious, and female characters were a long way from Lara Croft.”

Rebels Of The Red Planet
By Charles L. Fontenay; Read by Paul Campbell
18 MP3 Files – 5 Hours 54 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Cossmass Productions / Podiobooks.com
Published: December 2007 – April 2008
MARS FOR THE MARTIANS! Dark Kensington had been dead for twenty-five years. It was a fact; everyone knew it. Then suddenly he reappeared, youthful, brilliant, ready to take over the Phoenix, the rebel group that worked to overthrow the tyranny that gripped the settlers on Mars. The Phoenix had been destroyed not once, not twice, but three times! But this time the resurrected Dark had new plans, plans which involved dangerous experiments in mutation and psionics. And now the rebels realized they were in double jeopardy. Not only from the government’s desperate hatred of their movement, but also from the growing possibility that the new breed of mutated monsters would get out of hand and bring terrors never before known to man.

Subscribe to the podcast feed:

http://cossmass.co.uk/series/rebelsredplanet/feed

Legacy
By James H. Schmitz; Read by Maureen O’Brien
29 Zipped MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Maria Lectrix
Podcast: January 2008 – July 2008
Strange ancient machines possessing vast power have been discovered. Ruthless people want to control them. Governments, industries, and universities claw for jurisdiction, and scientists for discoveries and status. Trigger Argee just wants to go home and see her boyfriend — but first, she’s got a lot of mess to sort out.

Space Viking
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – Approx. 7.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 6th 2008
A galactic war has left the Terran Federation in ruins. Formerly civilized planets have decivilized into barbarism. Space Vikings roam the wreckage, plundering and killing for gain. Lord Lucas Trask of Traskon was no admirer of the Space Vikings, but when murder takes his wife on his wedding day, Trask trades everything he has for his own Space Viking ship and sets out on a galaxy-wide quest for revenge.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/space-viking-by-h-beam-piper.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Space Tug
By Murray Leinster; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
11 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – 6 Hours 18 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 16th, 2008
Joe Kenmore heard the airlock close with a sickening wheeze and then a clank. In desperation he turned toward Haney. “My God, we’ve been locked out!” Through the transparent domes of their space helmets, Joe could see a look of horror and disbelief pass across Haney’s face. But it was true! Joe and his crew were locked out of the Space Platform. Four thousand miles below circled the Earth. Under Joe’s feet rested the solid steel hull of his home in outer space. But without tools there was no hope of getting back inside. Joe looked at his oxygen meter. It registered thirty minutes to live.

Subscribe to the podcast:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/space-tug-by-murray-leinster.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

The Wood Beyond the World
By William Morris; Read by Cori Samuel
12 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 5 Hours 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 9th, 2008
The Wood Beyond The World is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. His use of archaic language has been seen by some modern readers as making his fiction difficult to read, but brings a wonderful atmosphere to the telling. Morris considered his fantasies a revival of the medieval tradition of chivalrous romances. In consequence, they tend to have sprawling plots of strung-together adventures. In this story, Walter leaves his father and his own unfaithful wife and sets sail in search of adventure. This he finds aplenty, encountering love, treachery and magic in the Wood of the title and travelling through the Mountains of the Folk of the Bears. But can he find happiness and peace by means of this Quest?

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-wood-beyond-the-world-by-william-morris.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

The Cairn on the Headland
By Robert E. Howard; Read by David Drage
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Dial P For Pulp
Podcast: March 2008
What lies beneath the stone cairn on the headland of Clontarf, where the Christian Irish defeated the pagan Vikings in pitched battle a thousand years ago? An unscrupulous extortionist plans to uncover the secret. First published in the January 1933 issue of Strange Tales of Mystery And Terror magazine.

Third Challenge (2008):

Cat And Mouse
By Ralph Williams; Read by Betsie Bush
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour 3 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: December 5th 2008
This was the cover story for the Astounding Science Fiction issue for June 1959. Set in Alaska, and being a most unusual Science Fiction story – it’s about hunting!

The Creature From Beyond Infinity
By Henry Kuttner; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
7 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 5 Hours 31 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 19, 2009
A lone space traveler arrives on Earth seeking a new planet to colonize, his own world dead. At the same time a mysterious plague has infected Earth that will wipe out all life. Can a lone scientist stop the plague and save the world? Or will the alien find himself on another doomed planet?

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-creature-from-beyond-infinity.xml

Operation Terror
By Murray Leinster; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – 5 Hours 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 19, 2009
An unidentified space ship lands in a Colorado lake. Equipped with a paralyzing ray weapon, the creatures begin taking human prisoners. A loan land surveyor and a journalist are trapped inside the Army cordon, which is helpless against the mysterious enemy. Can they stop the aliens before it is too late?

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/operation-terror-by-murray-leinster.xml

The Aliens
By Murray Leinster; Read by Julie Davis
2 MP3s – 2 Hours 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Forgotten Classics
Podcast: January 2009
First published in Astounding SF’s August, 1959 issue.
The human race was expanding through the galaxy … and so, they knew, were the Aliens. When two expanding empires meet … war is inevitable. Or is it …?

Part 1 |MP3| and Part 2 |MP3|

Hunters Out of Space
By Joseph E. Kelleam; Read by Elliot Miller
19 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Publlished: May 7, 2009
Jack Odin has returned to the world of Opal, the world inside our own world, only to find it in ruins. Many of his friends are gone, the world is flooded, and the woman he swore to protect has been taken by Grim Hagen to the stars. Jack must save her, but the difficulties are great and his allies are few.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/hunters-out-of-space-by-joseph-kelleam.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Fourth Challenge (2009):

Ultima Thule
By Mack Reynolds; Read by Karen Savage
13 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 2 Hours 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 23, 2009
Ronny Bronston has dreamed all his life of getting a United Planets job that would take him off-world. He finally gets the opportunity when he is given a provisional assignment with Bureau of Investigation, Section G. But will he be able to complete his assignment and find the elusive Tommy Paine? First published in Analog Science Fact & Fiction March 1961.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/rss/3735

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

D-99
By Horace Brown Fyfe; Read by Jerry Pyle
20 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 03, 2010
EARTHMEN IN TROUBLE Harris was caged in an underwater “zoo” by a pack of blue lobsters. Maria drew a five-year sentence on a puritanical planet for trying to buy a souvenir–and for being excessively feminine. Taranto and Meyers had committed the crime of being shipwrecked on a planet that didn’t like strangers. Gerson was simply kidnapped. And nobody had any idea why five citizens of Terra were being held on other worlds–and the ultra-secret Department 99 existed only to set them, and others like them, free. This tense novel is the story of one evening’s work for Department 99–their successes and failures–and of the strange crisis that almost wrecked D-99.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/3755

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

The audiobook is also available in two etext formats |PDF | and |HTML| – in case you’d like to read along!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Hypatia of Alexandria

SFFaudio News

If you’re anything like me you’re more than twice as happy to find a small gem to share with a friend than to revel in the worship and praise of something that is already well advertised. Agora is a recently completed movie in the marketplace of filmed ideas.

The posters to promote the film read: “FREEDOM” “PASSION” “POWER” “AMBITION”

Agora Posters

After seeing the movie I can see why the marketers have labeled the characters with the abstract nouns that they did. Freedom, Passion, Power, Ambition. All are probably better at getting more bums in theater seats that the words that I’d like to see on those posters: “HISTORY” “PHILOSOPHY” “SKEPTICISM” “SCIENCE” – I think these words would be more in keeping with the true intellectual spirit of the film – it is a movie about all four of those things.

The audiobook, on the other hand, has yet to have any art made for it because it isn’t completed yet. Underway at LibriVox.org, is an unabridged, multiple narrator reading of Hypatia by Charles Kingsley. This is a historical novel based on the very same life of scientist and philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria. And here’s where you come in. The project is still in need of narrators and proof listeners. To get involved head on over to the LibriVox Forum reader thread or the LibriVox Forum proof listener thread and help bring the story of Hypatia back to life.

Posted by Jesse Willis