Free Audiobooks for a Summer Roadtrip

SFFaudio Online Audio

Free Listens BlogAccording to the Triple-A, over 31 million Americans will travel by road this Memorial Day weekend. If you’re one of those, you might want to bring along an audiobook or two to keep you company on the Interstate. Long drives are a great time to take in an audiobook, but also require a specific type of book. The plot has to be exciting enough to hold your interest on boring stretches of the Interstate, but simple enough that you can still pay attention to the traffic. Since you’ll be spending most of your money on gas, you might want to save your vacation budget by going with a free downloadable audiobook. I’ve come up with 5 recommendations for free road trip Science Fiction and Fantasy audiobooks:

* Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell – This novel, published by Podiobooks, tells the story of Ishmael, a new crewmember on a space freighter. The story and gentle didactic tone reminded me of classic adolescent science fiction like Have Spacesuit, Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein.

* Trunk & Disorderly by Charles Stross – Stross reads his own work here in a novellette made available by Subterrannean Press. The story is a hilarious re-imagining of the Wooster and Jeeves stories by P.G. Wodehouse, but set in a futuristic universe. Not recommended for children.

* The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle – In probably the greatest Sherlock Holmes novel, Holmes and Watson confront a demonic hellhound threatening the life of their client. John Telfer performs a marvelous array of British accents in this excellent recording. Project Gutenberg provides two duplicate copies of the files: one at 11 kHz and a higher-quality version at 22 kHz.

* The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum – Even if you or your children have the movie memorized, the original book is worth a listen. J. Hall narrates the book in this LibriVox offering with a pleasant American accent that would be at home on NPR.

* Red Panda Adventures by Decoder Ring Theatre – Okay, so this one’s not technically an audiobook. The folks at Decoder Ring Theater produce an excellent show in old-time radio style about the adventures of a pair of wisecracking masked heroes. Download several episodes to fit the length of your trip.

Posted by Seth (Listener of the Free Listens blog)

Recent Arrivals – Dick, Heinlein, Card, Bujold, Robinson

Science Fiction Audiobook Recent Arrivals

We’ve got five new arrivals from Blackstone with the top names in the business–again!

dr_bloodmoney150.jpgDr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Tom Weiner
7 CD, 8.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433245503

Philip Dick’s post-nuclear-holocaust masterpiece presents a mesmerizing vision of a world transformed, where technology has reverted back to the nineteenth century, animals have developed speech and language, and humans must deal with both physical mutations and the psychological repercussions of the disaster they have caused. The book is filled with a host of Dick’s most memorable characters: Hoppy Harrington, a deformed mutant with telekinetic powers; Walt Dangerfield, a selfless disc jockey stranded in a satellite circling the globe; Dr. Bluthgeld, the megalomaniac physicist largely responsible for the decimated state of the world; and Stuart McConchie and Bonnie Keller, two unremarkable people bent the survival of goodness in a world devastated by evil. Epic and alluring, Dr. Bloodmoney brilliantly depicts Dick’s undying hope in humanity.

SF audiobook - Memory of Earth by Orson Scott CardThe Memory of Earth; Homecoming Vol. 1
By Orson Scott Card; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
9 CD, 10.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433218705

High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet, to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats. To protect them, most of all, from themselves.The Oversoul has done its job well. There is no war on Harmony. There are no weapons of mass destruction. There is no technology that could lead to weapons of war. By control of the data banks, and subtle interference in the very thoughts of the people, the artificial intelligence has fulfilled its mission.But now there is a problem. In orbit, the Oversoul realizes that it has lost access to some of its memory banks, and some of its power systems are failing. And on the planet, men are beginning to think about power, wealth, and conquest.

SF Audiobook - Stardance by Spider and Jeanne RobinsonStardance
By Spider & Jeanne Robinson: Read by Spider Robinson
7 CD, 8 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433244827

Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but she could not pursue her dream of dancing on Earth. So she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. And when the aliens arrived, there was only one way to prove that the human race deserved not just to survive, but to reach the stars. The only hope was Shara, with her stardance.

The Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Stardance series pioneered the concept of zero gravity dance, which even sparked the interest of NASA and shortlisted co-author Jeanne Robinson for a seat on a space shuttle to become the first actual freefall dancer in space. Though the Challenger explosion cancelled that dream, now Jeanne is being given a second chance to choreograph dance in space…on film. See Stardance Home Page for more.

SF audiobook - Friday by Robert A. HeinleinFriday
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Hillary Huber
11 CDs – Approx. 14 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433246502
Engineered from the finest genes and trained to be a secret courier in a future world, Friday operates over a near-future Earth, where chaos reigns. North America has become Balkanized into dozens of independent states, sharing only a bizarrely vulgarized culture. Now, Friday finds herself on shuttlecock assignment at the seemingly whimsical behest of her secret employer, known to her only as “Boss”. Traveling from one to another of the new states of America’s disunion, she is confronted with a series of professional as well as personal crises that put her to the test.

SF audiobook - Passage: The Sharing Knife part 3 by Lois McMaster Bujould TNThe Sharing Knife, Passage, Vol. 3
By Lois McMaster Bujould; Read by Bernadette Dunne
12 CD, 15 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433234910

Filled with magic, heroism, and all-too-human characters, Bujold’s Sharing Knife saga is both a gripping adventure and a poignant romance. In this third volume, Fawn, the young farm girl, and Dag, the seasoned soldier-sorcerer, set off to find fresh solutions to the perilous split between their peoples and encounter new hazards both human and uncanny.

The farmers and riverfolk have long distrusted the power of the mysterious and aloof Lakewalkers, even though they depend on them for protection from the evil malices. The proud Lakewalkers, meanwhile, have exiled Dag after learning of his marriage to Fawn, the first outsider to be bound to a Lakewalker in their magical way. But as Dag’s natural Lakewalker ability to manipulate “ground energy” begins to develop in dangerous directions, he and Fawn realize that big changes are ahead.

LibriVox: The Beasts Of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Beasts of Tarzan is the third of Burrough’s Tarzan novels. Don’t start with this book, go back to the original (also done up by LibriVox). First published in serial for in All-Story Cavalier Magazine in 1914, it was bound into hardback paperbook in 1916. LibriVox is also working on the 2nd novel in the Tarzan series, but it’s not yet cataloged.

LibriVox Audiobook - The Beasts Of Tarzan by Edgar Rice BurroughsThe Beasts Of Tarzan
By Edgar Rice Burroughs; Read by James Christopher
21 Zipped MP3 files or podcast- 5 Hours 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 21st 2008
This is the third of Burrough’s Tarzan novels. Originally serialized in All-Story Cavalier magazine in 1914, the novel was first published in book form by A. C. McClurg in 1916. In the previous novel Tarzan reclaimed his name and title as John Clayton, Lord Greystoke. In this novel he finds that proper society is just as vicious as the jungle when greedy men threaten him and his new family. Jane and her infant son Jack are kidnapped by Tarzan’s enemies, Nikolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch, who then trap Tarzan himself and attempt to exile him forever on a primitive island, bereft of all those dear to him. There, however, Tarzan gains new allies in the panther Sheeta and the ape Akut, together with Akut’s band. With their aid he tracks down his wife and son. . .and his arch enemies Rokoff and Paulvitch.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-beasts-of-tarzan.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Audio Realms an update

SFFaudio News

Audio RealmsThough fairly quiet of late, Audio Realms has been busy recording some classic SF, Fantasy and Horror that we’ll be telling you a lot more about very soon. The ringleader there, Fred Godsmark, says he’ll be following up the recently released Andre Norton novel “Voodoo Planet” (details of which have just been added to our ANDRE NORTON author’s page) with an unabridged release of Norton’s The Time Traders!

Audio Realms recently won accolades for their 2007 release called Little Fuzzy. That’s H. Beam Piper’s best loved novel! The acclaim came from none other than Publisher’s Weekly magazine! Little Fuzzy won “Best Fantasy AudioBook for 2007!”

Currently available from this Audio Realms are classics like:

The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Out of Time’s Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Further, a new “urban horror” imprint of Audio Realms saw the release of two sure fire hits:

Hide And Seek by Jack Ketchum and
The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon

And their popular Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft series is up to Volume 6 now too! But it doesn’t all end there. The near future portends even more goodies:

The Rising by Brian Keene
The Door Through Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Things That Are Not There by C.J. Henderson
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
People Of The Dark by Robert E. Howard (this includes a Conan story, Queen Of The Black Coast)

And even a Weird Tales collection!

Fred’s going to be sending review copies of a lot of these. That will make some serious internecine fighting in the SFFaudio review clubhouse. Which reminds me, I need to add some more obsidian shards to the end of my club.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases – Disney Fairies #6

New Releases

Out today is one for the Cicely Mary Barker set. But be WARNED, you’ll need to brush your teeth after listening! There’s almost as much sugar in the Disney Fairies audiobooks as was in in The Sonic Society’s Pony Tales (their April Fools Day show) I’m thinking Shannon and Jack could probably pitch Pony Tales |MP3| to Disney – seriously.

Disney Fairies Collection #6Disney Fairies Collection #6: “Dulcie’s Taste of Magic” & “Silvermist and the Ladybug Curse”
By Gail Herman; Read by Ashley Albert and Kathleen McInerney
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: May 13th 2008
ISBN: 9780739365038
Dulcie’s Taste of Magic
Poor Dulcie! After the overworked baking fairy nearly ruins breakfast, Queen Clarion tells her to take a holiday. But Dulcie’s vacation is no fun at all. Then Dulcie stumbles across an ancient magical recipe in the library. She’s desperate to try it out. But how can she bake the mysterious Comfort Cake if she’s not allowed in the kitchen?
Silvermist and the Ladybug Curse
Silvermist is the calmest water-talent fairy around and as cool as a deep mountain lake. But then an “unlucky” white ladybug lands on Silvermist’s head, and her orderly world goes topsy-turvy. Silvermist doesn’t believe in bad luck and silly old fairy superstitions. But all her troubles began after she found the white ladybug. Is Silvermist really under a curse?

Posted by Jesse Willis