Tag: AudioGo

The SFFaudio Podcast #231 – TALK TO: Simon Vance

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #231 – Jesse and Luke Burrage (from the Science Fiction Book Review Podcast) talk to audiobook narrator Simon Vance.

Talked about on today’s show:
Jonathan Davis, Pat Fraley, Scott Brick is the Brad Pitt of audiobooks and Simon Vance is the George Clooney of audiobooks, how Simon Vance got started, reel to reel tape recorder, Winnie The Pooh, BBC Radio 4, 1980s, Brighton, RNIB, Grover Gardner, George Guidall, The Book At Bedtime, Margaret Thatcher, California, San Francisco, Christian and devotional audiobooks, “we sound more intelligent (but we’re not)”, Stieg Larsson, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Audiofile Magazine, Earphone Awards, England, Sweden, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the apprenticeship, Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan, a classic dystopia, Thirteen (aka Black Man), The Steel Remains, The Cold Commands, artfulness and in-artfulness of narration, Doctor Who, overwhelming music -> overwhelming emotion, The Lord Of The Rings, the good narrators do the unexpected, “boo”, Dune by Frank Herbert (the full-cast audiobook), Goodreads.com, Simon Prebble, V For Vendetta by Steve Moore, the comic + the movie + Simon Vance = great audiboook, Natalie Portman was awesome, Stephen Rea, most novelizations are terrible, Hugo Weaving, James Bond, Ian Fleming, AudioGo, Blackstone Audio, the Green Knowe books, Listen And Live, Kate Fleming, The Prestige by Christopher Priest, a complicated book, a second chance, The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast review of The Prestige (episode #177), the movie of The Prestige, a final trick, one of the best Science Fiction movies of the last ten years, a thinking man’s book (and movie), The Illusionist, stage magic vs. CGI magic, The Magic Circle, Left for Dead: The Untold Story Of The Tragic 1979 Fastnet Race by Nick Ward and Sinead O’Brien, survival, Antarctica, fiction vs. non-fiction, a cabinet of heads, WWII, the Patrick O’Brian books (the Aubrey–Maturin series), Master And Commander, the incomplete book 21, Robert Hardy and Tim Piggot-Smith, what SFF Simon Vance book should we check out?, The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough, The Exodus Towers, The Plague Forge, zombie apocalypse, aliens, “good honest adventure”, Pan Books Of Horror, c, Rama, Rama II, The Man In The High Castle, Philip K. Dick, Mark Twain, Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, a PDF listing Simon Vance’s audiobooks, out of print audiobooks, Audible.com, Christopher Priest’s other audiobooks are done by other audiobook narrators, Peter Ganim, Robert J. Sawyer, The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks, rights issues, keep your audiobooks.

V For Vendetta read by Simon Vance

Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan - read by Simon Vance

Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan - read by Simon Vance

Posted by Jesse Willis

Commentary: Downpour.com – an audiobook delivery system that just works

SFFaudio Commentary

Downpour.comDownpour.com, Blackstone Audio’s online audiobook store, is a genuine competitor to Audible.com.

It offers audiobook downloads of titles, from Blackstone Audio’s extensive catalogue, and also those from many other audiobook publishers like Recorded Books, Harper Audio, Penguin Audio, Hachette Audio, and AudioGo.

Their subscription service is almost identically priced to Audible’s, each offers one credit per month for about $15. And, like an Audible credit Audible.com, a Downpour credit almost always gets you one audiobook.

I signed up for Downpour when they started late last Summer. And so far, I really, really like it.

I’ve had an account with Audible.com since 2001. But Audbile.com has always caused one giant problem for me: DRM.

DRM is actually designed to prevent you sharing your audiobook with your friends and family.

But worse, it can also make it difficult for you, the owner of the audiobook that you bought, to actually listen to what you have paid for.

Over the years I’ve spent countless hours trying to make an audiobook, that I bought, play on my audiobook players.

Every single time I’ve bought a new computer, iPod, iPad, or iPhone I’ve spent time authorizing and deauthorizing my devices. Sometimes it just takes a couple of minutes, sometimes hours.

Audible’s DRM makes you have to authorize your iTunes account, and your computer, and your iPhone, and your iPad, and your iPod. And you have to deauthorize your old devices to make the new devices work. You can’t have all of your devices authorized if you have more than three.

I just want my audiobooks to work like regular books, I want them to open up and give me their ideas. DRM cripples your ability to do that.

Downpour.com has no DRM at all. It just works.

In fact it works absolutely perfectly.

You make a purchase, it shows up in your online library, and then it downloads and delivers itself to your devices.

It is smoother than any audiobook service I’ve ever seen. It’s even smoother than Tantor Media’s excellent DRM-FREE download service.

If you use an iOS device for an audiobook, like I do, I’m betting Downpour.com is will work for you.

If you use a different audiobook player Downpour offers MP3s, which work with every audio player.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #179 – AUDIOBOOK: The Murders In The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastAudioGo The SFFaudio Podcast #179 – The Murders In The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Bronson Pinchot. This is an UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK (1 Hours 31 Minutes) and comes to us courtesy of AudioGo and their collection Poe’s Detectives: The Dupin Stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

Thanks AudioGo!

AudioGo - Poe's Detective: The Dupin Stories by Edgar Allan Poe

The Murders At The Rue Morgue - illustration by Bernie Wrightson

The Murders In The Rue Morgue - etching by Vierge

The Murders In The Rue Morgue - illustration by Russell Hoban

Posted by Jesse Willis

AudioGo: YouTube trailer for Great Classic Suspense (Five Unabridged Tales)

SFFaudio News

Do you recognize the voice of this narrator?

Perhaps you will if you were, like me, a fan of a particular Canadian TV show (that also aired on CBS in the mid 1990s).

The narrator is Geraint Wyn Davies. He was the star of Forever Knight, a terrific “Crimetime After Primetime” late night drama that promised, and delivered, an odd blend of cop show and vampire mystique.

Hmmmm… now that I think about it, Forever Knight could have been set within the same universe as True Blood (prior to the invention of Tru Blood).

The collection includes five of the greatest stories of American classic horror. The richest of language is used to create extraordinary atmosphere — gloom, darkness, solitude, despair-and the relentless feeling of impending doom.

Table of contents:
The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe
Ethan Brand by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Yellow Sign by Robert W. Chambers
The Upper Berth by F. Marion Crawford
An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals: AudioGo: Poe’s Detective: The Dupin Stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Aural Noir: Recent Arrivals

After reading Cory Doctorow’s glowing review of Poe’s Detective: The Dupin Stories last year I added it to my list of audiobooks I just had to listen to.

I’m very, very excited at the prospect!

AudioGo - Poe's Detective: The Dupin Stories by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe’s Detective: The Dupin Stories
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Bronson Pinchot
4 CDs – Approx. 5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: AudioGO
Published: March 15, 2011
ISBN: 9781609981624
Edgar Allan Poe is the undisputed originator of the Detective story. His brilliant, imaginative sleuth C. Auguste Dupin set the stage for eccentric, logic wielding investigators like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. This audio collection of Poe’s three Dupin stories also includes one non-Dupin detective tale, Thou Art the Man. It features celebrity narrator Bronson Pinchot. The story titles are: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue“; “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt“; “The Purloined Letter“; and “Thou Art the Man.”

Posted by Jesse Willis