Recent Arrivals from Blackstone Audio

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

The Illustrated Man by Ray BradburyThe Illustrated Man
By Ray Bradbury; Read by Paul Michael Garcia
8 CDs – 9 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781433297199

The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury, a collection of eighteen startling visions of humankind’s destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin, visions as keen as the tattooist’s needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body.

The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast space of stars and blackness, the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere, the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father’s clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook: A Galaxy Trilogy: Vol 4A Galaxy Trilogy, Volume 4
By David Grinnell, Frank Belnap Long, and A. Bertram Chandler; Read by Tom Weiner
11 CDs – 13 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781441700179

Here are three more stories from the pioneers of the early days of pulp science fiction in this final volume of the Galaxy Trilogy series.

Across Time
Unidentified Flying Objects are closing in fast, but Captain Zachary Halleck doesn’t finalize his move to protect the secret Air Force research station. Why?

Mission to a Star
Human-like aliens land on Earth and claim that they come in peace, asking for only complete freedom and Earth’s friendship, trust, and understanding for as long as they choose to remain.

The Rim of Space
The Rim Runners explore desolate planets inhabited by intelligent amphibians, tea-loving lizards, humanoids, and a pre-industrial civilization in this first book in the Rim World series.

 
Posted by Scott D. Danielson

SFsite: reviews of audiobooks and audio dramas

SFFaudio News

SFSite.comJust posted over on SFSite.com several reviews of audiobooks:

A review of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet by Richard Matheson
Narrated by various readers, unabridged, Blackstone Audio, 10.5 hours
review by Susan Dunham |MP3|

A review of Blue Moon Rising: Part 1 by Simon R. Green
Multicast performance, Graphic Audio, 5 hours
review by Fred Greenhalgh |MP3|

A review of Aliens Rule edited by Allan Kaster
Narrated by Vanessa Hart and Tom Dheere, unabridged, Infinivox, 3 hours, 43 minutes
review by Susan Dunman

A review of Sleep Traveler by Marcus Hame
Multi-cast production, unabridged, Synerge Books, 1 hour, 50 minutes
review by Bonnie L. Norman

A review of Glass Houses: Morganville Vampires, Book 1 by Rachel Caine
Narrated by Cynthia Holloway Tantor Audio, 8.5 hours
review by Gil T. Wilson

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #039

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #039 – Jesse and Scott are joined by Fred Greenhalgh of Final Rune Productions (and the Radio Drama Revival podcast) to talk about the twin arts of radio drama and audio drama.

Talked about on today’s show:
Modern radio drama, The Sonic Society podcast, Roger Gregg, William Dufris, H.P. Lovecraft, Halloween, horror, The Grist Mill, Dark Passenger by Fred Greenhalgh, Willamette Radio Workshop, zombies, The Drabblecast podcast, Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, WMPG, Maine, equipment for recording, Zoom Q3, Zoom H2, software for editing audio, Audacity, Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro), Pro Tools, The Most Dangerous Game, Three Skeleton Key, Infidel by Roger Gregg, “field recording” audio drama, Marantz PMD660, the growth of amateur audio drama, AudioDramaTalk.com, Mad Horse Theatre Company, Waiting For A Window by Fred Greenhalgh, 2008 Ogle Awards, Wireless Theatre Company, The Grimm Of Stoddesden Hall, folklore, mythology, Medusa On The Beach, New Orleans, fantasy, Day Of The Dead by Fred Greenhalgh, the Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Robert Jordan, Final Fantasy, German audio drama (“Hörspiel”), the freakonomics of audio drama (dubbing drives interest in audio drama), the Torchwood radio dramas, Lux Radio Theatre, Academy Award Theatre, will radio drama revive?, what’s wrong with terrestrial radio?, what’s wrong with satellite radio?, Sirius Channel #163, radio drama in decline?, CBC mothballing radio drama, Colonial Radio Theatre, turning radio drama into cartoons, The Anne Manx series, Anne Manx animated (on YouTube), Radio Repertory Company of America, Decoder Ring Theatre’s The Red Panda Adventures, machinima, Creepshow, Wormwood, is the month of October for radio drama?, or is it just Halloween?, The War Of The Worlds, Simon Jones, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (radio drama), The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Adventures Of Sexton Blake, Dirk Maggs, stream of consciousness, post modern audio drama, Yuri Rasovsky‘s The Cabinet Of Dr. Calagari, Tom Lopez (aka Meatball Fulton), The Cabinet Of Dr. Fritz, Cellphone Theatre, ZBS.org, Audible.com’s new stereo format, Bradbury 13, 90 Second Cellphone Chillin’ Theatre, Blackstone Audio’s The Maltese Falcon, narration in audio drama, Rogue Male, storytelling and medium, First Blood, RadioArchive.cc.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals from Blackstone Audio

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Science Fiction - Armor by John SteakleyArmor
By John Steakley; Read by Tom Weiner
11 CDs – 13 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009

The planet is called Banshee. The air is unbreathable, the water poisonous. It is the home of the most implacable enemies that humanity, in all its interstellar expansion, has ever encountered.

Felix is a scout in A-team Two. Highly competent, he is the sole survivor of mission after mission. Yet he is a man consumed by fear and hatred. And he is protected not only by his custom-fitted body armor, the culmination of ten thousand years of the armorers’ craft, but also by an odd being which seems to live with him, a cold killing machine he calls “the Engine.”

This best-selling science-fiction classic is a story of the horror, the courage, and the aftermath of combat and also of how strength of spirit can be the greatest armor of all.
 
 
Fantasy - Burn Me Deadly by Alex BledsoeBurn Me Deadly
By Alex Bledsoe; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
7 CDs – 8 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009

Alex Bledsoe’s first novel, The Sword-Edged Blonde, drew rave reviews for its ingenious blend of fantasy and hard-boiled detective fiction. Now Bledsoe returns with an all-new tale of mean streets and medieval intrigue.

Above Angelina’s Tavern in down-and-dirty Neceda, you’ll find the office of Eddie LaCrosse. He’s a scruffy sword jockey who, for twenty-five gold pieces a day plus expenses, will handle any problem short of murder for hire. Eddie’s on his way back from a routine investigation when his horse almost runs down a half-naked blonde in serious trouble. Against his better judgment, he promises to protect the frightened young woman, only to find himself waylaid by unknown assailants and left for dead beside her mutilated body. Eddie’s quest for payback leads him to a tangled mystery involving a notorious crime lord, a backwoods dragon cult, royal scandals, and a duplicitous femme fatale who has trouble keeping her clothes on. As bodies pile up, Eddie must use all his wits if he hopes to survive….
 
 
Science Fiction - The Martian Chronicles by Ray BradburyThe Martian Chronicles
By Ray Bradbury; Read by Stephen Hoye
8 CDs – 9.3 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009

Leaving behind a world on the brink of destruction, man came to the red planet and found the Martians waiting, dreamlike. Seeking the promise of a new beginning, man brought with him his oldest fears and his deepest desires. Man conquered Mars—and in that instant, Mars conquered him. The strange new world with its ancient, dying race and vast, red-gold deserts cast a spell on him, settled into his dreams, and changed him forever.

In connected, chronological stories, a true grandmaster enthralls, delights, and challenges us with his vision, starkly and stunningly exposing our strength, our weakness, our folly, and our poignant humanity on a strange and breathtaking world where humanity does not belong.
 
 
Fantasy Audiobook - THe Mystery of Grace by Charles de LintThe Mystery of Grace
By Charles de Lint; Read by Paul Michael Garcia and Tai Simmons
8 CDs – 9 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009

On the Day of the Dead, at the Solona Music Hall, Altagracia Quintero meets John Burns—just two weeks too late.

Grace, as her friends call her, has a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg and grease worked deep into her hands. She works at Sanchez Motorworks customizing hot rods. Finding the line in a classic car is her calling. Now Grace has to find the line in her own life. Grace loves John, and John loves her, and that would be wonderful, except that John, like Grace, has unfinished business: he’s haunted by the childhood death of his younger brother. He’s never stopped feeling responsible. Before their relationship can find its resolution, the two of them will have to teach each other about life and love, about hot rods and Elvis Presley, and about why it’s necessary to let some things go.
 
 
Fantasy Audiobook - Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. HeinleinPodkayne of Mars
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Emily Janice Card
5 CDs – 5.6 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009

From the author of Friday and Rocketship Galileo comes this classic tale featuring the grand master of science fiction’s most remarkable heroine. Podkayne Fries, a smart and determined maid of Mars, has just one goal in life: to become the first female starship pilot and rise through the ranks to command deep-space explorations. So when she is offered a chance to join her diplomatic uncle on an interstellar journey to distant Earth via Venus, it’s a dream come true—even if her only experience with diplomacy is handling her brilliant but pesky younger brother, Clark. But she’s about to learn some things about war and peace because Uncle Tom, the ambassador plenipotentiary from Mars to the Three Planets Conference, is traveling not quite incognito enough, and certain parties will stop at nothing to sabotage negotiations between the three worlds….
 
 
Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Recent Arrivals: Four from Blackstone Audio

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

Fantasy Audiobook - The Sharing Knife Book 4: Horizon by Lois McMaster BujoldThe Sharing Knife Book 4: Horizon
By Lois McMaster Bujold; Read by Bernadette Dunne
13 CDs – 15.5 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781433235931

In a world where malices, remnants of ancient magic, can erupt with life-destroying power, only soldier-sorcerer Lakewalkers have mastered the ability to kill them. But Lakewalkers keep their uncanny secrets—and themselves—from the farmers they protect. So when patroller Dag rescued farm girl Fawn, neither expected to fall in love, marry, and defy both their kin to seek new solutions to the split between their peoples.

As Dag’s powers have grown, so has his frustration with the Lakewalkers’ rigid mores. Fawn and Dag see that their world is changing and that the traditional Lakewalker practices cannot hold the malices at bay forever. Yet for all the customs that the couple have challenged, they will soon be confronted with their worst crisis yet. When the old traditions fail, can their untried new ways stand against their world’s deadliest foe?
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - The Galaxy Trilogy, Vol. 3 by Manly Wade Wellman, Wallace West, and Murray LeinsterA Galaxy Trilogy, Vol. 3
By Manly Wade Wellman, Wallace West, and Murray Leinster; Read by Tom Weiner
11 CDs – 13 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781433292781

Three more stories from the pioneers of the early days of pulp science fiction!

Giants from Eternity by Manly Wade Wellman
Scientist Oliver Norfleet and his college buddy Spencer DuPogue are called by the Board of Science to investigate a mysteriously expanding red blight that is growing around the site of a meteor crash. With the help of the daughter of a famous scientist, they soon discover that the blight is not only alive but that it consumes nearly everything in its path. When their own abilities prove inadequate, they are forced to turn to the greatest scientific minds that history has to offer. Norfleet and DuPogue and the Giants from Eternity must try to stop the blight before the entire Earth is consumed.

Lords of Atlantis by Wallace West
Once, when Atlantis was ruled by the Titans, they were replaced by the red-skinned, red-haired Martians, Zeus, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, and others. Teraf, prince of Hellas, was particularly struck by the changes Earth had wrought in Martians during the period of their rule. The rays of the earthly sun had burned their sensitive skin almost as black as those of Nubians, and to meet the stress of Terran gravitation, they had developed enormous muscles that sat poorly on their slender frames and gave them the deceitful appearance of strong men in a circus. The Afhas, those of mixed Martian and early parentage, apparently had absorbed the best traits of both. Like Teraf himself, all had blazing red hair and the slim grace of their Martian forebears, plus a better adaptation to their earthly conditions. But the Titans chafed under the so-called benevolent progress of their rulers, and they plotted rebellion.

City on the Moon by Murray Leinster
Life on the moon, under anything less than optimal conditions, had always been a nightmare, and as Joe Kenmore and his colleague Moreau drove back to the City on the Moon, on the day the Earth shuttle was due to land, the nearby mountain supporting critical elements of the shuttle’s landing mechanisms crumbled, causing an avalanche and chaos. Optimal conditions were nowhere in sight that day as Kenmore and Moreau’s investigations lead to their conclusion that explosions had been responsible for the avalanche. They realized that they were in a race against the clock to restore the landing beam before the shuttle had reached the “point of no return” prior to landing. Kenmore had more than strictly humanitarian reasons for wanting to prevent a mishap aboard the shuttle that day because on this particular mission, Arlene Gray was aboard. Kenmore had been anxiously awaiting her arrival, and amidst everything, Kenmore’s love life also might hang in the balance.
 
 
Science Fiction Audiobook - Hater by David MoodyHater
By David Moody; Read by Gerard Doyle
6 CDs – 7 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781433292866

A modern take on the classic “apocalyptic” novel, Hater tells the story of Danny McCoyne, an everyman forced to contend with a world gone mad, as society is rocked by a sudden increase in violent assaults. Christened “Haters” by the media, the attackers strike without warning and seemingly without reason. Within seconds, normally rational, self-controlled people become frenzied, vicious killers. As the carnage mounts, one thing soon is clear: everyone, irrespective of race, gender, age, or class, has the potential to become either a Hater or a victim. At any moment, even friends and family can turn on one another with violent intent. In the face of this mindless terror, all McCoyne can do is secure his family, seek shelter, and watch as the world falls apart. But when he bolts the front door, the question remains: Is he shutting the danger out or locking it in?
 
 
Fantasy Audiobook - Of Bees and Mist by Erick SetiawanOf Bees and Mist
By Erick Setiawan; Read by Marguerite Gavin
11 CDs – 13 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781441710949

Setiawan’s richly atmospheric debut chronicles the passions, betrayals, and complex domestic politics of three generations of women whose emotional lives manifest as supernatural phenomena.

In a nameless town in a timeless era, where spirits and spells, witchcraft and ghosts are an everyday reality, sixteen-year-old Meridia has grown up lonely and neglected in a house literally haunted by the demons of her parents’ soured love. When she falls for the charming and boyish Daniel, she sees her first real chance for love and happiness. She marries him and moves in with his family, unaware that they are harboring dark secrets of their own. There is a grave hidden in the garden. There are two sisters groomed from birth to despise each other. And there is Eva, the formidable matriarch whose grievances swarm the air in an army of bees.
 
Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Aural Noir Review of Drive by James Sallis

Aural Noir: Review

Blackstone Audio - Drive by James SallisDrive
By James Sallis; Read by Paul Michael Garcia
Audible Download – 3 Hours 26 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2007
Provider: Audible.com
Themes: / Crime / Noir / Los Angeles / Hollywood / Arizona /

“Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there’d be no doubt. But for now Driver is, as they say, in the moment. And the moment includes this blood lapping toward him, the pressure of dawn’s late light at windows and door, traffic sounds from the interstate nearby, the sound of someone weeping in the next room…”

Drive starts with an important dedication. “To Donald Westlake, Ed McBain and Larry Block.” If an author is going to choose any three modern crime writers as inspiration for a book they could pick no better three than these dudes. Drive starts off with an opening sentence that could have been written by Richard Stark (a pen-name of Donald Westlake), proceeds to punch-out clean and clinical prose like McBain’s 87th Precinct novels and punches the story along like Lawrence Block at his best. Drive stars “Driver”, a nameless Hollywood stunt driver by day and a criminal getaway driver by night. We get how he started in the business of stunt-driving, a few scenes of him pulling off those incredible feats of automotive control, and how he got involved in the punishing business of criminal getaway driving. It’s fast, but it ain’t furious, it’s more of a simmering sizzle.

Blackstone narrator Paul Michael Garcia, who I last heard as the reader of Starman Jones, has a young voice – I knew I’d enjoy his reading of something in this genre. Garcia’s narration made it an incredibly solid listen. What’ll keep it from being a classic of the niche is that same anonymity of the protagonist. I enjoyed the ride with the guy, the “driver”, he has an incredible story to tell, but it was like I got hypnotized by the road somehow – I got to the end, refreshed and exhilarated but not particularly aware of what route we took. Perhaps this makes Drive the ideal summertime, top down, high-gear audiobook? It’s a novella so it’s short and you’ll zip through it practically before the commute is over. I think its worth giving a try.

Posted by Jesse Willis