How John Carter Got To Mars

SFFaudio Online Audio

I’ve been hankering to read A Princess Of Mars ever since I heard Ray Bradbury explain how John Carter got to Mars. Bradbury described the scene in the novel saying:

“He wished himself there.”

I love that.

I’ve extracted and abridged the scene itself from the audiobook (it runs over three chapters) into this eleven minute |MP3| (the narration is by Mark Douglas nelson).

Here’s the newspaper strip’s three panel explanation:

How John Carter got to Mars

Here’s Jesse Marsh’s six panel explanation:

How John Carter got to Mars in six panels

Here’s the old Marvel Comics explanation – [update: art by Gil Kane] (done in an eight panel flashback):

John Carter Warlord Of Mars - Eight Panel Explanation

UPDATE: Here’s a 14 panel explanation as appeared in DC Comics’ Tarzan Family No. 65 (1976):

Tarzan Family No. 65

The Dynamite Entertainment adaptation was spread over two issues (and 15 panels):

Dynamite Entertainment - Warlord Of Mars - illustration by Stephen Sadowski

The trailer for the 2012 film version (currently called Disney’s John Carter), has none other than Michael Chabon working on it. The soundtrack written by Arcade Fire and performed by Peter Gabriel is entitled My Body Is A Cage:

BONUS: Carl Sagan on Mars and Burroughs:

[via StereoGum and JohnColemanBurroughs.com]

UPDATE: Murray Anderson’s version from Weird Worlds, Vol 1., #1, Aug-Sep 1972:
Weird Worlds, Vol. 1, #1

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Outlaw Of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs

SFFaudio Online Audio

Submitted for your approval…

LIBRIVOX - The Outlaw Of Torn by Edgar Rice BurroughsThe Outlaw Of Torn
By Edgar Rice Burroughs; Read by Richard Kilmer and Susan Umpleby
19 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 7 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 31, 2010
The story is set in 13th century England and concerns the fictitious outlaw Norman of Torn, who purportedly harried the country during the power struggle between King Henry III and Simon de Montfort. Norman is the supposed son of the Frenchman de Vac, once the king’s fencing master, who has a grudge against his former employer and raises the boy to be a simple, brutal killing machine with a hatred of all things English. His intentions are partially subverted by a priest who befriends Norman and teaches him his letters and chivalry towards women.

Otherwise, all goes according to plan. By 17, Norman is the best swordsman in all of England; by the age of 18, he has a large bounty on his head, and by the age of 19, he leads the largest band of thieves in all of England. None can catch or best him. In his hatred for the king he even becomes involved in the civil war, which turns the tide in favor of de Montfort. In another guise, that of Roger de Conde, he becomes involved with de Montfort’s daughter Bertrade, defending her against her and her father’s enemies. She notes in him a curious resemblance to the king’s son and heir Prince Edward.

Finally brought to bay in a confrontation with both King Henry and de Montfort, Norman is brought down by the treachery of de Vac, who appears to kill him, though at the cost of his own life. As de Vac dies, he reveals that Norman is in fact Richard, long-lost son of King Henry and Queen Eleanor and brother to Prince Edward. The fencing master had kidnapped the prince as a child to serve as the vehicle of his vengeance against the king. Luckily, Norman/Richard turns out not to be truly dead, surviving to be reconciled to his true father and attain the hand of Bertrade

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/3632

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[thanks also to Richard Kilmer, Laura Caldwell, mim@can and Annise]

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #111

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #111 – Scott and Jesse talk with Luke Burrage and Tamahome about the latest releases.

Talked about on today’s show:
name order??, James Powell’s Last Laugh In Flugal Park, Greg Bear’s Halo: Cryptum book, game tie-ins with popular authors, Tobias Buckell’s The Cole Protocol (Halo, #6), Peter Watts Crysis: Legion, Larry Niven’s Ringworld, Hull Zero Three, “in spaaace”, Tim Powers’s The Stress Of Her Regard, “short books”, towel on Luke’s head, George Alec Effinger’s When Gravity Fails, no ebook to speak of, published in 198x?, the game Circuits Edge, Infocom, Beneath A Steel Sky, “comic book look”, comic book artist Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), more game tie-ins, Terry (Monty Python) Jones’s Douglas Adams’s Starship Titanic, Jeff Vandermeer’s Halo story Mona Lisa, from the Halo: Evolutions anthology, motion comic adaption, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter’s First Born (A Time Odyssey, #3), Civilization/Evolution, The Light Of Other Days, Bob Shaw, loss of privacy, “slow glass”, spoiler alert!, Poul Anderson’s Broken Sword, Yggrdsil (hear it pronounced), contemporary of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship Of The Ring, Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies, the audiobook cover, David Friedman on Luke’s new podcast, “everything comes back to zombies”, Alden Bell’s The Reapers Are The Angels discussed on Scott and Julie’s podcast, Luke’s feedback, “email you when I’m dead”, Daniel Suarez’s Daemon, Mark Russinovich’s Zero Day, Edward Wellen’s Mind Slash Matter, |OUR REVIEW|, P.D. James’s Children Of Men, |READ OUR REVIEW|, Fred Hoyle’s The Black Cloud, “sciency”, John Brunner’s The Crucible Of Time, M.P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud, it’s not about Prince, the Songbird audiodrama from the Radio Repertory Company of America, Harlan Ellison’s The Voice From The Edge #4 & #5 on sale, includes this year’s award winner How Interesting A Tiny Man, John Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation, H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy, a 2-fer, Old Man’s War, which 1/3 do you like?, “I’m a sucker for new bodies”, Albert Brooks’s 2030: The Real Story Of What Happens To America, the film Defending Your Life, Will McIntosh’s Soft Apocalypse, George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides is also soft, Brent Weeks’s short Perfect Shadow is on Graphicaudio too, Valley Of The Dead: The Truth Behind Dante’s Inferno by Kim Paffenroth, Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven’s Inferno — sf writer tries to explain hell, the remix generation, Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines, “I Am Legend with superheroes”, A. Lee Martinez’s oeuvre, Sleeper: Season One the comic book, Mark Millar’s Trouble, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “the estate works for their money”, Luke talks to a comic book artist, SF Keyword Bingo

DARK HORSE PRESENTS - How Interesting A Tiny Man by Harlan Ellison

Posted by Tamahome

The SFFaudio Podcast #101 – RECENT ARRIVALS

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #101 – Scott, Jesse and Tamahome talk recent arrivals

Talked about on today’s show:
The Wise Man’s Fear is long, ♪ Hellhole ♪, The Road To Dune |READ OUR REVIEW|, quality of Dune series, Adjustment Bureau, Twilight Zone, A Kind Of A Stopwatch, The Stainless Steel Rat For President, The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted, Richard Matheson, Other Kingdoms, (parentheses), Richard Christian Matheson (son), I Am Legend comic, Splatterpunk, some Masters Of Horror tv episodes, James Tiptree, Jr., The Screwfly Solution, Lovecraft, Dreams In The Witchhouse, Ambrose Bierce, Damn Thing, John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns episode, incontinence, Alex Bledsoe, Dark Jenny, Sword-Edged Blonde, Blood Groove |READ OUR REVIEW|, Alex H And The Airship City, Girl Genius Online comics, Airship Fantasy, William Gibson, Count Zero, Necromancer?, Normads Of Gor, Assasins Of Gor, Warlord Of Mars, Elvin Blood, cover of Warlord Of Mars #5 comic, comics vs trade paperbacks, 3 YA titles, Sweep: Book Of Shadows, don’t worry the title isn’t Wicca, Liparulo’s Whirlwind, Guardians of Ga’Hoole Book 9: The First Collier, would owls be good pets?, Shadowfever has a soundtrack, Darkfever used to be on Podiobooks, Moning is not George R. R. Martin, Fevre Dream, The Armageddon Rag, March In Country, Lifeforce the movie, The Executioner series, E. E. Knight at Graphicaudio, “I Am Batman!”, Batman: Inferno at Graphicaudio, Kings Of The North, borderline sf, Clive Cussler, The Jungle, aural noir, Andrew Vachss, rhymes with tax, child protection, Only Child, Down Here, Hard Looks comics, Shaken, Jacq Daniels, drink names, Tequila Mockingbird, Lucky Stiff, a million honeybees, this is noir romance, Romeo And Juliet spoiler, horoscopes, David Suzuki, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Radio Drama Revival, Anita Blake #1 (Guilty Pleasures), Death Cloud (young Sherlock), Fountains Of Paradise, Fade To Blonde, Gilgamesh The King |READ OUR REVIEW|, The God Engines |READ OUR REVIEW|, fiction where “stuff happens”, Roy Dotrice world record, The God Engines review gender controversy

Posted by Tamahome

(note by poster: listening to yourself is weird)

The SFFaudio Podcast #096

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #096 – Scott and Jesse talk about recently arrived audiobooks as well as Y: The Last Man, James Tiptree Jr., Isaac Asimov, what author estates want and more!

Talked about on today’s show:
Kage Baker, Subterranean Press, Blackstone Audio, In The Garden Of Iden by Kage Baker, Captive Market by Philip K. Dick, Janan Raouf, Time For The Stars by Robert A. Heinlein, Barret Whitener, telepathy, Starman’s Quest by Robert Silverberg, For Us The Living: A Comedy Of Customs by Robert A. Heinlein, Malcolm Hillgartner, Heinlein’s first and last novel, Spider Robinson, Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson, Job: A Comedy Of Justice, Macmillan Audio, Death Cloud: Sherlock Holmes The Legend Begins by Andrew Lane, Dan Wyman, “endorsed by the Conan Doyle estate” = who cares, Poul Anderson on Sherlock Holmes, Laird of Muck, disabled protagonists, The Lighthouse Land by Adrian McKinty, The Lighthouse War, MG (middle grade) vs. YA, Gerard Doyle, Christopher Paolini, The Gods Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, William Dufris, viscous plant men, does Deja Thoris lay eggs?, Dynamite Entertainment‘s Warlord Of Mars, Valentine Pontifex by Robert Silverberg, Majipoor Chronicles, Lord Valentine’s Castle, Stonefather by Orson Scott Card |READ OUR REVIEW|, Emily Janice Card, The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy, The Lost Gate, The Last Airbender, R.L. Stine, Timescape by, Darkside by Tom Becker |READ OUR REVIEW|, Bolinda Audio, London, Neil Gaiman-esque, The Graveyard Book, Venus by Ben Bova |READ OUR REVIEW|, Fantastic Audio, Jupiter, Nova Science Now, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Europa, Ganymede, A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born, Brilliance Audio, The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey, dragons, elves, Odalisque by Neal Stephenson, Alan Moore loves allusions, The League Of Extraordinary Gentleman, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Honor Harrington, Honor Among Enemies by David Weber, manticore, pirates!, what’s up with all the mix-and-match creatures in the Middle East?, On Blazing Wings by L. Ron Hubbard, mercenaries, SFsite.com often reviews the L. Ron Hubbard Stories From The Golden Age, the paperbooks problem, The Unremembered by Peter Orullian, Anne Perry, The Desert Of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones, 8th century, Baghdad, The Desert Of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones, the Fantasy Book Critic blog review, unpronounceable character names, J.R.R. Tolkien, Philip K. Dick was inspired by the Odyssey, Beyond Lies The Wub, Strange Eden, Scott didn’t like Y: The Last Man, Brian K. Vaughan, Gulliver’s Travels, the problem of transitory pop-culture references, The Tyrrany Of Talented Readers, Scalped, Bertrand Russell, Pride Of Baghdad, anthropomorphic fiction, James Tiptree Jr., Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, Masters Of Horror: The Screwfly Solution, Dove Audio, Isaac Asimov, author estates, Escape Pod #100, Nightfall, Tantor Media, Robots Of Dawn, Audible.com has plenty of Arthur C. Clarke, Dream Park by Larry Niven and Steve Barnes, mystery, Science Fiction, On Stranger Tides, Brain Wave, PaperbackSwap, Del Rey art in the ’70s and ’80s was awesome, Scott’s Picasa gallery of book covers, Tom Weiner, Jesse has a terrible memory, our Oath Of Fealty readalong, the Pirates Of The Caribbean films.

Posted by Jesse Willis

FREE LISTENS REVIEW: The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Review

The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs

SourceLibriVox (zipped mp3’s)
Length: 3 hr, 49 min
Reader: Ralph Snelson

The book: Set during World War I, this adventure novel starts with the sinking of an Allied ship by a German U-boat. Bowen Tyler, his dog, and the beautiful Miss Lys La Rue are rescued by a British tug, then captured by the same U-boat. Through a series of prisoner revolts, double-crosses and sabotage, the U-boat ends up at an uncharted island near Antarctica. Here, they are attacked by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts.

Sounds like a good, old-fashioned adventure, right? Well, it is for the first two-thirds of the book. The final third consists of Burroughs dragging his characters to an unsatisfying conclusion. As in The Lost World, I expect some amount of pseudoscience in these types of early science fiction adventures, but Burroughs’ mystical version of evolution on the island severely strained my suspended believability. Perhaps the narrative is more fully resolved in the sequels, but after finishing, I felt cheated rather than wanting to know more.

Rating: 6 / 10

The reader: Snelson has a deep voice with an American Southern accent. His reading and recording quality are amateur, but satisfactory. His characters have distinctive, but not silly, voices. Snelson’s matter-of-fact narrating tone doesn’t add much to the story, but neither does he ruin the novel by trying to over-embellish the action.

Posted by Seth