fantasy – Page 97

Review of The Red Panda Adventures – Season 2

SFFaudio Audiobook Review

As a special CANADA DAY treat for everyone worldwide, Podiobooks.com has scored the entire 2nd Season of The Red Panda Adventures! The entire season is up and ready for download today! And here’s our review of it…

The Red Panda Adventures – Season Two
By Gregg Taylor; Performed by a FULL CAST
12 MP3 Files – Approx. 5.5 Hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: DecoderRingTheatre.com / Podiobooks.com
Published: 2006/2007
Themes: / Fantasy / Superheroes / Supervillains / 1930s / Toronto / Secret Identities / Hypnotism / Magic / Parallel Worlds /

Mad Monkey: “Security pays, but it can’t live without fear. And all I want is my cut.” -Episode 20: Monkeyshines

Like the first season of The Red Panda Adventures, season two is an incontestably enjoyable frolic through original, but familiar, comic book territory. The Red Panda and his faithful driver, Kit Baxter (AKA Flying Squirrel), patrol Toronto rooftops by static boot, and whunk their way through superhero sized pneumatic tubes concealed about the city, fighting wrongdoers. New and old supervillains, voiced by professional audio actors, execute egregious crimes that can only be foiled by a prosperous panda with hypnotic powers and a volitant rodent with a mean right-hook.

The second season has more of what made the first season so terrific. Standouts in traditional storytelling include episode 14: The Sunday Supplement, Episode 16: The Sweet Tooth, and Episode 20: Monkeyshines. The latter introduces a terrific new antagonist called “The Mad Monkey,” an arch-scoundrel on par with DC Comics rogues like The Joker and The Penguin. Season two also has a few episodes that expand the storytelling in different directions. Episode 18, for instance, was the long requested Secret Origins episode – in which we discover the first ever meeting of Panda and Squirrel. Episode 15: When Darkness Falls tells its tale from the perspective of a young boy in a city with a vigilante superhero. And episode 24: The World Next Door posits the existence of an alternate universe in which the Red Panda is a Nazi fighter and the Flying Squirrel is a teenage boy! In naming this show an SFFaudio essential I’ve got to cite both the writing and the production. The acting here is absolutely tops. Recording the scenes in-studio, together, works. The writing is perky, puissant, perfect, and seemingly effortless. The series scribe, Gregg Taylor, is a master storyteller.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Super Pal and Jewels of the 11th Generation

SFFaudio Review

Great Northern Audio - Super Pal The Saving of the World: Super Pal (Includes Jewels of the 11th Generation)
By Great Northern Audio Theatre; Performed by a FULL CAST
1 CD – Approx. 70 minutes [LIVE AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Great Northern Audio
Published: 2005/2006
Themes: / Fantasy / Comedy / Superheroes / Meteors / Jewels / Space Travel / Children / Squeak Toys / Computers

A comet is heading towards Big City, but is it a job for Super Pal?

Great Northern Audio brings you the tale of the blue-glowing superhero, as told from those closest to him. The nurse who helped birth him, the girlfriend who likes the cape (nudge-nudge), his best friend growing up, even the crooks he brought down.

Meanwhile, the comet comes closer, and Super Pal is nowhere to be found. The mayor begins to look at other superheroes, but no help is available. One kinked their back while lugging an oil rig across the desert, and another is expecting a baby and is on light duty. You know, bank robbers.

What to do? Well, Super Pal does have a weakness for cats in trees….

The CD also includes The Jewels of the 11th Generation, a story of two zany treasure-hunters looking for the ultimate treasure. They certainly find more than that! Children, pirates- and… squeak toys? But where are the jewels? This is also a lot of fun and well-written. Mix that with excellent acting, including the talents of David Ossman of Firesign Theatre, and you know exactly why I enjoyed it so much.

These performances were a lot of fun. I loved the documentary-style interviews in telling the tale of Super Pal, and the jokes in Jewels made me laugh out loud a couple of times! Very witty, and hearing the audience respond now and then in the background really made it all the more enjoyable. For a live performance, it has a better sound than a lot of in-studio performances. A very enjoyable hour!

Both SuperPal and Jewels of the 11th Generation were part of live Great Northern Audio performances in 2005 and 2006. Definitely worth going over to Great Northern’s website and getting a copy today!

posted by Dani Cutler

Second Season of Second Shift

SFFaudio Online Audio

Second Shift, that highly original podcast audio drama we told you about last year starts-up again tonight for its second season with an online release party! Brad sez:

“We’re going to kick off the season by holding a live chat where fans can talk with cast and crew while listening to the season premiere. Ever watched a TV show while talking on IM with a friend about it? This is just like that. We will release the episode during the chat, so everyone can download, listen and type “OMG!” together!

The chat will start between 9:00-9:15 p.m. EST, so show up then to make sure everyone’s in. At 9:30, we’ll release the episode on our site, and listen together.

To join the chat:
1) Go to http://chat.efnet.org
2) Enter whatever you want as a user name
3) Select “Other” on the menu
4) Type in “#secondshiftreleaseparty” in the dropdown

Or, if you’re familiar with IRC, just join “#secondshiftreleaseparty” on efnet.”

Catch up, or join in by plugging this feed into your podcatcher:

http://www.secondshiftpodcast.com/xml/2shift.xml

posted by Jesse Willis

Mark Time/Ogle Winners Announced!

SFFaudio News

Presented by

The American Society For Science Fiction Audio
(ASFSFA)

The winners of the Mark Time/Ogle Awards have been officially announced! Boy it was difficult keeping my mouth shut for so long!

Mark Time Awards / Ogle Awards
Winners – 2007
Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Audio Production
http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com/MarkTime/MarkTime.html

Mark Time Award
SILVER

Through the Turnstiles
Produced by Sam A. Mowry
Written by Carole Dane
Willamette Radio Workshop
www.radiowork.com

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Canadia: 2056
Produced by Joe Mahoney
Written by Matt Watts
CBC Radio A & E
www.assortednonsense.com

Tears of the Tin God
Produced by Richard Sellers
Story by T. Ray Gordon
www.apexaudiotheatre.com

Ogle Award
GOLD

God of the Razor
Produced by Scott Hickey
Story by Joe R. Lansdale
The Grist Mill
www.amfmtheater.com
and
Dandelion Wine
Produced by Jerry Robbins, & Mark Vander Berg
Script by Ray Bradbury
The Colonial Radio Theatre On the Air
www.colonialradio.com

SILVER

HURF
Produced by Sam A. Mowry
Written by Craig Kenworthy
Willamette Radio Workshop
www.radiowork.com

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
In Science Fiction Audio

* Norman Corwin
* Ray Bradbury

A Gold and a Silver Mark Time Award, and a Gold and a Silver Ogle Award, will be awarded at CONvergence,, July 6-7-8 of 2007.

posted by Dani Cutler

H.P. Lovecraft DOCUMENTARY on BBC Radio 3

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 3 has re-aired a fascinating documentary from November of last year…

Weird Tales – The Strange Life Of H.P. Lovecraft
Radio Broadcast – Approx. 45 Minutes [DOCUMENTARY]
BROADCASTER: BBC Radio 3
BROADCAST: Sunday June 10th 2006 @ 20:00 – 20:45 (UK TIME)

“Geoff Ward examines the strange life and terrifying world of the man hailed as America’s greatest horror writer since Poe. During his life Lovecraft’s work was confined to lurid pulp magazines and he died in penury in 1937. Today, however, his writings are considered modern classics and published in prestigious editions. Among the writers considering his legacy are Neil Gaiman, S.T. Joshi, Kelly Link, Peter Straub and China Mieville.”

This is available via the ‘Listen Again‘ right now and the link should be around for the next 5 days or so.

posted by Jesse Willis

Mister Ron’s Basement – Fortunate Island by Max Adeler

SFFaudio OnlineAudio

Mister Ron’s Basement podcast has completed the serialization of the 1880 novelette Fortunate Island by Max Adeler. Ron has even built a special webpage that makes it easy to listen to. The tale concerns a contemporary American professor (contemporary to 1880) and his daughter who find themselves stranded on “a mysterious island filled with castles, knights, and descendants of King Arthur’s kingdom.” Apparently, Adeler was convinced that Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court published eight years after Fortunate Island, had plagiarized much from his tale. Mister Ron himself thinks there are “certainly some compelling arguments to be made for Adeler’s case.” Have a listen and decide for yourself.

Fortunate Island
By Max Adeler; Read by Ron Evry
8 MP3s – Approx. 4? Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Mister Ron’s Basement
Podcast: Apr – May 2007
This novelette originally appeared as “Professor Baffin’s Adventures” in Beeton’s Christmas Annual (1880). All subsequent printings are under the title Fortunate Island

And don’t forget, you can subscribe to Mr. Ron’s podcast, and visit the basement daily, via this feed:

http://slapcast.com/rss/revry/index.xml

posted by Jesse Willis