Five Free Favourites – Page 3

Five Free Favorites #6

Aural Noir: Online Audio

Some of my favorite science fiction freebies have already been picked for the Five Free Favorites feature. Since SFFaudio has recently added Aural Noir reviews, I decided to choose favorites from that genre instead. So, I reached back into the archive of reviews at Free Listens for the best free stories and books from the noir/crime/mystery genres.

Five Free Favourites

1.
Whose Body?
By Dorothy L. Sayers; Read by Kristin Hughes and Kara Shallenberg
Publisher: LibriVox | 13 Zipped MP3s, 6 hr, 31 min [UNABRIDGED]
Lord Peter Wimsey’s mother has telephoned him to get her son to help out her friend Mr. Thipp. Thipp is apparently in trouble with the police over a dead body wearing nothing but a pince-nez who was found in the bathtub of Thipp’s upper-floor apartment. Meanwhile, the family of Sir Reuben Levy has reported Sir Reuben to be missing. Are the two events connected? Is the body Sir Reuben’s? If not, whose body is it?

2.
“Bullet in the Brain”
By Tobias Wolff; Read by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Publisher: New Yorker Fiction Podcast | 1 MP3, 19 min [UNABRIDGED]
The story, in the beginning, is a harsh portrait of a book critic who has lost the joy of literature and instead sees cliches in every novel he reviews. The man is such an ass, in fact, that he can’t help but smirk and heckle in the middle of a bank robbery, exactly when he should keep his mouth shut. In the second part of the story, the plot takes a major turn and we get to see the humanity of the critic. This contrast of putting a comic figure into a serious situation makes the story both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply profound.

3.
“A Jury of Her Peers”
By Susan Glaspell; read by Cori Samuels
Publisher: LibriVox | 1 MP3, 53 min [UNABRIDGED]
Most mysteries focus on the “who” or sometimes the “how” of a crime. In this story both who and how seem to be apparent from the beginning. The real question is why Minnie Wright would strangle her husband. While the county attorney, the sheriff, and a neighbor search the house for clues, the wives of the sheriff and neighbor are left alone in the kitchen.

4.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Read by John Telfer
Publisher: Audiobooksforfree.com
Distributed by Project Gutenberg | 25 MP3’s (download page) 6 hr, 15 min [UNABRIDGED]
This collection includes some of the best Sherlock Holmes stories. A Scandal in Bohemia offers a tantalizing glimpse into what Holmes in love might look like. The Red-Headed League appears in many anthologies and is a great example of an archetypal Sherlock Holmes mystery. While the solution of The Adventure of the Speckled Band appears improbable, the suspenseful storytelling and spooky atmosphere make it easy to see why this was one of Doyle’s favorites.

5.
“Jack Penny’s New Identity”
By Lee Child; Read by Dick Hill
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Distributed by AudiobookStand | 1 MP3, 37 min [UNABRIDGED]
This story, from the James Patterson-edited collection Thriller, follows factory worker James Penny as he is laid off from his job. Penny rather emphatically cuts off his ties to his old life, catching unfavorable attention from the local police in the process. The direct style of Child’s prose reminds me of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, No Country for Old Men, probably now better known from the movie adaptation. Like that novel, the protagonist is a basically good person who has done something illegal, though without malice.

Posted by Seth

Five Free Favourites #5

SFFaudio Online Audio

Hi! I’m Rich, a videogame maker, musician and composer. I’ve done audio work of one kind or another for more years than I care to count (I’m actually over 400 years old -it’s a rare condition). In 2001, I co-founded Digital Eel, an indie game development group (Seattle, WA area). These days, I do design and create sfx and strange music for our games. My interest in audio drama (radio-tinged) began in the 60’s listening to Lights Out and Inner Sanctum on scratchy LP’s, but I primarily blame the Firesign Theatre and Douglas Adams for my abiding appreciation of the medium. Okay, anyhow, I picked out five SF and horror favorites from radio’s glory days for your audio perusal. In other words, unlike things smaller than your elbow, they are safe to stick in your ears. Mostly. Enjoy!

Five Free Favourites

Oh, be sure to check out my website, Radio Tales Of The Strange & Fantastic, for more radio drama goodness…

1.
X Minus One: Mars is Heaven
Story by Ray Bradbury; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC Radio
Broadcast: May 8, 1955
“Mars is Heaven!”, a short story by Ray Bradbury, was first published in 1948 but remains one of the most popular science fiction stories to this day. Many will recall it from the Martian Chronicles set released two years later; a classic Bradbury collection that has never gone out of print. What will the first men on Mars find when they land there? An unwelcome alien environment? A dead lifeless place or…a place of the dead? If you like The Twilight Zone, you’ll dig this story, and the X Minus One version is one of the best.

2.
Suspense: Donovan’s Brain
By Curt Siodmak; Performed by a full cast
2 MP3s – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS Radio
Broadcast: May 19 & 25, 1944
Part 1 |MP3|, Part 2 |MP3|
Donovan’s Brain, the classic “brain kept alive in a jar” tale, was first published in 1942 as a novel by Curt Siodmak (whose story and screenplay for Universal’s classic monster movie, The Wolf Man, scarifyed moviegoing audiences a year before). Today, the 1953 film version is more well known but Suspense nailed it on CBS radio nine years earlier with an unforgettable one hour version directed by, and starring (not surprisingly), the formidable Orson Welles. Is it good, you ask? Does it deliver…suspense? Sure, sure, sure…

3.
Dimension X: The Roads Must Roll
By Robert A. Heinlein; Performed by
1 |MP3| – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC Radio
Broadcast: September 1, 1950
In the future depicted in The Roads Must Roll, the 1940 Nebula award-winning short story by Robert A. Heinlein, automobile, truck and train traffic had become impossibly congested and unmanageable, so the engineers have taken over and have converted roads and highways into rolling roads -similar to conveyor belts but on a massive scale- that move people and goods from place to place at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. Hang on to your potatoes! Problem is, the technicians who keep the roads rolling are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their status. They believe that because rolling roads are of prime importance to the nation’s infrastructure, they should be rewarded more highly than other workers. And when such issues of technological change, politics, unions and class come together, serious conflict is bound to occur…

4.
Mystery In The Air: The Horla
By Guy de Maupassant; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC Radio
Broadcast: August 21, 1947
The Horla, written in 1887 by Guy de Maupassant, is an unusual horror tale about an invisible alien entity that seeks to inhabit and control human beings. It was cited by Lovecraft as being the inspiration for his classic story, The Call of Cthulhu, and as an important forerunner to the weird
horror genre pioneered by himself, August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith, and others, in the early-mid 20th century. This version, from Mystery in the Air (oddly, a summer replacement for the Abbott and Costello Show), benefits from a brisk script and a wonderful live performance by Peter Lorre as your weekly raging psychopath.

5.
Escape: Three Skeleton Key
Story by George Toudouze; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: CBS Radio
Broadcast: March 17, 1950

“Three Skeleton Key, the small rock on which the (lighthouse) stood, bore a bad reputation. It earned its name from the story of the three convicts who, escaping from Cayenne in a stolen dugout canoe, were wrecked on the rock during the night, managed to escape the sea but eventually died of hunger and thirst. When they were discovered, nothing remained but three heaps of bones, picked clean by birds. The story was that the three skeletons, gleaming with phosphorescent light, danced over the small rock, screaming…”
– from Three Skeleton Key by George Toudouze, Esquire magazine, January 1937

Creepy stuff to be sure, so what happens on they key? Terrifying events which I won’t spoil except to say that if you are afraid of a certain creature, as Indiana Jones dislikes snakes, you may find this story unsettling. But don’t fret. Vincent Price is there to hold your hand….until they come. Escape presented Three Skeleton Key many times due to audience requests. Price played the lead role at least twice. This version is generally considered to be his best performance of this play.

Posted by RC of Radio Tales of the Strange and Fantastic

A BONUS Five Free Favourites (on another blog)

SFFaudio News

Five Free Favourites

There’s a “bonus” (all new) Five Free Favourites post, written by me, over on the Anne Is A Man blog. When I asked Anne if he’d like to write one for us he said “Yes” and then asked me to write one for him! The nerve of that guy! Anyway, if you liked the post below you’ll love Anne Is A Man. Check out my guest posting on Anne’s blog HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Five Free Favourites #4

SFFaudio Online Audio

My name is Anne and I have been invited to write this guest post. Today I’ll be handing you Five of my Favorite Free podcasts. You can find more about the podcasts I like, on my podcast review blog “Anne Is A Man.” There you’ll see, I have a preference for history podcasts, so this is what I want to share with you today: my five hot history tips…

Five Free Favourites

Oh, and by the way, I am a man; the man called Anne – can you imagine? That has a history in itself. I am of Dutch origin, but even among that peculiar people Annes are mostly women. Just not me, and not my grand dad, whom I was named after. Stubborn, contrary people, from the north. I do not live there anymore, however. Nowadays I live in Israel. Israelis pronounce my name as Anna and there are no other men named Anna in Israel, I can assure you. It doesn’t get any better. So, after a life of explanations, I called my blog Anne is a Man!

1.
History 5
My all time favorite History Podcast is a lecture series from Berkeley. They deliver it twice a year and publish it as a podcast. If you write a nice email to the GSI’s, they’ll share the power point with you and you can see the visuals, but without them, the lectures are no less intriguing. The course is called History 5 and consists of near 30 lectures telling European History from the Renaissance until today, or 1989 – as close as historians dare to venture to the present. If you take up the course you will either run into Professor Thomas Laqueur, the man who can hysterically giggle, or into Professor Margaret Lavinia Anderson, Peggy for short, who sounds like an American version of McGonnagall from Harry Potter – fair, but rigid and distant. Then again, this lecture she begins with: “I apologize for always talking about sex so much. I know it is nothing you are interested in, but in any case […] it would be an appropriate introduction to Freud.” And here you’ll hear stories of Freud and the nineteenth century in Europe, you wouldn’t believe.

Recommended |MP3|

2.
In Our Time
The second podcast is also an institutionalized production: BBC’s In Our Time. This radio programme is led by a member of the house of Lords, no less, Melvyn Bragg. He is accompanied each issue by three specialists from the field, to discuss a subject in this ongoing series about the history of thought. Right after the broadcast, the recording is put on-line as a podcast, but is removed the next week. If you want to listen from the archive, it can only be done in stream. There is a veritable multitude of streams I could point to, really, very nearly all of them are top notch history, philosophy and elite entertainment. But since I have to choose, let me point you to the issue about King Lear. This will not only relate to Shakespeare’s drama, but also to the folk tale of King Leir, that lay the basis to the story but was radically altered by the Renaissance playwright, with magnificent consequences, for drama, surprise and added depth to the plot.

Recommended: |RealAudio| (stream)
Podcast feed: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/iot/rss.xml

3.
Historyzine
So far so good with the podcasts that are not true podcasts, but recordings that were delivered as podcast on the side. Let’s move to the true, intended, amateur, dedicated podcasts and start with Historyzine. This history podcast is made by the Englishman Jim Mowatt, who has a preference for reenactments of historical battles and who uses the Historyzine podcast as a series to recount the ins and outs of the Spanish War of Succession – a power struggle in Europe that allegedly was about the throne of Spain, but deep down was about hegemony and confronted France’s Louis XIV with the English and the Dutch among others. Here is the first installment, I guess you can take it from there.

Recommended: |MP3|
Podcast feed: http://historyzine.com/feed/

4.
Binge Thinking History Podcast
Another Brit to make a great history podcast in his spare time is Tony Cocks, of the Binge Thinking History Podcast. In nine podcasts he has covered two subjects so far. The first are the British roots of the American constitution and the second was the Battle of Britain. The last is the part of World War II of which Churchill said: ‘never so many owed so much to so few.’ But lately some debunking has been going on about this phrase. After Tony has talked us through the battle, he delivered an excellent episode, summing it all up and drawing the conclusions. Listen to find out whether he debunks the myth of the Battle of Britain with its few heroes as well.

Recommended |MP3|
Podcast feed: http://bingethinkinghistory.libsyn.com/rss

5.
The German Cultural History podcast
The last recommendation is one for the history die-hards. The German Cultural History podcast (and its related blog) is made by by an enthusiastic academic, who doesn’t care too much about sound quality and post-production. He just dives head-first into the subject and gets to the point. His breadth and depth are amazing and what he manages to put in in his approx 30 minute installments has got to be the definitive picture of Medieval German Culture. But you have to be ready to bear with him. Not only with the substandard sound, also with the tangents he takes on in his enthusiasm, especially when it is about the roots of the German language. Once, you open up for it, you really get something. In my opinion, sometime the less polished material, the rawer material, has a more accurate content or strikes as more genuine. The best episode (so far) is the one where the host takes us to Iceland, to Snorri Sturluson, to find the roots of Germanic paganism.

Recommended: |MP3|
Podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GermanCulturalHistory

Posted by Anne of the Anne Is A Man blog

Five Free Favourites #3

SFFaudio Online Audio

Five Free Favourites
Five more faves, five more of my best bets. These are stories to make your mind say “yum yum” and your wallet say “nightie-night”…

1.
After A Lean Winter
By David Farland; Read by Rick Jelinek
1 |M4A| File – Approx. 1 Hour [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: MechMuse
Podcast: Spring 2006
I’m very pleased to see all the released MechMuse stories still available online. Of the dozen or so of stories released, I think this one is my favourite. It’s set six months or so after the events of H.G. Well’s The War Of The Worlds and features a protagonist named “Jack London,” who like the other residents of the Yukon, is still struggling against a Martian menace that still survives up there.

2.
Beyond Lies The Wub
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Mac Kelly
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Time Traveler Show
Podcast: December 2006
The best Xmas gift I received in 2006 was this podcast short story! This was Dick’s first ever published tale, it’s one of his best too. And, I find holds up to multiple listenings. I recommend it often. Knowledge of Homer’s Odyssey is recommended.

3.
The Green Odyssey
By Philip Jose Farmer; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – 6 Hours 6 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Published: December 2006
Publisher: LibriVox.org
This FREE audiobook was created on a dare. As one of the titles from the first SFFaudio Challenge I asked budding narrators to make single-voiced audiobooks from a list of public domain titles. This was the very first to meet the challenge – it is also one of the best. Set on a grassy plain on an obscure alien planet – it’s fast, funny, and makes for quite a romp. A novel in the spirit of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court

Subscribe using this feed:

http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/the-green-odyssey-by-philip-jose-farmer.xml

4.
Star Surgeon
By Alan E. Nourse; Read by Scott D. Farquhar
14 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – 5 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: October 2007
Dal Tigmar is an alien doctor with a sort of interstellar Médecins Sans Frontières. As a recent graduate of the Galaxy’s most prestigious medical school, on Earth, he’s been trained to treat every disease in the book. But racism isn’t a disease even he can treat. This is a real peppy 50 year old novel, that still crackles with energy. It plays out like a typical Heinleinian juvenile, minus the lectures. You’ll love it.

5.
X-Minus One: The Lifeboat Mutiny
Based on the story by Robert Sheckley; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: NBC Radio
Broadcast: September 11, 1956
Provider: Archive.org
I find a lot of X-Minus One hit or miss, but this Robert Sheckley story works. In fact, I’ve used the script for it twice just this month! Kids love it, adults love it. It’s funny, and it’s FREE! My only nit-pick is that the actor playing the lifeboat is not emotional enough – he totally underplays the scripted dialogue. When I do this part, I always play it highly emotional.

I’m still soliciting podcasters and bloggers for their lists, if you’ve a batch of five free faves you think just can’t be ignored, either post em below, or send me an email.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Five Free Favourites #2

SFFaudio Online Audio

Evo Terra, of Podiobooks.com, has Five Free Favourites for us – these are the ones he thinks will surprise you. Many of his “favourites” are in the SF realm – but they’re just the same old block-busters that everyone pointing to Podiobooks.com would consider their favourites, and so, he figures it’s time for him to extol the virtues of some non-SF books that are also his favourites. And to that end, here are Evo’s…

The Five Free Favourites I’d include aren’t science fiction titles. However, being an avid science fiction reader, I’m pretty confident that at least some SF listeners occasionally take a break from SF too and are just looking for something good to listen to. Allow me, if I may, to offer up these hidden gems from Podiobooks.com that might activate different neurons in your brain:

1.
Clear Heart
By Joe Cottonwood; Read by Joe Cottonwood and Susan Walker
Podiobook – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: October 2007 – January 2008
Listen to the promo |MP3|
I’d call this a good companion piece to Zen and the Art of Motorccyle Maintenance, except it’s about building houses. No, I’m not even remotely interested in the intricacies of the construction trade. But I do love a good story where heroes don’t always fit the mold Hollywood creates for us. And the voice acting of the female roles is superb.

2.
Crusade
By Greg Crites; Read by Gregg Crites
Podiobook – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: May 2008 – June 2008
Listen to the promo |MP3|
I really didn’t want to like this book. The author/narrator is crass, abrasive and downright offensive at times. And funny as hell. If you don’t mind the less-than-delicate treatment of religion and the near-constant drug and drinking references, prepare to garner odd stares from co-workers as you listen and burst out with the giggles often.

3.
In Search of #6
By Damon Timm; Read by Damon Timm
Podiobook – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: March 2007
I’m not the most active person in the world, and a travelogue of two fools bicycling from Washington State down to San Francisco sounds less-than-compelling. Yet it’s not about that. It’s about the little things that happen along the way as told by the incredibly gifted narration of Damon Timm. It’s almost enough to make me get on a bike. Almost.

4.
The Best Laid Plans
By Terry Fallis; Read by Terry Fallis
Podiobook – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published:
Why would a guy like me who cares little for politics inside my own country care anything about a satirical novel of politics from ANOTHER country? Because Terry Fallis weaves a masterful tale. And I could listen to him read the phonebook. His characters are both true-to-life and bigger-than-life at the same time. That takes talent.

5.
Karl’s Last Flight
By Basil Sands; Read by Basil Sands
Podiobook – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Podiobooks.com
Published: July 2007 – October 2007
Listen to the promo |MP3|
OK, so this one may be a little bit in the SF realm, since the main character is an astronaut. Of sorts. For a short time. But then it
quickly becomes a great modern-day thriller of espionage and terrorism. With actions and characters that could be ripped out of today’s headlines, Basil weaves an old soldiers past with his current dangerous behind-enemy-lines reality. Fast paced, with deep and complex characters. You won’t want to put it down.

Posted by Evo Terra