World Fantasy Convention 2008 interviews George R. R. Martin. |MP3|
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Posted by Charles Tan
Tag: George R. R. Martin
2008 Audie Award Finalists
Just in are the Audie Award Finalists for 2008. In the Science Fiction category:
• The Draco Tavern, by Larry Niven, narrated by Tom Weiner, published by Blackstone Audio Inc.
• Dune, by Frank Herbert, narrated by Scott Brick, Simon Vance and a full cast, published by Macmillan Audio
• The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney, narrated by Kristoffer Tabori, published by Blackstone Audio Inc.
• Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ravens of Avalon, by Diana L. Paxson, narrated by Lorna Raver, published by Tantor Media, Inc.
• Selections from Dreamsongs 1: Fan Fiction and Sci-Fi from Martin’s Early Years: Unabridged Selections, by George R.R. Martin, narrated by Claudia Black, Mark Bramhall, Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne and Adrian Paul, published by Random House Audio
That’s an excellent list. In other categories, Joe Hill is on there twice, once for 20th Century Ghosts (Short Stories/Collections category) and once for Heart-Shaped Box (Thriller/Suspense category).
That multi-voice production of Dune is also recognized in the Achievement in Production and Multi-Voiced Performance categories.
Neil Gaiman makes a strong showing as well, with a nomination for Neverwhere in the Narration by the Author or Authors category and two in the Children’s Titles – Ages 12+ category; InterWorld and M is for Magic.
Looks like 2007 was a very strong year for genre fiction audiobooks! Here’s a link to a PDF containing the full press release about this year’s Audies from the Audio Publishers Association.
Add – The Audie Awards, by the way, will be given on May 30, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA. –sd
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
Review of Dreamsongs: Volume 1 by George R.R. Martin
Selections from Dreamsongs Volume 1: Fan Fiction and Sci-Fi from Martin’s Early Years
By George R.R. Martin; Read by Claudia Black, Mark Bramhall, Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne, and Adrian Paul
12 CDs; 15 hours; [UNABRIDGED SELECTIONS]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780739357125
Themes: / Science Fiction / Horror / Fantasy / Short Stories / Biography /
Audiobooks have evolved over the past few years in a number of ways. CD’s are now the norm, cassettes used to be. Many more titles are being made into audiobooks. But still, even though audiobooks are a distinct medium, they still haven’t taken the inevitable step away from print. This audiobook, which is quite excellent, is a good example of what I mean. Though this is a collection of short stories, nowhere, on the inside or outside of the packaging, does it list the Table of Contents. This kind of thing has audiobook listeners looking for the print version of the book for this information. It’s as if audiobooks are being made as an augmentation of their print counterparts. Surely, they should be created stand-alone. Information, like the Table of Contents of a short story collection, should not only be included, but it should be visible before purchase.
Still, like I said, this audiobook is excellent. It’s the first of three collections that contain selections from the three Dreamsongs books that collect George R.R. Martin’s short fiction. This Volume covers the early years of Martin’s career, from his fan fiction publications through his first sales to his first awards.
As interesting as the included stories are the biographical introductions to each section that are read by George R.R. Martin himself. These introductions are lengthy, though I would have enjoyed even more of them. He talks about his first writings, his first sale, his first nominations, and his first Hugo, for “A Song of Lya”. It’s a candid overview of a writer’s life, and I enjoyed it every bit as much as I enjoyed similar details in Stephen King’s On Writing.
A Four Color Fanboy, read by George R.R. Martin
“Only Kids are Afraid of the Dark”, read by Adrian Paul
“The Fortress”, read by Mark Bramhall
“And Death His Legacy”, read by Scott Brick
This section contains stories that Martin wrote for fanzines. If you want to read a villain’s monologue as written by George R.R. Martin, look no further than “Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark”, which is a “hero meets demon prince” story. Adrian Paul gives the story an uplifting dramatic reading.
The Filthy Pro, read by George R.R. Martin
“The Hero”, read by Roy Dotrice
“The Exit to San Breta”, read by Scott Brick
“The Second Kind of Loneliness”, read by Mark Bramhall
“With Morning Comes Mistfall”, read by Claudia Black
Roy Dotrice should read all of George R.R. Martin’s fiction. He’s just got this gravel quality that seems to match so many of Martin’s heroes. In “The Hero”, Martin’s first story sale, which Dotrice reads, a future soldier who has finished his tour of duty decides not to re-enlist, and to request passage to Earth, as was promised when he signed on. Dotrice manages to make the soldier even more believable.
The Light of Distant Stars, read by George R.R. Martin
“A Song for Lya”, read by Mark Bramhall
“The Tower of Ashes”, read by Kirby Heyborne
“And Seven Times Never Kill Man”, read by Roy Dotrice
“The Stone City”, read by Adrian Paul
“Bitterblooms”, read by Kim Mai Guest
“The Way of Cross and Dragon”, read by Roy Dotrice
And here we see Martin at near full-strength. “A Song for Lya”, read by Mark Bramhall, is the centerpiece of this volume as far as I’m concerned. It won Martin his first Hugo, and is a moving story about a couple who arrives at a planet to investigate the influence of the indigenous alien religion on humans. “The Way of Cross and Dragon” again deals with religion, but this time in a form that closely resembles the Catholic Church.
Audible.com has all three volumes of Dreamsongs available now. Not only can you buy each volume, but they’ve also allowed you to purchase the individual sections of the books, each introduced by the author. Wonderful stuff!
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
The official George R.R. Martin Podcast launches
It looks like George R. R. Martin has been persuaded to join the growing ranks of Random House authors who’ll be doing “limited run” podcasts to promote their works. In eight episodes, George will “cover a range of topics from the birth of his acclaimed saga, to his experiences in Hollywood, to ‘weird stuff,’ and even reads an excerpt from his new paperback novel A Feast For Crows.” Out now is:
Episode 1: The Birth of A Song of Ice and Fire
In this first episode, George R. R. Martin discusses the origin of his bestselling “A Song of Ice and Fire” cycle.
You can subscribe to the podcast by plugging this feed into your podcatcher:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheGeorgeRRMartinPodcast
CBC Radio One’s Saturday Morning program North…
CBC Radio One‘s Saturday Morning program North by Northwest has finally posted both all four parts of that George R.R. Martin Studio One Book Club interview and discussion started last Saturday. Host Sheryl MacKay and the audience talked to Martin about his latest in the Song Of Ice And Fire series of novels: A Feast For Crows. I found it a very candid and interesting look into the creation of the land of Westeros. You can listen to both parts via RealAudio:
Click HERE to listen to Part One (14 Minutes 31 Seconds)
Click HERE to listen to Part Two (17 Minutes 37 Seconds)
Click HERE to listen to Part Three (12 Minutes 42 Seconds)
Click HERE to listen to Part Four (17 Minutes 31 Seconds)
Review of A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
A Feast for Crows
By George R.R. Martin; Read by John Lee
26 CDs – Approx. 31 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: 2005
ISBN: 0739308742
Themes: / Fantasy / Epic Fantasy / Medieval setting / Power Struggle / Dragons /
There’s a long story behind A Feast for Crows, but I’ll make it short. George R.R. Martin, while writing the fourth installment of the superior A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy series, found it was getting too long. Long enough, in fact, that if he published it as-was, it would need to be broken up into two volumes. So, rather than break the book into two pieces at the middle, he split the book by character, including the complete story of select characters in one volume, leaving the rest of the characters to appear in the next volume. A Feast for Crows, then, is the fourth book, and a new fifth book (A Dance with Dragons) will be published relatively soon. This novel is a bit shorter than the previous volumes, but still clocks in at 31 hours on unabridged audio.
Roy Dotrice read the first three volumes in the series, but this time British actor John Lee narrated. I’m not sure why the change was made; the narrators were very different. While Dotrice has a rough, earthy delivery, Lee’s style is smooth and skilled. Both narrators succeed with Martin’s story, because with such a large number of characters, ranging from royalty to peasants, each found places to shine.
The myriad of characters brings me to my next point. This is the first of these large novels that I’ve heard before I read. Some listeners have complained that the novels are difficult to follow on audio because there are so many entrances, but I didn’t feel that way until now. With this novel, I found that the portions of the book that involved characters I didn’t know from previous books were indeed difficult to follow. When a character I knew arrived on the scene, I was fully engaged with the story.
There is a very simple remedy to this. There are acres of real estate on the packaging for large audiobooks. Why not include a Cast of Characters (Dramatis Personae)? Why not include the maps from the print version? Both of these items would have been welcome.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am a huge fan of Martin’s, and especially this series. I felt that this one started a bit slowly, but ended with a bang. I reveled in being in Westeros again. Many of the characters I like were not included in this novel, which both disappointed me and heightened my anticipation for the next volume. A Feast for Crows delivers much – I was riveted to the last third of this audiobook – but I can’t help to feel that it is incomplete, because of the missing characters and because it is the middle of a long wonderful saga that I am patiently waiting to see through.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson