Naxos Audiobooks: The Signalman by Charles Dickens

SFFaudio Online Audio

Naxos AudiobooksNaxos Audiobooks is offering…

“A free classic short story download every week until Hallowe’en!”

These stories will come from a 2007 audiobook short story collection called Classic Ghost Stories, all are read “with relish” by Stephen Critchlow.

First up is…

Naxos Audiobooks - The Signal Man by Charles Dickens The Signal Man (from Classic Ghost Stories)
By Charles Dickens; Read by Stephen Critchlow
1 |MP3| – Approx. 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks
Published: October 2007
“These stories are designed to engender a chill in the listener which is not just due to the season. Stephen Critchlow, a characterful actor, is a collector of ghost stories and relishes putting across those slightly odd moments when things don’t just seem to follow the normal process. Charles Dickens was chilling enough in his novels – one only has to remember the entry of Magwitch in Great Expectations! – but as a writer set deeply in the Victorian era and unashamedly a lover of the melodramatic, it comes as no surprise that one of the greatest classics of the genre was The Signalman.”

[via Mary Burkey’s Audiobooker blog]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

SFFaudio Review

A Stir of Echoes by Scott BrickA Stir of Echoes
By Richard Matheson; Read by Scott Brick
6 CDs – 6.5 hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781433267451
Themes: / Horror / Ghosts / Suburbs /

I love a good ghost story, and this certainly is one. A Stir of Echoes was originally published in 1958, but there is very little in the novel that dates it. Either Richard Matheson has a knack for not mentioning things that will become dated, or our lives haven’t changed all that much since the 1950’s.

Tom Wallace and his wife live in the suburbs. At a party, Wallace agrees to be hypnotized, which inadvertently opens a door in his mind to psychic communications. He sees some future events and senses motives and desires of others, but most disturbing is the ghostly woman who keeps showing up in his house.

Like I Am Legend, this novel is very internal. It’s all about Wallace, what he’s thinking, what he’s feeling, and his perception of everyone else. For narrator Scott Brick, this novel presented an opportunity for a great dramatic reading, and he delivers. There’s no doubt how Wallace is feeling, and it’s not always the words that tell us. Brick’s performance is stirring, and his intensity grows as Wallace’s grip loosens. A thorougly entertaining production.

Blackstone Audio is building a very nice collection of Richard Matheson’s fiction. Jesse recently reviewed I Am Legend and Other Stories, and forthcoming is another collection: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories by Richard Matheson.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Update: Frequency Of Fear Lite and Regular FoF

SFFaudio Online Audio

You may have noticed SFFaudio has a new WordPress theme. Ya, well, it isn’t purely cosmetic. We were forced to do some self-surgery due to complaints of too much server usage. I blame you visitors and all your damn clicking. But ours isn’t the only blog with a facelift -The Zombie Astonaut has rejiggered his Frequency Of Fear Lite podcast site with a new look. Says ZA:

As some of you may know, we edit the original wraparound stories into their very own self-contained audio drama (emphasis on the “audio”, not so much on the “drama”). They’ve been featured on the Sonic Society’s podcast, the Jack And Shannon Show. We also had a page set up for those with a link to the right, but frankly, the page sucked. I wasn’t crazy about the layout or how difficult it was to update, and Doc hated all the pastel colors I didn’t notice because I’m terribly colorblind. In came Dr. Wilheim Von Martinez to save the day! After accidentally re-inventing the Tofurkey, he set up a marvelous new Frequency Lite page, one that is more organized and allows for comments. We’ll be expanding the page to include character and actor bios, as well as other fun stuff. Check it out!

The Frequency Of Fear Lite

But that isn’t all, over on the regular site…

Frequency Of Fear

There is an unusual interview based episode created when the Zombie Astronaut visited “the first annual Indy Paracon, a paranormal convention in Danville, Indiana.” There, Zombie spoke with four different ghost hunters – Chris Dedman, Paul Browning (Clarksville Ghost Hunters), Michael D. McDonald (Kindred Moon Paranormal Society) and Sarah Neher (In Nomine Paranormal Research). They gave tips on the equipment ghost hunters need and how to protect yourself from the demonic possession (prayer).

I listened to the whole show and came away thinking that some of these folks the Zombie Astronaut interviews seem to think their hobby can be dangerous – I agree with this. And I speak with experience. Pretending can be dangerous. When I was a kid I spent a summer with a family friends’ kid. He was about 3 years older than me and really into wrestling TV shows – let me tell you a half-nelson suplex on an unsuspecting kid who doesn’t have cable TV and has no idea what a suplex was – let alone a half-nelson suplex – that is dangerous.

That said, as long as these ghost hunters are only pretending to experience the regular old melancholy apparitions who mope about in dark corners and say things like “my toys” rather than pretending the full-on Tobe Hooper style poltergeists – they’ll probably be okay. Of the guest who suggested prayer prior to all ghost hunting activities – I wish ZA would have asked one more question of him. Namely: If there is a prayer for the prevention of a broken collar-bone.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Forgotten Classics: Dark Posessions by James Powell

SFFaudio Online Audio

Forgotten ClassicsJulie Davis, of the Forgotten Classics podcast, did me a personal favour by recording one of James Powell’s stories for me. The tale, Dark Possessions, was first published in the February 1992 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

I dig this tale because it showcases just how creative James Powell’s writing is. He manages to surprise the reader, yet he does so within the very rigid traditions of the mystery genre. Let me explain. Dark Possessions is a murder mystery. A locked room murder mystery. A locked room murder mystery years set after the event. A locked room murder mystery set years after the event and solved by furniture.

FURNITURE!

Oh and it’s a ghost story too!

And, last but not least, Julie does an amazing job bringing it to life! Have a listen…

Forgotten Classics - Dark Possessions by James PowellDark Possessions
By James Powell; Read by Julie Davis
1 |MP3| File – Approx. 20 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Forgotten Classics
Podcast: April 26th 2009
A little something extra from the mind of James Powell, in which we have a deep experience of mystery and furniture.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Don’t Stop by James Patrick Kelly

SFFaudio Online Audio

Hey! Here’s a new FREE READS reading from James Patrick Kelly (a terrific SF author and a pioneer in MP3ing his fiction)…

Asimov’s Science Fiction June 2007Don’t Stop
By James Patrick Kelly; Read by James Patrick Kelly
1 |MP3| – Approx. 41 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Free Reads
Podcast: January 21 2009
A woman runs with ghosts, both figurative and literal.
First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in June of 2007. It is currently on the Preliminary Ballot for the Nebula Award, given each year by the Science Fiction Writers of America. A woman runs with ghosts, both figurative and literal.

Podcast feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/freereads/

Posted by Jesse Willis

Mister Ron’s Basement: A Journey To The Sun & The Ghost Exstinguisher

SFFaudio Online Audio

Podcast - Mister Ron's BasementMister Ron, from Mister Ron’s Basement Podcast has a couple of vintage spoofs of SF and Fantasy for us. Ron writes:

“it turns out that Stanley Huntley must have had a passion for spoofing Jules Verne. Just a few months after he had put A Trip to the South Pole in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1880, he went after Around the World in Eighty Days with the story A Journey to the Sun by Jules Verne, Jr. It features the English Baronet Sir Fillemup Frog, who bets his friends that he can climb up to the Sun. It’s a silly, but fun story.”


A Journey to the Sun
By Jules Verne, Jr. (aka Stanley Huntley); Read by Mister Ron
1 |MP3| – Approx. 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Mister Ron’s Basement
Podcast: November 17th 2008
Also up from the basement, from 1905, what may be the original ghost-busting story…

The Ghost-Extinguisher
By Gelett Burgess; Read by Mister Ron
1 |MP3| – Approx. 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Mister Ron’s Basement
Podcast: October 2008
A scientist discovers perfects the Japanese technique for disabling ghosts and putting them in jars.

Posted by Jesse Willis