Iain M. Banks – Page 4

BBC Radio 4: Ursula K. Le Guin biographical documentary NOW an MP3

SFFaudio Online Audio

The now 80 year old Ursula K. Le Guin looks back on her life and career and the Ursula K. Le Guin’s website is hosting the MP3 file made from the March 17th 2009 BBC broadcast interview. Have a listen |MP3|.

Writer China Mieville talks to American science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin.

Le Guin was a trailblazer – writing in the 1960s, her series of books about the adventures of a boy wizard, Ged, included characters of every race and colour. Her fiction has been acutely concerned with politics, portraying worlds destroyed by environmental catastrophe that prefigured modern concerns about global warming, and societies without gender just as modern-day feminism began to take off.

Featuring contributions and tributes from Iain M. Banks and Margaret Atwood.

This documentary aired Tuesday March 17th 2009 @ 11:30-12:00 BBC R4: Ursula Le Guin At 80

[via SFsignal.com and our ORIGINAL POST]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: Ursula K. Le Guin biographical documentary

SFFaudio Online Audio

Coming up on BBC R4
Ursula K. Le Guin looks back on her life and career…

Writer China Mieville talks to American science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin.

Le Guin was a trailblazer – writing in the 1960s, her series of books about the adventures of a boy wizard, Ged, included characters of every race and colour. Her fiction has been acutely concerned with politics, portraying worlds destroyed by environmental catastrophe that prefigured modern concerns about global warming, and societies without gender just as modern-day feminism began to take off.

Featuring contributions and tributes from Iain M. Banks and Margaret Atwood.

Airs Tuesday March 17th 2009 @ 11:30-12:00 BBC R4: Ursula Le Guin At 80

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #028

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #028 – Jesse and Scott are joined by Luke Burrage of The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast. First up we talk about Luke’s show and reviewing Science Fiction. Later we ask the question for our time: Are the British taking over Science Fiction?

Talked about on today’s show:
Luke Burrage: International Juggler and Entertainer, Juggling Podcasts, Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas, Gateway by Frederik Pohl, Perdido Street Station by China Miéville, NaNoWriMo, the “Void Trilogy” by Peter F. Hamilton, Richard K. Morgan, Black Man (aka Thirteen) |READ OUR REVIEW|, Altered Carbon |READ OUR REVIEW|, StarShipSofa’s Richard K. Morgan interview, Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer, Dune by Frank Herbert |READ OUR REVIEW|, Nightfall by Isaac Asimov, Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, Use Of Weapons by Iain M. Banks, The Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham, Alien 3, Blade, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells |READ OUR REVIEW|, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson |READ OUR REVIEW|, Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle |READ OUR REVIEW|, rating systems vs. rankings, The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein, the PC Gamer Podcast, Singularity Sky by Charles Stross, ebooks, Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick |READ OUR REVIEW|, Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan |READ OUR REVIEW|, Time Station Berlin by David Evans.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 3, 4, 7 – Wells, Clarke, Banks + MORE

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Radio 7 are joining forces to launch a new season of SFF audio (hey thanks BBC). These dates and times could change (think of it as a long-term weather forecast), but here’s the schedule for present…

BBC Radio 3 – Sunday 22nd February 20:00-21:40 The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (Stars Robert Glenister)

BBC Radio 4 – Sunday 1st March 15:00 Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (Stars Richard Dillane)

BBC Radio 4 – Monday 9th March 14:15 Cry Babies by Kim Newman (Stars Alex Jennings)

BBC Radio 4 – Wednesday 11th March 14:15 Homesick by Anita Sullivan (Stars Maxine Peake)

BBC Radio 4 – Friday 13th March 14:15 Mayflies by Mike Maddox (Stars Derek Jacobi)

Were not sure that this is a complete list, these details are from the latest issue of Radio Times. No title is specifically listed for BBC7, though Iain M. Banks is also mentioned as a writer who’ll be included.

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Two Scottish writers, Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod, speak

SFFaudio Online Audio

Aye Write! (from the Bank of Scotland Book Festival), recorded on Sunday, March 9th 2008, has audio of Iain M. Banks and Ken MacLeod discussing their latest novels.

Two of Scotland’s leading writers discuss their new books. Iain M Banks’ Matter, the story of a crime within a war which means for one man a desperate flight and a search for the people who can clear his name, for his brother a constant threat of treachery and murder, and for their sister going back to a place she thought she’d abandoned forever. In Ken MacLeod’s The Execution Channel, fighting has spread across the Middle East and Central Asia to the borders of China. In the US, refugees from climate–change disaster subsist in FEMA camps. Images of official executions circulate on the Internet like al Qaeda videos. Interference in someone else’s war is never a simple matter. Both authors are on top form – Banks with a novel of great wit and serious purpose; MacLeod providing, as The Times said, ‘politically engaged, speculative fiction at its finest, with a conclusion that’s absolutely mind-blowing’.

Here’s the |MP3|,

[via SFsignal]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Coming to BBC Radio 4: The State of the Art Iain M. Banks

SFFaudio News

Paul Cornell writes on his blog…

“Now, here’s one of those bits of big news that I haven’t been able to talk about yet, but today I can. I’ve been commissioned to adapt Iain M. Banks’ novella The State of the Art, from the collection of the same name, into a play for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 later this year. My producer is the wonderful Nadia Molinari, and we’re looking to keep all the SF goodness of the original. I’m enjoying how serious and thoughtful the brief is. The story is about Banks’ spaceborne utopian civilisation, the Culture, encountering Earth. Some interesting casting of a Ship voice ahead, I should think, and who should be Diziet Sma? I’m anticipating the process hugely.”

[via SFSignal.com]

Posted by Jesse Willis