John Ringo – Page 3

The SFFaudio Podcast #029

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #029 – Jesse and Scott are joined by Julie D. of the Forgotten Classic podcast. Listen in as Julie gushes over the new audiobook of Ken Scholes’ novel Lamentation! We also talk Space Opera, libraries, and how to read a paperbook: “Breaking the spine of a book is like breaking the spine of the family dog.” Ya, it’s a Buck Roger-ish show.

Talked about on today’s show:
Hyperion by Dan Simmons, David Weber, “The Honor Harrington” series, On Basilisk Station, military SF, Audible Frontiers, John Ringo, March Upcountry, Off Armageddon Reef, Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human, Venus Plus X, To Marry Medusa, Nancy Kress, Beggars In Spain, Infinivox, Blackstone Audio, Beggars And Choosers, Beggars Ride, Children Of Men by P.D. James |READ OUR REVIEW|, BBC Audiobooks America, Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer, Doctor Who, Audible’s new format 4, radio drama, audio drama, 2000X: Tales of the Next Millennia |READ OUR REVIEW|, Spoken Books Publishing, Dr. Wasserman’s Time Chamber: Preventing Armageddon by Lee Geiger, Lamentation by Ken Scholes, Fantasy, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, George R.R. Martin, Dune by Frank Herbert, Macmillan Audio, Simon Vance, The Prestige by Christopher Priest, The January Dancer, SciPodBooks, LibriVox, The Green Odyssey, Space Vulture, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Grim Space by Ann Aguirre, the “Gap” series by Stephen R. Donaldson, ScottBrickPresents.com, The Phoenix Legacy, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Tony Smith, StarShipSofa, Trophy Wives, Twitter, Neil Gaiman, OTRcat.com, Worldcat.org, the Amber series by Roger Zelazny, Maria Lectrix, giving up blogs for lent.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases – Audible Frontiers January 2009

New Releases

Here’s the latest batch of Audible Frontiers titles releasing exclusively through Audible.com for January 2009. The last two on this list are likely the most anticipated (I’m looking at you here Greg). Also on tap are the first four books in Alan Dean Foster’s “Pip and Flinx” series with a promise of the “entire series” over “the next several months … culminating in the May 19th simultaneous publication of Flinx Transcendent, the final book in the series.” That should make quite a few ADF fans happy. And, the sequel to Cally’s War is on the list too! There are also plans to bring this entire BAEN books series to audio.

The Tar-Aiym Krang (book 1 in the “Pip & Flinx” series)
By Alan Dean Foster; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
Audible Download – 7 Hours 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: January 2009
Foster’s first published novel!
Moth was a beautiful planet, the only one with wings – two great golden clouds suspended in space around it. Here was a wide-open world for any venture a man might scheme. The planet attracted unwary travelers, hardened space-sailors, and merchant buccaneers – a teeming, constantly shifting horde that provided a comfortable income for certain quick-witted fellows like Flinx and his pet flying snake Pip. With his odd talents, the pickings were easy enough so that Flinx did not have to be dishonest … most of the time. In fact, it hardly seemed dishonest at all to steal a starmap from a dead body that didn’t really need it anymore. But Flinx wasn’t quite smart enough. He should have wondered why the body was dead in the first place…

Orphan Star (book 2 in the “Pip & Flinx” series)
By Alan Dean Foster; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
Audible Download – 7 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: January 2009
One man in the Universe holds the key to the mystery of Flinx’s past – and that man is trying to kill him! It is a strange childhood for a kid, to be adopted by the restless Mother Mastiff and raised in the bustling marketplace of Drallar. Flinx never knew the mom and dad who abandoned him years ago. In fact, his birth has always been shrouded in mystery. But Flinx eventually discovers that his unknown parents have left him a curious legacy – extraordinary mental powers that are both a marvelous gift and a dreaded curse. This double-edged legacy will lead Flinx, along with his loyal protector, the mini-dragon Pip, on a harrowing journey in search of the truth . . . about who he is and where he comes from. It is a daring adventure that brings him to another world – and into the clutches of one of the most evil and powerful men in the galaxy…

The End Of The Matter (book 3 in the “Pip & Flinx” series)
By Alan Dean Foster; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
Audible Download – Approx. 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: January 2009
Accompanied by his faithful minidrag Pip and a most troublesome alien called Abalamahalamatandra – Ab for short – Flinx set out for Alaspin, the ruggedly primitive homeworld of his flying snake. There he hoped to find the giant man with the gold earring who somehow held the key to Flinx’s mysterious past and to the strange powers he possessed. Chasing down his heritage was trouble enough, but Flinx didn’t know what real trouble was until he realized that the Qwarm – a deadly assassin squad – were three steps behind him with a contract to kill. But the minidrag’s homeworld did not offer safety and Flinx had a terrible time just staying alive … a matter complicated to no mean degree by a collapsar already set on an unstoppable death course across the galaxy!

For Love Of Mother-Not (book 4 in the “Pip & Flinx” series)
By Alan Dean Foster; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
Audible Download – 8 Hours 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: January 2009
He was just a freckle-faced, red-headed kid with green eyes and a strangely campelling stare when Mather Mastiff first saw him an the auctioneer’s block. One hundred credits and he was hers. For years the old woman was his only family. She loved him, fed him, taught him everything she knew – even let him keep the deadly flying snake he called Pip.Then Mother Mastiff mysteriously disappeared and Flinx took Pip to tail her kidnappers. Across the forests and swamps of the winged world called Moth, their only weapons were Pip’s venom . . . and Flinx’s unusual Talents.

Honor Of The Clan (book 10 in the Legacy of the Aldenata series)
By John Ringo and Julie Cochrane; Read by Marc Vietor
Audible Download – 13 Hours 57 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: January 2009
The Posleen War Rages On – Undercover! Clan O’Neal Battles for the Right – And With Each Other! The Indowy “Bane Sidhe” conspiracy has grown strong, and the cunning and resourceful Darhel – tacit rulers of the Galactic Federation – have decided that the time has come to wipe that threat from the stars forever. What the Darhel don’t know is that humans have joined the rebellion – led by thief and assassin extraordinaire, Cally O’Neal. Now Cally is set to destroy a web of alien deceit millennia in the making. Only one obstacle lies in her path: the renowned warrior who stood tall and saved Earth from utter destruction during its first invasion by alien hordes – a legend who also happens to be Cally’s father!

Just Another Judgement Day (book 9 in the Nightside series)
By Simon R. Green; Read by Marc Vietor
Audible Download – 8 Hours 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: January 2009
There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s got the Nightside’s rich and powerful quaking in their boots. He’s The Walking Man, and it’s his mission to exorcise sinners – with extreme prejudice. Problem is, the Nightside was built on sin and corruption, and The Walking Man makes no distinction between evildoers and those simply indulging themselves. He’ll leave the place a wasteland unless someone stops him, and P.I. John Taylor has been handed the job. No known magic or science can affect The Walking Man, and if John can’t discover his weakness, he’ll be facing the very Wrath of God.

Shortly forthcoming…

Endymion (book 3 in the Hyperion Cantos)
By Dan Simmons
Audible Download – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: January 20th 2009

The Rise Of Endymion (book 4 in the Hyperion Cantos)
By Dan Simmons
Audible Download – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: January 20th 2009
A Hugo Award nominee!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Baen Audiobooks FREE

Online Audio

Baen Books has FREE audiobooks! I knew that several of Baen’s hardcover first editions over the last few years had been coming with BONUS CD-ROMS full of eBooks. And I thought that was pretty cool, and clever too, but it was a big surprise to me to learn that they have often also included MP3 audiobook readings (complete novels and short stories). Even cooler, one thoughtful collector has archived the CDs on his/her website! And here are links to each…

Novels:

Hell’s Faire
By John Ringo; Read by ????
21 MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
With the defenses of the Southern Appalachians sundered, the only thing standing between the ravening Posleen hordes and the soft interior of the Cumberland Plateau are the veterans of the 555th Mobile Infantry. Dropped into Rabun Pass, with a couple of million Posleen behind them and fourteen million to the front, the only question is which will run out first: power, bullets or bodies. But they have a hole card: far to the north the shattered SheVa Nine, nicknamed “Bun-Bun,” is undergoing a facelift. Rising from its smoking ashes is a new weapon of war, armed with the most advanced weaponry Terra has ever produced, capable of facing both the Posleen hordes and their redoubtable space-cruisers. Capable of dealing out Hell as only SheVa Nine can. But when push comes to vaporization, if Mike O’Neal and the other members of the 555th are going to survive, it will come down to how much Posleen butt Bun-Bun can kick. Prepare to eat antimatter, Posleen-boy.

The Far Side Of The Stars
By David Drake; Read by ????
35 MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
While the Republic of Cinnabar is at peace with the Alliance, warriors like Lt. Daniel Leary and Signals Officer Adele Mundy must find other work—like escorting a pair of wealthy nobles on an expedition to the back of beyond! The Princess Cecile, the corvette in which they carved their reputations in letters of fire, has been sold as a private yacht, but she still has her guns, her missiles, and her veteran crew. Daniel and Adele will need all of those things as they face winged dragons, an Alliance auxiliary cruiser, jealous lovers, and a mysterious oracle which really does foresee the future. That won’t be enough, though, when they penetrate a secret Alliance base and find a hostile fleet ready for a war that will sweep Cinnabar out of a strategically crucial arm of the galaxy. Preventing that will involve skill, courage, and more luck than a sane man could even pray for; and it will require a space battle on a scale that a tiny corvette like the Princess Cecile has no business being involved in. But she’ll be in the middle of it anyway, because Daniel, Adele, and their Cinnabar crew would never turn their backs on a fight!

There Will Be Dragons
By John Ringo; Read by ????
45 MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
n the future there is no want, no war, no disease nor ill-timed death. The world is a paradise-and then, in a moment, it ends. The council that controls the Net falls out and goes to war. Everywhere people who have never known a moment of want or pain are left wondering how to survive. But scattered across the face of the earth are communities which have returned to the natural life of soil and small farm. In the village of Raven’s Mill, Edmund Talbot, master smith and unassuming historian, finds that all the problems of the world are falling in his lap. Refugees are flooding in, bandits are roaming the woods, and his former lover and his only daughter struggle through the Fallen landscape. Enemies, new and old, gather like jackals around a wounded lion. But what the jackals do not know is that while old he may be, this lion is far from death. And hidden in the past is a mystery that has waited until this time to be revealed.

Short Stories:

A Ship Named Francis
By John Ringo and Victor Mitchell; Read by ????
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
Sean Tyler, a corpsman in the Royal Manticoran Navy, thought that a stint as a loaner in the explosively-growing Grayson Navy would boost his career. So, when he heard there was a slot vacant on board the cruiser Francis Mueller, he volunteered. Unfortunately for Corpsman Tyler, no one told him that almost everybody on board the Francis — from the clueless captain to the psychotic XO and the panicky chaplain — had been sent there because no one else in the entire Grayson Navy wants them.

Let’s Go to Prague
By John Ringo; Read by ????
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published:
A pair of Manticoran Marines discover that a holiday can be even more fun if it involves spoiling StateSec’s day.

posted by Jesse Willis

New Arrivals – Full Cast Audio, Blackstone Audio & Brilliance Audio titles

Science Fiction Audiobook Recent Arrivals

We’ve got some new arrivals that took a circuitous route to our door.

The Will of the Empress
By Tamora Pierce; Read by Full Cast
14 CDs, Approx. 15.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Full Cast Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781933322391

From the website:
Tamora Pierce returns to the world of Circle of Magic for this smashing novel that brings the four young mages back together as teens. Suspense! Court intrigue! Romance! Fights! All the things that you love about Tammy’s books are here in abundance.

March Upcountry: Book 1 of the Prince Roger Series
By David Weber and John Ringo; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
2 MP3CDs, 14 CDs, or 12 cassettes; Approx. 17.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2005
ISBN: 0786178523(MP3 discs); 078617577X(CDs), 0786137932 (cassettes)

“The dynamic duo of Weber and Ringo continue Prince Roger McClintock’s adventures, which are coming to constitute a military SF classic.”—Booklist

From the back cover:
The royal brat is in trouble.

Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang MacClintock was young, handsome, athletic, an excellent dresser, and third in line for the Throne of Man. So why wouldn’t anyone at Court trust him? It wasn’t surprising that he became spoiled, self-centered, and petulant. After all, what else did he have to do with his life?

But that was before his mother the empress packed him off to a backwater planet, a saboteur tried to blow up his ship, and he found himself shipwrecked on the planet Marduk, with jungles full of damnbeasts, killerpillars, carnivorous plants, and barbarian hordes with really bad dispositions. Now all Roger has to do is hike halfway around the planet, capture a spaceport from the Bad Guys, commandeer a starship, and then go home.

March to the Stars: Book 3 of the Prince Roger Series
By David Weber and John Ringo; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
2 MP3CDs or 14 CDs; Approx. 17.5 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2005
ISBN: 9780786172603(MP3 discs); 9780786163410(CDs)

From the back cover:
Since his attempted assassination, which marooned him with his bodyguards on the hostile planet Marduk with its unending series of adventures, Prince Roger McClintock has evolved from a spoiled, petulant heir into a true leader of humans and aliens alike.

Road of the Patriarch
By R.A. Salvatore; Read by David Colacci
11 CDs; Approx. 13 hrs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2006
ISBN: 9781423316404

From the back cover:
THE ASSASSIN — A cold and emotionless killer for whom every soul has a price, even his own, embarks on a path to find out just how high that price can be.

THE MERCENARY — A dark elf of limitless guile dares to challenge a king, and carve for himself a place in the inhospitable World Above.

ILNEZHARATA and TAZMIKELL — A are ancient dragons of great power, accustomed to easily manipulating the humans around them. But not all humans are so easily led. When they pushed Entreri and Jarlaxle into the heart of the Bloodstone Lands, not even they could have imagined the strength of the human assassin’s resolve, or the limitless expanse of the drow mercenary’s ambition.

posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show

Review of Cally’s War by John Ringo and Julie Cochrane

Cally’s War
By John Ringo and Julie Cochrane
Read by Christine Marshall and William Dufris
1 MP3-CD – Approx 13 Hours 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Paperback Digital
Published: 2004
ISBN: 1584390034
Themes: / Science Fiction / Alien invasion / Secret agent / War /

She walked over to the body and tilted her head appraisingly a moment before carefully and deliberately spitting on it. “The name’s Cally O’Neal, and that’s for trying to kill me when I was eight.”

Cally is a member of the sisterhood of the Bane Sidhe, which is a group of underground warriors. It’s immediately apparent that she is a warrior who can withstand all manner of assault on her body in the name of completing her mission. I couldn’t help but to mentally insert Uma Thurman in the role of Cally, as the character’s complete indifference to violence and sex (both of which appear in this book in copious amounts) is reminiscent in ways to characters from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.

Cally operates in this novel in a complex post-invasion world. She meets all manner of interesting folk while solving a mystery of her own. The events in the first chapter provided a good running start into the novel, but the rest of the book never matched that potential. I was never interested again as the story took a decided turn for the expected.

The audiobook itself is done in a style that at first turned me off, but then won me over in a big way. Christine Marshall and William Dufris take turns narrating, depending on the point of view of the story. This is a technique that I generally enjoy. But during each other’s narrating duties, the other plays a role. Whenever Cally speaks, for example, it’s Christine Marshall doing the speaking whether she’s narrating at the moment or not. This is a technique that I generally abhor – I find it annoying and distracting nearly every time it’s tried. But… it works very well here for two reasons – first, they didn’t follow up every piece of dialogue with he saids and she saids – words which are as transparent with a single narrator as they are on the page, but with dual narration can become annoying. Second, the sheer skill of these two narrators makes the dialogue portions of the audiobook work wonderfully. Both narrators performed several believable characters each, and there was never any doubt who was speaking. The dialogue was snappy and well paced.

This is definitely science fiction of a sort that I don’t sample too often in print, since I feel like I get enough of this kind of story on the screen (big or small). The technical production, though, was absolutely first rate – among the best in the business – which makes me eager to hear titles from Paperback Digital that are more to my taste.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Just got a press release announcing the creation o…

Just got a press release announcing the creation of a company named Paperback Digital. The company will publish audiobooks in MP3 format for sale on it’s website (www.paperbackdigital.com) and on Fictionwise.com. The audiobooks will be sold on MP3-CD and as download!

Paperback Digital will make it titles available for the first time over Labor Day weekend at the World Science Fiction Convention being held in Boston. The titles that will be available:

1634: The Galileo Affair by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis, $19.95, Length: 21 Hours; 2 MP3-CDs

Eric Flint moves the focus of his best-selling alternate history series to Venice and a host of new characters. Hippy Tom Stone founds a modern pharmaceutical industry while his sons rescue a very different Galileo than the history books record. Meanwhile Father Mazzare defends Galileo at his trial and faces the Church, testing his faith and showing the complexities of 17th Century theology…

Hardcover published by: Baen Books

Spirits In The Wires by Charles de Lint, $14.95, Length: 17 Hours; 1 MP3-CD

When the popular Newford website Wordwood crashes, everyone who was logged in disappears into thin air. Writer Christy Riddell and his friends must travel into that netherworld of spirits and elves to rescue their companions by doing battle with the spirit who powers this world before it can cause more harm…

Simultaneous publication with TOR Books trade paperback release

Coming October 1st will be:

Cally’s War by John Ringo and Julie Cochrane, $25.00, Length: 14 Hours; 1 MP3-CD

For as long as Cally could remember, she had lived in danger. While her father was off fighting the invading Posleen she had been raised by her grandfather, on the front-lines of a war that had erased five billion humans from the face of the earth. Cally has been fighting for the future of the human race, but now she’s in a war for the survival of her soul….

Simultaneous publication with Baen Books hardcover release

And on Halloween:

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, $14.95, Length: 12 Hours 30 Minutes; 1 MP3-CD

The first book in Harris’ best-selling Southern Vampire Mystery series. Roadhouse

waitress Sookie Stackhouse has a problem: she can read minds. And who wants to go on a date with a guy when you can’t get near him without seeing the images of yourself flitting through his head. It was just easier to stay home and watch TV. Until the night she got a bottle of beer for a new customer and found one man whose minds was a blank wall to her. What difference did it make that he was a vampire? …

Mass Market paperback published by: Ace Books

On November 1st, Paperback Digital will release:

Reflex by Steven Gould, $23.95, Length: 14 Hours, 1 MP3-CD

The sequel to Gould’s 1992 best-selling debut novel, Jumper, this new novel picks up 10 years later, when Davy is kidnapped by a fanatic who wants the secret of teleportation and his wife, Millie, has to rescue him. She has no idea of where or how to start, until she falls and reflexively jumps to safety.

Simultaneous publication with TOR Books hardcover release

On December 1st, Paperback Digital will release:

Survival, Species Imperative 1 by Julie E. Czerneda, $14.95, Length: 16 Hours, 1 MP3-CD

When her field research station is mysteriously attacked, marine biologist Dr. Mackenzie Connor must flee for her life. Joining forces with an alien archaeologist, she escapes to his planet on a quest to find a defense against the unknown aggressor—before they launch a fullscale invasion of Earth.

Hardcover published by: DAW Books

All my best to them! May Paperback Digital enjoy a prosperous long life!