John Scalzi – Page 7

Review of The God Engines by John Scalzi

SFFaudio Review

The God Engines
By John Scalzi; Read by Christopher Lane
3 CDs – Approx. 3 Hours 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441890795
Themes: / Science Fiction / Fantasy / Religion / Galactic Civilization / Space Travel / War /

Captain Ean Tephe is a man of faith, whose allegiance to his lord and to his ship is uncontested. The Bishopry Militant knows this — and so, when it needs a ship and crew to undertake a secret, sacred mission to a hidden land, Tephe is the captain to whom the task is given. Tephe knows from the start that his mission will be a test of his skill as a leader of men and as a devout follower of his god. It’s what he doesn’t know that matters: to what ends his faith and his ship will ultimately be put — and that the tests he will face will come not only from his god and the Bishopry Militant, but from another, more malevolent source entirely… Author John Scalzi has ascended to the top ranks of modern science fiction with the best-selling, Hugo-nominated novels Old Man’s War and Zoe’s Tale. Now he tries his hand at fantasy, with a dark and different novella that takes your expectations of what fantasy is and does, and sends them tumbling. Say your prayers… and behold The God Engines.

The God Engines is the strongest John Scalzi audiobook since Old Man’s War |READ OUR REVIEW|. It provokes thought, flies off in an unexpected direction and doesn’t overstay its welcome. The setting is in an unnamed galaxy, at an unknown time. But space travel, interstellar communication, and bodily healing aren’t technological developments. Instead, they are derived from a rigorous faith in actual, existing gods! These gods are so real, so embodied, that there is one in the center of each starship. It lies their enslaved, guarded and harnessed so as to achieve the ends to which they are put. Command over these powerful beings is achieved by a combination of torture and reward. Their masters are human beings, members of a religion with their own completely manifested god. Their purpose is to war with other religions, enslave new gods and bring more human beings to the worship of their own god. It is an unending holy war, in a fully realized universe, and it works.

I like to see the examination of an interesting idea, without an endless parade of pointless activity to dilute its core of goodness. We have that in this book. There’s something very neat about the running of what is essentially the starship Enterprise on faith. To hear that an officer is changing his prayers to adjust what’s showing up on the viewscreen – that’s something definitely worth seeing. Scalzi’s universe is run on prayer, faith, and relgious belief. It’s a kind of realization of what religions always claim, but shown to be actually functioning in a replicable manner. It’s theology as physics. The whole story feels like it comes from the same place J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 came from. Where Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End came from. There’s an indisputable space opera with Lovecraft vibe to it, but unlike so much space opera, the thinking just isn’t mushy and placative. In fact, there was nary a moment where I wasn’t completely engaged with this made up Fantasy/SF tale. The storytelling is expertly intertwined with a careful exposition of the universe’s rules. This works to fully enrich the ideation without coming off as merely a writer going through a checklist. I’d love to see Scalzi, or any other SF writer, write a dozen more books just like this – take a break from the series universe, and write some more idea based SF. Take a simple little premise or vignette, throw in a few characters and have them explore the concomitant interestingness of that idea. The God Engines does exactly that. It shows, very simply what SF storytelling is supposed to look like. This audiobook stands well, on its own, though I could easily imagine it as one half of an old Ace Double. This is very good work. Well done Mr. Scalzi.

Narrator Christopher Lane has about five major characters to play with. The captain is commanding and thoughtful. The second in command is calm and loyal. The ship’s high priest (who also acts as a kind of political commissar) is jealous but clever. The one female role, a rook (which is kind of a cross between a ship’s whore and a priestess), is wise and womanly. But it’s the unnamed god’s voice that is the real standout. Lane’s god is tortured, twisted and devious. It is a very precise performance, one that allows for the sympathy Scalzi was aiming at. The art for the cover comes from Vincent Chong‘s illustration of the Subterranean Press edition.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals: Blackstone Audio, Brilliance Audio, Infinivox, Tantor Media + Audio Comics

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

A half-vampire’s work is never done…

At Grave’s End (Book 3 in the Night Huntress series)
By Jeaniene Frost; Read by Tavia Gilbert
8 CDs – Approx. 9.3 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441768988
Some things won’t stay buried … at grave’s end. It should be the best time of half-vampire Cat Crawfield’s life. With her undead lover Bones at her side, she’s successfully protected mortals from the rogue undead. But though Cat’s worn disguise after disguise to keep her true identity a secret from the brazen bloodsuckers, her cover’s finally been blown, placing her in terrible danger. As if that wasn’t enough, a woman from Bones’ past is determined to bury him once and for all. Caught in the crosshairs of a vengeful vamp, yet determined to help Bones stop a lethal magic from being unleashed, Cat’s about to learn the true meaning of bad blood. And the tricks she’s learned as a special agent won’t help her. She will need to fully embrace her vampire instincts in order to save herself—and Bones—from a fate worse than the grave.

Look no further for unknowable, inimical insectiles than…

The Lair of Bones (Book 4 of The Runelords series)
By David Farland; Read by Ray Porter
13 CDs – Approx. 15.4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441753120
Prince Gaborn, the Earth King, has defeated the forces arrayed against him each time before: the magical and human forces marshaled by Raj Ahten, who seeks immortality at any cost and has given up his humanity in trade; and the inhuman, innumerable, insectile hordes of the giant Reavers from under the Earth, whose unknowable motives are inimical to human life. Now there must be final confrontations, both on the field of battle, with the supernatural creature that Raj Ahten has become, and underground, in the cavernous homeland of the Reavers, where the sorcerous One True Master who rules them all lies in wait—in the Lair of Bones. The survival of the human race on Earth is at stake.

Like a few other titles in this list this one was discussed at the beginning of SFFaudio Podcast #088…

Last Call
By Tim Powers; Read by Bronson Pinchot
16 CDs – Approx. 19.1 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441757364
Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player twenty years ago and hasn’t returned to Las Vegas, or held a hand of cards, in ten years. But troubling nightmares about a strange poker game he once attended on a houseboat on Lake Mead are drawing him back to the magical city. For the mythic game he believed he won did not end that night in 1969—and the price of his winnings was his soul. Now, a pot far more strange and perilous than he ever could imagine depends on the turning of a card. Enchantingly dark and compellingly real, this World Fantasy Award–winning novel is a masterpiece of magic realism set in the gritty, dazzling underworld known as Las Vegas.

To me, the word UFO illustrates both the magic and the deficiency of language. The gap between the “U” (UNKNOWN) and “alien spacecraft” is the slippage between word, reality, and fantasy in the black box of the brain. There’s a website for the book |HERE|…

UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On the Record
By Leslie Kean; Read by Heather Henderson
11 CDs – Approx. 13 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: October 2010
ISBN: 9781441776150
An Air Force major is ordered to approach a brilliant UFO in his Phantom jet over Tehran. He repeatedly attempts to engage and fire on unusual objects heading right toward his aircraft, but his missile control is locked and disabled. Witnessed from the ground, this dogfight becomes the subject of a secret report by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. In Belgium, an Air Force colonel investigates a series of widespread sightings of unidentified triangular objects, sending F-16s to attempt a closer look. Hundreds of eyewitnesses, including on-duty police officers, file reports about the incident, and a spectacular photograph of an unidentifiable craft is retrieved and analyzed. Here at home, a retired chief of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Accidents and Investigations Division reveals the agency’s response to a thirty-minute encounter between an aircraft and a gigantic UFO over Alaska, which occurred during his watch and is documented on radar. Now all three of these distinguished men have written breathtaking, firsthand accounts about these extraordinary incidents. They are joined by Air Force generals and a host of high-level sources who have agreed to write their own detailed, personal stories about UFO encounters and investigations for the first time. They are coming forward now because of Leslie Kean, an investigative reporter who has spent the last ten years studying the still unexplained UFO phenomenon. Kean reviewed hundreds of government documents, aviation reports, radar data, and case studies with corroborating physical evidence. With the support of former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, Kean draws on her research to separate fact from fiction and to lift the veil on decades of U.S. government misinformation. Throughout, she presents irrefutable evidence that unknown flying objects—metallic, luminous, and seemingly able to maneuver in ways that defy the laws of physics—actually exist.

Dare you learn the lost secrets of the ~~meow’in~~ Mauan civilization?

Catacombs: A Tale of the Barque Cats
By Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough; Read by Laural Merlington
7 CDs – Approx. 8 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441838339
In Catalyst, award-winning authors Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough introduced listeners to the beguiling Barque Cats: spacefaring felines who serve aboard starships as full-fledged members of the crew. Highly evolved, the cats share an almost telepathic bond with their minders, or Cat Persons — until, suddenly, there is no “almost” about it, and a particular Barque Cat, Chester, learns to ex- change thoughts with his human friend, Jubal. Other cats soon gain the same ability. Behind the seeming miracle is a mysterious cat named Pshaw-Ra, who possesses knowledge and technology far beyond anything the Barque Cats — or their humans — have ever seen. When fear of a virulent plague leads the government first to quarantine and then to kill all animals suspected of infection, Pshaw-Ra—with the help of Chester, Jubal, and the crew of the starship Ranzo — activates a “mousehole” in space that carries the refugees to a place of safety: Pshaw-Ra’s home planet of Mau, where godlike cats are worshiped by human slaves. But Pshaw-Ra’s actions are less noble than they appear. The scheming cat plans to mate the Barque Cats with his own feline stock, creating a hybrid race of superior cats — a race destined to conquer the universe. Yet right from the start, his plans go awry. For one thing, there’s a new queen on Mau: Pshaw-Ra’s daughter Nefure, a spoiled brat — er, cat — with a temper as short as her attention span. Pshaw-Ra’s other daughter, the rightful queen Renpet, is exiled, running for her life in the only direction available to her — down into the vast catacombs beneath the Mauan desert. Far from receiving the hero’s welcome he expected, Pshaw-Ra must use every bit of his considerable cleverness just to survive. Meanwhile, as usual, Chester and Jubal stumble right into the middle of things, in the process uncovering the lost secrets of the Mauan civilization. But that’s not all they uncover. In the forgotten catacombs deep below the Mauan capital, something has awakened. Something as old as the universe. Something that hungers to devour all light and life — and that bears an undying hatred for cats.

An Epic Fantasy that’s only 4 hours long? That’s an epic I can get behind!

Debt Of Bones (a book in the Sword Of Truth series)
By Terry Goodkind; Read by Sam Tsoutsouvas
3 CDs – Approx. 4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441886699
A milestone of storytelling set in the world of The Sword Of Truth, Debt Of Bones is the story of young Abby’s struggle to win the aid of the wizard Zedd Zorander, the most important man alive. Abby is trapped, not only between both sides of the war, but in a mortal conflict between two powerful men. For Zedd, who commands power most men can only imagine, granting Abby’s request would mean forsaking his sacred duty. With the storm of the final battle about to save the life of a child…but neither can escape the shadow of an ancient betrayal. With time running out, their only choice may be a debt of bones. The world – for Zedd, for Abby, for everyone – will never again be the same.

I feel kind of bad that I haven’t read any Bacigalupi other than The Fluted Girl. Is this my chance to atone?

Pump Six and Other Stories
By Paolo Bacigalupi; Read by Jonathan Davis, James Chen, and Eileen Stevens
11 CDs – Approx. 13 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441892201
The eleven stories in Pump Six chart the evolution of Paolo Bacigalupi’s work, including the Hugo nominated “Yellow Card Man,” and the Sturgeon Award-winning story “The Calorie Man,” both set in the world of his novel The Windup Girl. This collection also demonstrates the power and reach of the science fiction short story. Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Bacigalupi’s work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience.

This audiobook is getting very mixed reviews over on Amazon.com, many high, many low, but it’s length means I think it’ll be reviewed here soon…

The God Engines
By John Scalzi; Read by Christopher Lane
3 CDs – Approx. 3 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441890795
Captain Ean Tephe is a man of faith, whose allegiance to his lord and to his ship is uncontested. The Bishopry Militant knows this — and so, when it needs a ship and crew to undertake a secret, sacred mission to a hidden land, Tephe is the captain to whom the task is given. Tephe knows from the start that his mission will be a test of his skill as a leader of men and as a devout follower of his god. It’s what he doesn’t know that matters: to what ends his faith and his ship will ultimately be put — and that the tests he will face will come not only from his god and the Bishopry Militant, but from another, more malevolent source entirely… Author John Scalzi has ascended to the top ranks of modern science fiction with the best-selling, Hugo-nominated novels Old Man’s War and Zoe’s Tale. Now he tries his hand at fantasy, with a dark and different novella that takes your expectations of what fantasy is and does, and sends them tumbling. Say your prayers… and behold The God Engines.

I am sooo looking forward to hearing this…

The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You (book 4 in the Stainless Steel Rat series)
By Harry Harrison; Read by Phil Gigante
5 CDs – Approx. 5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441881267
After saving the world, diGriz is called on to save the universe. Liberating his two, now teenage, twin’ sons from a military boarding school and penitentiary, diGriz sets out to free his wife, who has been arrested by the tax men. But the family is soon fighting an enemy of a different sort, when the humans-only galaxy of the League is invaded by all manner of hideous aliens. The Rat, disguised in the most hideous combination of alien physical features, is sent into the centre of the aliens’ stronghold, where he finds himself the object of desire among the aliens. His task is to stop the aliens, who plan to wipe out every human in the universe.

John DeNardo, over on SFSignal.com, thought this audiobook worthy of 4/5 stars…

Starship Vectors
Edited by Allan Kaster; Read by Nicola Barber and Tom Dheere
8 CDs – Approx. 9 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Infinivox
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 1884612946
Starships come in many shapes and sizes. Their crews and passengers are an eclectic lot. They venture into the deep voids of space on their assigned missions. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they do not. This collection tells the stories of the crews and passengers aboard six of these starships. Those aboard the Mayflower II are determined to be the first generation ship to successfully reach another galaxy in a story (Mayflower II ) by Stephen Baxter that takes place in the Xeelee universe. In Boojum, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, space pirates are on the prowl for booty aboard the living starship, Lavinia Whateley. In The Political Officer, by Charles Coleman Finlay, the crew aboard a military starship must contend with both the enemy and a political officer. In The Tomb Wife, by Gwyneth Jones, the navigator of the interstellar freighter, Pirate Jenny, hears a ghost from an alien tomb in its cargo hold. Two competitive physicists aboard the Kepler use uploads of themselves to probe the scientific mysteries of radiation-rich space in Shiva in Shadow by Nancy Kress. A wealthy woman explores the lives of the less fortunate aboard a starship larger than Earth in Robert Reed s The Remoras, part of the author s ongoing Marrow series.

The first book in a new “epic fantasy” trilogy about a war between men and griffins…

Lord Of The Changing Winds (book 1 in the Griffin Mage series)
By Rachel Neumeier; Read by Emily Durante
9 CDs – Approx. 11 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: October 2010
ISBN: 9781400119714
Griffins lounged all around them, inscrutable as cats, brazen as summer. They turned their heads to look at Kes out of fierce, inhuman eyes. Their feathers, ruffled by the wind that came down the mountain, looked like they had been poured out of light; their lion haunches like they had been fashioned out of gold. A white griffin, close at hand, looked like it had been made of alabaster and white marble and then lit from within by white fire. Its eyes were the pitiless blue-white of the desert sky. Little ever happens in the quiet villages of peaceful Feierabiand. The course of Kes’s life seems set: she’ll grow up to be an herb-woman and healer for the village of Minas Ford, never quite fitting in but always more or less accepted. And she’s content with that path—or she thinks she is. Until the day the griffins come down from the mountains, bringing with them the fiery wind of their desert and a desperate need for a healer. But what the griffins need is a healer who is not quite human…or a healer who can be made into something not quite human.

Described as “‘Buck Rogers‘ meets ‘Barbarella‘ meets ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘”…

Starstruck
Based on the comic series and the play by Elaine Lee and Mike Kaluta; Adapted by Elaine Lee, Susan Norfleet and Dale Place; Performed by a full cast
2 CDs – Approx. 2 Hours 11 Minutes
Publisher: The Audio Comics Company
Published: 2010
ISBN: 9780615411439
The basis for the critically acclaimed comic book series, Starstruck was first presented off-off-Broadway in 1980, and again off-Broadway in 1983. In a far-flung and very alternative future, Captain Galatia 9 and the crew of the Harpy and on a mission for the United Federation of Female Freedom Fighters. When the Harpy runs into a living ship inhabited by a team of galactic evildoers, including Galatia’s insidious sister Verloona Ti, the outcome of the battle may well decide the fate of the free universe. The AudioComics Company is proud to present the audio adaptation of the play script as its inaugural production! Often hilarious, always surprising, Starstruck is a spine-tingling joy-ride to the far side of the spiral arm!

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #092

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #092 – Scott and Jesse talk about audiobooks, the recent arrivals and the new releases. We also talk about big box bookstores, comics, and classic audiobooks

Talked about on today’s show:
Blackstone Audio, Somewhere In Time, Richard Matheson, self-hypnosis as time travel, lame covers, “melancholy but not depressing”, Stir Of Echoes by Richard Matheson |READ OUR REVIEW|, Other Kingdoms, Bronson Pinchot, Stefan Rudnicki, Journal Of The Gun Years, Earthbound, Stir Of Echoes 2 – still stirring echoes?, The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card, Emily Janice Card, i’m always in favour of secret libraries, RadioArchive.cc, a dramatization of Fahrenheit 451, To Catch A Thief, Thief, James Caan, Spencer Tracy, Grace Kelly, France, BBC audio dramas don’t take a lot of risks, the virtues and vices of experimental audio drama, conservative audio dramas, Majipoor Chronicles by Robert Silverberg, “memory cubes in a massive library”, Lord Valentine’s Castle, Arte Johnson, Valentine Pontifex, The Space Dog Podcast #003 (vintage 1982 Silverberg), Silverberg’s 1970s Science Fiction hiatus, “trilogies are ill-conceived”, The City Of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers, Paul Michael Garcia, anagrams, “fructodism”, Terry Pratchett, Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher, book translation is re-writing a book, Cornelia Funke, The Thief Lord, The Dragonheart, Inkheart, reading books in translation, The Long Walk by Sławomir Rawicz, The Way Back, Declare by Tim Powers, Simon Prebble, coded messages, Kim Philby, the Spanish Civil War, are there soccer podcasts?, there are lots of them, Scott is a Liverpool fan, multiple readers, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card |READ OUR REVIEW|, Grover Gardner, Fire Will Fall by Carol Plum-Ucci, Kirby Heyborne, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow|READ OUR REVIEW|, “audiobooks have never been healthier”, Audible Frontiers, subscription book clubs, the last first Heinlein book, For Us The Living by Robert A. Heinlein, Venus by Ben Bova, Blackstone Audio doesn’t give up on series, crazy collectors, Books On Tape, what happened to BOT?, Random House, Listening Library, Macmillan Audio, Brilliance Audio, Amazon.com, Chapters bookstores in British Columbia have very tiny audiobook sections, Barnes & Noble doesn’t love audiobooks either, Borders has a better selection, Logan, Utah, Idaho Falls, Idaho, The Walking Dead – Volume 1, zombies, Robert Kirkman, horrible zombie audiobook, Poul Anderson, Brain Wave by Poul Anderson (the subject of an upcoming readalong?), Larry Niven called it “a masterpiece”, Macmillian Audio exclusively on Audible.com, Shades Of Milk And Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal, Jane Austen, The Elephant To Hollywood by Michael Caine, What’s It All About by Michael Caine, The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling, , Nancy Kress, Probability Moon, Infinivox, The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford, “surreal, unsettling, and more than a little weird”, models are incredibly interesting, SimCity, Civilization, Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon, John Scalzi, The Android’s Dream, Agent To The Stars, Wil Wheaton, Dancing Bearfoot, Just A Geek, Why I Left Harry’s All-Night-Hamburgers by Lawrence Watt-Evans, the SFSignal Mind Meld on the best audiobooks of all time, Scott likes Fantasy (and Science Fiction), Jesse likes Science Fiction (and Fantasy), The Best Fantasy Stories Of The Year 1989, The Wind From A Burning Woman by Greg Bear |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Children Of Men by P.D. James (Recorded Books) |READ OUR REVIEW|, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, Mind Slash Matter by Edward Wellen (Durkin Hayes) |READ OUR REVIEW|, Friday by Robert A. Heinlein, Sci-Fi Private Eye ed. Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (Dercum Audio) |READ OUR REVIEW|, Martian Time Slip by Philip K. Dick (Blackstone Audio) |READ OUR REVIEW|, Ringworld by Larry Niven |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Reel Stuff edited by Brian Thomsen and Martin H. Greenberg |READ OUR REVIEW|, Minority Report And Other Stories by Philip K. Dick |READ OUR REVIEW|, Two Plays For Voices by Neil Gaiman (Seeing Ear Theatre / Harper Audio) |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer |READ OUR REVIEW|, Ender’s Game (25th Anniversary Edition) by Orson Scott Card |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Dark Worlds Of H.P. Lovecraft Volume 1 by H.P. Lovecraft (Audio Realms) |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Chief Designer by Andy Duncan (Infinivox) |READ OUR REVIEW|, Blake’s 7 – Audio Adventures (Trilogy Box Set) (B7 Media) |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman |READ OUR REVIEW|, Earth Abides by George R. Stewart |SFFaudio Podcast #073|, The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison |READ OUR REVIEW| The Prestige by Christopher Priest |READ OUR REVIEW|, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell |READ OUR REVIEW|, Legends: Stories by the Masters of Fantasy, Volume 4 (containing The Hedge Knight by George R.R. Martin) |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Voice from the Edge Vol. 1: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison |READ OUR REVIEW|, Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast by Eugie Foster |READ OUR REVIEW|, Lawrence Santoro, Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison are their own genre, The Moon Moth, sociological Science Fiction, the George R.R. Martin Dreamsongs collections, Stephen King, Anne McCaffrey’s The Runners Of Pern, Jesse is reading a lot of comics, the Fresh Ink Online podcast, G4 vs. G4TechTV, Attack Of The Show, Penn Jillette’s video podcast, sound seeing tours (a now defunct trend in podcasting), Blair Butler, Tamahome2000, Goodreads.com, Neil Gaiman, Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader?, getting into comics, Garth Ennis, Gregg Rucka, Cory Doctorow’s praise of Y: The Last Man on BoingBoing.net, Y: The Last Man is really addictive, Kansas, Batwoman: Elegy, Rachel Maddow,

Movie Trailers – Movies Blog

Video Games – E3 2011 – Fresh Ink

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #091 – READALONG: Oath Of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #091 – Scott and Jesse talk about the new Audible Frontiers audiobook Oath Of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Talked about on today’s show:
Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells, Robert A. Heinlein, The Godwhale by T.J. Bass, Half Past Human by T.J. Bass, overpopulation, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, FROMATES (“Friends of Man and the Earth” – an anti-technology group of eco-terrorists), arcology, Todos Santos, Los Angeles, California, are arcologies a stepping stone to generation starships?, SimCity 2000, Sid Meier’s Civilization, architecture + ecology = arcology, Coruscant (the city planet), Tantor (the elephant), Trantor (the city planet), Tantor Media, Mega City One (Judge Dredd), being a free accountant for the government, bylaws vs. customs and culture, engineering, “we can’t write a story that is just setting”, Luke Burrage (of SFBRP), is a cruise ship an arcology?, the reality of reality vs. the dreams of utopia, “Crisis in utopia…”, existing means interacting, the hermit kingdoms, transportation, Zipcar, cultural vs. technological developments, living differently in an urban environment, arcology as shopping mall, security conscious vs. security theater, safety as a selling point, TSA, terrorism, a Heinleinian uncomfortablenesses, THINK OF IT AS EVOLUTION IN ACTION, “humanity is more than just one type of person”, what’s wrong with Oath Of Fealty, not unrealistic vs. realistic, eco-terrorism, resentment and the response to resentment is yucky in Oath Of Fealty, what are the references to blacks and lesbians doing in this book?, Job: A Comedy Of Justice, “the Disney connection”, Disney World, Walt Disney, Epcot, gated communities, Celebration (Florida), brain drain, Canadian immigration policy (is draining the third world of its best educated), colonizing Mars, Jerry O’Neill’s space colonies, “not anything like reality”, overpopulation, community tool libraries, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Stephen Hawking, NASA spinoffs, spiritual reasons for space travel, Beijing olympics opening ceremony, cut the defense budget to actual defense, “we need an alien threat”, China’s moon program, McMurdo Station (Antarctica), Herzog’s Encounters At The Of The End Of The World, the Canadian (Sir George Reedy) is the most unrealistic thing in Oath Of Fealty, there are no knights for Canada, the Order Of Canada, the case of Conrad Black, House Of Tones blog (interview with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle), the role of GOOD editors, Robert A. Heinlein did the editing on The Mote In God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (!), series aren’t a new thing, Anne Of Green Gables, The Great Brain, Tarzan, the Barsoom series, The Wizard Of Oz, expecting the series and not demanding the series is the cart leading the horse, John Joseph Adams (should be a guest on the SFFaudio Podcast), Orson Scott Card as an editor, Technovelgy.com’s Oath Of Fealty entry, the audiobook version of Oath Of Fealty, GLADOS, Portal, artificial intelligence, the speech recognition on the Google App is amazing (!), Google Goggles, cyborg, “BrainPal”, Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, telling Oath Of Fealty from a different POV, check out the DRAMATIS PERSONAE for Oath Of Fealty below, this book needs more average folks, Cory Doctorow, “a lot more agitation and a lot less Heinlein”, do it as a YA novel, UCLA, the Weather Underground, drink coffee while you waldo on the moon, slidewalk, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, The Caves Of Steel by Isaac Asimov |READ OUR REVIEW|, Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Pournelle.

The Todos Santos Arcology from the cover of the 1986 Pocket Books paperback

Dramatis Personae
Joe Dunhill — Probationary Officer, Todos Santos Security
Isaac Blake — Lieutenant, Todos Santos Security
Preston Sanders — Deputy General Manager, Todos Santos Independency
Tony Rand — Chief Engineer, Todos Santos
Arthur Bonner — General Manager, Todos Santos
Frank Mead — Comptroller, Todos Santos
Delores Martine — Executive Assistant to the General Manager, Todos Santos
Barbara Churchward — Director of Economic Development,Todos Santos
MacLean Stevens — Executive Assistant to the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles
Sir George Reedy — Deputy Minister of Internal Development, Canada
Genevieve Rand — Tony Rand’s former wife .
Alice Marie Strahler — Executive Assistant to Tony Rand
Allan Thompson — Student
Sandra Wyatt — Assistant General Manager, Todos Santos
James Planchet — City Councilman, Los Angeles
Mrs. Eunice Planchet — James Planchet’s wife
George Harris — Businessman and convicted tax evader
Thomas Lunan — Newsman
Amos Cross — Chief, Todos Santos Security
John Shapiro. LLD. — Counsel, Todos Santos
Samuel Finder, M.D. — Medical Resident, Todos Santos
Hal Donovan — Lieutenant, Robbery/Homicide, Los Angeles Police Department
Cheryl Drinkwater — Todos Santos resident
Armand Drinkwater — Waldo Operator
Glenda Porter — Tattoo Artist
Sidney Blackman — District Attorney, County of Los Angeles
Penelope Norton — Judge, Superior Court, State of California
Phil Lowry — Newsman
Mark Levoy — Publican; former Yippie
Ronald Wolfe — General, American Ecology Army
Arnold Renn, Ph.D. — Professor of Sociology, UCLA
Rachael Lief — Bulldozer operator
Mrs. Carol Donovan — Lt. Donovan’s wife
Vito Hamilton — Captain, Todos Santos Security
Vincent Thompson — Subway mugger

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #047

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #047 – Jesse and Scott talk audiobooks, The Invention Of Lying (the perfect movie for audiobook fans), and hot blimp on zeppelin action.

Talked about on today’s show:
fantastic coffee, recent arrivals, Penguin Audio, Anita Blake, Laurell K. Hamilton, Bloody Bones, The Killing Dance, Burnt Offerings, narrator Kimberly Alexis, paranormal romance, Sookie Stackhouse, True Blood, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, horror, Full Cast Audio, Emmie And The Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell, Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel |READ OUR REVIEW|, the Matt Cruse series, SFFaudio Essential, Starclimber by Kenneth Oppel,Mainspring by Jay Lake |READ OUR REVIEW|, Blackstone Audio, Planet Of Exile by Ursula K. Le Guin, the Hanish Cycle series, The Word For World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin, Avatar, Audible Frontiers, Book Of The Road, Tales Of Earth Sea by Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin |READ OUR REVIEW|, Harlan Ellison, Recorded Books, The Dark Design by Philip Jose Farmer, more airships, current listens, Game Change, text to audiobook techniques, Dennis Boutsikaris, Engines Of God by Jack McDevitt, new releases, The Eyes Of Darkness by Dean Koontz, Brilliance Audio, Heroes Of The Valley by Jonathan Stroud, the Bartimaeus Trilogy, fantasy, quest, Jonathan Stroud’s Heroes of the Valley: Thalia Kids’ Book Club, Matthew Cody, Tantor Media, Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt, SFSignal’s review of Time Travelers Never Die, Battlestar Galactica, “McDevitt is ooh-wow Science Fiction in the Arthur C. Clarke tradition,” Flatland: A Romance Of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott, math-fiction, the LibriVox edition of Flatland, narrator James Langton, did you get your free audiobook from Tantor Media?, Scott Brick, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, The Futurist by James P. Othmer, narrator William Dufris, Richard K. Morgan, narrator Simon Jones, Bill Murray, Robin Williams, Dead Poets Society, Zombieland, The Invention Of Lying is a romantic comedy that’s philosophical Science Fiction, Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Macmillan Vs. Amazon.com: ebook pricing dispute, John Scalzi’s Whatever post on the topic, Apple iPad, Amazon’s deletion of 1984, “bailouts for everyone!”, big evil corporations and the “tyranny of the bottom line”, Brilliance Audio, Killing Floor by Lee Child, one star reviews, the Cynical-C Blog, Daily Dose Of Ingersoll, You Can’t Please Everyone, Letter From Mark Twain To A Snake Oil Peddler, LibriVox: Extract From Captain Stormfield’s Visit To Heaven by Mark Twain, the merits and demerits of the iPad and the iPhone vs. the iPod Classic, Frederick Pohl’s The Way The Future Blogs, Pohl on Isaac Asimov |Part 1|Part 2|, the Moonies, Jerry Pournelle at Brigham Young University with Mormons and Scientologists, Life, The University & Everything 28, Margaret Atwood: History Denier, The Year Of The Flood by Margaret Atwood |READ OUR REVIEW|, Fredösphere, Orson Scott Card’s politics vs. his books, Apollo 11, Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17, NASA’s Constellation Program, 10 NASA Inventions You Might Use Every Day, Wil Wheaton’s audiobooks are on Lulu.com, Just A Geek by Wil Wheaton |READ OUR REVIEW|, Memories Of The Futurecast, Julie’s Forgotten Classics podcast, Scott’s Pick Of The Week: Scenting The Dark And Other Stories by Mary Robinette Kowal, Subterranean Press, Ronald Rabbit Is A Dirty Old Man by Lawrence Block, epistolary novel, Cinderella Sims by Lawrence Block, Hard Case Crime, Jesse’s Pick Of The Week: Da Vinci’s Inquest, Intelligence, Castle, CSI is “six people standing around telling each other information they all already know,” Da Vinci’s Inquest does not use the pro forma police procedural TV show construction, Da Vinci’s Inquest is like The Wire but set in Vancouver, Acorn Video.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Tor.com Story Podcast 001

SFFaudio News

Tor.com has started a new fiction podcast! Produced by Mur Lafferty, the first episode went up today – “After the Coup” by John Scalzi. Details from Tor.com:

For over a year, Tor.com has brought you excellent short fiction on our site, but now we’re making the audio of these stories available to you in podcast form. We’ll be bringing you both new fiction and our archived stories, so don’t worry if you’ve missed anything archived on the site. The podcast will also include mention of the recent topics on the Tor.com blog, convention reports, and interviews from time to time. We hope you enjoy it and we welcome your comments.

Click here for more details and subscription links.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson