The video below is a quick exploration of the MP3-CD audiobook format. It’s my favourite format for physical audiobooks. The packaging is small, the files are ready to be used, and they are cheaper audiobooks than their regular CD equivalent. The only disadvantage to the MP3-CD format is they don’t play on all CD players, and the ones they do play on may limit the volume output.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Survival: Species Imperative #1
By Juile E. Czerneda; Read by Christine Marshall and William Dufris
1 MP3-CD, 16hr [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Paperback Digital
Published: 2005
ISBN: 1584390050
Themes: / Science Fiction / Alien Life / Biology /
Survival is the first novel in the planned trilogy entitled Species Imperative. It’s science fiction in the grand tradition – written by a scientist, it contains plenty of science. As I was listening, I likened it to Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama in the way it is a constant detailed unfolding view of an alien mystery. But the comparison would have to stop there, because in this book the aliens are right there; in Rama we never got to actually see them.
The story’s main character is Dr. Mackenzie Connor, who honestly wants nothing to do with aliens. Her thing is salmon, and we first meet her while she’s studying salmon at a research facility in northwest North America. Then, a Dhryn arrives. A Dhryn is a six armed, blue, intelligent alien who seeks out Dr. Connor specifically to share some archaeological information with her. But shortly after the Dryhn arrives, strange things start to happen at the research facility, which propel Dr. Connor into a partnership with the alien as they unravel an enigma. Event by event and discovery by discovery mysteries unfold.
Christine Marshall and William Dufris turn in excellent performances. The two narrators tell the story seamlessly in a masterfully edited dual narration. The Dhryn’s voice (performed by Dufris) is very effective, and is a great example of how audiobook narration can add depth to an author’s character. Marshall has the bulk of the narrating duties here, and she sets a good pace for the prose, which contains much expositional material.
Overall, this is good hard science fiction that like all good hard science fiction leaves us much to consider; in this case about humanity, nature, and the relationship between the two.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
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!
Hugo and Nebula award winning author Robert J.Sawyer has just announced the completion of a third pilot for the proposed weekly radio science fiction radio show FASTER THAN LIGHT. Produced by Joe Mahoney and Fergus Heywood for CBC Radio One, the half-hour long program includes:
-An interview with Julie E. Czerneda, one of Canada’s best SF writers
-A mini documentary on aliens in movies
-A short essay by Robet J. Sawyer on “the other” in science fiction
-An original full-cast radio drama based on Richard Matheson’s 1950 short story “Born of Man And Woman”!
Sounds like a real winner. The word is that if the pilot is picked up there could be as many as ten episodes of Faster Than Light broadcast over the summer! We will keep you updated as more information is available, this is really terrific news!
Posted by Jesse Willis