Uvula Audio‘s James Campanella, of Uvula Audio, has just completed an unabridged reading of the 1947 adventure/mystery/science novel The Rocket’s Shadow by John Blaine. The Rocket’s Shadow was the first in a 24 book series which used “realistic science” and, according to the Wikipedia entry, the publishers were averse to “any suggestion of the supernatural in the series.” Sez James:
“The Rocket’s Shadow follows the adventures of Rick Brant and is the first in a long juvenile pulp series that was published from the late 1940’s until the late 1980’s . Rick is young (~19 since he just finished high school in the first book), but not a kid. This first exciting book in the series introduces readers to Rick , the son of a famous scientist, Hartson Brant. As with all the Brant series, quite a bit of actual down to earth science was the basis of the books– unlike Tom Swift, for example. Hartson brant is trying to win the $2 million Stoneridge Prize for the greatest scientific accomplishment of the year. The group of scientists headed by Rick Brant’s father works desperately to complete their moon rocket experiment before the deadline of year is up. But, someone in that closely knit group is a traitor – unknown and unscrupulous – who menaces the success of the experiment at every turn.”
Sounds fun hey?
The Rocket’s Shadow
By John Blaine; Read by J.J. Campanella
7 MP3 Files – Approx. [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Uvula Audio
Podcast: December 2010
Rick Brant is the son of scientist/inventor Hartson Brant and they live on an island called Spindrift. The island houses a research facility and several scientists also live there. Some of those scientists are descriptively similar to members of Doc Savage’s group. Rick has as his sidekick Scott, an ex-marine, capable of physically defending himself when necessary. This story, the first in the Rick Brant series has Rick’s father trying to build a rocket to hit the moon. A large monetary prize has been offered for the first group able to do so and the Brant group is the leading contender. However, there are other groups in the chase and one of them is a criminal group that does everything it can to sabotage the Brant effort.
Part 1 |MP3| Part 2 | MP3| Part 3 |MP3| Part 4 |MP3| Part 5 |MP3| Part 6 |MP3| Part 7 |MP3|
Podcast feed: http://www.uvulaaudio.com/kids/Kids.xml
And, for those looking for something a bit more xmasy, look out for more files in the feed. Uvula will be presenting a Christmas special “covering L. Frank Baum’s Life”, the Adventures Of Santa Claus and Kidnapped Santa Claus!
Posted by Jesse Willis
At 110 years old The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (aka The Wizard Of Oz), is one of the few children’s classic novels, that children read, and that WAS a children’s novel from the very beginning. Today a tour through the kids literature section of your local big box bookstore will probably turn up a dozen or so “classic novels” that purport to be ‘kid lit’ of some sort. For publishers what makes them ‘children’s classics’ is that they are public domain and they have recognizable titles. Few were written with actual children in mind, and due to the age many can use an English language that’s so archaic as to be hard for many adults to read. Not so with The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. Sure it’s public domain too, but unlike most it was actually written with children wholly and completely in mind, unlike say, The Call Of The Wild, Frankenstein or Dracula. 
