Larry Shaw – SFFaudio

SFFaudio Commentary

I really like the attitude of the people over on LibriVox.org. In one thread on the LibriVox forums a first time poster makes note that ‘LibriVox titles are being sold on eBay for $’. Like that guy I too was quite shocked and a little dismayed when I found that out. Here’s me thinking:

These audiobooks are available for free and yet some people are actually SELLING them!?!?! How dare they!

But as Puffin1, a long time LibriVoxateer so sensibly points out…

“It’s okay. We [LibriVox] don’t mind. Everything we do is in the public domain. Thanks for your concern. Welcome to LibriVox. Have fun!”

How cool is that?

It really sums up the LibriVox attitude too. Another LibriVoxer, David Barnes (AKA earthcalling), pointed out that… ‘the seller credits LibriVox … and is providing a service that LibriVox doesn’t provide – namely audiobooks on CD.’

Their whole attitude is positive and relaxed, their idea is “the more recordings are ‘out there’, the better!” As it turns out, it’s actually a very good thing that a lot of the sellers on eBay are selling these audiobooks. eBayers looking for audiobooks can discover LibriVox that way.

One such person is a Texan named R. J. Davis (aka Rick).

Rick described himself as “mostly retired” and a “two year cancer survivor.” I’d describe him as one cool mostly retired cancer survivor who narrates audiobooks. Rick found LibriVox through one of these eBay retailers, and has, since joining in December 2007 (!), started narrating public domain Science Fiction for LibriVox! He’s already read individual short stories like:

“Time and Time Again” by H. Beam Piper
“Warning from the Stars” by Ron Cocking
“Stairway To The Stars” by Larry Shaw

And he’s solo-completed entire novels like:

Key Out of Time by Andre Norton
The Time Traders by Andre Norton

And Rick’s got two more Norton novels forthcoming…

Storm Over Warlock by Andre Norton
The Defiant Agents by Andre Norton

Rick is what I’d call a real audiobook fan. LibriVox makes being cool look easy, and that’s pretty amazing because narrating an audiobook is bloody hard work.

Posted by Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Short Science Fiction Collections from LibriVox are coming in faster than we can listen to them. That’s cool! But seriously, how many different versions of Harry Harrison’s The Repairman do we really need? This collection includes the fourth unabridged reading that’s available online.

Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 004
By various; Read by various
10 Zipped MP3s or Podcast – Approx. 5.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 2008
“Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories, originally published between 1931 and 1962, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.”

Beyond Pandora
By Robert J. Martin; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| – Approx. 5 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Infra-Medians
By Sewell Peaslee Wright; Read by John Larmour
1 |MP3| – Approx. 42 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

The Misplaced Battleship
By Harry Harrison; Read by Barny Shergold
1 |MP3| – Approx. 59 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 2008
It might seem a little careless to lose track of something as big as a battleship … but interstellar space is on a different scale of magnitude. But a misplaced battleship—in the wrong hands!—can be most dangerous. First published in the April 1960 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine.

Missing Link
By Frank Herbert; Read by Kim Cutler
1 |MP3| – Approx. 43 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 2008
The Romantics used to say that the eyes were the windows of the Soul. A good Alien Xenologist might not put it quite so poetically … but he can, if he’s sharp, read a lot in the look of an eye!

The Quantum Jump
By Robert Wicks; Read by Jerome Lawsen
1 |MP3| – Approx. 23 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 2008
Captain Brandon was a pioneer. He explored the far reaches of space and reported back on how things were out there. So it was pretty disquieting to find out that the “far reaches of space” knew more about what went on at home than he did.

The Repairman
By Harry Harrison; Read by Rowdy Delaney
1 |MP3| – Approx. 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas
By R.A. Lafferty; Read by lucylou40
1 |MP3| – Approx. 19 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 2008
The place called Sodom was bad enough. But right down the road was the other town—and that was even worse!
First published in Galaxy magazine’s, December 1962 issue.

Stairway To The Stars
By Larry Shaw; Read by R. J. Davis
1 |MP3| – Approx. 43 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Traders Risk
By Roger Dee; Read by Susan Umpleby
1 |MP3| – Approx. 35 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]

Wizard
By Larry M. Harris; Read by Alex C. Telander
1 |MP3| – Approx. 38 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 2008
Although the Masquerade itself, as a necessary protection against non-telepaths, was not fully formulated until the late years of the Seventeenth Century, groups of telepaths-in-hiding existed long before that date. Whether such groups were the results of natural mutations, or whether they came into being due to some other cause, has not yet been fully determined, but that a group did exist in the district of Offenburg, in what is now Prussia, we are quite sure.

Podcast feed:

COMING SOON

Posted by Jesse Willis

Tag: Larry Shaw

Commentary: LibriVox makes being cool look easy

LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Collection Vol. 004