LibriVox – Page 26

The Golgotha Dancers by Manly Wade Wellman

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s a spooky tale that’s set, in part, in an art museum. It’s read by our old friend Gregg Margarite.

The Golgotha Dancers
By Manly Wade Wellman; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 24 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 8, 2010
A curious and terrifying story about an artist who sold his soul that he might paint a living picture. First published in Weird Tales, October 1937.
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Here’s a |PDF| made from the publication in Weird Tales.

Here is the description of Arnold Böcklin’s The Isle Of The Dead, the painting conspicuous for its absence in the story:

“I started down, relishing in advance the impression Böcklin’s picture would make with its high brown rocks and black poplars, its midnight sky and gloomy film of sea, its single white figure erect in the bow of the beach-nosing skiff.”

And here is the image itself:

The Isle Of The Dead by Arnold Böcklin

Posted by Jesse Willis

Moxon’s Master by Ambrose Bierce

SFFaudio Online Audio

Moxon's Master by Ambrose Bierce

I’m not a very good chess player, but I love playing. There’s a an elegance and a simplicity to the basics of it. And from those basic rules an incalculable complexity emerges – one that makes every game different. But I don’t much like playing against a computer. There’s little sense of victory if I win and if I lose I tend to question the point in playing at all. There’s something about pitting a mind against a mind – and most chess programs I’ve played against don’t seem to have one.

Moxon’s Master, by Ambrose Bierce, is about chess. It uses some basic analogies and metaphors – in just the way H.G. Wells does so well to make the implausible sound plausible. Bierce wields facts about plant tropism and Herbert Spencer’s definition of life in a skillful argument for machine intelligence. It’s rather masterful actually!

Moxon’s Master
By Ambrose Bierce; Read by Roger Melin
1 |MP3| – Approx. 28 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: May 2, 2012
First published in the San Francisco Examiner, April 16, 1899.

|PDF|

[Thanks also to Laura Victoria and Barry Eads]

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: The Cats Of Ulthar by H.P. Lovecraft

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Cats Of Ulthar by H.P. Lovecraft

Hannes Bok illustration for The Cats Of Ulthar by H.P. Lovecraft

First published in Tryout, November 1920, The Cats Of Ulthar is an unusual tale by H.P. Lovecraft. It reads more like an old fashioned fairy tale than any other I’ve read. The story features a young boy named Menes who loves cats. Lovecraft probably took that name from the writings of a Greek historian named Diodorus Siculus who related a tale of a legendary Egyptian pharaoh named Menes that he heard from some crocodile-god priests. Menes it was said fled from his own dogs, who attacked him, while hinting. His escape was assisted by a crocodile. But no dogs or crocodiles are mentioned in The Cats Of Ulthar.

The Cats Of Ulthar
By H.P. Lovecraft; Read by James Pontolillo
1 |MP3| – Approx. 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: October 19, 2008
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First published in Tryout, November 1920.

And here’s a |PDF| made from the publication in Fantastic Novels, January 1951.

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Online Audio

I posted last about Philip K. Dick’s shortest short story back in 2010. I’m reposting it because I’ve made a three page |PDF| to go with it (made from it’s first publication, Science Fiction Stories).

The Eyes Have It, is just a simple story about a literal man and the ridiculous alien invasion he imagines. It’s a silly little piece of fluff. A mere lighthearted thought experiment. Just a fun little story of no real account or import. In fact it’s barely …. wait one second … could it … ? …. what if … ? … HEY! That’s that just what they want you to think!!!

The Eyes Have It
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 8 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: March 20, 2010
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A little whimsy, now and then, makes for good balance. Theoretically, you could find this type of humor anywhere. But only a topflight science-fictionist, we thought, could have written this story, in just this way…. First published in 1953 in Science Fiction Stories #1.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Piper In The Woods by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Online Audio

Piper In The Woods by Philip K. Dick (from Imagination, February 1953)

This is a Philip K. Dick story that I’m totally baffled by. I don’t get it.

Can someone please explain to me what I’m missing?

Why don’t I understand what Philip K. Dick was getting at?

There has to be a key, somewhere, that fits the lock that will decode the meaning that Piper In The Woods hides within itself. Right?

Right?

Help!

Piper In The Woods
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 27, 2010
Earth maintained an important garrison on Asteroid Y-3. Now suddenly it was imperiled with a biological impossibility—men becoming plants! First published in Imagination, February 1953.

Here is a |PDF| made from its publication in Imagination.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Mr. Spaceship by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Online Audio

The short story, Mr. Spaceship by Philip K. Dick, is about Philip Kramen and Commander Gross, two characters that are trying to end a war. To do it these agents have to build a ship guided by something intelligent so they can defeat the “yuks” (enemy aliens that are trying to invade Earth). Kramen and Gross determine that the ship should be guided by a disembodied human brain!

To this end they recruit Professor Thomas, a very aged man confined to his bed. The brain removal is a success, and Thomas gains control of the ship.

The story’s premise is similar, remarkably similar, to the later published tale, The Ship Who Sang. The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey was published in the April 1961 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction – eight years after Mr. Spaceship was published.

I think Mr. Spaceship is one of the most interesting Philip K. Dick works that I’ve read. Mr. Spaceship is a very well organized story that was planned out step by step. The writing was very clear, giving us the main problem, and how the characters were going to solve it. I definitely recommend Mr. Spaceship to readers who like science fiction stories.

Mr. Spaceship by Philip K. Dick

Mr. Spaceship
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 1 Hour 11 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 27, 2010
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A human brain-controlled spacecraft would mean mechanical perfection. This was accomplished, and something unforeseen: a strange entity called — Mr. Spaceship. First published in Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, January 1953.

Here is a |PDF| made from scans of the original publication in Imagination.

Posted by Andrew Kang